Faith like Blind Bartimaeus
2/24/2019
Mark 10:46-52 (KJV)
46 And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging.
47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.
48 And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.
49 And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee.
50 And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.
51 And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.
52 And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.
Here is the story of one of the few people that Jesus healed that is mentioned by name and he is one that the children of my age group heard about a lot and sticks out in my mind.
Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem to face His biggest test here on earth, the cross. Yes it was a test otherwise He would not have had to stay in prayer so long on the Mount of Olives, until His sweat was a great drops of blood. This tells me if Jesus needed to pray, then we most definitely need a good prayer life.
Bartimaeus did not know that this was his last chance to get what he needed from Jesus. He did need to wait a little longer; he wanted his healing “now” not latter. If we had that same determination of getting in touch with Jesus that Bartimaeus had; would we be the spiritual wimps that so many of us are?
Bartimaeus did not care what others thought. He was not going to be “shut up” and I feel the more he called out to Jesus, the louder he got. I have seen many Christians that say a prayer that was soft and easy on the ear, then get up and go about their day. Some have got their answers however when they do not get the answer they come back to their “knees.” This time they sound a little more “earnest” in their prayer. While Bartimaeus went from facing his life straight to urgent, and the longer he called on Jesus the more so he became.
Then when he finally was to the point of having Jesus’ attention he was willing to cast off all of the hindrances in his life. Then he left those hindrances behind because Jesus gave him his answer. The ability to see.
If we had that much faith today, what could we do?
Need, gratitude, and loyalty sum up the story of Bartimaeus; and they also sum up the phases of discipleship.
Layman’s Bible Book Commentary – volume # 16
C.I. Wilson