Jesus Heals a blind man by the name of Bartimaeus
Mark 19:46-52
I can’t begin to count the number of times when I have looked for something and I couldn’t find, I start asking my wife, “Hey, where is the screwdriver that we used yesterday? I can’t find it”. So she would say, “Yes you do! Remember, you used it yesterday to put the new picture up in the bed room.” And I would go up there and answer, “I can’t find it.” Then she would come up to the room, and there was the missing item right in the middle of the floor, plain as day. She would look at me as if she wanted to say, “What’s the matter with you? Are you blind or something?” I have eyes wide open, but couldn’t see.
It appears that the story of Jesus healing a blind man is about a physical condition. Later in the story, it seems fairly clear that the act of healing that took place is of a physical nature. That is, the Scripture plainly says that Bartimaeus, who had been blind, regained his ability to see. But there is more to it than physical healing. Though a physical healing took place, the physical healing in this story is not as important as the healing of spiritual blindness of the people around him. Jesus is also interested in opening the eyes of the people around him, though they were not physically blind.
Jesus says in Matt 13:13, "That’s why I speak to them in parables, because ‘they look but don’t see, and they listen but don’t hear or understand.’" ( from Isiah 6:9). In Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8, after telling the parable of the sower and being asked by the disciples why he speaks in parables, Jesus says that he speaks in parables so that those who are “blind” will not see what he means. Clearly, Jesus is talking about spiritual blindness.
Bartimaeus thought there to be nothing unusual about this day. It dawned like any other; he was likely awakened by the early-morning noise of the city of Jericho. A farmer driving his animals; a merchant setting up his display of wares; children getting an early start on a day of play. Bartimaeus clutched his ever-present coat around himself and struggled to his feet. His makeshift living quarters provided him shelter and little else.
He lived a life of surviving on charity, on people’s leftovers. Bartimaeus had two strikes against him to begin with - blind and poor. Add to this the fact that he hardly had his own identity even; the prefix “Bar” means “son of”. He was identified as the son of another—“that’s Timaeus’ son, the blind kid”. He experienced little joy in life, little success, little peace. His daily goal was survival; is merely surviving really living. And so he sat. There was certainly nothing unusual about a blind man begging! But maybe, when Bartimaeus awakened on this day, he did anticipate something different. Passover was coming, and the crowds in the streets would be larger—maybe this would be a more profitable day than most!
Meanwhile, a crowd had gathered around Jesus. Jericho was only about 15 miles away from Jerusalem, and the main road ran right through town. Jesus was on His way to the Passover; when a well-known teacher was on such a journey, it was customary for people to gather around and listen to his teaching on the trip. Many were pilgrims themselves on the way to Jerusalem. He had to find out what all the commotion was all about, and so he cried out, asking if anyone could tell him the reason for the ruckus, and he was told: Jesus of Nazareth was coming that way! Bartimaeus’ heart began to pound out of his chest, and he swallowed hard. He had heard stories about the wonderful rabbi, the gentle healer, the miracle worker. This was Bartimaeus’ moment of truth; it was act now, or forever be confined to blindness; forever wonder what might have been; forever live with regret and pain. There come such moments of decision in the life of every person, moments which, looked back upon, are make-or-break moments.
There are four groups of people in this story. Bartimaeus with his needs and prophetic insights,
Jesus with his compassion and grace, a group of people with its determination to keep Bartimaeus both blind and invisible, and others with the opportunity to guide him to Jesus with the hopeful words, "Take courage; get up; he's calling you!" Bartimaeus knew he was blind and needed healing.
Bartimaeus knew he was blind and acknowledged the need for healing. Understanding our need is the beginning of healing. Topicsmaster in a youth speech club posed this question: "Who would you most like to meet (dead or alive) and why?" Answers ranged from deceased relatives to various biblical characters. One of the more interesting answers was, "I'd like to meet and see myself, just like others can see me." It is the acknowledgment that we dont really know ourselves and our needs. We too have blind spots, and we need to realize where they are and go to the correct source. I have to confess that I am blind. I cannot see. My eyes may be open, and I may be a Christian. I may know what the Bible says, and I may be able to recite the Apostle’s Creed by heart and pray the Lord’s Prayer. I may pray with sincerity and hope every single day, and I may know the words to the hymns, and I may confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, but even so, I must admit that I am in need of healing.
I must confess that I do not know all the answers. I am intellectually blind. I am theologically blind. And lots of days, I am spiritually blind. I am in need of healing. But I do believe that the power of God in Jesus Christ can heal me. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. I don’t know when. But I know that it happens. There are moments in which I am healed. There are times when I do have momentary clarity and feel the presence of God deeply and fully. I pursue Jesus because I believe that through him, God can heal my blindness. I’m not going to be afraid to admit to my own blindness. I am not going to be afraid to cry out, loudly, for all the world to hear, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
He could see that Jesus is coming and He can help him. When faced with problems, can you see Jesus beyond the problem Or, do we allow ourselves to be deterred by the resistance of the surroundings.
