For this week’s homily please watch the video below.

For the last five Sundays or so, Mark’s gospel describes the journey of Jesus and his disciples from Galilee to Jerusalem where he’ll die and rise from the dead. It’s not a day by day account of the journey or a list of each place they pass;  the gospel is more interested in the people Jesus encounters and invites to follow him  along the way.

Good ordinary people, as far as we can judge. Peter and his brother Andrew,  the other fishermen from Galilee,  James and John, were among the first who follow him. Good, solid reasonable people. The rich young man who meets Jesus on the way– our gospel reading a few weeks ago– a good, solid individual. Jesus calls him to follow him.

But Mark indicates his followers often fail to understand him, especially his message about suffering and death. Yet he calls them anyway, even though over and over Mark says, “They did not understand him.” 

 “You think like human beings think,” Jesus says to Peter,  who wanted him to put thoughts of suffering and death from his mind. James and John are looking for positions in Jesus’ earthly kingdom, a sure thing. The rich young man’s afraid of losing what he has. They think like human beings think. They don’t understand him.

Of course, Mark’s gospel says that’s the way we think too. We’re  limited, we’re self-serving, we’re  afraid to trust in the wisdom and promises of God. We think like human beings. 

At one point in Mark’s gospel,  the disciples throw up their hands in desperation after Jesus admonishes them,  “Then who can be saved?” Are you looking for a perfect remnant?

Today’s gospel seems to answer that question. “As Jesus was leaving Jericho near the end of his journey, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, is sitting by the roadside begging.” The blind beggar sits there by the road. He can’t see.  And he has nothing to recommend him. Nobody wants to look at him, but Jesus calls him and gives him his sight. 

Not only does Jesus give him sight, but Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, gets up and follows Jesus on the way, up to Jerusalem. 

In a simple, beautiful way, Mark’s Gospels presents a powerful story of God’s mercy. The blind man is a symbol of humanity, blind to so much. But God’s mercy is stronger than human understanding, human weakness, even human sin. God’s mercy helps us to see, to get up and to go with Jesus to Jerusalem.

A powerful story of hope. It’s not a small remnant that will be saved. It’s an immense throng. Listen to Jeremiah, our first reading.  

“The LORD has delivered his people,
        the remnant of Israel.
    Behold, I will bring them back
        from the land of the north;
    I will gather them from the ends of the world,
        with the blind and the lame in their midst,
    the mothers and those with child;
        they shall return as an immense throng.
    They departed in tears,
        but I will console them and guide them;
    I will lead them to brooks of water,
        on a level road, so that none shall stumble.
    For I am a father to Israel,
        Ephraim is my first-born.”