Spiritually blind

Spiritually healed

The ministry of Christ began small with just a handful of disciples and as it gain momentum many more were added. In fact, it got to the point that they wanted to make him king (Jhn6:15), but Jesus departed from them; because that is not the purpose for why he came. The purpose why the Son of God came into the world was to save man from the wrath to come (1The1:9), Paul tells the church of Thessalonica just that. John questions the Pharisees and the religious community about who had warned them of the wrath that would come, after they came and were wanting to be baptized (Mt3:7). That fact is that the feeling of God’s judgement coming soon is in the air. So, Jesus in his earthly ministry takes every advantage to minister to as many people that he could, like he did with Bartimaeus. 

Mark 10:45-49

⁴⁵ For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.⁴⁶ 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.⁴⁷ 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.⁴⁸ 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.⁴⁹ And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee.

Jesus was coming out of Jericho, a city that had gone to through many changes and was in need of restoration. After all, back in the days of Joshua Jericho was protected by impenetrable walls until the people of Israel under God’s command took it (Josh6:4-5). Now, Bartimaeus was the son of a blind man Timaeus, maybe as a generational curse he was born blind as well. Bartimaeus’ name came from the combination of the Aramaic “son” and the Greek “honorable”, it derived from “Son of the uncleaned”; which means spiritually blind. He learned about Jesus and heard that he was passing by, and when he saw him he began to shout “Jesus Son of David, have mercy on me”. As the crowd tried to stop him, he shouted even louder, until Jesus heard him and sent for him. Something interesting is that comfort comes when God calls.

Bartimaeus, when he heard that the Jesus was calling him he did three things that demonstrated a healing by faith, one he cast away his garment, meaning threw it from him as a sign of finally I got his attention, or about time. When what you have been waiting for comes in to a reality; faith into action, a faith satisfied reaction is required. The next thing that Bartimaeus did was that he rose from his situation. We are called to rise from our situation. Isaiah tells exhorts us to rise and shine because the glory of the Lord has risen in us (Is60:1). And, the last thing that Bartimaeus did once he received the call from the Lord, and that is he came to Jesus. No one lead Bartimaeus to Jesus, his spiritual blindness; that his name meant, did not deter him from reaching Jesus. He knew who was calling him, even though it was through the mouths of those who at first tried to stop him. Bartimaeus did not wait for Jesus to come to him, he drew himself to God (Ja4:8-10), and Jesus healed him.