Series

Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. [47] When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

[48] Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"

So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." [50] Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

[52] "Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

It’s really important to learn how to ask good questions. When I was younger, I thought that the key was in having all the answers, but the older I get, the more I appreciate the value of good questions. The best questions do not have simple answers, such as “2+2 = ?”; or “the Magna Carta was signed in what year?”. The best questions make us think about the important things in life, and there may not be a “right” answer. Jesus was a master teacher, and He often used questions to get people to think about eternal things. For example, He asked the disciples who were terrified by the storm on the Sea of Galilee, “Why are you so afraid?" (Matthew 8:26). (It’s an interesting question—why wouldn’t they be afraid?) He asked a group of people who were listening to Him teach, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). (That’s a question many in our culture need to think about.) And He asked the disciples perhaps the most important question of all, "Who do you say I am?" (Matthew 16:15). These sorts of questions are penetrating, thought-provoking, and the answers often reveal a great deal about the person who answers them. In today’s passage, we have another good question like that.

Jesus encounters a man named Bartimaeus. The name Bartimaeus is Hebrew, a combination of Bar (meaning “son of”) and Timaeus. We’re familiar with other Hebrew names constructed like that: Barabbas (son of the father); Barnabas (son of encouragement); and the apostle Bartholomew (son of Talmai).

Bartimaeus was sitting by the side of the road, just outside Jericho,[1] begging. He couldn’t work because he couldn’t see, so he was reduced to this humiliating act of begging for charity. When he heard that Jesus was passing by, he shouted, Mark 10:47, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" He doesn’t just quietly say it; he shouts, which indicates he feels some desperation, and yet maybe also some hope. Actually, Mark says he began to shout, indicating that he kept it up. He believes Jesus can help him, so it is vitally important that he get Jesus’ attention, and he just keeps it up until he does. That’s a good picture of prayer.

Jesus told a number of parables about the importance of persistence in prayer. In Luke 11, He tells a story that has a couple of parallels with Blind Bartimaeus. He said, There was a man who had a friend come visit him in the middle of the night, but the homeowner didn’t have any food in the house. So he went next door to ask a neighbor if he had any bread he could give him. The neighbor, however, was already in bed, and wasn’t inclined to get up and help out that way. But the host kept knocking, kept asking. Jesus concludes, Luke 11:8-9, “I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.”

The word translated “boldness” means impudence, shamelessness, impertinence, and persistence. The man is making a scene, just like Bartimaeus was. So even though a person might not get up and help his friend just because they are friends, because the guy outside keeps pounding on the door, because he is boldly persistent, even shameless in his insistence, the friend will come to his aid. So Jesus encourages us with this punch line: Luke 11:9, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. [10] For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Each of these verbs is in the present tense, so they could be—and maybe in this context, should be—translated, “ask and keep on asking; seek and keep on seeking; knock and keep on knocking.” The reason He repeats these words and phrases, which all mean essentially the same thing, is to stress the value of our shameless persistence in prayer.

To make sure we don’t miss the contrast between this friend in the story and our heavenly Father, Jesus says, Matthew 7:9-11, "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? [10] Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? [11] If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

I’m going to bet that most of us have something we have been asking God for for a long time, and it hasn’t come yet. That’s hard, isn’t it? It really tests our faith. I know my tendency is to give up. I think, well, I’ve been asking for this for what seems like forever, and God hasn’t done it yet, so I guess He’s not going to. And I stop praying. Or I stop praying with passion and faith—I’m just going through the motions. Bartimaeus didn’t stop; he continued to shout, and in that, he is an example for us. I want to encourage you: don’t give up on God. Don’t stop praying. For most of these requests, God is our only hope, as Jesus was for Bartimaeus. He kept asking—shouting—and Jesus heard him and met his need. Keep asking! Keep seeking! Keep knocking! Don’t give up!

There’s more than one kind of sight, isn’t there? This man’s physical sight is gone, but he demonstrates considerable spiritual insight. Who knows what he had heard about Jesus up to that point? No doubt rumors and stories of His teaching and His miracles had floated around all over Palestine. After three years of public ministry, everybody was talking about Jesus. You recall Jesus even asked His disciples who people thought He was, and they said, Some say you are John the Baptist come back from the dead, some say you are one of the Old Testament prophets. There was a lot of speculation.

