Mark 10:46-52
🔵 By Steven Newell. Photo by lauragrafie.
Bartimaeus, a poor blind man with no direction, desperate for help, and sitting on the road side covered with his cloak, all alone.
In those days, people who were born with an infirmity like blindness or leprosy, you were outcasted, because they believed you must be cursed from God. Not much different today! Unfavorable personalities are called disorders that need counseling and medication in order for you to cope and to be productive in society.
The scripture shows a sad situation with Bartimaeus being blind and begging on the side of the road. The Greek word for ‘begging’ is ‘prosaiteo’. It is an intense form of, to ask, or beg. Bartimaeus was literally crying for help from those around him. Yet, his blindness kept him bound to his situation with no direction. This resulted in him sitting on the side of the road covered with his cloak, begging. In my own struggles I found that I was just like Bartimaeus. I get blinded in life’s’ tough situations and struggles that leave me bound and begging. It is so easy to turn away from faith in Gods sovereignty and plan for my life, to fight from a blind, abandoned situation while sitting in my prison cell, pulling my cloak of depression over me.
The fight eventually breaks us down and we become desperate and beg for help. We cry with intensity to God. We become Bartimaeus!
Blind, crying, begging and with no direction.
How many of us have found ourselves like this in the court room holding cell, county jail cell, prison cell, or even… a bedroom? Here’s why I write about faith right here. Check this out.
Bartimaeus, while engulfed in his desperation, HEARD that Jesus was coming near, and not even able to see where Jesus was at, Bartimaeus cries out “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!”
But get this, the people in the crowd rebuked him and told him to shut up! Now, I could go thru all the Greek grammatical stuff with you but I’ll make it quick and simple. This verse sits in the ‘imperfect tense’ which paints a picture of Bartimaeus sitting with his cloak on, surrounded by people yelling at him while he cried out to Jesus for mercy. It wasn’t a simple “shut up!”, it was a deliberate drowning out of Bartimaeus cries for mercy.
Jesus could be standing right there and we get so blinded by our situation that we can’t even see Him. When we do cry out and beg for mercy, the volume of our situation and struggle gets louder. All the excuses and arguments against Jesus get louder. We are blinded and pull a cloak over our poor heads and sit in despair and depression, and loneliness.
The reason I talk faith and Jesus is because if I don’t, then how do you hear Jesus is still near and calling us forward, still gives sight to the blind and still can restore our lives and get us on the right track? Bartimaeus had been sitting with some kind of cloak on while he was begging on the road side. Once the people told him Jesus was calling him to come forward, the scripture says Bartimaeus threw his cloak off and jumped to his feet and walked to Jesus. Still blind!
Sometimes we just need to stand to our feet amidst whatever we are going thru. It is a simple undefined action! Our battles get drawn out, because we allow ourselves to get blinded by trying to fight our battle out of our own strength. There comes the burnout and cloak, and we sink into our desperation-cloak. Bartimaeus, still blind, had to step out in faith, and him simply standing to his feet to walk to Jesus in his blindness was the action corroborating that he had faith, and that it wasn’t blind faith.
Once Bartimaeus got to Jesus, Jesus asked him: “What do you want Me to do for you?”
Bartimaeus asked to see. Notice, Bartimaeus just wanted to see! Jesus granted his request and said to Bartimaeus: “Your faith has healed you.” Like Bartimaeus I want to get what he got thru the same means in which he got it. We need to cast off our cloak, stand up in faith, and come to Jesus.
Ask for sight which gives us direction in life’s situatiosn and understanding in the struggles we face. Bartimaeus didn’t ask for his life to change, but for eyes to see his life thru. God will continue to give us eyes to see as long as our eyes are fixed on Him by faith.