David was a great
king in the history of Israel. As a king he was also a priest who offered
sacrificed every year for the atonement of his sins and of his subjects. In the
post-exilic period when there was no king in Israel, the priesthood took the
upper hand in making atonement sacrifice. Jesus offered this atonement sacrifice
for all of us on the cross as a priest descending from King David. In Jesus the
function of offering atonement sacrifice is taken back to king from high priest
who carried out this function till then. This is the core of the letter to
Hebrews. Today’s second reading from this letter elucidates the eternal
priesthood of Jesus that comes from His Sonship to the Father. King is a son of
God who represents God in the world. King David represented God in Israel and
he mediated between God and Man especially through his priestly sacrifice. Jesus
as descendant of David was a King who offered sacrifice once and for all on the
cross.
In the Gospel
reading the blind Bartimaeus cries out to Jesus as Son of David. He affirms the
identity of Jesus as descendant of David, who has the right to offer atonement
sacrifice for Himself and for His subjects. The blind beggar also asks Jesus to
have mercy on Him. The nature of our God is love who acts with mercy. The sacrifice
of Jesus on the cross was a merciful act, which brought down divine mercy on
humanity. Through Jesus we seek God’s mercy and receive His mercy. The blind man
has sensed this even before any leaders in Israel could do. The Scribes and Pharisees
were apprehensive of Jesus’ proclamation, but they never tried to find out the
root of Jesus as descendant of David. They were blind; they sought proof after
proofs from Jesus and tried their best to trap him in their arguments. On the
contrary, this blind man on the roadside had spiritual insight that told him
that Jesus is the Son of David who alone can effect God’s mercy on him. He got
his physical blindness cured because he got cured of his spiritual insight
already. The prostitutes, tax collectors, sinner… who are outwardly blind to
Godly things are able to open up themselves to receive sight from God through
Jesus, whereas the scribes, Pharisees and lawyer who are supposed to be
enlightened in Godly things have become blind. To these people Jesus says, “Truly
I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom
of God ahead of you” (Mt 21:31).
After the curing,
Jesus tells the blind Bartimaeus to ‘Go’, but he follows Jesus. In the previous
Sunday we heard about young rich man who was very much interested in following God’s
law but reluctant to give up his property and follow Jesus. In the case of
Bartimaeus, he throws out even his cloak to meet Jesus. The invited rich man
could not follow Jesus, but the blind beggar without being invited is able to
follow Jesus and thus become his disciple. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3). In the last week, we heard about
Jesus’ disciples who were claiming prominent places in His kingship. It was
because of their understanding of Kingdom of God like any human kingdom. The kingdom
of God is for poor in spirit, it is for the blesseds in the beatitudes Mt
5:3-11. The blind Bartimaeus is a poor in spirit who sought only mercy from
Jesus and became His disciple. The disciples of Jesus are called to be like
him, who would follow Jesus leaving everything. From periphery, from roadside blind
Bartimaeus becomes a person who walks on the road. The spiritually blind are
pushed to the roadside (scribe, Pharisees, lawyer…), whereas the spiritually
sighted are lead to physical healing and eventually inherit the kingdom of God.
This Sunday also
we observe as a Mission Sunday. The purpose of Missionary work in the Church is
to make many more disciples like Bartimaeus. The mission of every disciple of
Jesus is to proclaim good news about Him. Some of us could do it literally and some
us could do only partially and spiritually. Mission Sunday is an occasion to
show our partial commitment to evangelization by giving our contribution for
the missionary work. We also show our spiritual commitment to evangelization by
regularly praying for missionaries Like Bartimaeus let us be generous in giving
whatever we could for the missionary work and also be courageous like Bartimaeus
in following Jesus on His way.
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