Bartimaeus has heard all these rumors and speculations and has put the puzzle pieces together correctly. He calls Jesus “Son of David”, which was a common term for the Messiah. Old Testament prophecies had promised that a greater son of David would one day sit on David’s throne and rule the people of God (1 Chron 17:10-14; Is 11:1ff; Jer 23:5f; Ezek 34:23f.). So this man evidently believes that Jesus is the Messiah. “Someone once bluntly asked blind and deaf Helen Keller, ‘Isn’t it terrible to be blind?’ To which she responded, ‘Better to be blind and see with your heart, than to have two good eyes and see nothing.’”[2] Bartimaeus couldn’t see, but he saw who Jesus was, and that was far more important.

How’s your sight? Can you see Jesus clearly? Can you see who He is? Or is He obscured by visions of your earthly father? Or possibly by painful experiences you have had in life that have blinded you to the goodness and power of God. Or maybe you’ve gotten some bad teaching somewhere along the way that has distorted your view of God. Spiritual sight is even more important than physical sight, as valuable as that is, so I encourage you to ask Jesus to open your eyes so that you can see Him clearly, as He is.

Mark 10:48, “Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet.” There was a large crown walking along with Jesus. Some are disciples; others are pilgrims going up to Jerusalem for Passover. Are they the same ones who told the children and their parents to go away and not bother Jesus? If so, they didn’t learn their lesson yet. Who is the kingdom of God for? It is for the weak, the helpless, the powerless, the suffering, the outcasts, the useless. This was before the days of the Americans with Disabilities Act! A blind man could do very little to support himself except beg, so he was considered useless, a bother, someone who was in the way, who merely made others feel guilty as they passed by him. Some (Mark says many) people in the entourage, whether disciples or others, wanting to spare Jesus the discomfort of having to be confronted by a beggar, tried to shut him up.

But he shouted all the more—probably louder. He knew this might be his last chance. How many times would the Messiah walk by there? He has got to get Jesus’ attention! He doesn’t care what the people say. What do they know? They aren’t blind! They don’t know what it is like to be so limited, to feel so useless, to be so unwanted and rejected. He’s just going to keep yelling.

Finally, Jesus hears him, stops and says, “Call him.” All of a sudden, everything is different. Now Bartimaeus is not a blight on their day, an annoyance, an embarrassment; now he’s the celebrity, the center of attention. Jesus has noticed him. Mark 10:49, “So they called to the blind man, ‘Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you.’” These people are so fickle. They are sycophants—self-serving, servile flatterers. One minute they are trying to shut Bartimaeus up and prevent him from getting to Jesus, and the next, they are celebrating his new status as one whom Jesus noticed. “If Jesus notices you, then you are important to us, because we want Jesus to notice us.”

People like Bartimaeus can often just be annoyances, interruptions, unwanted distractions, or just invisible, and we brush them off like mosquitoes.

· Children can be like that, sometimes—even our own. We’re busy, we’re engaged with adult friends, we’re distracted by our own thoughts, we’re reading the paper. I remember one time I was reading the paper and Heather, I think it was, was trying unsuccessfully to get my attention. Finally, she just climbed up into my lap, pulling the paper out of my hands in the process, and looked me in the eye to say whatever it was that was on her mind! I was rebuked, as I realized how I had ignored her.

· I was on my way in to a meeting in the Pulliam Building the other week, around 7:00 p.m., and passed a vagrant standing out back of the building, rolling a cigarette. I found that my emotional reaction was just to hurry by, not looking at him for fear of making eye contact. Would Jesus have done that, or would He have noticed and taken the time for that man?

· How about your neighbors? Several of our neighbors went together on a yard sale last weekend, but I was too busy to even stop by, chat, visit with them, ask them how the sale was going, or even see if there was anything there I might like to buy. What was I busy doing, you ask? Why, church work, of course. But the work of the church, which is far more important, is to notice people, to pay attention to them, to love them in the name of Christ.

· What about service people—wait staff at a restaurant, tellers at the bank, cashiers at a store? These people tend to be invisible, don’t they? In fact, in some stores, they are gone altogether, replaced by self-checkout computers. Do you notice service people? Would Jesus?

Bartimaeus could not see Jesus at first, but He did see who Jesus was, and that gave him confidence and boldness to keep asking for mercy.

Bartimaeus’ prayer is, “Have mercy on me.” It’s a recognition that he does not deserve to be healed. Technically speaking, grace is getting good things we do not deserve, and mercy is relief from the bad things that we do deserve. Every one of us needs to pray this prayer—often. Lord Jesus, have mercy on me. I am a sinner who regularly and intentionally disobeys your gracious commands that are meant solely for my good. I therefore deserve nothing but condemnation from You.

This is a hard conclusion for many people to come to today, because our capitalistic culture keeps telling me over and over again that “I’m worth it”; they do it all for me; I should have it my way; I deserve a break today; etc.—all of which creates the expectation that the world should be ordered according to my personal preferences. Given that mindset, it is very difficult to see our need for mercy.

But I find that Christians today tend to fall into one of two categories with regard to mercy from God, both of which miss the biblical median. Some people are oblivious to their sin, and their need for mercy. They just coast through life without so much as a single thought of self-examination. It never occurs to them to compare their lives against the straight-edge standard of Scripture, against the Great Commandments for example (“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself”) or the Great Commission (“Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you”), or any of the many other instructions God has given us for living the abundant life. They can’t see that they are difficult to get along with, that it is their personality that makes relationships difficult, that they are selfish and demanding and impatient. If they did compare themselves against those standards, they would see their need for mercy, but they don’t, so they don’t ask for it.

On the other hand, there are many other Christians who don’t ask for it because they don’t think they deserve mercy. They are so convinced of their sinfulness that they don’t dare raise their head to ask for forgiveness. Or if they do, they don’t believe God will do it, so they keep asking over and over again, and never appropriate or receive the mercy God is offering them in Christ. They go through life feeling perpetually worthless, undeserving, guilty.

Where are you with this prayer? Do you see that you need mercy? Do you believe God will give it to you if you ask?

When they told Bartimaeus that Jesus was calling him, he threw his cloak aside, jumped to his feet, was guided to Jesus, and was confronted by a very strange question: Mark 10:51, “What do you want me to do for you?” Now, it was obvious to everyone, including Jesus, that the man was blind. Why would Jesus ask him that question?

Maybe it wasn’t obvious how he would answer—at least not to Jesus. I remember talking with a woman in our church 20 years ago. She had a number of emotional issues that debilitated her, and interfered with her life, and she had come to me numerous time for counseling. One day I asked her, Do you want to be well? Do you really want to change? In a moment of insight she said, No, not really. I wouldn’t know how to act if I were different. She had learned certain patterns of relating to people based on her emotional disabilities, and she really didn’t want to have to change those. The unknown of what that would be like was so scary, it seemed worse than continuing to limp along as she had been.

So maybe Jesus is asking Bartimaeus a question like that. You’ve been blind all these years (I’m assuming it had been quite some time), you’ve leaned to survive by begging; if you can see, you’re going to have to get a job, maybe work very hard at some manual labor. While some people despise and ignore you as you beg, others show you a measure of pity and sympathy—that will stop if you can see—will you miss it? What about your identity—have you come to see yourself as a blind person—is that how you form your identity? And if you can see, how will you think of yourself?

Very often, the familiar looks better to us than the unfamiliar, even if it has some negative aspects to it. Some years ago, a man named Spencer Johnson wrote a book called Who Moved My Cheese?, which was a very insightful analysis of how different people handle change. Jesus is asking this man how he will handle it if his “cheese” moves, i.e. if his life as he knows it and likes it, changes dramatically.

But there’s another aspect to this very penetrating question from Jesus, when he asks Bartimaeus what he wants Jesus to do for him. This was the very same question Jesus had asked His disciples not long before. Mark 10:35-37, “Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘we want you to do for us whatever we ask.’ [36] ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ he asked. [37] They replied, ‘Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.’”

