Mark 10:46-52 (NIV)
Today on Daily Read our passage illustrates what can be lost when we are forced to break up the gospels into smaller parts. These passages are a part of a bigger narrative that was really intended to be seen as a cohesive unit. Each has depths to plumb, but each is also only understood as deeply as what comes before and after.
Today Jesus repeats a phrase from the previous passage, and that phrase indicates a contrast that Mark is trying to draw between the disciples and this blind man named Bartimaeus. Remember how we’ve talked about one of the themes in Mark being that the people who should be able to see the Kingdom struggle to see it, if not outright fail to see it, and the people who shouldn't see it do?
In the previous passage, Jesus asked James and John, who brought a request to them, “what do you want me to do for you?” They proceed to ask for him to give them a seat of honor and power next to him when he comes into his Kingdom. Today, in contrast to these disciples who have had ample time to grasp what Jesus has been saying about himself, he asks Bartimaeus the same question. And I believe that it’s his response that should become a model for us today.
----------REFLECT----------
1. What word or phrase stood out to you in this passage?
2. Mark includes the detail of Bartimaeus throwing aside his cloak, which he would have had laid out before him to collect money as he begged. What do you think it means that he threw it aside as he came to Jesus?
3. The disciples were in proximity to Jesus and were actively doing the “right kind of stuff” with and for Jesus, but on several occasions he calls them out for lacking faith. In contrast Bartimaeus hasn’t done anything for Jesus, and yet is told by Jesus himself that his faith has healed him. How might Jesus invite you to be more like Bartimaeus today?
----------GO DEEPER----------
Bible Project: Mark Overview >>
Bible Project: The Gospel >>
Bible Project: Gospel of the Kingdom >>
----------CONNECT----------
Find an InterVarsity Chapter >>
Start an InterVarsity Chapter >>
Learn More >>
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free