The Healing of Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46–52), Part 1 -- By: Kenneth W. Yates

Journal: Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
Volume: JOTGES 29:56 (Spring 2016)
Article: The Healing of Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46–52), Part 1
Author: Kenneth W. Yates


The Healing of Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46–52), Part 1

Kenneth Yates

Editor

I. Introduction

In a recent article in this journal, I argued that when Jesus used spittle to heal a blind man in stages in Mark 8:22–26, it was a picture of the “blindness” of the disciples. They did not understand what following Jesus meant. The use of the spittle indicated that what Jesus was about to say to them about this topic was disgraceful and disgusting in their eyes. That is the only miracle in the NT where Jesus spits in the face of a person. Such actions, in the first century, were shocking.1

That is also the only healing Jesus performs in stages. The man is not healed all at once, but in stages. The eyes of these disciples would also be opened in stages.2

The spittle healing of Mark 8:22–26 also begins what can be called the discipleship section of Mark, which runs through Mark 10:52.3 The ending of this section also involves the healing of a blind man—Bartimaeus. Both healings are illustrations of discipleship.

It is not surprising that blindness would be used to describe the disciples in a spiritual sense. In Mark 4:11–12 the Lord uses lack of sight to describe spiritual blindness. Immediately before the healing at Bethsaida the Lord tells the disciples that they are blind. Clearly this is a metaphorical blindness. It will be maintained that the two healings that begin and end the discipleship section are pictures of the metaphorical blindness of the disciples.

Understanding these two healings as having metaphorical significance is not reading one’s theology into the text. Jesus used miracles to teach deeper spiritual realities. In the Gospel of John the Lord tells us specifically that a healing of blindness had that very purpose. After healing a blind man in John 9, at the conclusion of the chapter Jesus gives the significance of that healing. He has a conversation with the Pharisees:

And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”

Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?”

Jesus said to t...

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