He didn’t allow the negativism of the crowds to deter him. He didn’t worry about his deficiency or his handicap; he didn’t lament what he couldn’t do, rather he just did what he could. He didn’t hesitate; he began calling out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
He called Jesus by His Great great grandfather's name. How did he know that? He had no eyesight, but perhaps he had remarkable insight. Helen Keller (who was both blind and deaf) said, “Better to be blind and to see with your heart, than to have two good eyes and see nothing.”
We all have gone through inevitable times in life when we lose our way. We’ve all had periods when it seemed as if darkness were all around and we were just stumbling along, trying to stay on our feet, searching desperately for a way out, searching for a way to regain our faith. Even people of enormous, historic faith have experienced those times. There is opposition from every angle. Consider, for example, the disciples, who denied knowing Jesus; then, later, after he was crucified, hid in the darkness and shelter of the Upper Room to avoid a similar fate. Augustine, one of fathers of the Christian faith, went through periods when he found himself searching desperately to hang on to his faith. John Wesley found himself frightened and miserable and faithless in the midst of a powerful storm during a journey from America back to his home in England. Losing our way, even temporarily, is a kind of blindness.
In the forty-second chapter of Isaiah, God said, “I will lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground” (Isaiah 42:16 NRSV). In that passage, God isn’t talking about that small fraction of people who do not have the physical ability to see; rather, God is talking about all of God’s people and something other than physical blindness.
Bartimaeus was able to see Jesus, as the son of David. The religious crowd around him had eyes, but they were not able to see Jesus as the promised Son of God, the messiah who came to redeem from the sins. Paul says, in 2 Cor 4:3-6 "The gospel is hidden to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”[a] made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ." He continues in Eph 1:18 "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people in Jesus Christ."
The Apostle Peter explains short sightedness in 2 Peter 1: 5-9. "Supplement your faith with moral character, your moral character with knowledge, 6 your knowledge with self-control, your self-control with endurance, your endurance with godliness, 7 your godliness with brotherly kindness, and your brotherly kindness with love. 8 For if you possess these qualities, and if they continue to increase among you, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in attaining a full knowledge of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. 9 For the person who lacks these qualities is blind and shortsighted."
I call it spiritual Myopia. Short Sight. or near sight. Myopia is an abnormal eye condition in which light rays from distant objects, passing through the lens, focus in front of the retina. Then distant objects appear blurred because their images are focused in front of the retina rather than on it. A myopic person cannot see things clearly enough to react properly. For instance, a nearsighted baseball player cannot see a pitch clearly enough to take an effective swing at the ball. Thankfully, we have the knowledge and technology today to overcome this obstacle, so the physical problem is usually corrected by eyeglasses, contact lenses, and sometimes even surgery. Left untreated, however, it can evolve into bigger problems, such as eyestrain and severe headaches.
A myopic Christian cannot see the truth clearly enough to use it in his life. Lack of discernment or long-range perspective in thinking or planning. inability to see the future as God reveals it to us in His Word.
Another facet of spiritual myopia concerns a person's efforts to see one as God sees. About future, about people and about circumstances This dilemma of blindness can result in a disregard for overcoming problems as they affect others and himself. It is easy to become short-sighted in life, to see things only as they appear at the moment, and to be unable to take the long view of matters.
In Luke 11:33-36, Jesus succinctly deals with the subject of spiritual vision or lack of it: “No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place or under a basket, but on a lampstand, that those who come in may see the light. The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.”
Who is it that needs healing here? Notice the response of resistance from the crowd; they tried to shut him up. “We’re on our way to the Holy City; we have no time for a blind beggar!” “Don’t bother the Master, you old beggar man!” “He’s got more important things to do than to fool with you!” This is the religious crowd, on their way to a religious festival! These are people who are listening to Jesus’ talk about the kingdom of God! They are in the right place listening to the right thing and they completely miss the point!
A man was searching for his lost key at night under a street light. A friend came along and started helping him in the search. After a long time, the friend asked him, we searched everywhere in this light, are you sure you lost your key here?. The man answered, “I lost the key over there, but this is the only place that has light, so I searched here”
Then Mark adds one more delicious detail: Bartimaeus tosses aside his cloak. Obviously he expects to regain his sight, for a blind beggar would ordinarily do well to keep his possessions close at hand. He obviously expects a change in his status. His health problem (blindness) and his economic problem (begging) are a single piece of fabric. As with other healings (5:1-20, 25-34), Jesus can restore Bartimaeus to a place of wholeness that will demand his belonging within society. When Bartimaeus casts off his cloak, he confidently prefigures that he will no longer sit on his garment dependent upon handouts from passersby.
I pray that in knowing that kind of experience, we will experience a moment of clarity, a tiny glimpse of divinity, a healing that will enable us to keep going forward to follow him wherever his path may lead us until finally, at the end of our lives, we find ourselves completely healed, our sight fully restored, and our eyes wide open to the glory that is surely to come.
When we are given sight by the Great Physician, we will be able to see God. We will be able to see the neighbor as yourself and see those who are in need and be the source of light and hope.
" You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." (1 Peter 2:9).
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