Mark 10:46-52

Introduction

Whereas Luke dedicates 10 chapters and chapters to the final trip to Jerusalem, Mark only dedicates 1 chapter. Most of his book is the first 9 chapters that show the actions of Jesus throughout His ministry in Galilee. So, in , we see Jesus’ final trip up to Jerusalem where He would be crucified.

Mark focuses on the actions of Jesus, on His power and authority. He uses the phrase “Son of God” many times in this narrative. There is a strong emphasis on depicting Him as the Son of God. Many believe that he was writing to a Roman audience, and, therefore, he wanted to present Jesus as powerful, a man of action.

At this point in the narrative, Jesus is getting very close to Jerusalem, as He is now in Jericho. Luke has Jesus healing a blind man when He is entering Jericho. Matthew and Mark have Him healing a blind man when he is leaving Jericho. Matthew actually states that 2 men were healed when He was leaving Jericho. There are varied explanations to these differences, and several of them are very plausible. I am not sure exactly what the explanation here is, as they all seem pretty plausible.

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Bartimaeus

Various explanations for the differences have been offered: (1) Luke’s words, “as they approached Jericho,” may have meant “near Jericho”; (2) Mark and Luke may have mentioned only the beggar who spoke; (3) one man may have approached Jesus as he entered Jericho and then, as Jesus left, approached again, this time bringing a friend who also received healing; (4) the healing may have occurred between what was considered old Jericho (a Canaanite city) and new Jericho (a Herodian city).

One can really take his pick and he has just as much of a chance of being correct as the other picks. Of course, the critical scholars will say that this is a discrepancy in the accounts, a contradiction, but this seems to be an easy, and lazy cop-out. It is much more difficult to come up with a solution than it is to just write it off as a contradiction.

So we begin...

Mark 10:46

Mark 10:46 CSB

46 They came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus (the son of Timaeus), a blind beggar, was sitting by the road.

So, Jesus arrives in Jericho. We spoke of Jericho during this time, which is known as Herodian Jericho. It had become a city of wealth, as it was at the intersection of 3 Roman roads. Herod had built himself a magnificent palace complex here which had a hippodrome, theatre, and possible even a gym. Mark doesn’t include the narrative of Jesus and Zachaeus. Rather, he just mentions the stay of Jesus and His disciples in Jericho with 4 words “Καὶ ἔρχονται εἰς Ἰεριχώ.” This is actually in the present tense, and should read, “And they come themselves into Jericho.”

And as He is leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd (the size of the crowd being something that all the Synoptic authors mention), a blind beggar named Bartimaeus was sitting by the road. There is a significant elevation change from Jericho to Jerusalem, about 800’. Therefore, setting out from Jericho would have been the last leg of the journey up to Jerusalem, and one of the hardest parts, as it went through the hilly terrain. Even on a bus, it is a bit of a treacherous road. There was a certain amount of determination that one would have at this point as they were getting ready for this leg of the journey. However, with Jesus and His disciples, it would have been anything but typical, as He had grown greatly in popularity and now had a large crowd following Him. It is at the end of His ministry, so He is very well known by this point. If this is coupled with His healing of another blind man as He was entering Jericho, then a huge crowd would have gathered around Him by this point. I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever seen a large crowd moving down a path like this before, crowding around one person. The closest I have to it is when one of the characters is moving down the streets in Disneyland. The other times I have seen this condition, unfortunately, is when the pope is traveling. All the Synoptics call if a large crowd, so it must have been several hundred people at least. He starts heading along the road out of Jericho.

Sitting on this road is a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus. His name means son of Timaeus. It’s a combination of the Aramaic ‘bar’ and the Greek ‘Timaeus’, meaning honorable. It is very likely that his father was Greek. Mark then mentions that he was the son of Timaeus, which probably means that Timaeus was a well known person, at least to Mark’s audience. This either means that he was famous throughout the land, or that he was famous in the Christian community. The latter is unlikely, as it does not appear that Mark is writing to believers. There was a philosopher named Timaeus who live between the 1st and 4th centuries. It could have been him, who knows. Regardless, it seems that this Timaeus had abandoned his son to begging. Perhaps his Greek father had come through Israel, fathered Bartimaeus, and then left him to fend for himself when he saw that he was blind.

