“As He went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus..sat by the road begging.”  Mark 10:46

“And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out..’Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!’…Then many warned him to be quiet but he cried all the more….” Mark 10: 47,48

“So Jesus answered..’What do you want me to do for you?’…’that I may receive my sight’..Then Jesus said to him: ‘Go your way, your faith has made you well'”.   Mark 10: 51,52

When this story of Bartimaeus is expounded upon from the Gospel of Mark, often the persistence and faith of Bartimaues is the primary take away of the story.  And while I agree that Bartimaues’ faith and persistence are marvels to behold, I find that the greater scene in its entirety is a microcosm of the interaction of the world, sadly even an aspect of the church at times and the needed determination of people of faith.

This is a time well into Jesus’ earthly ministry.  He is on His way to Jerusalem for the last time to celebrate the Passover; then to be arrested, tried, crucified and resurrected.  Jesus has become well known in this part of the world, at least among the Jews whether they were followers of His or not.

Now they are leaving Jericho and scripture tells us there is Jesus, His disciples, a great multitude with Him and a blind beggar sitting on the side of the road name Bartimaues.  Now when scripture describes that the great multitude was with Jesus as He left Jericho, it does not explicitly mean that they were believers in Jesus as Messiah, the Christ.  Undoubtedly some were, but as I had pointed out, Jesus was a celebrity, known for doing amazing things so some may very well just have been tagging along to see what was going to happen, maybe experience something unusual that they could brag to their friends about being able to personally have witnessed.

Why do I skeptically wonder about the veracity of their belief?  Because Bartimaues starts to cry out to Jesus and instead of seeing his plight and helping to bring his attention to Jesus, who might not have initially heard him due to the throng of the crowd; they tell Bartimaues to be quiet.  There is no compassion for Bartimaues, only contempt.  Now true those who, perhaps, were not followers of Jesus may have been the ones to cruelly snap back at Bartimaues to be quiet.  However, were there no believers close enough to the situation to stand up for Bartimaues, to defend him from those trying to silence him, to be Bartimaues’ champion in bringing him to Jesus?  According to scripture, there was no one.  So Bartimaues is left to just cry out all the louder, all the more desperately.

Then, it is only when Jesus takes notice of him, that Bartimaues becomes important to the crowd.  No longer scorning Bartimaues, they become the voice of encouragement.  “Be of good cheer!”, they call out to Bartimaues, He (Jesus) is calling for you!”

Finally, notice how Jesus handles this.  For Jesus, does not use Bartimaues to shallowly bring glory to Himself, He doesn’t need to do that.  Jesus knows that He is the Christ.  Jesus has never been about being the showboat, needing to be the star of the show.  No, Jesus doesn’t proclaim loudly that He is going to heal Bartimaues.  He asks Bartimaues what he wants Jesus to do for him.  Then Jesus proclaims to Bartimaues that he can go his way, receiving his sight, for it is Bartimaues’ unquestioning faith in Jesus as the Christ.  It is Bartimaues’ faith in not listening to the fickle crowd but believing in the power of Jesus that made the difference.

Thus there are a couple of significant things for us to take from this lesson in the Gospel of Mark.  First thing, is not to be like one of the crowd.  That is that to follow Jesus Christ is not to passively be in the same vicinity as Jesus Christ; not to be hanging around to see what might happen.  We need to be actively following Jesus Christ.  If we see someone who is hurting, we need to be going to them, telling them about Jesus Christ.  Yes we need to be encouraging them, but unlike the crowd’s initial response, we need to be praying with them, crying out with and for them to Jesus Christ, not trying to silence them or shun them away because there is something about their pain or condition which troubles us.

We must also have the courage and conviction of faith to cry out to Jesus Christ.  We must understand that definitely the world, but sadly some believers as well will try to silence us.  There will be some, maybe many who will tell us to keep our faith private, that we have no business crying out in public or on social media expressing our need for or our faith in Jesus Christ.  Stay blind!  Be happy with where you are!  Who are you to believe that Christ can help you!, may very well be the retort of the crowds around us.  Don’t be discouraged or defeated!  Christ will hear you.  Christ will call for you.  Christ will heal you.

One more thing; when Christ calls you, when Christ heals you, do not be tempted to lash out at the crowd or feel superior to them.  No, instead, we should feel pity for the crowd.  We should pray for the crowd.  We should understand how blind the crowd is.  You see the crowd around Bartemeaus, like the crowds today had no understanding, no clue that their very salvation, stood right there in front of them.  The crowd then and the crowd today, doesn’t understand that they are spiritually blind and in desperate need of the healing and restoration of sight that can only come from humbling themselves and having complete faith in Jesus Christ.  It may very well be that the crowd leaving Jericho with Jesus that day was the same one who shouted “Crucify Him” concerning Jesus just a few days later.

I doubt very seriously that Bartemaues was in the crowd shouting for Jesus’ death.  Bartimaues had faith to cry to Jesus against the crowd trying to silence him.  Bartimaues had faith enough in Jesus to believe that Jesus could do the impossible and restore his sight.  May it be for You and I that we are not too proud to cry out to Jesus Christ.  May it be that you and I are not to proud to let the crowd shame us or silence us.  May it be that we have the faith in Jesus Christ that allows Christ to use that faith to heal and restore us.  And having received the healing and restoration from Jesus Christ; may we turn to the crowd and continue, in love and caring, to proclaim to the crowd the praise of Our Heavenly Father in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, hoping the some in the crowd will find the strength and faith to swim against the worldly current and come to Jesus Christ as well.

Our Most Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank and praise You that, through Your Son Jesus Christ, You hear us when we cry out to You.  Through Your Gracious Gift of the Holy Spirit, strengthen us to withstand the voices of the crowd to be quiet and stop publicly proclaiming our faith in You.  Also pour out Your Spirit helping our faith to not waiver, but to truly believe in the total healing power that comes to us through Your Son Jesus Christ.  Forgive us when we are tempted to be silenced by the crowd or worst yet take up the chant of the crowd in silencing a brother of sister in Christ. Heal our blindness and restore our sight in You that, by Your healing, we can be used as an instrument of praise to bring others to a healing, restorative relationship with You.  We pray in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen