Home Homilies Michael Whelan SM, PhD Gospel for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) (27 October 2024)

Gospel for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) (27 October 2024)

Gospel Notes by Michael Whelan SM

They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way. (Mark 10:46-52 – NRSV)

Introductory notes

General

Matthew 20:29-34 and Luke 18:35-43 report a similar event. Both Matthew and Luke omit the name of the beggar. They also omit the detail of the beggar throwing off his garment. Mark’s account “of the healing of blind Bartimaeus is unique among the healings of the Synoptics for its warmth and interest in the person healed. Bartimaeus is, in fact, the only person healed in the Synoptic Gospels whose name is given” (J R Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, W B Eerdmans, 2002, 382).

The journey towards Jerusalem continues. They come to Jericho: “Located fifteen miles northeast of Jerusalem, five miles west of the Jordan River, and six miles north of the Dead Sea, Jericho is a kind of oasis in the midst of some rough terrain. The city had something of a revival under Herod the Great, who built a winter palace in the area” (J R Donahue, & D J Harrington, The Gospel of Mark, Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002, 317). Jericho is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on the earth. It is also about 250 metres below sea level!

After a brief introduction to his Gospel – 1:1-6 – Mark describes Jesus’ ministry in Galilee – 1:14-7:23. Then, as Jesus continues his journey to Jerusalem, Mark tells us of his ministry beyond Galilee – 7:24 – 10:52. In the description of the latter, we have two healings of blind men – one near the beginning in 8:22-26 and one at the end, before the Jerusalem ministry begins, in 10:46-52.

In Mark 8:18 Jesus says to the disciples: “Do you have eyes, and fail to see?” “‘Remembering’, together with perceiving, understanding, seeing, and hearing, is an essential part of the process of enlightenment in which they have been so conspicuously unsuccessful” (R T France, The Gospel of Mark: a commentary on the Greek text, Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2002, 317). We are reminded of Isaiah 6:9: “Go and say to this people: ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.’ Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed” (Isaiah 6:9-10 – NRSV. See also to Jeremiah 5:21; Ezekiel 12:2; Psalm 115:5–6.)

“Jesus thus charges his disciples with being no better off than the ‘outsiders’ to whom that text has already been applied. Their privileged insight into the secret of the kingdom of God seems for now to have deserted them. …. The specific use of the metaphor of blindness prepares the way for the next pericope, where the healing of a blind man will be used to symbolise the enlightenment which the disciples so obviously need. Jesus’ attempt to provide that enlightenment, set over against the continued obtuseness of the disciples, will be a major theme of Act Two of Mark’s gospel, now about to begin. At the same time the metaphor of deafness recalls the recently narrated healing of the deaf man, a miracle which is in many ways closely parallel to that of the blind man at Bethsaida. The present pericope, with its focus on spiritual obtuseness, is thus framed between two literal miracles of perception” (R T French, op cit, 318).

“The story of this blind beggar who ironically sees Jesus more clearly than those with two good eyes climaxes Mark’s teaching on faith and discipleship” (J R Edwards, op cit, 328).

Specific

a large crowd: “These may have been inhabitants of Jericho, or other pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem for Passover, or a combination of the two” (J R O’Donohue and D J Harrington, op cit, 317).

have mercy on me: The beggar does not ask for money but mercy. The beggar reminds us all that what is on offer in Jesus is not worldly goods.

What do you want me to do for you?: We have just heard Jesus ask this question of James and John – see Mark 10:35-36. How different the circumstances! The two disciples seek prestige and status, the beggar cries out for mercy and the ability to “see”. It is this ability to see that the disciples lack but do not yet recognize the need to ask for it.reatness of power, prestige, and authority: ‘whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all’ (see 9:35; Luke 22:24–27). The preeminent virtue of God’s kingdom is not power, not even freedom, but service. Ironically, greatness belongs to the one who is not great, the diakonos, the ordinary Greek word for waiting on tables …. The preeminence of service in the kingdom of God grows out of Jesus’ teaching on love for one’s neighbor, for service is love made tangible” (J R Edwards, op cit, 324 & 325-326).

The genius of Mark

In today’s Gospel – Mark 10:46-52 – we have the healing of a blind man. This healing is related to an earlier healing of a blind man – see 8:22-26. Such connections within Mark are significant. They are part of his overall purpose which he shares with the other Gospel writers: “For the Gospel writers, because Jesus is alive, all that he said and did in his earthly life is not merely a past event but a present source of grace and power to those who believe in him. They write so as to invite their readers to access that grace and power through faith” (Mary Healy, Gospel of Mark, (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture) (p. 25). Baker Book Group – A. Kindle Edition).

In Mark 4:41, the disciples ask each other: “Who then is this?” Mark’s Gospel is a response to this question. He embraces the paradox of the suffering Messiah who – on behalf of us all – enters his glorious reign through his self-emptying crucifixion. Not surprisingly, therefore, as Brendan Byrne SJ notes, Mark takes his readers into the “scariest” places: “I say ‘scariest’ because even a casual glance at Mark takes the reader into a world inhabited by demons and malign forces with which Jesus is constantly in conflict. Hostility, misunderstanding, and betrayal dog Jesus right up to the unrelieved starkness of his death” (Brendan Byrne, SJ, A Costly Freedom: A Theological Reading of Mark’s Gospel, Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2008, 9).

Byrne proposes that Mark has three stories: “It is appropriate to call them ‘stories’ because they are bundles of truths about Jesus—his identity, his fate, and his role—that unfold and interact with each other as the overall story evolves. In regard to each ‘story’ the central question to ask is: Who, at any particular stage, knows the truth about Jesus it enunciates?” (Brendan Byrne, op cit, 45).

In “Story 1”, the only ones to know the answer to the question, “Who then is this?”, are Jesus, the reader and the demons. Mark slowly develops his presentation. We hear Jesus ask the disciples: “Who do people say I am?” (8:27). Immediately prior to this questioning, Mark presents the first healing of a blind man (8:22-26). Immediately following the questioning, Mark gives us the first prophecy of the passion. “Story 2” – a much more painful story – begins to emerge as they journey to Jerusalem.

Today’s account of the healing of the blind man joins the earlier healing of another blind man, to suggest the disciples are slowly coming to see the truth of Jesus. “Story 3” contains a clear-sighted response to the question, “Who then is this?”. Byrne answers: “He will return at the end of the age as the Son of Man in glory to institute judgment on the world, vindicate the faithful, and complete his messianic work by definitively establishing the rule of God” (Brendan Byrne SJ, op cit, 47).

Who do you say he is?