If we hear the Aramaic word, “Rabbuni”, ‘my teacher’, our thoughts probably turn to the account of the Resurrection in St John’s Gospel. It is the term by which Mary Magdalene addressed our Lord when she recognized him after he called her by name. This transforming call which brought her from deep sorrow to overpowering joy, and was to lead her to the task of bring the good news of the Resurrection to the disciples.
We hear the same word and discover another transformation in the story of the blind man, Bar Timaeus – the son of Timaeus, in our Gospel today. Sitting by the roadside when he hears that Jesus is coming, he begins by calling Jesus by the messianic title, ‘Son of David’. But when Jesus calls him to come forward and asks him what he wants, Bar Timaeus calls him ‘my teacher’, Rabbuni.
In response to the question ‘What do you want me to do for you?’, he asks that he might see again. He has not always been blind, he wants to be restored to what he once had. And is told that his faith has made this so, and he is healed. But unlike some whom Jesus has healed, he does not then go off rejoicing, back to whatever he did before. He has acknowledged Jesus as his teacher, and so he follows along the way. In some ways the return of his sight is the least thing that Jesus does for him.
The fact that he is mentioned by name suggests that he was known to the early Christian community, his following of Jesus along the way led to his becoming a disciple. His life becoming patterned on Christ and seeking to share the good news with others. That is the real transformation, a glimpse of the transformation that Christ won for us all.
This was, in fact, the last healing that Jesus did. He was going from Jericho to Jerusalem, to His Passion, His Death and His Resurrection; through which He does not just restore us to what we were before. We are not to be returned to Eden. Rather we are to become co-heirs with Christ: to be, as St John tells us, like God.
To acknowledge Jesus as our teacher – the guide and pattern for our life – is to express our desire for that transformation. Whatever it is that first brings us to Christ, be it sorrow, distress, need, or simply curiosity, at some point there will be the challenge to accept that he is the one about whom we are to shape our life, the one who shows us the way.
That means getting up from where we are, metaphorically at least, and following Jesus along the way. Like Bar-Timaeus we will find that that will lead us to Calvary, but hopefully, like him, we will also find that it leads us to what comes after.
Fr Chris Denham
