Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: This is Sundays with Bishop Ken.
Thanks for sharing some quiet time with the Lord.
This week on Sundays with Bishop Ken, our guest, Father Pete Gaspini, shares today's gospel with us, followed by one of Bishop Ken's homilies.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark.
As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging.
On. Hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out, all the more, son of David, have pity on me.
Jesus stopped and said, call him. So they called the blind man, saying to him, take courage. Get up. Jesus is calling you.
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, what do you want me to do for you? The blind man replied to him, master, I want to see.
Jesus told him, go your way. Your faith has saved you.
Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the way.
The gospel of the Lord Jericho is about 18 miles northeast of Jerusalem. The whole area around it is harsh land, rocky desert, hot, dry, and empty.
But Jericho is a lush oasis. The Jordan river flows nearby. In and around Jericho, there are many springs bringing precious water to trees with lush fruit, all kinds of plant life, flowers.
Because of its location, pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem from the north, which is where Jesus was from, often used it as a stopover, the last stop before going on to Jerusalem.
So there were always people passing through.
They would usually be in high spirits with the excitement of being close to their destination.
In this scene, there is even more excitement because the great feast of Passover was near, like the spirit in the air as Christmas draws near.
Bartimaeus was blind, but don't picture him as an old man. There's no reason to assume that he was.
When Jesus calls Bartimaeus, overdose, it says that he sprang to his feet. That doesn't sound like an old man.
You see, blindness was much more common back then. He probably wasn't born blind.
At that time, there was an infectious disease called trachoma. It was contagious, and you could catch it like we catch a sore throat. And when you got it, you went blinden. That's probably what happened to Bartimaeus. The sad thing is, the disease was also preventable.
Simple hygiene was usually all that was needed.
But in so much of the land, there wasn't much water, and people didn't wash themselves too often.
So Bartimaeus grew up as someone with good sight, and then one day he lost it.
Let's picture him as a man in his thirties.
Back then, they didn't have the support systems for the blind, and Braille hadn't been invented yet. If you were blind, the only work you could do was to beg, and that's a job nobody wants.
But if you wanted to eat, you had to beg.
So this young man, Bartimaeus, was a beggar.
He picked a good spot on the road going out of Jericho towards Jerusalem.
A modern example that might help us understand what it's like might be a middle aged man today who loses his job because the company moved.
He starts looking for another job and maintains his respectability when he does the interviews, giving the impression that he's not going to take just anything.
But he misses out on one job after another.
Finally, in an interview, he breaks down and says something like, look, I need a job. I'm just about out of money and I'm going to lose the house. Please give me a chance. I'll work hard for you.
That's what it's like to beg. That's what it was like for Bartimaeus.
Well, Bartimaeus is sitting there one day and he finds out that this man called Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.
Now, Bartimaeus had been begging at this roadside for a couple of years, and he got a lot of news by listening to the passersby.
A lot of them were coming from up north in Galilee, and he had heard some of them talking about this famous preacher up north, Jesus of Nazareth.
He figures a famous person like this could be a surprisingly good hit. So he calls Jesus by name, Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.
He is asking for money.
Some of the people with Jesus come over to Bartimaeus and tell him to keep it down.
Besides, Jesus doesn't have any money. He's a holy man who simply wanders from place to place preaching. So leave him alone.
But Bartimaeus is a seasoned beggar, and he knows that if you keep yelling for a handout, a lot of people will give you something just to keep you quiet. So he keeps on yelling.
Picture Jesus and the disciples and others from up north walking along, and Bartimaeus calling out the disciples, tell Jesus that the thing to do is just keep on walking. But all of a sudden, Jesus stops right there in the middle of the road.
Everyone stops with him. Jesus says to James and John, bring that fellow over to me.
So they go to Bartimaeus and tell him excitedly that Jesus wants to see him now. Bartimaeus is no fool. He's been at the begging business for a long time. And this is not your average response to his stock cry, have pity on me. Something's up. This could be a golden opportunity. So he springs to his feet and has James and John lead him to Jesus.
When he gets there, Jesus says carefully and slowly, what do you want me to do for you?
Bartimaeus realizes that this is different. This isn't someone asking, how much do you want? It's a clear question from someone who can do what money can't buy.
Bartimaeus isn't going to waste an offer like that by asking for a lot of money. Forget the money.
So he goes to the heart of it. What do I want?
I want to see, Jesus says, done.
All of a sudden, the lights go on and Bartimaeus can see.
Can you imagine all of a sudden being able to see the sky, the people, your shoes, Jesus of Nazareth. The gate you've been sitting at for years, the road, the grass.
Forget the money. This is priceless.
Bartimaeus is happy beyond words. And he asks Jesus if he can go with him. And Jesus says yes. So Bartimaeus grabs his cloak and the coins that were sprinkled on it and joins the group with Jesus.
The gospel says that he followed him on the way.
That's how the gospels describe disciples.
They all went to Jerusalem. And do you know what Bartimaeus got to see with those newly opened eyes?
He saw this kind and gentle man who gave him his sight. He saw him tortured and nailed to a crosse, and he saw him die.
The other disciples had fled when this all started. But I'm sure Bartimaeus was there. There to see jesus die a terrible death. And he probably said to himself, I wish I'd never got my sight back.
I never wanted to see a thing like this.
But that's not the end of the story. Three days later, those newly healed eyes enabled him to see the risen Lord, glorious, bright and transformed. What a sight.
I'm not pulling this out of thin air. Listen to what St. Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians.
Now I am reminding you, brothers and sisters, of the gospel I preach to you. That Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, that he appeared to Cephas and then to the twelve.
After that, he appeared to more than 500 brothers and sisters.
Don't think for a minute that Bartimaeus was not one of them.
Why, there were hardly 500 disciples in all of Palestine. You got to believe that Bartimaeus was one of the 500. And he said, this is what my eyes were meant to see, the best sight I've ever seen.
I'll bet he spent the rest of his life going far and wide to tell the good news of this good man who gave him back his eyes.
Here's a request for you.
Later today or sometime this week, spend 15 minutes of prayer alone.
Take some moments to sense the presence of Jesus right there. Picture Jesus using your first name and saying to you what he said to Bartimaeus, what do you want me to do for you?
This is the chance of a lifetime.
What would you say?
And what do you hear Jesus say in reply?
He will reply.
You can be sure of it.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us today. If you like this week's reflection, subscribe on your favorite podcast platform for daily reflections during the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter, subscribe to the Little Books app found on the Apple or Google Play Stores. The podcast is brought to you free of charge from Little Books. To help support our ministry, please consider donating by clicking on the donate button now. And, of course, why not tell a friend about this podcast?
Sundays with Bishop Ken is produced by Little Books of the Diocese of Saginaw. For more about little books and great resources for the whole family, visit littlebooks.org dot.
