Blind Faith

Transcript

Good morning family If you would please turn with me in your Bibles to Mark chapter 10 We’ll begin at verse 46 and make our way to 52

And they came to Jericho and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd Bartimaeus a blind beggar the son of Timaeus was sitting by the roadside and when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth he began to cry out and Say Jesus son of David have mercy on me and Many rebuked him telling him to be silent But he cried out all the more son of David have mercy on me and Jesus stopped and Said call him And they called the blind man saying to him take heart Get up. He is calling you And throwing off his cloak. He sprang up and came to Jesus and Jesus said to him What do you want me to do for you?

— Mark 10

(ESV)

The blind man said to him rabbi let me recover my sight and Jesus said to him Go your way your faith has made you well and Immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way

— Mark 10

(ESV)

This is the word of the Lord Thanks be to God. Let’s pray

Father our prayers Simple and to the point Give us eyes to see the truth of your word this morning Help us to see the spiritual realities and the spiritual significance of your word this morning Help us to not be blind To the truths contained in your word But help us to see it with joy and with zeal and with greater understanding so that we might

Seeing in the Dark

Know our merciful Savior and Love him with a greater degree We pray these things in Christ’s name Amen Well recent scientific studies have suggested that people who experience loss of vision or people who are born blind often develop a more enhanced sense of hearing The reason is because the auditory cortex in the brain Adapts to process sound differently to make up for the loss of sight So essentially what science says is that the brain automatically remaps itself and gives greater strength to the other senses particularly Hearing to compensate for the loss of what is arguably the most valuable of senses and that is sight and This of course is by God’s creative design He does this to help blind people better navigate this dark world and while it is true scientifically and neurologically That blind people or vision impaired people have a greater sense of hearing

There is a sense in which some blind people actually have a better sense of the world around them They’re more perceptive They’re more intuitive Now this doesn’t mean that blind people don’t struggle or that blind people have some sort of privilege. I’m not saying that. To lose sight or to be born blind is on many levels a tragedy. But what I am saying is that for some blind people it is precisely the lack of sight that gives them greater attention And focus on what’s happening in the world around them. It gives them better insight and understanding Now this isn’t universally true for all blind people, but it’s absolutely true With the blind man in our narrative this morning In fact as we move through this narrative We will see that this blind man sees God’s kingdom with greater clarity and more depth than even his

disciples That this blind man sees spiritually what many have failed to see over and over again throughout Mark’s gospel And so what I want to do this morning to help us along is break up our text into five simple sections We’ll look at the scene, the shout, the stop, the solicit, and the save So let’s begin in verse 46 with the scene And they came to Jericho and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus was sitting by the roadside So again what we see in this narrative is that Jesus continues to make his way towards Jerusalem His trek to Jerusalem has moved him through the town of Jericho which would place him just about 15 miles from his final destination If you remember the last time we were in Mark’s gospel I noted to you that Jesus was resolute and determined in his march towards Jerusalem

He was leading the way forward like a soldier Towards his cross and it seemed in a few weeks ago that nothing was going to stop Jesus from his trajectory So as he was moving towards his passion We began to see that his passion occurs during the Passover Now just to give you some perspective the Passover Would typically draw tens of thousands of religious people to the city of Jerusalem every year And so given that this was the first century Most people would find their way to Jerusalem by foot So this would be a long journey for most people So this meant that the roads on the way to Passover would be flooded with all kinds of Jews And this was definitely the case in Jericho Imagine a bit of a parade of sorts where pilgrims would be singing and shouting All the way to this Passover festival

It was loud It was full of people Full of excitement And as the disciples and the crowd of followers Moved through Jericho They begin to arrive towards the end of the city And when we see that Our focus is pulled on this beggar Sitting on the side of the road The reason why this man is sitting on the side of the road is because The reason why this man is a beggar is because he was blind Now you have to imagine the life of a blind person in the first century If you were blind in this culture, you were on the lowest side of the social spectrum You couldn’t work You couldn’t provide for yourself You couldn’t get around on your own. You couldn’t do much of anything without the help of other people There weren’t institutions or services to help care for or assist blind people

All you had was your family And if your family wasn’t around Or if your family abandoned you then essentially the only way you would survive Was through alms giving Or the generosity of the people in your community Now more often than not blind people Would have to remind the various people in the community That they needed help Which meant that the life of a blind person was consistent to the life of a beggar And this is exactly what this blind man did He was a person who needed help and so he was constantly asking for help But what we do see is that he was able to do some things for himself In his wisdom the blind man positioned himself at the end of jericho’s gate Which was the place for travelers where they would often be funneled through on this road to jerusalem Especially during this particular season because of the passover thousands of travelers would be making their way through this road in jericho to this religious feast

