Mark 10:46-52 | EnterTheBible.org
Twenty-Third Sunday After Pentecost | 10.27.2024
Context: In this powerful story, we see people healed of their blindness. I write people because it’s not only Bartimaeus who is healed here. There are people who try to keep him from getting to Jesus. What sort of healing do they experience as they witness Jesus engage this man?
46 They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” 50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” 52 Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
Anatomy of a Fall | 2023
IMDb | Letterboxd | RRMC
Context: Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller in an Oscar-nominated role) has taken the stand in a murder trial where she is accused of pushing her husband,Samuel (Samuel Theis), out of the window of their home. The prosecution has presented evidence that their relationship was suffering, and in a bid for her innocence of this crime, Sandra offers that relationships are complex, as are people. That doesn’t mean she’s a murderer.
Sandra Voyter: I’m sorry to interrupt, I’m sorry. But… I don’t know, you, you come here, okay, with your, maybe your opinion, and you tell me who Samuel was, and what we were going through… But what you say is just a… it is just… a little part of the whole situation, you know? I mean, sometimes… Sometimes a couple is kind of a chaos. And everybody is lost. No? And sometimes we fight together and sometimes we fight alone and sometimes we fight against each other, that happens, and I think it’s possible that Samuel needed to see things the way you describe them, but… (scoffs) if– if I’d been seeing a therapist, he could stand here too and say very ugly things about Samuel. But would those things be true?
Commentary:
It’s tough to see someone suffer.
At least, it should be.
There’s a small handful of some people who follow Jesus trying to shut down other people who want to follow Jesus. And to be clear, I’m talking about the gospels in the Bible, not today (although…). In these stories, these people have been blessed by his teachings, healings, and a new way of life. What better way to celebrate the love at the center of it all than to keep it all to yourself, right? Again, not talking about today (although…). And right here, we see a man who is blind who needs help, and the faithful crowd is too blind to let him through.
A third time, for the people in the back…
Isn’t it fascinating to think that a crowd of people would think the best thing they could do is keep one more person from following Jesus along with them? When this man shouts, “Jesus, have mercy on me!” they shout him down, as if to say, “Can you please just be quiet?! We’re trying to follow Jesus here!” They see what they want to see. Thankfully, Jesus sees through their selfishness and sees the man for who he is: beloved.
“Go; your faith has made you well.” The man is healed, and he can see. What does he do when he sees? He follows. We don’t see the crowd’s response here, though we can assume they saw what happened. We can also presume they didn’t stop this man from following, as it implies he joins them on the way. To this end, it’s clear that their eyes have also been opened. They see clearly now, too. We don’t know if they understand their actions a moment before - hopefully they do. We don’t know if they spoke amongst themselves about how their eyes are open - again, hopefully they do. In this regard, someone could say I’m seeing more than what’s here. But that’s also my strongest hope: it’s not just the one man healed of his blindness. It’s all of the crowd.
Too many of us go through life blind to the suffering of others. We need our eyes wide open.
We were blessed with ten excellent nominees for the Academy Award for Best Picture this year, and one of them was Anatomy of a Fall, with a brilliant Oscar-nominated performance by Sandra Hüller, who also appeared in the haunting Best Picture nominee The Zone of Interest. This quiet, deliberately-paced thriller is complex and keeps you guessing the entire way. It all comes down to characters trying to convince people to see what they see.
Sandra is on trial for murdering her husband, Samuel. She denies it. On the witness stand, she pleads for people to see things from her perspective. Open your eyes, members of the jury: I did not do this. I know you see the evidence and it looks like I did it. But see me, and see how I see it. It wasn’t me.
If you haven’t seen this one yet, man I loved it. Here’s Sandra telling her lawyer she didn’t kill her husband.
But in case you need to see some of the prosecution’s evidence, here’s an argument that Sandra had with Samuel. What do you see?
I will not reveal the verdict here. You’ll have to see that for yourself. I will offer that for me, I’m still not exactly sure what happened. We see the events of that day, the events that led up to that day, and the events that followed that day. But even after the verdict I think it’s reasonable for most viewers to say the full truth is left unclear. …Or is it?! My point being, do some of us only see what we want to see? This couple, one dead and one accused of killing them, have so much of their private lives now on display for everyone to see. In a court case of convincing people to see things only one way, there sure are many, many things to see in the first place.
The crowd only saw someone delaying their teacher instead of someone like them who was blind and wanted to see, to have what they had. The jury only saw what the prosecution presented unless Sandra and her defense revealed a different point of view. They say seeing is believing - are our eyes truly open?
Who has revealed tough truths to you? What do you look back on now and see more clearly with distance and wisdom? How has faith revealed new life to you once your eyes were wide open?
Thanks for reading, sharing, and subscribing. God’s peace and good movies to you!