The Daily Office · Mark 10:46–52

Have mercy

Mark 10:46–52

46And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside.

47And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

48And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

49And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.”

50And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.

51And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.”

52And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

What's happening here

Mark is the shortest and fastest-moving of the Gospels, and the scene at Jericho is one of the only times he slows down enough to give a beggar a name. Bartimaeus — "son of Timaeus" — sits by the road, hears that Jesus is passing, and cries out with a two-word formula the church would later build into the most repeated prayer in Christian liturgy. The crowd tells him to be quiet. He shouts louder. Jesus stops.

The word that matters

ἐλέησονeleēson

Greek · have mercy — the imperative of mercy

Eleēson is the imperative form of eleeō, the verb behind "alms" and "almsgiving." It is not simply "be kind to me"; it is the full-weight request for the mercy a superior owes a supplicant, the word a defendant shouts to a judge. Bartimaeus's two-word cry — "Son of David, have mercy" — pairs a messianic title with the formal petition word. The early Greek church built it into the Kyrie eleison that has been sung in liturgy for seventeen centuries. The blind man on the roadside wrote the shortest and most durable Christian prayer.

Where else this shows up

Browse