Immediately (Mark 10:46-52)

Immediately, he regained his sight and followed Jesus on the path.


This is the verse that jumped out at me during lectio divina today. I was reading Mark 10:46-52, "Bartimaeus receives his sight."


There are a lot of things about passage that I love:
Bartimaeus knows that he's broken. In his valley of despair, he still trusts in the Lord. He calls out to Jesus. It takes courage, it takes faith, to confront the brokenness that is inside ourselves. And we've all got it. Bartimaeus's brokenness is partly physical - he's blind.


And so, Bartimaeus is shouting, "Jesus, have mercy on me!" And everyone around him, the crowds following Jesus, they're all saying, "Bartimaeus, you just shut your mouth." (i.e. rebuking)


And Jesus stops walking and says, "Eh, no no no. Call him over to me." Jesus stands still. In this big, loud crowd, Jesus hears Bartimaeus's call and he stands still.


So someone, I'm guessing it was one of the disciples but really it just says the very vague 'they,' tells Bartimaeus Jesus has called him.


Jesus asks Bartimaeus, "What do you want me to do for you?" Now, we can unpack that syntax another time, I think it's pretty loaded. 


Bartimaeus says, "Rabbi, I want to see." Woah. Now, I know Bart is blind, but this is kind of what we all want, right? We want to see. We want to see past our fears, past our selves. We want to see the world, the good. We want to understand our place in all of it. We want to know God. We want to see.


And Jesus says, "Go, your faith has healed you." Jesus doesn't say, "I have healed you." He says your faith, your trust in God, your continual belief (not dogma or creed), the faith you have in the Lord in the midst of your brokenness, your willingness to be vulnerable, to open yourself and trust in the Lord, that is what made you well. That's what I think Jesus is saying to Bartimaeus.


But wait, Bart doesn't just go off on his merry way once he can see again. 


IMMEDIATELY, he regained his sight. Immediately. And he followed Jesus on the path. Once his eyes were opened, there was no going back to his prior life.


His trust in God was so deep and real that it healed him. It made him well, it made him whole. And once Bartimaeus regained his sight, he didn't just say, "I'm going to do what I want now," even though Jesus didn't tell him he couldn't. Bartimaeus said, 'I've seen this good that trust in the Lord can do and I can't go back to living my life like I was before.' and  he followed Jesus on the path. 


Immediately. That word has stuck with me all day. The decision follow Jesus on the path wasn't one contemplated with pros-and-cons lists. The bills weren't all paid, money wasn't saved. Right then and there, the presence of the Lord so changed Bartimaeus's life that he couldn't go back to life he knew... There was nothing there for him because he had found a way to move past his despair, to become whole. Immediately.