A Blossom Bible Podcast
A Blossom Bible Podcast
Mark 10:46-52 Bartimaeus: The Blind Man Who Saw the Truth
We'd love to hear from you. Message us here.
In a compelling session exploring faith, mercy, and transformation, we dive into the extraordinary story of Bartimaeus—a blind man whose encounter with Jesus teaches us profound lessons about the nature of belief and the power of desperation. We unpack the significance of Bartimaeus recognizing Jesus as the "Son of David," a title rich in messianic meaning, and how his shameless cries for help exemplify the faith we are all called to cultivate.
As we explore this transformative episode, we reflect on Jesus’ tender question, “What do you want me to do for you?” revealing the intimate relationship that faith invites us into. Bartimaeus’ articulate response—“that I may receive my sight”—not only illustrates the clarity of his desires but highlights the importance of voicing our needs before God. This session invites you to consider how often we allow societal pressures or fears to silence our cries for help, urging us to embrace our vulnerability.
Join us as we unpack the richness of Bartimaeus’ faith, his immediate follow-up as a disciple after receiving his sight, and what this means for our own walks with Christ. This engaging conversation offers practical insights into how our spiritual journeys call us to action, encouraging listeners to reflect on their own faith journeys and the transformative power of being seen and healed by Jesus. Subscribe, share, and engage with us on this journey of faith!
Mark, chapter 10, anyways. So Mark, chapter 10, we are obviously continuing through the Gospel of Mark, and chapter 10, you'll remember perhaps describes about a six-month period of time. It's Jesus' final ministry in the territory of Judea. Obviously, it's not everything that happened, but it's a snapshot. And in this time as well, we remember that it's Jesus' travel towards Jerusalem, where he knows he's going to be crucified and take the sin of the world upon himself. And he's told his disciples several times. They don't get it, but that's the direction that we're heading today. We round out chapter 10 with a classic account a blind man, a guy known as Bartimaeus. Let's just read it, verse 46, and then we'll go back and look at it Mark 10, 46.
Speaker 1:Now, as they came to Jericho, as he went out of Jericho with his disciples, in a great multitude, jericho, as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging. And when he, that's Bartimaeus, heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And many warned him to be quiet, but he cried out all the more son of David, have mercy on me. So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. Then they called the blind man, saying to him be of good cheer, rise, he is calling you, and throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus. So Jesus answered and said to him what do you want me to do for you? The blind man said to him, rabboni, that I may receive my sight. Then Jesus said to him Go your way, your faith has made you well. Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.
Speaker 1:So here we see a wonderful miracle the healing of a blind man named Bartimaeus. And this is really the only miracle where a person is named specifically. Now we can call him Bart for short, but this is less of his name than really who he was. Notice we're told there that Bartimaeus the son of Timaeus. So bar means son of, and Timaeus is his dad's name, Right? So he's, I guess, the son of, like Tim or something. This is the son of Tim, you know, and maybe this was because Peter knew this guy was around In the early church.
Speaker 1:You could talk to the son of Timaeus, who was once blind and then could see. He had a testimony. Perhaps His name is given. Who he was is given at least. But what do we know about Bartimaeus? He was blind and Jesus healed him. He also had faith. Look at verse 52. This is at the end of the account here. And Jesus said to him go your way, your faith has made you well. So Jesus tells this man very specifically the reason why you were healed was your faith. It was your faith that did it.
Speaker 1:Now, faith is a huge theological theme right. Ephesians 2.8, for by grace you have been saved through faith. Hebrews 11.6, we read without faith it's impossible to please God. And it's important. Obviously Faith is important. It's essential to salvation. But what is faith? We talk about it a lot and we talk about it a lot and yet I still am a little fuzzy on it. Faith when I was younger, you know, I used to probably define faith as believing something you know can't be true. You know Santa Claus, a tooth fairy, whatever some fairy tale I believe you know. Well, you got faith. That's some faith right there. But that's not what faith is. The Bible gives us the definition.
Speaker 1:Hebrews chapter 11, 1, a clear-cut definition of faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen and, honestly, for me that doesn't exactly help. It's not that clear, right. Faith is trust, but it's substance. Faith is substance, something you can touch, it's evidence, something you can see of something that is not seen. You believe it, you trust it. Now check it out In that same passage, hebrews, chapter 11, where the author defines faith.