So he positioned himself Or he got somebody to position him in this pathway To have concentrated access to a variety of people And maybe this blind man thought to himself if I position myself here at the last mile marker To the passover then maybe people would be more prone to generosity I mean after all they’re going to the passover to celebrate god’s mercy and compassion for his people in the passover Maybe they’ll be moved by a certain sentimentalism And show mercy and compassion on me So he positions himself He sits And he solicits This was his life Now mark goes out of the way to let us know that the beggar in this narrative is a son The text tells us that he’s the son of timaeus. In fact that word Bar means son of that’s where you get his name bartimaeus the son of timaeus

The Desperate Cry

Mark brings this to our attention by design In fact, this is the only healing account in mark’s gospel where the person who is healed is referenced to by name Now you might have heard names of relatives in other accounts But not the names of the specific person who is being healed. So mark stresses It’s bartimaeus the son of timaeus I want you to file that in the back of your mind because we’ll see later why mark gives us this little detail now though this narrative Focuses primarily on the fact that bartimaeus is blind I would submit to you this morning that bartimaeus was not the only one in the narrative who was blind Now follow me for a second If you recall way back in chapter 8 We looked at another narrative where jesus healed a blind man That was in the town of bethsaida

Now this story was a bit of a strange healing remember this in this narrative It was a bit of a two-part healing or a healing in two stages Jesus takes the blind man in bethsaida and spits On his eyes and touches his eyes And the blind man begins to see but not perfectly He said he saw people but that these people look like trees walking around And then jesus laid his hands on his eyes a second time and then the man’s sight was completely restored Now, why did jesus heal this blind man in two stages? Well, if you remember we talked about this but this healing miracle Was meant to be a picture of the disciples partial blindness Or their progression of seeing certain spiritual realities in full From that point forward what we saw is that the disciples actually prove that they fail to see certain spiritual realities clearly

So in mark chapter 8 verse 18 after jesus warns his disciples about the leaven of the pharisees and of harrod the disciples They don’t understand what he’s talking about. They think jesus is talking about actual bread So jesus tells his disciples having eyes Do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear? In mark chapter 8 verse 29. Jesus asks his disciples. Who do you say that? I am peter says correctly. You are the christ So peter sees in part Who jesus is? But then when jesus goes on to predict his coming death right after peter makes this confession peter failing to see the significance and necessity of christ’s death responds by rebuking jesus And jesus tells peter get behind me satan Mark chapter 9 verse 30. Jesus predicts his death for the second time the disciples fail to see the significance of his death again

And immediately begin to discuss among themselves as to who would be the greatest in christ’s kingdom And then the disciples they see a man casting out demons that are that’s not a part of their tribe so they try to stop the man from casting out the demon and Jesus reminds them that you can’t see That i’m doing the work of ministry Through other tribes and through other people. That’s how I spread my kingdom In mark chapter 10 verse 13 children are being brought to jesus The disciples block the children from coming to jesus because they fail to see the spiritual significance and value of children in christ’s kingdom and just two weeks ago In mark chapter 10 verse 32 where jesus predicts his death for the third time the disciples fail to see the significance And following this third prediction two of the disciples john and james make a request of jesus

Let us sit in the seats of honor Because in that moment they fail to see that the greatest in christ’s kingdom is reserved for servants We have seen over and over again that though the disciples were in close proximity to jesus Though they have heard everything that jesus has said though. They have seen all of jesus’s powerful works They consistently fail to see jesus’s kingdom rightly And more importantly they were blind to the spiritual reality concerning the role of the messiah the disciples in this narrative Were also blind And what seems to be the case in this particular narrative is that this blind man bartimaeus sees with greater spiritual clarity than jesus’s own disciples And we know that because of what this blind man screams out loud on the side of the road Which brings us to the shout in verse 47 and 48 And when he heard that it was jesus of nazareth he began to cry out and say jesus

son of david Have mercy on me So here the blind bartimaeus hears that jesus of nazareth was present in the crowd remember he can’t see He doesn’t know what jesus looks like He doesn’t know exactly where jesus is in the crowd. He only hears from the chaotic crowd that jesus is nearby Now how does this blind man even know who jesus is Well, he’s blind So he hears a whole lot of things very well Especially about this jesus who has been flipping the jewish world upside down He’s heard that jesus Is a healer He’s likely heard about jesus restoring the sight of the blind man in bethsaida He heard about This blind man getting his vision restored and so bartimaeus was so desperate and so helpful that he does the only thing he can do He shouts aimlessly in the dark son of david Have mercy on me

