What do you see in the journey?

Over the years I have written a number of reflections about ‘journey’, the journey of following Jesus (you can check these out in my blog archives). One of my favourite passages of scripture about journey has popped up in the lectionary this week – Mark 10:46-52 the story of Jesus healing Bartimaeus the blind man. While it has been my tendency to focus on the end result, Bartimaeus follows Jesus on the ‘journey’ into Jerusalem this pericope has read me differently this time.
What I find interesting about the discipline of ‘dwelling in the text’ is that we don’t just look up our favourite bible passages, take them at face value and use them for our own purposes. A dwelling means just that, sitting and being with the text, allowing it to read into your life and ministry experience, what does it uncover about the stories you bring to the text? What does it tell you about you as a Jesus follower? How is the living Spirit calling you to respond out of the text?
So now you’ve grabbed your bibles and have read these 7 basic verses what did you see? Just a story about Jesus healing a blind man? Is there something more? Did you bother to read the stories around it that give this pericope context and meaning? The Gospel of Mark is fascinating, particularly the theme around what it means to see the way of Jesus.
Here’s some things that stand out to me in this passage. You notice Bartimaeus is shouting out to Jesus. Those who were part of the large crowd following Jesus into Jerusalem rebuked Bartimaeus and told him to be quiet. I wonder who was in that crowd? Could it be that even the disciples were among disapproving the voices of Bart’s yelling? It wouldn’t be the first time, earlier in chapter 10 the disciples rebuke the children that are brought to Jesus. Yet children and blind men are overlooked all the time, they’re not important, in fact they’re a nuisance, they get in the way. Yelling beggars on the side of the road are a dime a dozen. Even with their yelling at the top of their lungs they blend into the background. Yet just as Jesus embraces the little children, he stops and hears Bart’s cry.
One of the questions I ask in my dwelling in the text is ‘where is the church in the text?’ I have heard reflections from the overlooked people in our community say the church is in the crowd! Surely not!
As the story goes, Bartimaeus is healed of his physical blindness and follows Jesus on the journey. Yet a question remains with me, ‘who in this text is really blind?’ I wonder, as we are on the journey with Jesus what do we discover along the way? How many people do we stumble across and actually notice? Do we see those who are otherwise overlooked or do we look the other way? The way of the Kingdom of God in folly to many of us yet is profound Good News to others. On the journey we are called to see what Jesus sees, to stop in the crowd, and respond to the other against the grain of society and expectations and out of love and compassion.
May you be blessed with Kingdom eyes
Shalom
Mark