Mark 10:46-52 New American Standard Bible 1995
Bartimaeus Receives His Sight
46 Then they *came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here.” So they *called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you.” 50 Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus. 51 And answering him, Jesus said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And the blind man said to Him, “[a]Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!” 52 And Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has [b]made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
What Do You Want Me to do For You?
Bartimaeus was in the dark, a blind man who had to beg—until the day Jesus came by on his way to be crucified in Jerusalem (Mark 10:32-34).
32 They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful. And again He took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him, 33 saying, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be [a] delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will [b]hand Him over to the Gentiles. 34 They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him, and three days later He will rise again.”
Shouting above the crowd, Bartimaeus calls to the Savior,
“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
People tell him to be quiet, but he shouts all the louder,
“Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Graciously Jesus responds: “What do you want me to do for you?”
Jesus had just asked James and John the same question (Mark 10:35-39).
35 [a]James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, *came up to Jesus, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You.” 36 And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” 37 They said to Him, “[b]Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory.” 38 But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39 They said to Him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized.
They had said they wanted places of honor in heaven with Jesus.
And he had replied, “You don’t know what you are asking.”
But Bartimaeus only pleads,
“Rabbi, I want to see.”
And Jesus does not disappoint.
Bartimaeus knew what he needed; Jesus’ followers were the ones in the dark.
They wouldn’t see the light of Jesus until later.
This incident has raised a question ever since: Who is truly blind, anyway?
And after Jesus restores Bartimaeus’s sight and sends him away, the man sees what he must do next.
Bartimaeus is a model disciple. No longer blind, he unhesitatingly follows Jesus.
Jesus’s question echoes through history: “What do you want me to do for you?”
As we consider his words, can we say, “Rabbi, we want to follow your way”?
“Take Courage, Stand Up! He is Calling For You!”
Mark 10:46-49 New American Standard Bible 1995
Bartimaeus Receives His Sight
46 Then they *came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here.” So they *called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you.”
All around the blind man, the Passover was approaching, and the crowd was building.
There was a great sense of anticipation.
For most in the crowd, there was no time for stopping—certainly not for the ever-present beggars that lay around at the city gates.
They were always there, known well to the people on the outskirts of Jericho.
Many of the crowd likely would have seen this blind man, Bartimaeus, so often that they didn’t even notice him anymore.
The crowd was so consumed with Jesus that Bartimaeus was probably regarded as a dreadful inconvenience.
Their reaction to his cries for mercy—to rebuke him and attempt to silence him—suggests that they thought this marginalized member of society clearly could make no useful contribution to what Jesus was doing – so give him no chance.
In seeking to quieten him, seeking to push him aside, out of the way, however, they became a barrier to the mission of Jesus—to the very one they claimed to be following and the very cause they claimed to be so very zealously pursuing.
This long bullied, ignored marginalized particular blind man didn’t have merely a minor interest in Jesus, though, so he continued his crying out louder to Him.
Mark’s narrative demonstrates Christ’s perfect compassion with a simple phrase: “Jesus stopped”—two words of grace.
Can you imagine the crowd’s reaction when Jesus said to the people who had been rebuking the man, “Call him”?
That surely brought a measure of deserved embarrassment!
Perhaps there are people in your life for whom you struggle to pray.
Maybe there are some you just want to rebuke or ignore.
Maybe you just don’t want to deal with the inconvenience.
It can seem like such a nuisance to invite somebody to church, sit with them, eat with them, and be involved in their lives.
It is messy, and it demands time and effort.
We’d rather such people heard the gospel from someone else.
It is so easy to slip into this way of thinking without really noticing; but when we do, we become just like the crowd: a barrier to people meeting their Savior.
Jesus says to us, Don’t rebuke them. Call them. This is precisely why I came.
May God forgive us when we, the contemporary church like the excited crowd, are full of high indignation at the interference to our plans and inconvenience to our traditional preferences caused by those who are crying out for His mercy.
Christ alone does the work of opening blind eyes, but He has entrusted us with the missional responsibility and privilege of ministry of our proclaiming these words: “Take heart he is calling you!” Take Heart he has heard you, seen you!”
Dear Church, be on notice, take heart Jesus is calling you, Jesus has heard you, Jesus has most definitely seen you – take that all in for what it is worth to you!
“What Do You Want Me to do For You?”
Good, bad or indifferent, logical or illogical, rational or irrational, right, wrong,
Considering the state of being we believe it is in,
What could be the churches response
What should the churches response be?
What will be the churches “politically correct” response?
Just my thought … “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom?”
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Son of David, like Bartimaeus we cry, “Have mercy on us!” Give us eyes to see your way, ears to hear your Word so that we can live as your disciples. In your holy name, Amen.
Psalm 42 New American Standard Bible 1995
BOOK 2
Thirsting for God in Trouble and Exile.
For the choir director. A [a]Maskil of the sons of Korah.
42 As the deer [b]pants for the water brooks,
So my soul [c]pants for You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;
When shall I come and [d]appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night,
While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go along with the throng and [e]lead them in procession to the house of God,
With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you [f]in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?
[g]Hope in God, for I shall [h]again praise [i]Him
For the [j]help of His presence.
6 O my God, my soul is [k]in despair within me;
Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan
And the [l]peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls;
All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.
8 The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime;
And His song will be with me in the night,
A prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will say to God my rock, “Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning [m]because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me,
While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
11 Why are you [n]in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?
[o]Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him,
The [p]help of my countenance and my God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 