GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 10:46
Location, Location, Location
The English real estate developer Harold Samuel (1912-1987) is credited with popularizing the phrase “location, location, location” to emphasize the supreme importance of location in real estate development, though others appear to have used it earlier.
Police in St. Louis responded to a call on March 10, 2025, after a man pulled out a gun and threatened a fellow panhandler for encroaching on his desired location.
Evangelist and pastor Dwight L. Moody used the expression “a fight among beggars over location” to describe disputes among Christians over prominence or honor, especially when arguing about rank within the church. If believers are spiritually dependent on grace (i.e., they are “beggars”), then fighting for position is absurd.
Life must have been humdrum for the blind beggar who sat beside the road outside Jericho day after day. Mark’s Gospel describes it this way: “And they came to Jericho. And as he was going out from Jericho—and his disciples and a large crowd—the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting beside the road.” (Mark 10:46) It’s easy to imagine this man, about whom we know little, picking his way—or being led—to a familiar spot day after day. He chose the south side of the village, where pilgrims left the city on their way to Jerusalem, uphill and fifteen miles farther south. Surely, on their way to perform their temple duties, they could spare a few copper coins.
Someone once described a rut as a grave with both ends knocked out. A television pundit once pontificated about how to overcome boredom: find a new hobby, take a walk, develop new friendships, learn a new language, or learn to play a musical instrument. The pundit may have been overcoming her boredom by sitting in front of a camera, suggesting to others how they might conquer their “monotonum” (The spellchecker says this is not a word, but it ought to be. It wants me to use “monotony,” but that just doesn’t sound like the condition feels.).
Last month, Bartimaeus sat in the same location beside the road, begging. Yesterday, he sat in the same location beside the road, begging. Today … but wait–a noise, a crowd …
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