Have mercy on me (2)

Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Mark 10:48)

Many people who surrounded Jesus rebuked Bartimaeus to be quiet. They told him, “You are too noisy before our noble teacher. Do not disturb our secret religious talk.” But Bartimaeus shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

At this critical juncture, Bartimaeus is not supposed to be in a position to consider other’s situation. He has only one goal of healing his blindness. He does not have any other way but to indulge in having Jesus’ mercy. He comes to Jesus not because of his superior spiritual excellence but in his miserable situation that pushes him forward to Jesus. At this point, Jesus’ teaching on the Mount, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” can be justified.

I do not know what kind life you are going through. But you are a blessed if your heart is completely filled with the deep concern about God. A loneliness, disease, business failure or broken family could drive you to such troublesome life. Then such bad condition of life rather is the grace of God. Of course it would be better to concentrate on God with good condition of life. But such thing rarely happens to our life.

Here do not misunderstand the meaning of concentrating on God alone. It does not mean to indulge in church life only, by abandoning all other part of life. Such life is different from a mere church life which is different from the concentration on God. It is rather important for us to be captured by the power that enables us to live.

Whatever we do and wherever we go we have to shout all the more. It is the shouts of our souls. We have to shout all the more standing on the borderline of nothingness and something else, “Lord, have mercy on me!”