Anyone who has ever felt overlooked in a crowd, crying out for attention while everyone around seemed deaf to their cry, understands something of what Bartimaeus experienced by the roadside near Jericho.
Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, was blind and lived by begging, sitting by the road leading out of Jericho (Mark 10:46). Blind, poor, and forgotten, he depended on the compassion of those who passed by.
Jericho lay on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was drawing near to his final days before the cross. A large crowd followed him, drawn by the fame of his miracles and teaching.
That day, the crowd was passing by. Jesus of Nazareth was going through, and Bartimaeus did not let the opportunity slip away. He began to cry out: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:47).
Many rebuked him, telling him to be quiet. But he shouted all the louder, repeating the same cry (Mark 10:48). Nothing made him give up, not the crowd, nor even the blindness that isolated him.
Jesus stopped. He called for him to be brought. Bartimaeus threw off his cloak and ran to him (Mark 10:50). Jesus asked what he wanted, and Bartimaeus answered without hesitation: “Rabbi, I want to see” (Mark 10:51).
“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” At once Bartimaeus received his sight and followed Jesus along the road (Mark 10:52). He did not go back home: he began to walk with the one who had restored his sight.
Bartimaeus’s faith did not ask permission to be inconvenient. He cried out when he should have kept quiet, and he left everything behind when he was called. God still hears those who cry out without shame and answers those willing to leave the cloak behind and follow along the road.
