OIA 10.46-52

Observations
• Who: Jesus, his disciples, a great crowd, Bartimaeus.
• When: As Jesus was leaving Jericho for Jerusalem.
• Where: Jericho
• What: Bartimaeus hails Jesus as Son of David, receives his sight and follows Jesus on the way.
• Connections: ears to hear; Bartimaeus, like the Syrophoenician woman, knows who Jesus is and receives healing from Jesus by his expression of faith; faith, and lack of faith have been a theme for several chapters, most recently with the father of the possessed boy, and including the disciples, Jairus, the woman, the demoniac…; Jesus is ‘on the way’ to Jerusalem.
• Contrasts: the blind beggar sees where the rich ruler, the disciples, and the Jewish religious leadership are blinded; Jesus uses the same reply to Bartimaeus as to James and John: what do you want me to do for you; in 10.32 those following Jesus ‘on the way’ were afraid and amazed; Bartimaeus seems filled with enthusiasm and joy; both the rich ruler and Bartimaeus greet Jesus with evident enthusiasm, but their responses to Jesus are opposite.
• Responses to Jesus: Bartimaeus hears Jesus and calls him by a name that demonstrates faith; he responds in immediate obedience.

Interpretation
• This pericope is the close of this section of Mark – 8.27-10.52; some commentators include it in that section; others see it as part of the next section that describes Jesus’ judgment of Jerusalem’s Second Temple religious praxis and his final departure from the temple at the end of chapter 12.
• Son of David: this is the first time this name for Jesus is used in Mark signaling in my opinion Mark’s intention to emphasize the culmination of conflict between Jesus and the prevailing Jewish religious regime. Jesus returns to Jerusalem as David’s Son, heir to David’s throne; but he is not the nationalistic restorer of Israel’s political or religious world dominance; rather he came as the servant and slave of all. Bartimaeus seems to recognize this dramatic redefinition of David’s son by the way he enthusiastically follows Jesus ‘on the way’.
• On the way unites this pericope to the preceding section by picking us Jesus’ intentional journey from the region of Tyre and Sidon, down through Idumea, into Galilee, and finally to Jerusalem. Some commentators title that section based on this theme of journey to Jerusalem.

Application
• Do we have eyes that see, ears that hear?
• Do we respond to Jesus’ mercy by immediately following Jesus on the way?