Speaker 1:He then goes on to explain it and demonstrate it the hall of faith we would call it, and you could read Hebrews, chapter 11, and you see the example of people like Abraham. You know, moses, a whole bunch of people, joshua, I mean the list is great there in Hebrews, chapter 11. Whole bunch of people, joshua, I mean the list is great there in Hebrews, chapter 11. And we see here that faith is maybe better demonstrated. It's an active thing. James tells us that faith without works is dead. So faith that doesn't do something is not really faith at all. Faith is better seen than said right. And so we look at this.
Speaker 1:But we look and we go in verse 52 here of Mark 10, that Jesus confesses that, bartimaeus, it was your faith that made you whole. Now, why did he say this? Especially since we know it wasn't anything that Bartimaeus did, but it was Jesus, right? I mean, obviously the healing wouldn't have happened unless Jesus did it. But Jesus said well, it was your faith. Faith is just important to God. It's what he wants. He wants us to trust him.
Speaker 1:I read this this morning from Spurgeon. I thought it was good. He says this Jesus does not say I have made you whole though that was true enough but your faith has made you whole. And why is it? Do you think that Christ takes the crown off his own head and puts it on the head of faith? Why? Because he loves faith and because faith is quite certain not to wear the crown, but to lay it at his feet. Of all the graces, faith is the surest to deny herself and ascribe all to him in whom she trusts. And so check it out.
Speaker 1:God's not afraid to say that faith is important because faith will never take credit for it. Right, we trust God. Well, we never go and go. That was me that did it, though, because I believed. Right, we'll go. Well, it's God that did it. I've been trusting him, and so faith always takes the crown off its own head and puts it back on God. That's what we'll do in the end. Right, we'll lay our crowns at his feet. There's nothing we can take credit for. So faith points to the object in which it believes, and here it's Jesus. Now maybe you found out that faith is something that God wants to build in our life, all the way through our life. He wants to build us a trust in him, all the little things that we think we've said. God, I trust you, he takes us through situations where we go. I have to trust God and we lay it down to him, we trust him with it, and so God works. That Faith is important. What kind of faith do we see? Come back? What kind of faith do we see in this account here, in verse 46, we see as an everyday faith.
Speaker 1:It just happened where Bartimaeus was at. He trusted in the instant. This was every day for Bartimaeus. Every day he was brought to the gate of the city and he sat down. You picture it to the gate of the city and he sat down. You picture it. He, you know, found his spot there in the shade and he put his coat in front of him to catch whatever money people would toss. And charity was a decent thing, right, it was important to be charitable. So he was serving a purpose and the people that gave him money were serving a purpose in his life, but that was his job. And money were serving a purpose in his life, but that was his job, right, that's all he could do at that point in that world was just beg. And day after day he sat there.
Speaker 1:Now, as he's sitting there, this crowd goes by and the crowd goes by and people say, oh, it's Jesus, it's a guy from Nazareth, jesus of Nazareth. He's heard and he hears. At that moment, right, sometimes, when you can't see or can't hear, you know the other senses are kind of developed and he hears. And that's the way that God reaches him. He hears that Jesus is coming by in his everyday life and all in a moment, he has the opportunity to believe or not believe, to trust or not trust. And it reminds me of what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6, too that behold, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. Whenever that comes into your life, whenever God says what are you going to do? Are you going to trust me with your life? Are you going to follow me with your life? Whenever that happens, we have the opportunity to act on it. And here in his every day, he decided to look to Jesus. Now, I think that was God's grace in his life. Right, even the faith seems to come from God. But for whatever reason he says, this is what I need, this is my hope to see Jesus. But it's not just an everyday faith. Notice verse 47. It's a messianic faith which is just fun to say. It makes you feel smart to say messianic faith. It's a messianic faith which is just fun to say. It makes you feel smart to say messianic faith. It's a messianic faith. Notice he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was coming. He began to cry out and say Jesus, son of David. This term son of David is about the Messiah who would be promised that God would send salvation through the line of David. Now, jesus was a descendant of King David. Interesting Jesus would have qualified to be the king of Israel if Israel was still a kingdom at that point, and that's true.