It would seem that James and John have not been paying attention to Jesus. Not long before, they had seen and heard Jesus get indignant with them for trying to shoo off the little children. They had heard Him say, Mark 10:31, “many who are first will be last, and the last first.” They had heard Him warn the disciples that He was going up to Jerusalem, where He would be mocked, beaten, and killed. And yet, in spite of all that, they have the audacity to ask to sit on His right and left hands in glory! It’s absolutely mind-boggling. They are prideful, arrogant, self-serving, trying to cut ahead of the other ten disciples at the front of the line, putting themselves first, seeking honor and glory for themselves. It’s a breathtaking request! And it is all revealed by this same question that Jesus asks Bartimaeus: “What do you want me to do for you?”

Jesus rebuked James and John, and taught all the disciples that if they wanted to be great in the kingdom of God, they had to be the servants and slaves of others, not try to climb over them to the top (Mark 10:43-45).

So when, shortly thereafter, they came upon the blind man, Bartimaeus, begging by the side of the road, Jesus used the opportunity to draw the contrast between him and the self-serving pair of disciples. Bartimaeus said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” The question in both cases reveals the heart of the one addressed. In the case of James and John, it revealed their hearts to be full of competition and pride. In the case of Bartimaeus, it revealed his heart to be full of humility. He asked for mercy, remember? He knew he didn’t deserve anything good from Jesus. He didn’t demand it, like the disciples had, when they approached Jesus and said, Mark 10:35, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask." We’re not going to tell you what it is in advance, because we suspect you may not like it, so just promise you’ll do it before we tell you what it is. Bartimaeus is not like that at all.

The disciples ask for positions of honor and prestige, for personal glory, for power perhaps, at the right hand of Jesus, to be singled out as better than others, as above everyone else. Bartimaeus simply wants to see, to be whole, to have all the faculties that God had given to everyone else. He wants to be normal; they want to be better than normal. He wants to be like everyone else; they want to be above everyone else. Jesus’ question revealed their hearts.

What do you want Jesus to do for you? What would you say? If Jesus came in here, stood up on this platform, and asked you, “What do you want me to do for you?” what would you say? Imagine that He calls you up to the front, one by one, like little children coming up to sit on Santa’s knee. He’s not making any guarantees; He’s just asking you what you want. Imagine that you only get one request (that’s not true, of course, because God is far more generous than that. But imagine that you only get one request of Jesus.) What will it be? Take a moment and think about that, and write something down on your sermon outline.

Now ask yourself, What does your answer reveal about your heart? What does it tell you about yourself, your values, your priorities, your character? Again, take a moment and think about that, and write something down.

· Are you spiritually blind, not sure who Jesus is yet? Ask Him to open your eyes, to give you the insight of faith to see that Jesus is not just the Jewish Messiah, but is the Savior of all people.

· Are you Bartimaeus, calling out to Jesus, but wearing down, perhaps running out of faith and steam? You have a need, but you’ve been praying about it a long time, and nothing has happened. Don’t give up. Keep asking, seeking, knocking, calling out to Him. He will hear you. He will call you to Himself and meet your need.

· Are you one of the crowd, who can see, but are blind to the needs of people all around you, because you are so focused on yourself and your own needs? Can you hear Jesus saying to you, “Call them.” Invite them in My name to come to Me. They are spiritually blind, and need some guidance to get to Jesus—Help them; point them to Him, answer their questions, tell them what you know of Jesus; give them some direction to find the Savior.

· Perhaps you are Bartimaeus at the end of the story—Jesus has touched your life, He has given you spiritual sight to see clearly who He is; He has changed you in some way. Now follow. Get up, like Bartimaeus did, and follow Him. But be aware—Jesus is going to Calvary. He is going to the cross. And He invites all who will follow Him to take up their own crosses on a daily basis and follow Him all the way.

[1] In Jesus’ day, the Jericho of the Old Testament had been largely abandoned, but a new city by the same name had been built just south of it by Herod the Great. Matthew and Mark say this incident took place as Jesus and His followers were “leaving”, Jericho; Luke says, it was as they were “approaching” the city (Luke 18:35). It could be that Bartimaeus was strategically located between the two cities, and spotted Jesus as He was leaving the old city and approaching the new one. – NIV Study Bible

[2] R. Kent Hughes, Mark: Jesus, Servant and Savior, vol.2 (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1989), p.72.