Layers of Blindness
(Jer.31:7-9; Heb.5:1-6; Mk.10:46-52)
It’s said that there’s none so blind as they who will not see.
At school I needed glasses, but foolishly I refused to wear them. Thankfully, I’m now one of some 10 million sensible Australians who wear glasses or contact lenses.
Our eyesight is such a precious gift; we often take it for granted. But having good eyesight doesn’t always mean we see well, for there are many kinds of blindness, and sometimes that blindness comes in layers.
A California eye doctor once removed 23 layers of contact lenses from an elderly woman. She had forgotten to remove the previous contact lenses before using a new one. As her vision deteriorated, she tried to fix it by adding more lenses. Fortunately, no permanent damage was done.
Captain Edward Smith had a different kind of blindness. He refused to believe the Titanic was in trouble until water was ankle-deep in his mailroom. His blindness meant that he wasted time getting help, and hundreds of people died needlessly.
‘What we see depends on what we’re looking for,’ John Lubbock once wrote. ‘Looking at the same field, farmers will notice the crops, geologists will see fossils, botanists will see flowers, and artists will see colours. We might all look at the same things, but we won’t always see the same things.’ [i]

In today’s Gospel, Bartimaeus is blind, perhaps with acute conjunctivitis – it was common in those times. He’s in Jericho, sitting by the roadside on his cloak, begging. As Jesus walks by with a crowd of disciples, Bartimaeus calls out, ‘Son of David, have pity on me!’
Now, I wonder if you noticed some things in this story.
Firstly, did you notice that Jesus doesn’t actually call Bartimaeus himself? He gets his disciples to call him. We should remember this, because Jesus doesn’t always contact us directly. He often works through other people.
Secondly, did you see how Jesus responds to Bartimaeus? Rather than asking, ‘What do you want?’ he asks, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ This is the same question Jesus asked his disciples James and John in last week’s Gospel. He doesn’t guess what’s in our hearts. He wants us to talk with him personally, to tell him what we need.
And did you notice what the crowd does? They try to keep Bartimaeus quiet, to keep him away from Jesus. This often happens today.

In subtle and not-so-subtle ways, many people are trying to suppress our Christian faith. They don’t like us following or even talking about Jesus. Indeed, they’d like to banish Jesus altogether. So, they ridicule, they criticise and they even push for laws that undermine our Christian beliefs and practices. In some places, too, Christians are actively persecuted.
But Bartimaeus won’t be put off. He ignores the crowd and keeps calling for Jesus. And when he’s given his chance, he throws off his cloak, he jumps up and goes to Jesus.
Now, this is a significant act.
The Rich Young Man in Mark’s Gospel (10:17-31) was too scared to let go of his possessions to follow Jesus. But not Bartimaeus. His cloak is all he has. He uses it to collect coins, to sleep in and to protect himself. And yet, he’s prepared to toss it aside for his new life with Jesus. It’s a powerful symbol.
So, what about you? What’s holding you back from really seeing Jesus? Is it your obsessions? Or laziness? Or fear? Can you let these things go?
Bartimaeus knows he’s blind. But what about you? Lots of people today have blind-spots but don’t know it, for there are layers of blindness.
There’s emotional blindness, moral blindness and cultural blindness. There’s also spiritual blindness, which is much more common than physical blindness. Many people are blind to God’s Creation. They’re blind to Jesus’ love and compassion. They’re blind to the suffering and injustice that surrounds them.
In his song, ‘Blowing in the Wind,’ Bob Dylan asks:
‘…how many times can a man turn his head, and pretend that he just doesn’t see? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.’
In 1997, Pope St John Paul II said that this wind is the Holy Spirit. It’s blowing right now, and it’s leading us to Christ.
When Bartimaeus says, ‘I want to see,’ Jesus heals him and he begins a brand-new life.
Why not do the same?
Tell Jesus that you really want to see.
[i] John Lubbock, The Beauties of Nature and the Wonders of the World We Live in, McMillan, London, 1892. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/28274/pg28274-images.html