That’s interesting what he shouts if you think about it’s a bit out of pocket than what we normally hear in Mark’s gospel He doesn’t scream jesus of nazareth He screams son of david. Why does he shout this? Well, he likely recalls what he heard in the synagogue Over and over again that the messiah Will come from the line of david You see this blind man shouts son of david as a messianic title Next week our brother andrew will preach about jesus and his triumphal entry into jerusalem And what we’ll hear as jesus enters in jerusalem are the people shouting hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord Blessed is the kingdom coming of our father david hosanna in the highest I imagine that the truths being shouted by the people in our text next week originated here By this blind man and it socially shared like a hashtag from the gates of jericho all the way into jerusalem

Jesus Stops and Calls

This trend-setting blind man could see a lot more than most people in the crowd He connected jesus as the son of david who is the greater david the messiah But in the moment like most trends They fail to see the significance of this hashtag son of david So the people in the crowd after hearing him shout they treat him like a normal blind beggar and we see that in verse 48 And many rebuked him Telling him to be silent The crowd was used to telling bartimaeus to shut up You’re always yelling bartimaeus You’re always begging for help Can’t you see this is a very important religious man Making his important pilgrimage to the passover. Stop asking him for help He’s far too busy to deal with unimportant people like you beggars

And you see this blind man understood that jesus was a very religious man But what bartimaeus saw in his blindness? That most people didn’t see with 2020 vision was that jesus was full of mercy and We don’t know why bartimaeus was so certain that jesus was merciful maybe Bartimaeus heard about that time when jesus was in the synagogue in nazareth When he grabbed the scroll of isaiah and began to read this was a very popular story in jesus’s day In fact, we get this account in luke’s gospel luke chapter 4 verse 16 and 19 And he came to nazareth where he had been brought up And as was his custom he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day And he stood up to read And the scroll of the prophet isaiah was given to him He rolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. The spirit of the lord is upon me

Because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind To set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the year of the lord’s favor Now we can’t know for sure, but it seems reasonable But whatever the case he confidently cries out in the form of mercy But the people in the crowd they see bartimaeus as a burden and they attempt to shut him up

As we hear that I can’t help but ask the question how many times Have we hindered people from coming to jesus who are in pursuit of mercy? Have we done things or said things that would hinder people Have we not done things or not said things to hinder people from coming to jesus Brothers and sisters, we need to be mindful of the ways in which we do that In ways in which we block the pathway of our merciful jesus We need to make that pathway clear and plain for people who long to receive mercy from jesus But despite being rebuked by the crowd Bartimaeus He won’t be hindered by the people He won’t be shamed out of seeking help He won’t be ridiculed into missing his one opportunity to have his sight restored And it’s here where we get a beautiful picture of desperate and persistent faith

Look at the second half of verse 48 But he cried out all the more son of david Have mercy on me He didn’t give up Even when people try to shut him up He was desperate enough to receive mercy and he was persistent enough to keep on shouting despite the crowd’s rebuke Now why does he continue to call out with confidence son of david Because this blind man has heard the psalm of david psalm 72 verses 12 through 13

For he delivers the needy when he calls the poor And him who has no helper He has pity on the weak and needy And listen he saves the lives of the needy

— Psalm 72

(ESV)

The lives of the needy This blind man bartimaeus spoke with confidence Because he knew That this messiah was a helper a healer and a savior This is why he cries out for the second time son of david

And this time as he shouts the cry of desperation cuts through the cacophony of the crowd The statement son of david hits the very ear and heart of jesus And we see that in verses 49 and 50 with the stop and jesus stopped And said call him And they called the blind man saying to him take heart Get up. He’s calling you And I wonder if you see the beauty in god’s word in this whole exchange here

Bartimaeus can’t see jesus. He only hears about jesus through the chaotic crowd Jesus can’t see bartimaeus. He only hears bartimaeus through the chaotic crowd So bartimaeus shouts because he can’t see and jesus hears And more importantly he stops Jesus tells the crowd call him And they go and get him And they say jesus is calling you And can you imagine the shock of bartimaeus Wait a minute Jesus is calling me No, no, no. No, I was calling jesus But now you’re telling me that jesus is calling me

