“The Story of Two Sons” (Lenten evening worship series at local churches)

Scripture: Mark 10:46-52

When I was growing up, and I know that most of you will find this hard to believe, I was not a perfect child! I was fairly intelligent, but nowhere near as smart as I thought I was. I was rude to my parents and showed them little respect and honor, and to make it even worse, I thought that I was in the right. After I graduated from High School, with less than perfect grades, I might add (!), I joined the Navy, and an amazing thing happened – every time that I came home on leave, I could see that, somehow, my folks had gotten smarter!
Now, I’m sure that you know that it wasn’t my folks who changed, but rather that it was me who had experienced the changing. As I gained some experience in life, I came to appreciate who my Mom & Dad were, what they stood for, and what they had done for me, and very soon, I discovered that I was actually proud to be their son. And I think that it may have been then that I truly and fully became a “son” in the family.

This evening, I want to tell you about two other sons who, even though they had come from very different places and backgrounds, would come to have a relationship beyond anything that the people of earth would ever expect.

Our first son.
Read Mark 10:46

The first son is Bar-Timaeus.
Hebrew lesson #1. The name Bartimaeus is actually two words – the first word, “Bar”, tells us that he is a son – and the second word tells us that his father’s name is Timaeus. This is also the same understanding that we receive from the term “bar mitzvah”. This term literally means “son of the law” - the divine law, of course. A bar mitzvah is the ceremony when a Jewish boy attains the age of maturity, or literally, the age of religious duty and responsibility.
BarTimaeus is a son of earth and a son of the law. But he is also a blind son, and the law says that because his body is imperfect, or at least less perfect than the ones who were defining “imperfection”, God must be displeased with him. In short, if the blindness came about at some time after his birth, it can only be as a result of his sin. If, on the other hand, blindness had been with him since birth, it would have been his parents’ sin that had brought about Godly wrath.
And to make his situation even worse, he is unable to do any meaningful work, and therefore has no means of support other than his dependency on the gifts of others – or in other words, begging. Some friends might take pity on him and lead him daily to his place along the road, and others, also out of their obligation to the law, might toss a small coin in his cup as they passed him by on the road.
But that’s pretty much the extent of his life - he has absolutely nothing else in this entire world.

BarTimaeus, as a son of the law, and as such, was obligated to the law and all that it demanded of him. The law was as much a part of his family as was his father Timaeus.

Our second son.
Read Mark 10:47

Our second son is Jesus.
Hebrew lesson #2. BarTimaeus attempts to get the Lord’s attention by yelling “Son of David, have mercy on me!” The title Son of David wasn’t just a statement regarding lineage – it was a traditional reference to Messiah. This reference is continued by BarTimaeus when he asks Jesus to grant him mercy. After all, who could possibly grant mercy to this blind and sinful beggar other than God himself? And so, the man cries out. Over and over again.

But the crowd is huge, just as it always was wherever Jesus went. Everyone would be asking him for something – healing, a meal, a blessing, a gift – everyone wanted something from Jesus! Not because they worshiped him, not because they honored him as Messiah, but because they had heard that he could do practically anything! And above the hue and cry of hundreds, and maybe even thousands, he is supposed to hear the petition of BarTimaeus? And not only that, but why should any respectable rabbi respond to the request of the likes of this blind man - this sinner????

Read Mark 10:48

His friends and neighbors try to shut him up, but it does little good. But why would they try to stop the man’s cry for mercy? Shouldn’t they be crying out, too? They may have seen Jesus only as a learned rabbi, and not as Messiah, and they didn’t want him to become irritated at the relentless badgering by their friend. Or perhaps they were becoming embarrassed by the man’s incessant cries. Regardless, enough was enough. “Be quiet, BarTimaeus! Quit bothering the rabbi! Enough already!”

But it wasn’t enough for our “son of the law”. Even in his blindness, he could sense something different in this Jesus. Even from a distance, even separated by the crowd, even while sitting by the side of the road, even beyond his sightless eyes, he could “see” something that his sighted friends could not. BarTimaeus’ no longer could depend on his human eyes to see and evaluate – it was his spiritual eyes that were serving him so well on that day. He could see Jesus for who he truly was, not simply as the man that others saw. He didn’t have to depend on his mind, or his ears, and especially not on his eyes to know that this was the Lord. He simply knew!
And he wasn’t about to let his Messiah – his Lord – his God – get out of reach without standing before him to present his request.

