Scripture Reference Matthew 10:46-48 “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. 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. 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.”
We have all heard this story before. Blind Bartimaeus sits by the highway side, begging. Has our familiarity caused us to become complacent?
Blind Bartimaeus represents all of us, yes ALL of us. We sit on the side of the highway of life. This is shown in our “luke-warm” pursuit of Christ. We find ourselves begging. This is found in our complaining that nothing is going right, how we talk about there is nothing good about life, all the problems we say we have, and all the ills of the world. Have you ever sat by complaining about a problem, but never doing anything about it? I am sure you have: I have.
Yes we know that Jesus heals the man of his blindness. We know that he is thankful and then follows Jesus in “the Way”. But is that all the Spirit is trying to teach us here? Only to follow Jesus once we have received our sight?
Let’s look at this more closely. The man who sat begging, for he was disappointed in his condition and therefore he slumped into a false sense of reality that there was no way out, nor continued to believe there was a way to change the circumstances around him, but rather to just go with the tides of life as they passed him by. But then he hears of Jesus, and His power. He senses Jesus is drawing near to him, and for the first time, he cries out to Jesus, “thou Son of David, have mercy on me!”
You see, Blind Bartimaeus takes full advantage of the opportunity that Christ is ever present and near. He calls out to Him and asks Him to change his situation. The people, however, admonish him to be quiet. Funny how when we really seek Jesus with our whole heart, in full desperation for Him, knowing He is the only one who can help and save us, that people always become offended and want us to keep quiet. Have you ever cried out to Him and people told you, that you were crazy and to be quiet, or they say, “I don’t want to hear any more talk about…” But I would rather keep calling out to Jesus as he did, then to be ignored by my critics.
Jesus, being the life-giving lover of our souls, that He is, restores the man’s present condition to one of ability, able-ness, and action. Blind Bartimaeus, only through Christ, receives his ability to see, thus making him able to correct any wrongs in his life and the life of those around him. And this is his action, or faith put in place, knowing that Jesus is the Most High God, and nothing is impossible for Him.
We must come to a point that we realize just how close Jesus is to us. Call out to Him about our deplorable situations, instead of crying towards one another (begging). And then by faith, realize as He is healing us, He can also heal, that which is around us, and make us, our families, our communities and our land whole again.
When’s the last time you cried out to Jesus? I would rather cry out to Him, and have people tell me to be quiet and try to silence me, than be ignored by the world. At least they noticed me
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