And you see here in this whole exchange is something so theologically profound but you miss it if you’re not looking for it What is theologically true about this whole dialogue? Is that unless jesus would first call bartimaeus would have never called for jesus in the first place There was a supernatural work that compels spiritually blind people to call out to jesus To recognize their deep need and desperation To even call out for mercy You What you see here is this beautiful and mysterious work of god that enables people to cry out for mercy Bartimaeus didn’t know That jesus had been calling bartimaeus He couldn’t know They thought he initiated the call bartimaeus thought he initiated the call and on a human level it would appear that way But on a supernatural level, it’s quite the opposite That jesus always calls first He always calls first

Even if it’s unspoken Even if it appears like you’re the one doing the calling first This is the beautiful mystery of human responsibility and god’s sovereignty God sovereignly calls people he beckons people to come to him And he enables people to call out to god This is a mini picture of regeneration and the effectual calling of god The mere fact that Bartimaeus even shouts the words son of david have mercy on me is owing all to the fact that god Prompts him to say those words at just the right time I mean think about this Bartimaeus just randomly Recognizes a man that he’s never seen before to be the messiah the son of david

And he just happens to cry that out loud at just the right time for jesus to hear this man calling those words This is not coincidence This is nothing short of a divine dance between a merciful god and a spiritually blind person whom god Persuaded Supernaturally to call out for mercy at that moment In fact, if you are a follower of jesus This was your experience Yeah, you might have called out to jesus but only because he called you first

What Do You Want?

And how does bartimaeus respond after jesus calls him Look at verse 50 And throwing off his cloak. He sprang up and came to jesus This blind man heard that jesus was able to help him He’s heard that jesus has helped other people in this situation But now bartimaeus is beginning to see that jesus was willing to help him so bartimaeus moves from Someone who’s making a desperate plea to someone who is filled with hopeful expectation He was sitting in his own darkness in desperation shouting

That god might hear him And now he’s throwing off his cloak He’s jumping to his feet. He’s full of hope and full of faith Imagine he’s being pushed and pulled in the darkness by the crowd. He doesn’t know where he’s going Where he’s going It’s too loud and too noisy for him to have a sense of orientation It’s completely dark But he’s being led by people he doesn’t know Into the light And then he suddenly stops the crowd stops him

The crowd quiets down To hear what’s going to happen What is jesus going to say to this blind man Bartimaeus orientation begins to settle as it quiets He hears with greater clarity Not only the direction But the voice of jesus Which brings us to verse 51 with the solicit And jesus said to him What do you want me to do for you

Now we’ve heard this question before right two weeks ago The last time we were in mark’s gospel. We heard this james and john Asked jesus teacher. We want you to do for us. Whatever we ask And jesus responds What do you want me to do for you? And you see jesus uses the same language here to show us And his disciples the contrast between james and john’s request and bartimaeus’s request I imagine in my mind when I read this exchange or when I speak this out loud that jesus is asking bartimaeus this question while looking at james and john

He wants to use this as a bit of a teaching point james and john take notice Take notice in how bartimaeus answers my question And you see in the second of verse 51 how he does it The blind man said to him rabbi Let me recover my sight And here you see the difference between want and need Between desire and desperation When jesus said to john and james, what do you want me to do for you? They said we want glory We want platform

Jesus asked Bartimaeus. What do you want me to do for you? He says I want to see I just want to see Just an interesting side note here when james and john asked jesus to do whatever they ask they use the word teacher Here when bartimaeus asks jesus for sight he uses the word rabbi Now most of the time when that word rabbi is used It means teacher But in this particular text in the original language Bartimaeus actually uses a bit of a different word than rabbi He actually uses the word rabboni He actually uses the word rabboni Which is a little different from rabbi Rabboni is a more affectionate word than rabbi Which is literally translated? my lord and my master So you can see the contrast even in how They both approach jesus James and john approached jesus as a teacher in pride

seeking glory and honor Bartimaeus approaches jesus as lord and master in humility and in need Brothers and sisters, this should be our pattern when we approach jesus When we make requests of our lord jesus our posture and our approach should be one full of affection One that is submissive to our lord and master in humility and admiration

God gives us this here to orient our thinking and our sight for how we approach jesus So jesus asked this question because jesus wanted his disciples to see the contrast But there’s another reason why jesus asks. What do you want me to do for you? Jesus asks this question to provoke faith in the blind man

Does this blind man simply want money from jesus? Comfort food or does this beggar want something more? Does this beggar actually believe that jesus can miraculously cure his blindness See this question is aimed at pushing faith and trust in what is seemingly impossible There were no cures for blind people in the first century

Bartimaeus is bold in his request He wants the impossible He’s not afraid to ask the impossible my lord and my master please restore my sight And what we’ll see is that jesus gives bartimaeus far more than he was asking Jesus gives him something far greater than sight And we see that in verse 52 with the save And jesus said to him Go your way Your faith has made you well And immediately he recovered his sight And followed him on the way And here we get a picture of the compassion and mercy of jesus What the crowd failed to see With all of their sight and all of their faculties bartimaeus knew Jesus responds to bartimaeus’s blind faith And says go on your way your faith has made you well The whole time bartimaeus knew that jesus was able He trusted that god could do it

What bold faith this man had For someone who’s never seen jesus perform a miracle For someone that’s only heard about what jesus has done He sure does exercise a whole lot of faith And what’s interesting if you look at the construction of this verse in the original language It says first that his faith Made him well And then secondly that his sight was recovered So there’s two parts in this construction here There is what happens spiritually that he’s made well and what happens physically that his sight is restored see the phrase Made you well is actually one word in the greek. That word is called sozo which literally means saved delivered So when you read this in its original language It says that immediately

His faith saved him And immediately his sight was recovered Here you have another narrative of a blind man restored in two stages but this time relationship with god restored first and then secondly his sight restored And you see What we see on this side of the narrative as spectators And what bartimaeus couldn’t see before this whole encounter, but i’m quite confident. He figured out later in life

Is that god used physical blindness as the very instrument to deal with his spiritual blindness And we oftentimes fail to see that But here’s the thing His lack of sight Was precisely what saved him? If bartimaeus Had not been blind If bartimaeus hadn’t struggled his whole life, he might not have ever recognized his deep need He might not have had this insight to recognize his need for jesus And you see brothers and sisters This here is a perfect example of how god uses difficult circumstances in our lives the unthinkable circumstances the pain the brokenness the trauma the cancer the loss of Life in our family He uses all of this to draw us to himself So that we might come to him in deep desperation begging for mercy

This is often how god works He crushes us To make us needy and dependent because it’s in those moments When we’re most vulnerable and most crushed That we cry out for mercy So What I find to be so fascinating about this narrative Is that the son of timaeus calls out to the son of david and in response Becomes a son of god You see this is why mark emphasizes the blind man’s name Mark in his creative brilliance and beauty gives us these breadcrumbs Of what it looks like when someone becomes a child of god He moved from a child of timaeus to a child of god and we know he’s an actual child of god because jesus says your faith has saved you and Bartimaeus followed him He didn’t just get what he wanted and then dipped out He follows jesus So What’s altogether lovely

About this story is that the very first thing This blind man saw When his sight was restored Was the god who has come to restore all things The very first thing he sees Is the face of jesus So What a glorious gift for someone who had been waiting his whole life to see he sees jesus

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A Call for Mercy

Now I want to close this morning By asking this most important question. It would be a tragedy for me to not ask this question Are you a child of god Are you seeking mercy this morning? You can have mercy this morning You know the very word mercy means to not get what you deserve

Because of our sin and because of our rejection against a holy and righteous god everyone deserves the wrath of god We rightly deserve that for our sins and transgressions against a holy god But if you put your faith in jesus If you trust and believe in this jesus though you cannot see him He will extend mercy to you

All that jesus requires of you All that he requires Is that you call out to him Son of david Have mercy on me And he will do it Let’s pray Our father and our god we All At one point We’re blind Though we had eyes to see and ears to hear we did not see who you were

We did not hear your words And more importantly we failed to understand What christ has come to do for a sinful humanity? and Of course that reality humbles us It reminds us that we didn’t do anything to deserve it We were beggars Begging for mercy And in your compassion and in your kindness

You made us well you saved us You made us children of god Oh, what a great privilege that we have that we can call you father That you care so deeply for your children that you call us Even before we could call you that you loved us first Oh What a glorious Gift of grace and mercy you have given your people I pray oh lord in god that you would help us With the new eyes and the new ears and the new heart that you have given us To go out into the dark places Where people have no sight for you Where people have no orientation for you? But who are seeking mercy I pray that you would use us to be instruments of great mercy and compassion to this dark world And I pray for those who are here this morning who do not know you god open their minds

Open their eyes open their hearts That they might know you Trust you and follow you as lord and master all of their days Save oh god Have mercy this morning. We pray in christ’s name amen