Read Mark 10:49-50

And his persistence pays off. Jesus hears him, and tells him to come. And all of a sudden, his friends have a change of heart, and now they are encouraging their blind friend. “Hey! Get up! The rabbi’s calling you! What are you waiting for! Go see what he wants to say to you!”

Their attitude has changed from “Shut up!” to “Get up!”, from “Don’t bother him.” to “See what he wants!”, from being a stumbling block to the man who so desperately wants to talk to his Lord, to those who seem to be his greatest encouragers.

They don’t know Jesus, and probably don’t know why BarTimaeus is so excited, but the blind man doesn’t care. These friends no longer matter to him – only Jesus matters! He jumps to his feet and goes directly to the Lord – he doesn’t take slow and deliberate steps, he isn’t afraid of tripping, he doesn’t even wait for the arm of a friend to guide him. His sightless, worldly eyes no longer are a limitation for him – he has new eyes, he has perfect eyes, he has spiritual eyes, and they can see Jesus perfectly.

Read Mark 10:51-52

The Son of David and the son of the law become one. And it’s almost as though Jesus says to the man “Son of Timaeus, you see me for who I am, and not just for what you want. But still, tell me what you would like me to do for you.” And the son of earth replies, “I don’t want to be dependent on the ways of earth any longer. I want to see.” And in response, we can almost hear Jesus thinking “But you already have perfect sight to see me – what more could you possibly want?”

But he knows all too well why the man of earth needs his human sight, and by faith, it is given.

Think about BarTimaeus’ situation for just a moment. When he woke up that morning, he was just a sinful and sightless beggar, completely dependent on the mercy and generosity of the world and its people. He was a member of his human family, and he was a member of the family of law. And then, in a heartbeat, he had become a new man, with new eyes and a new purpose in life.
Messiah had freed him from dependency on the world, and had given him so much more than just new eyes. Jesus had given him a new relationship – he had become part of an entirely different kind of family!

“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind, but now I see.”

And what does this newly found man do? It was by faith – his trust in God – that sight has been given, and by faith, he would follow Jesus down the road. We aren’t told how far he follows, or what he does with his new found vision and his new found relationship, or how many others he might tell about his merciful Messiah. We only know that he follows, and for us tonight, that, too, is enough.

How many people of earth, sons and daughters of the law, have come to know freedom and family in Jesus? How many have been stumbling around, alone and blind to the truth of God, and never knew what they were missing? Until one day, in a sense of total frustration and helplessness, they cry out “O precious Jesus, Son of God, show me your mercy. I’m not worthy of it Lord, but I don’t know what else to do, I have no other place to turn! Please Lord, help me.”

This has been the story of the day that the son of Timaeus met the Son of God, and they became brothers. But there is another story that is unfolding here tonight, and that is your story – the story about the night when you cried out for mercy, and Jesus heard you. There may be someone here tonight who feels lost and helpless and blind and alone, and is in the deepest and darkest place of their entire life.
There may be someone here tonight whose faith is not what they want it to be. There may be someone here who has been walking with the Lord, but needs to refresh their commitment and decision for him. I want all of you to know that Jesus is standing before you right now. He has heard your cry, and is saying to you “Come. I can make you new!” He has come a long way just to speak to you, and all you have to do is take just a step or two toward him. And when you take those steps, you will hear him ask you “What do you want me to do for you?”

Do you hear Messiah, the Son of David, calling you into a new relationship? “Son of the law, daughter of the law, won’t you come and leave the inadequacies of the world behind? Won’t you please come and put your life in me, put your dependency in me? I love you so much, and I want to do wonderful things for you, and I want to do incredible things with you. Please, come to me.”

Do you want to have the same blessed joy that filled BarTimaeus on that dusty street in Jericho so many years ago? Do you want to become part of Jesus’ family in faith, just as this other man did? Do you want to renew or restore your relationship with the Lord of Life?
If so, then come. Jesus is waiting.