Unlike the spiritually blind disciples who failed Jesus time and again, Bartimaeus could see with his heart. He refused silence, and shouted all the more. Remarkably, Jesus took notice of this defenseless blind man and called him to courage. Without hesitation, Bartimaeus leaped to his feet and begged the Rabbi for his sight. What followed was nothing less than a miracle. For it wasn’t the superpowers of a deity that healed the blind man, but the honest and genuine faith of BarTimaeus that nourished the beggar’s life. The text never speaks of a physical cure, because the grace of God does not come in tablet form.
If we are to follow Bartimaeus and Jesus down the road to Jerusalem, we must find the courage to find God. For it is precisely such moments of paralyzing vulnerability, that God works to renew our faith in life. Helplessness comes in many shapes and sizes, and the whirlwind of disappointment and distress eventually meets us all. But that’s not the end of the story. We are always, every single one of us, called to love life.
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