There were many reasons that a person could have been blind back then, but it seems to have been a lot more prevalent than it is today in the West, and it is even still very prevalent in poorer places in the Near East and Asia. The reason that many infants go blind is because there are many germs that could be passed from the mother to the child during birth. Nowadays in the West, it is common practice to place several antiseptic eye-drops in the baby’s eyes right after they are born, but they didn’t have these things back then. This, along with poor hygiene in general, could have led to blindness in infants. Blindness in adults could have come as a side affect of an infection or disease. It could come from the glaring sun of the Middle East as well. Whatever the case for blindness was, it was prevalent, and it would have prevented one from being able to work, as pretty much all of the work in those days involved the use of the eyes. There really was nothing a that a blind person could do for a living except be taken care of by one’s family, or by begging.

Bartimaeus had gone the route of begging. Now, begging was actually something that had not been prevalent in the early days of Israel, as the Law made provisions for the poor. Archaeological digs have shown that in the early periods, many of the houses were the exact same size, meaning that there wasn’t a large division between the rich and the poor. However, corruption set in and the rich began to oppress the poor, and a large division occurred. It seems that this continued even after they came back to the land from Babylon, as this is when we see more of a prevalence of beggars. Begging should not have occurred, if Israel had kept to the teaching of the OT Law. However, it became prevalent in the time of the NT and even alms giving became popular.

Bartimaeus became a beggar because he was blind, and either his family had abandoned him, or they didn’t have enough to be able to support him. Either way, he was in bad shape and had been driven to this life. He completely relied on the generosity of others to get by in life.

Mark 10:47–48 CSB

47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many warned him to keep quiet, but he was crying out all the more, “Have mercy on me, Son of David!”

AS he is sitting there beside the road, begging, he hears the commotion of a large crowd coming along. Now, Zacchaeus had trouble seeing who it was coming to him because of his height, but Bartimaeus literally could not even see who it was that was coming. Then, he hears that it is Jesus from Nazareth. Everyone knows who Jesus of Nazareth is at this point. He has heard the stories of His great miracles and His powerful teaching. He had heard the rumors that He might even be the Messiah who would deliver them from oppression. He probably has even heard of how Jesus has healed the blind. He remembers the prophecies of the Messiah:

Luke 4:18–19 NASB95

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, 19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

He hears, and he believes. He immediately begins to cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”. He does not call Him Jesus of Nazareth, but Jesus, Son of David. Let’s take a look at what the phrase ‘Son of David’ brings with it. All of Israel knew that the Messiah would come from the lineage of David, as had promised in the Davidic Covenant:

2 Samuel 7:11–13 NASB95

11 even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you. 12 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

This promised that a son of David would come who would have the throne of his kingdom established by God forever. This either meant that an infinite succession of rulers would come from David, or that one ruler would come who would live forever. Everyone knew it to be the latter. However, the Jews generally held to the concept of this Son of David being a military conqueror who would free them from the Romans. We know that Jesus does not come in this manner until the last days.

What is important to note is that Bartimaeus calls Jesus by this title, but he is not seeking deliverance from the Romans. Rather, he is pleading and invoking this name in order to be delivered from his afflictions. Bartimaeus may have been physically blind, but he was not spiritually blind. He could see clearly the spiritual implications of the Son of David. He could see clearly from what he had heard that Jesus was delivering and conquering, but not through military might. He was conquering diseases and afflictions and delivering people from the captivity of their sins. Bartimaeus invokes this name and pleas for mercy on himself.

Now, many people say that mercy is not getting what you deserve. They say that it is linked to judgment always. However, this is a fallacy as words could carry very different meanings. However, I believe it is also a fallacy to just shrug off the use of one word versus another and say that they are exactly interchangeable. Many would say that mercy is exactly synonymous to grace in this context. If this were the case, then why didn’t he just say grace here? Words have their own nuances in meaning, and we could lose these if we just make blanket statements like this. Again, I believe this is due to laziness in scholarship. My conclusion for someone crying out for mercy in a plead for healing is this. The person knows the route that they are on, and are most likely to continue on - namely, pain and suffering. That is their lot in life and there is really nothing that can be done about that. It is a sentence, of sorts. It is their burden to carry. However, if there is someone who could change the course of that sentence, of that burden, then it would be called mercy or kindness if they did this. Mercy in this situation is changing the course of this person’s life. It is merciful to keep them from the hand that life has dealt them. God has allowed these circumstances to overcome this person, and only God can show mercy and cause them to stop. Therefore, it is only to God that one could plead mercy as a form of deliverance from this. Bartimaeus is showing tremendous faith in his request.

