“Healing – Bartimaeus”

Scripture: Mark 10:46-52

For the past 3 weeks, we have been considering the healing miracles of Jesus. We know that we look to Jesus as the true source of all healing, regardless of what the need may be, but wouldn’t you think that we must have some part to play in his works? Remember his time in Nazareth, when he was able to teach in wonderful ways, but could only do a very few minor miracles? We read in the gospels (Mark 6:1-6; Luke 4:16-30) that because of the people’s unbelief, the Lord was limited in what he could do.
So what have we learned so far about healing? For the woman who had a hemorrhage, it was her deep and complete faith in Jesus that allowed him to bring healing to her body. For the paralytic, it may not have been his faith, but more likely the faith of his friends who enabled Jesus to work his way. Last week, it was the 10 lepers who were healed, but only one of them showed his gratitude to the Lord for healing. It wasn’t necessarily his appreciation that brought about the healing, but it showed the quality of his grateful heart.

Today, we consider a fourth instance of healing – that of the restoration of sight for the blind beggar, Bartimaeus. In Mark’s Gospel, this would be the last recorded time of healing outside of the city of Jerusalem. For the evangelist, the next event in Jesus’ journey to Calvary would be his triumphant entry into the city, so this may give us a simple perspective on this next miracle, and the last before our healing service next week.

Read Mark 10:46-47

The blind man senses a great commotion along the road, and when he discovers that it is all about Jesus, he begins to cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy.” Bartimaeus would have tried many different approaches to curing his blindness, but throughout his life, his eyes had never been healed. There is no indication that Jesus had ever been in Jericho before, or that the man had even heard Jesus teach, but somehow, he knew, without question, who Jesus was. And in acknowledging that Jesus is the long awaited “Son of David”, or the Messiah, he knows that true mercy could only come from this one man.
He doesn’t cry out for healing – he only asks for mercy. God’s gift of mercy is his way of preparing us to receive his grace. Mercy is experienced in the Lord’s love and forgiveness, while grace is seen in his love and salvation. That day, Bartimaeus knew that he was in need of mercy, and as we read throughout the Gospels, only God can forgive our sins. The blind man desperately wanted to have his sight restored, but he knew that something else must come first. And so he cries out, “Jesus, Messiah, make me worthy in you.”

Bartimaeus was acknowledging his sinful condition and his unworthiness to even call out to Messiah. For the people of that time, sin was the cause of all human troubles - blindness, infirmity, illness, injury, loss – you name it, if you were less than healthy or in some other bad way, your sin was showing through. And for Israel, the only remedy was to offer sacrifice after sacrifice at the temple, and then maybe, just MAYBE, the Lord God Jehovah would take pity on you and respond to your need.

Bartimaeus knew, somehow, that God was approaching the place where he was seated that day, so he was prepared to go directly to the source of healing, and cut out all of the ineffective middlemen!

Read Mark 10:48-50

Why in the world would anyone want him to stop calling out to Jesus? They should have been encouraging him, helping him get to Jesus, but no – they were telling him to shut up and leave the rabbi alone. But wasn’t the crowd doing the same thing – trying to get Jesus’ attention so that he would respond to their needs? The problem was that this was not only a blind man, he was a beggar. He apparently had no family to help him, and no means of support for his life – he relied solely on the generosity of others to get around and to get a few coins each day so he could buy food and other necessities. From a societal standpoint, Bartimaeus wasn’t much better than the lepers we read about last week! Who did he think he was, trying to get a favor from this very well-known and popular rabbi?
“Be quiet, and stop embarrassing yourself - and us!!”

But Bartimaeus was persistent – he wouldn’t give up, he wouldn’t be quiet – if anything, he redoubled his efforts to get Jesus’ attention. And the Lord not only heard him, but he told others to have the man come over to him. And suddenly, the very ones who, just a moment before, wanted the beggar to be quiet, would now become the ones who encouraged him.
“Cheer up! Get up! He wants to talk to you!” I doubt that the man needed much encouragement at this point – after all, the Messiah’s mercy was on the way! He jumps up, he throws of his coat, and approaches Jesus, apparently, all on his own. Nothing could get in his way to keep him from the Lord - not the majestic nature of God’s presence, not the overwhelming crowd, not the jeers and admonitions of his friends, not even his own inability to see where he was going. Nothing was going to get between him and his Lord.

And as if Jesus didn’t know what was on the man’s mind, he asks him what he can do for him. Jesus knew very well what the blind man’s needs were, but he was giving him the opportunity to express his need. Isn’t that just like God – to know exactly what we need in life, but still give us the chance to name it for ourselves! Why is that so important?
The Lord could just as well fix every need that everyone, everywhere, is struggling with, but he wants us to tell him what we would like done. This accomplishes 3 things – first, that by asking for God’s intervention in our lives, we are saying that we can’t deal with it on our own. We need God! The second issue is that we are verbalizing our confidence that God can truly make a difference in our lives, and that we want him to intervene. The third thing is that it opens a line of communication between us and God, which is so vitally important for our lives - whether it is for personal healing, or forgiveness, or petition for someone else’s need, or just to give God the glory for his presence in our lives. We need to talk to each other, and that must include the Lord!

And on this day, the blind beggar known as Bartimaeus gives glory to Jesus by referring to him as “Son of David”, who then petitions him for mercy, and is now being invited to ask for a favor from God himself.

Read Mark 10:51-52

Bartimaeus names his burden and asks Jesus to take it away. And without a single word, other than “your faith has healed you”, the request is granted. And the lesson for today?

First, never give up on God. The following refers to a “Charlie Brown” comic strip a few years ago:
Exasperated by the lack of cooperation he was receiving from Lucy, Charlie Brown asks, to no one in particular, “Where do I go to give up?”

How many times has the same question crossed your lips? Where do I go to give up? You've done everything you can. You can think of nothing more. Nothing works. So....
Where do I go to give up?
- Homiletics OnLine

Bartimaeus went to Jesus to give himself up, and so can we. He didn’t let the naysayers around him become discouraging, he didn’t let his past failures at trying to get God to act on his behalf get him down, he didn’t let his lack of sight deter him - he didn’t let anything get in his way. He put his trust in the Lord, and let “perseverance” be his watch word.

Second, never be afraid or hesitant to go to the Lord with the most difficult of requests. Just because it’s something that we have never been able to accomplish, or even imagine how it could be accomplished, it doesn’t mean that God can’t do it either! He not only can, but he is always anxious to make our lives more fulfilling than they currently are.

Bartimaeus knew that both of these lessons were absolutely true, and as Jesus continued on his way toward Jerusalem and the completion of his mission to the people of earth, the man who now had his sight restored followed closely behind his Master and Savior.

Next Sunday morning, we, too, will have the same opportunity that this blind beggar had – to cry out to the Lord for mercy, and to name the very thing that we need the Lord to care for. So come prepared – come with Jesus eyes – with a vision that sees as the Lord would have us see; come with great faith and great expectation, that Jesus truly is the healing presence that you need; come with great trust, that Jesus will be your final solution for all time; come with a heart that rejoices for all that God has given you and for all that is yet to come; and above all, come in the name of Jesus.

He is already waiting and calling and inviting you.