Speaker 1:But let's turn to 1 Chronicles, because how often do you go to 1 Chronicles? But let's turn to 1st Chronicles, because how often do you go to 1st Chronicles? Let's go to 1st Chronicles, important passage in chapter 17. 1st Chronicles, 17,. I think we have time to read it. It's a little later on in David's rule 1, chronicles 17, verse 1. Now it came to pass, when David was dwelling in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet I should have given you more time. Huh, chronicles is more obscure. 1 Chronicles 17,. I still have pages Very good. Now it came to pass when David was dwelling in his house that David said to Nathan the prophet See, now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under ten curtains. Then Nathan said to David Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you. So check it out here.
Speaker 1:David, later on in his rule, he starts thinking about things. He's got time to think. The battles are kind of done. He's getting older and he looks and he goes. I'm sitting here in this house and God the tabernacle. It's a tent. God's essentially living in a tent. Now, god didn't live in the tabernacle, but that's where his presence was. And David goes. I don't feel like this is right. Why do I have a nice house and God has a tent? God didn't care, but he gets this idea. Why is it? And he goes to Nathan and says why do I live in a house and God lives in a tent? Nathan sees what he's getting at Nathan. The prophet says do it, man. Good idea, go ahead and do it.
Speaker 1:Now notice verse three. But it happened that night that the word of God came to Nathan saying go and tell my servant David. Thus says the Lord, you shall not build me a. Came to Nathan saying go and tell my servant David. Thus says the Lord, you shall not build me a house to dwell in, for I've not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought up Israel, even to this day, but I've gone from tent to tent and from one tabernacle to another. Wherever I have moved about with all Israel. Have I ever spoken a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying why have you not built me a house of cedar? Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David.
Speaker 1:Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the sheepfold, from following sheep, to rule over my people, israel. And I have not, and I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off your enemies from before you. I have made you a name, like the name of the great men who are on the earth. Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them that they may dwell in the place of their own and move no more. Nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously, since the time I commanded judges to be over my people Israel also, I will subdue all your enemies, therefore. Furthermore, I tell you that the Lord will build you a house, and it shall be when your days are fulfilled, when you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your seed after you. Who will be of your sons, and I will.
Speaker 1:So check it out. Here, god reasons with him and says David, it's a nice thought, but I don't need a house and you're not the one to build it. Solomon, his son, would build it. But here, notice, god tells David, you're not going to build me a, a house, but I'm gonna build you a house, a kingdom forever. Now, time went on and the kingdom of Israel fell, the northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians, the southern kingdom fell to the Babylonians, and there was this big gap where they weren't really a kingdom at all. And yet God says here's the promise I'm gonna make to you, david I'm gonna give you a kingdom forever and your descent will rule forever. And David knew, and people knew this is the Messiah that God had promised back in the garden when we fell into sin, the one who would save us. So God promises the son of David will rule, will be the Messiah. So check it out back in Mark, chapter 10. Bartimaeus understands this. Now. Not many people understood this A few chapters before this. Now, not many people understood this A few chapters before this.
Speaker 1:Peter has this amazing revelation. Jesus says who do people say that I am? And there's ideas are put out who do you say that I am? And Peter says you're the Christ. And Jesus goes whoa flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you, but my father. That's a spiritual thing. But even the disciples don't get it right. They're kind of oblivious to the whole thing. But here's this blind man, bartimaeus. He's had time to think, he's heard the word, obviously, and all the promises of God, and he says Jesus, you're the son of David, you're the one we're waiting for, and he believes. That's a deep faith. When nobody else really saw that, this guy saw it and so he cries out son of David, have mercy. He had a mercy-based faith. That's important, right, have mercy on me. Now, mercy is a theological term right, it's a Bible talk when I was in elementary school.
Speaker 1:I've never been good at sports, but I was good at one game. I don't know if you played this game, mercy. Did you ever play that one? It's a barbaric game. Along with, you know, bloody knuckles and whatever this thing is with the OK sign on your knee. You know two for flinching, barbaric game of childhood. But mercy, right, you would grab hands with someone and then you would just like try to break their hands. You try to break their fingers. That was the game you know and we loved it. But I was good at that game. I honestly could not remember a time that I ever lost a game of mercy and you would just wrench somebody's hands upside down almost till their knuckles broke, you know. And then they go mercy, right. And you go, that's right. And I won that game over and over again. I don't think I could win it today, but I was really good at it. So right, you know mercy. You cry out for mercy. You say uncle, but that's a bad illustration. As much as I wanted to share that, that's a bad illustration because God's not trying to break our knuckles, he's not trying to break our fingers.
