The way back home

I want to start with Jeremiah today, and not Bartimaeus. So, a quick re-cap on our first reading: Jeremiah was the prophet who spoke God’s words of warning as Jerusalem collapsed, and the people were exiled by the Babylonian empire. Despite God’s pleading, the people turned away from the Lord and abandoned their covenantal relationship with him, with disastrous and civilisational consequences. Jeremiah spoke his words from today’s reading at the point of the collapse of the Judaean society and their captivity.

But with what surprising words does he speak at that most devastating moment. ‘Rejoice, … the Lord has saved his people, the remnant of Israel! ... I will bring them [all] back; the blind and lame, mothers and the still-to-be-born generation.’ At the moment of death, Jeremiah proclaims life. At annihilation, he announces re-birth. Hope will not desert the people; God will bring them home.

Returning to God is turning to hope. It is a healing that is life-giving. Jeremiah sought to remind his fellow remnants of Israel of this, precisely at the moment when loss of hope for their future was overwhelming them. Just as the people experienced the desolation of their turning from God, Jeremiah wanted to leave the people with the promise of God that he would go out to them, to bring them back home.

With that in mind, let’s turn to Bartimaeus. Blind, rejected, he was an exile among his own people, removed from Jericho, left outside.

In the heart of Jesus, ... we find that sacred heart by which we might find healing and hope, and the way back home.

Bartimaeus cannot see Jesus, but Jesus sees him along the road outside Jericho. Jesus has gone to where Bartimaeus had been exiled, so as to hear his voice. ‘Son of David, have pity on me.’ Others wish for Jesus not to hear Bartimaeus. Perhaps they do not wish for this exile to be returned home? Perhaps they do not recognise him as one of them? But Jesus does. Jesus knows that Bartimaeus needs healing, and he knows that those accompanying him also need a healing of another kind of blindness.

Jesus hears Bartimaeus, and sees him. And from that cry of faith—that persistence of hope—Jesus heals Bartimaeus, and returns him to God’s home, now located on the road with him, heading for Jerusalem. To borrow a phrase from popular culture, home is where the heart it.

In the heart of Jesus, given to Bartimaeus, in the heart of God, given to his people, we find that sacred heart by which we might find healing and hope, and the way back home.