Kalamazoo Mennonite Fellowship
October 25, 20009
Will Fitzgerald
Mark 10:46-52
“Mercy! Oh Thou Son of David,”
Thus poor blind Bartimaeus prayed,
“Others by Thy grace are saved,
Now to me afford Thine aid.”Money was not what he wanted,
Though by begging used to live;
But he asked and Jesus granted,
Alms which none but he could give.“Lord, remove this grievous blindness,
Let mine eyes behold the day;”
Straight he saw, and, won by kindness,
Followed Jesus in the way.
—I want to tell you about the time when Jesus gave a blind man his sight back.
—I heard it was two men.
—Oh, hush. It was someone you know. Well, the son of someone you know. You know Timaeus, right? It happened to him.
—To Timaeus and to his son?
—No, just Bartimaeus, the son.
—I didn’t think it could have been Timaeus. He’s never been blind.
—Anyway. Jesus was just leaving Jericho one day …
—Down? I thought it was when he was going to Jericho.
—He was leaving Old Jericho on his way to New Jericho. That’s not important. He was leaving Jericho, and there were all of these people following him. The only thing Bartimaeus could do for money was to beg, and so he sat by the road waiting for people to come by. And here comes this crowd of people. A really large crowd, and people were straining to hear him and maybe see him. And Bartimaeus must have figured out what was up, because he started shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
—Like David had mercy on Saul?
Behold the love, the gen’rous love,
That holy David shows,
Behold his kind compassion move
For his afflicted foes.When they are sick, his soul complains,
And seems to feel the smart.
The spirit of the gospel reigns,
And melts his pious heart.
—Yes, exactly. So, he’s shouting at the top of his lungs, “Have mercy! Have mercy!” and some people are pretty hot about it, and tell him to be quiet. But they didn’t know Bartimaeus very well; this just made him shout all the louder. He was so loud that he didn’t hear Jesus say that he wanted to talk to him. But the people around him finally got him to pay attention, and he jumped up and, dropping his cloak, practically ran over to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him in that way of his and asked him what kind of mercy he wanted; what he thought Jesus could do for a blind beggar. I’m sure I would have thought he was going to ask for some money—or maybe that some of the crowd would take pity on him. Nobody could call Jesus a rich man, so I don’t know if this even entered his mind. But Bartimaeus said, plainly and clearly, that he wanted to see.
But he asked and Jesus granted,
Alms which none but he could give.
—And that’s what Jesus gave him, the desire of his heart; the deepest desire of his heart. He saw Bartimaeus’s simple trust, and declared him well. And he was well. Immediately. And then Bartimaeus joined the crowd and followed Jesus on the way, and he’s a member of the Way now.
—Did Jesus heal every blind person?
—No, he did not. Sometimes it was the right thing to do, and sometimes it was not. Jesus was so full of Holy Spirit that he knew that the best thing for Bartimaeus and for the good news was to heal him. I’d say it was lucky for Bartimaeus; but it wasn’t anything to do with luck, but Bartimaeus’s faith and Jesus’s compassion meeting.
Jesus may be asking you this morning, “What do you want me to do for you?” Let’s take a few minutes in silence, and think about how we would answer this question. What do you want Jesus to do for you?
Well, What do you want Jesus to do for you? Let’s pray for one another.