Speaker 1:It's a little more like a couple days ago when I got pulled over driving 80, right, it was 70, I think supposed to be, and I was driving 80 and the lights came on and you know I didn't panic. What are you going to do? I was driving 80. My wife panicked a little bit. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? I'm going to say, well, I'm going to say sorry. I guess I'm going to say sorry, there's not much you can say when you're going 80, you know, and, and you know, flashlight, check, my license, all that kind of stuff. And he said this is a warning. And I go, thank you. Thank you so much because I absolutely deserve a ticket right now. There's nothing I can say about it. But you had mercy on me because you didn't want to write me up. I guess I don't know, you're just merciful and I said God bless, you have a nice night officer. Thank you, and that was mercy, right, we've seen that before and it's when we deserve one thing, we deserve justice, the ticket and yet we get mercy.
Speaker 1:And obviously the Bible is really clear we're all guilty. Psalm 14, verse 1 and verse 3 says there's none who does good. There's none righteous? No, not one. Paul quotes it in Romans 3 there, and goes on to say all of sin and falls short of the glory of God. We're all guilty. It goes on to say all of sin and falls short of the glory of God. We're all guilty. We all need mercy and we don't think that way.
Speaker 1:In our world today there's a lot of entitlement going around, right, what I deserve, right, demanded and all these things. And yet what are we entitled to? As we read the Bible, we're entitled to hell. Right, that was harsh, but it's true. Right. The only thing we're entitled to is hell, and yet God, because he's merciful, he doesn't give us what we deserve because of what Jesus did. He took the wrath of his father upon himself and he offers us mercy when we deserve hell.
Speaker 1:But this man understood that. Not everybody understands that right. A chapter, not even a chapter ago, his disciples came up to him and said Jesus, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. We're entitled to a position in the kingdom, and you know the story. You don't know what you're asking, and yet this man sees it, isn't it funny? A blind man sees it that mercy is what I need and he cries out Son of David, have mercy on me. That's some faith based on mercy. Now notice, we'll just pick out a couple more things quickly here in verse 47. He's got some shameless faith. He's crying out, right, crying out is not some.
Speaker 1:This kind of crying out, this screaming kind of thing is not something we generally do. Naturally it takes a situation right. I don't scream a whole lot, unstepped from the banks here, don't even bother with the grass on the banks, with the lawnmower, and I got it stuck and I had this great idea of getting it out and I got off and I pushed it along and stuff like that, and it rolled over on my foot and I started feeling my foot go numb. You know what I mean. All I thought is I'm going to lose my foot today. What a lousy way to go. And I said Leah, leah, our walls are really good. Our windows must be double-paned or something, because nobody can ever hear you when you scream inside our house. But I screamed more and she finally came out and single-handedly lifted the lawnmower. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Desper, desperation brings you to scream. It's really hard to get to a point of crying out unless you're totally desperate and this man was shameless. He cried out. And notice, there in verse 48,. Many warned him to be quiet. Right, the crowd around him is saying, look man, shut up. I'm not allowed to say that. But you know, just be quiet. The crowd around him is saying look man, shut up. I'm not allowed to say that. Just be quiet, stop with your screaming man. And notice there in verse 48,. But he cried out all the more. He wasn't trying to be difficult, but he was desperate. He's like this is my only chance. This is absolutely my only chance for anything. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And he is heard. Jesus stood still, commanded him to be called. They called the blind man saying be of good cheer, rise. He's calling you. Notice verse 50. I think it's important, or it wouldn't be there. Right, verse 50,. And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus. So he's also got.
Speaker 1:The only word I could come up with here was anticipatory faith. It's so smart man Anticipatory faith. He expects something good is going to happen here because he knows enough about Jesus. Right, so check it out. He lays his garment aside. Right, so check it out. He lays his garment aside. Now.
Speaker 1:We talked about it at the beginning. But this guy's garment was really like a storefront. He would put it in front of him and people would throw money on there. That's where the money would go. So his garment is kind of like his job. You know, it's his future. And he looks at this and he goes Jesus called me, it's as good as done, I don't need this thing anymore. And so he sets his garment aside. That's some anticipatory faith, right? He believes, and he left it. He knew he wouldn't need it again.