However, many in the crowd want him to stop crying out. They warn him to keep quiet. We are not told why they want him to keep quiet, but we can assume that it is along the lines of them thinking that Jesus doesn’t have time for this man. They are thinking that he is a nuisance and that Jesus wants nothing to do with him. Furthermore, many might even be thinking that he is being blasphemous by attributing this Messianic title to Jesus. Perhaps they think that these are just the ramblings of a mad man. Let’s face it, beggars do tend to feel like a nuisance to us. When we see them, we want nothing to do with them and we hope that they will just go away and stop bothering us. How many of us give them money out of kindness and not just as a gesture to get them to leave us alone? These are probably the exact motives of this crowd.

However, the response of Bartimaeus is to cry out even louder for the Son of David to have mercy on him. When he sees that people are trying to squash his hope of meeting his deliverer, he cries out with even more vigor. He knew that he must do the opposite of what they were telling him to do.

Do we do the same thing when something tries to get in the way of us getting to our Deliverer? Do we cry out with more desperation?

How many of you have done something even more when asked not to do it?

Mark 10:49–50 CSB

49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man and said to him, “Have courage! Get up; he’s calling for you.” 50 He threw off his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus.

What is Jesus’ response when He hears this man? He stops and tells His disciples to call him. Where before he was calling out to Jesus, Jesus is now calling out to him. He is telling him to come over to Him.

So, the people that have been instructed to call him, go to him and tell him to be encouraged and to get up, because He is calling for him! The desperate calls of Bartimaeus were heard and rewarded. Where the crowds were telling him before to shut up, they are now telling him to be encouraged. I picture a crowd encompassing Jesus and now even engulfing Bartimaeus, who is sitting down, and he stops shouting when they get to him. Imagine his expression when they tell him to be encouraged and to get up because Jesus is calling for him.

At this news, he immediately throws off his coat, so that he will not be hindered, jumps to his feet and comes to Jesus. He could hardly contain his excitement and maybe even stumbles a few times as he is running to Jesus. His heart is pounding with excitement as he runs to the Messiah.

Proverbs 13:12 NASB95

12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

The desires of this man were about to be fulfilled.

Mark 10:51–52 CSB

51 Then Jesus answered him, “What do you want me to do for you?” “Rabboni,” the blind man said to him, “I want to see.” 52 Jesus said to him, “Go, your faith has saved you.” Immediately he could see and began to follow Jesus on the road.

When Bartimaeus gets to Jesus, He asks him what he wants Him to do for him. Jesus is asking him what he desires. This man could have and would have asked for the wrong thing if he were thinking along the lines of the majority of Jews in those days, even the disciples. He may have asked for deliverance from the Romans, if he was thinking like them. But, his miserable condition had led him to seek deliverance from his affliction, and he believed that Jesus, as the Son of David, could do this.

Bartimaeus responds by calling Jesus ‘my Lord’ in Hebrew, and telling Him that he wants to see again. Could you imagine what silly of a request this would be to anybody? It is truly impossible to do, unless one has the power of God with Him. Bartimaeus was acknowledging that Jesus had the ability to do this, which meant that he was acknowledging the power of God in Jesus. Who had ever opened the eyes of the blind before Jesus? No one. It would take great faith in a person to cause them to ask such a request of them.

Jesus responds by telling him to go and that his faith has saved him. Jesus does not tell him that he could go because he is healed. He tells him that his faith in Him has saved him. I truly believe that Jesus is referring to the spiritual condition of this man. Sure, he wanted to be delivered from blindness, but his faith in Jesus and who He was ultimately saved this man. Jesus wanted this man to know that his faith in Him had saved him and secured his eternity.

Immediately, he was healed from his blindness and could see. What was his response? Did he run off like the 9 lepers earlier? No. He began to follow Jesus on the road. He wanted to learn more about and from this man who had saved him. Bartimaeus became a follower of Jesus. He used his new, God’given sight to follow Jesus.

Kurt Aland et al., Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th Edition. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012), .