Speaker 1:And last thing, I think here is number 51. Well, let's just read it again, what he does. So Jesus answered and said to him what do you want me to do for you, man? That's it. That's like the golden ticket, right? Jesus says anything. What do you want? He didn't have to think about it long. He's like my sight. I want my sight. Could you heal my sight? And Jesus answered and sent him what the blind man said to him Rabboni, that I may receive my sight. And you know the story verse 52. It happens, jesus heals him.
Speaker 1:But notice that word there in verse 51. Rabboni, right, I don't recognize that word. Well, it's only like twice in the Bible and this is one of them. The other time we see this is Mary at the tomb. She calls Jesus rabboni.
Speaker 1:Now you know the word rabbi, right? The rabbis were the teachers. It means teacher. You could have been called, he could have been called rabbi, teacher, but this man calls him rabboni, which means my teacher, my great teacher. It's just like expanded huge. You're not just a teacher, You're my teacher, you're my great teacher, you're the only teacher, right, and it's so personal and that, of of course, is a thing we all need to understand that faith has to be personal. You're mine, you're my teacher, and and and this guy says it now, why does he say that? It's pretty amazing that he would say that about Jesus you're my great teacher. But it has to be personal. Obviously, it can't be our friends, it can't be our families, it can't be anyone else's faith but ours. We personally come to Jesus and say you're my savior. So important and it's just so beautiful, right?
Speaker 1:The result Jesus heals him, and we're not really that amazed, we're not. Whoa, never saw that coming. We know Jesus heals people and we know he can. It's not a big deal, and so notice, though, what happens to the man Immediately. He received a sight and I like to think about this. The first thing that this man saw was Jesus. There's other people that have blindness. Jesus healed them. The first thing they saw was the face of Jesus. Is that sweet, or what man so sweet? He received his sight and he followed Jesus on the road. So we get the idea here, but we don't know when he stopped following. But we get the idea. Jesus goes to Jerusalem and this guy is hanging out with him. Right, man, you changed my life, I'll follow you wherever you go. You're going to Jerusalem, I'm going to Jerusalem. And he becomes a follower of Jesus.
Speaker 1:And this really is the result is a following faith, right? A lot of times we just think of salvation as one of these things. Like I was a kid Maybe you have the story in your own life I was a kid and I said a prayer and I got saved and I got a piece of paper. We got baptized, we celebrated, I was saved. But you know that faith has to follow the rest of our lives. That faith has to follow the rest of our lives. It's not just part of our lives, it's the rest of our life. And this man really demonstrates this. I mean, we don't even see him go back for his coat, right, he just follows Jesus on the road and going to the next place and until the road comes to an end he's right there with Jesus. I think that's the Christian life Discipleship till the's right there with Jesus. I think that's the Christian life discipleship till the very end following Jesus. So you know, here we see this faith. But we know this can't be just to go get them to study right Now. Go out there and let's have some faith. You know, trust Jesus.
Speaker 1:But two things I hope we see from this, I think is number one. I hope we see who we are Like this man, helpless in his world. He needed mercy and he knew it right. We can't figure it out, we can't make ourselves better, we're absolutely helpless without God. But then to know who he is, jesus is the Savior, the Messiah, not just a good teacher, he is the teacher. He's the great teacher, not just a Savior, but the Savior, and he's worthy to be followed with all of our lives, even this week. You know, as you're going to your life, that he's worthy to be followed with all of our lives, even this week. You know, as you're going to your life, that he's worthy to be followed in the little things of our life. God, is this what you want from me? Is this what you want me to do with my time? We don't always do the right thing, but man, he's worthy of it, and so that's what I hope we see today.
Speaker 1:Let's pray, god, I just thank you for how good you are, how sweet you are. We were so desperate and to the point of crying out, because death was all we had. Sin was all we had. And yet you stopped and you loved us and you brought us near. It is so good that you care about us like that. You stopped and you loved us and you brought us near. It is so good that you care about us like that, god. Thank you that you saved us as our Messiah. Thank you, god, that you're going to one day literally rule and reign here, that all the politics and kings of this world, they don't matter a single bit. In the end, god, it's going to be all about you. I pray that we live in light of that promise even today. God, work these things into our lives, into our hearts. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen.