The Two Healings of Bartimaeus

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So when I go to the doctor and they ask if I’ve ever smoked, I usually tell them just chicken. We bought a smoker a while back, and I love it because you can just put your meat in there and it cooks. Well, we smoked all kinds of things.

I don’t recommend mesquite smoked macaroni and cheese. That was a disaster. But we were experimenting.

Anyway, so we discovered you could take totally frozen chicken and stick it in the smoker and hours later it would be ready and it would be delicious. Well, we experimented a little more and found out it’s even better if you defrost the chicken ahead of time in the fridge. It just, it gets a better texture.

And then you put it in there and cook it. We discovered the best thing, this is my opinion, is if you brine it in the fridge, you soak it salt water in a bag for a couple days in the fridge before you put it in the smoker. There are a lot of things when it comes to cooking that the more time and effort you put into it, the better it turns out.

And that’s what we’ve been doing on Sunday nights for the last several months. I don’t even remember how long. That’s what we’ve been doing with the book of Mark on Sunday nights.

Back in December, I felt like the Lord was leading me that when I finished up the last series and then talked about Christmas that I needed to come on Sunday mornings and just continue on that Sunday night study through the book of Mark. So that’s what we’re that’s what we’re doing is is picking up in the book of Mark. And the reason I say it’s important that we’ve gone story by story through the book of Mark is that I have seen this book in a new way for me.

I don’t pretend that I’ve come up with anything nobody’s seen in 2,000 years. If somebody tells you they’ve come up with something nobody’s ever seen in 2,000 years run, right? There’s a reason nobody’s ever seen it, because it’s not in there.

But I’ve seen the book in a new way for me, just understanding how the stories fit together. When you take a story here and a story there, especially reading through the Gospels, you take a passage of Scripture here and there, you can get something good out of it. But when you start fitting it together, you see it in a whole deeper level.

The story we’re going to look at this morning, for instance, if we had not spent all the months that we’ve spent going through the book of Mark, and if you’ve never been here on a Sunday night for this study, you may feel left out. All of it’s online. You can go back and watch.

There are, I feel like, hundreds of hours on the book of Mark if you’re so inclined. If I could just condense it down, that would be great. But if we had not done all that study, we would look at this passage this morning and say, well, it’s just another miracle story.

And those are great. Those are fine stories of healings. They show the power of Jesus, but that’s not all that’s going on in the story here.

That’s not the whole point that Mark is trying to make. And I’m going to try to catch you up to speed. If you’ve not been here on Sunday nights, you’ve probably not seen, well, you might have seen these laying around in the Welcome Center.

These are, I call them gospel grids that I put together. People will tell you, when you look at all four gospels together, they can’t be put together. They contradict one another.

They don’t all tell the same story. Don’t you believe it? I won’t pretend that there aren’t any difficulties in the text.

You know why? Because Matthew, John, Mark, Luke, and John didn’t get together and get their stories straight. So there are some difficulties.

There are some different perspectives they see things from. but I’ve gone through the gospels as I’ve taught through the book of Mark and anywhere the stories correspond with another gospel I’ve broken them down and put them side by side for you. And in places where it looks like there might be a contradiction I’ve tried to give you an explanation because in my mind as I read these things side by side details jump out at me and I go, wait a minute that doesn’t sound like it goes and I want the explanation.

For some of you that may not be an issue. You may look at the difficult details and say, well, I don’t care. I believe it’s true.

I understand that and I appreciate that. But we live in a world where a lot of our kids, a lot of our grandkids, a lot of our siblings, a lot of our neighbors do care. And the world has seized on these apparent contradictions to say you can’t trust the Bible.

And so I want to give you the information, as much as you want to have of it, about why these stories are trustworthy, why I think these things actually happened, why I think reconcile these details, and they fit together, and they tell us about the life of Jesus. Throughout the book of Mark, we see not just a record of miracles. We see not just a record of teachings, but we see Jesus working with the crowds, and in particular working with his disciples, and slowly, in his timing, revealing glimpses of who he is.

It starts out with just a little, a faint glimmer of who Jesus is, letting them see little miracles and teachings that he gives that sound like nothing anybody’s ever heard before. And as we progress through the story, we see him showing them more and more who he is up to the point where they begin to realize that he’s the Messiah. And that’s where we are this morning in Mark chapter 10.

So if you would join me in Mark chapter 10. This is a story about how powerful Jesus is to heal Bartimaeus, but it goes further than that. It goes further than the miracle.

It’s about who Jesus is. Mark chapter 10, if you don’t have your Bible or can’t find it, it’ll be on the screen. And I don’t know if I asked you to stand or not, but if you are.

So, all right, I normally do, but you beat me to it, I think. We’re going to start in verse 46 this morning. Yes, verse 46.

Now they came to 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 heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

Then many more 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, Rabbani, that I may receive my sight. Then Jesus said to him, go your way. Your faith has made you well.

And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road, and you may be seated. Now, a couple of details that you may pick up on as you compare the Gospels that I spell out in this grid. First of all, two of the Gospels say that he was leaving Jericho.

Actually, I can’t remember if it was one or two. This is why I write things down, so I don’t have to remember. But some of the Gospels say that he was leaving Jericho.

Some of the Gospels say he was coming into Jericho when this happened. Archaeology tells us there are multiple areas in the same vicinity that were called Jericho. And in all likelihood, he is coming out of the old Jewish town of Jericho from where they took it over from the Canaanites when Joshua led them in, and coming into the new Roman-built Jericho that was built under King Herod.

So two settlements, and sometimes we’ll see this even here in Oklahoma, there’ll be a town of the same name, and there’ll be the new town and the old town, and they’re not too far from each other. so he was coming out of one and into the other there’s not a there’s not a contradiction here also some of the gospels say that there were two men some of them say there was one man but those that say there was one man that identify Bartimaeus don’t say there was only one man they just emphasize the fact that there was one man they kind of the other guy’s not important to the story I guess unless you’re matthew but they don’t it would be a contradiction if he’s if one said there were two and one said there were only one. But one says there are two and one says, let me tell you about this guy.

That’s what’s happening here. So by the time we come to Bartimaeus, people are beginning to figure out that Jesus is the Messiah. They’re beginning to figure out that he is the one that God has promised to the Jewish nation for thousands of years.

For a lot of people, that means they still misunderstood what he was coming for. And we’ll talk about that next week with the triumphal entry. They misunderstood and thought he was going to be a political leader or a military leader.

He was going to whoop up on the Romans. But there were some, like Bartimaeus, who seemed to realize that he was more than just a human leader. And that’s why Bartimaeus called out to Jesus for healing.

We see that there in verse 51. So Jesus, he’s already called out to him. And then there’s the ruckus where the people tell him, pipe down, stop bothering Jesus.

And he, fine, I’m going to bother Jesus even louder then. And so finally, Jesus says, have him brought to me. And then in verse 51, when he comes to Jesus with some help, because he can’t see, Jesus answered and said to him, what do you want me to do for you?

And the blind man said to him, Rabbani, that I may receive my sight. He asked Jesus, the one thing he wanted Jesus to do was to heal him. He hears this ruckus of the crowd coming down the road.

He asked, what is going on? They said, it’s Jesus. And he sprung at the opportunity to call out to Jesus and get this healing.

He asked to be healed from this blindness that had overcome him sometime earlier. The wording there seems to indicate that he had been able to see at some point and then became blind. But this isn’t just a request for a miracle from some traveling prophet.

There’s more, again I told you at the beginning, there’s more here than just a miracle story. He acknowledges in the way he asks, he acknowledges that there is more to Jesus than just some faith healer traveling around. Go back to verses 47 and 48, and it says, when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out.

So apparently he had heard of Jesus. He had heard of the stories. All those times Jesus healed somebody or did a miracle or taught something, and the people were amazed, and he said, keep it to yourself because it’s not time for everybody to know yet.

And all those times that people went out and told anyway, the word gets around. It’s no different, or it was no different in their day than it is today. So word got around, he’d heard of Jesus.

So when he heard that it was Jesus, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. It’s easy for us to read past that real quickly and say, well, he was a descendant of David. Okay, big deal. We know that.

That’s one of the things the angels told the shepherds. Then many warned him to be quiet, but he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. And we see that he is insistent on this term, Son of David.

Because the term Son of David here means something. It means something about who Jesus is. He calls Jesus a few things, actually.

When we take all three Gospels that tell this story together, he calls Jesus Lord on several occasions in Matthew and Luke. Again, they don’t all record every detail of the story, but we piece them together and we have all the information we need. He calls Jesus Lord.

He calls him over and over, son of David. He calls him Rabbani, which means master or teacher. But this idea of Jesus being the son of David, it acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah.

That’s a term that they used for the Messiah, the one that God had promised for thousands of years, the hope of Israel. History has not always been nice to Israel, has it? History has not always been kind to the Jewish people.

And this was one of those times, they were living under Roman occupation, they were looking for some hope, they were looking for God to provide what only he could, and he’d promised for thousands of years that he was going to send a Messiah, that he was going to send this anointed leader that was going to take care of Israel’s needs. They just misunderstood what those needs were. But one of the prophecies was that he was going to come from the house of David, that he was going to sit on the throne of David.

So for him to call him son of David, he’s not just identifying his family line. This is not the equivalent of, I can’t remember your name, so I’m just going to call you by your last name like a gym teacher, right? He’s acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah, this promised one sent by God.

But when he calls him Lord, when he calls him Rabbani, he’s not just saying you’re the Messiah of Israel. He’s saying you are my Lord. This is his submission to Jesus himself.

This is not in theory Jesus is Lord. This is saying Jesus, you are my Lord. He’s submitting to Jesus himself.

So when Bartimaeus called out to Jesus, he wasn’t just seeking a miracle. He was seeking a miracle from Jesus. That’s why he began asking because he heard it was Jesus.

He had heard of Jesus and he was expressing faith in who Jesus was, who Jesus claimed to be, who Jesus taught that he was. And the faith that Bartimaeus, we can’t miss this faith that he has. It’s key to the story.

The faith that he has is clear in the way that he asked Jesus to restore his sight without any trace of doubt in the text. Jesus says, what do you want me to do? He doesn’t hem and haw and say, well, if you can, if you want to, if it fits with your schedule, he just says, I want my sight back.

And he believes that Jesus can do it. Unless we be accused of reading too much in between the lines here, Jesus points out in verse 52, your faith has made you well. He commended Bartimaeus for his faith.

The one thing that impresses Jesus, if we want to use that terminology, is faith. Jesus is not impressed by our abilities. He’s not impressed by our achievements.

What matters to Jesus is that we believe what he says and believe who he is. So he commends Bartimaeus for his faith and he says, this is the reason you’re healed. Now, it’s not actually his faith.

It’s not the power of his faith that’s healing him. It’s Jesus, but his faith is the reason why Jesus is healing him. So we have to recognize from this that Bartimaeus was not just looking for healing.

He’s looking for healing. Okay? This is a miracle story.

This is a healing story, but it’s not just that. He’s not only looking for healing. He’s looking for healing from his Lord, from this one that he’s putting all of his hope into.

And Jesus’ lordship meant more for Bartimaeus than just this physical healing. In verse 52, Jesus said to him, go your way. Your faith has made you well.

And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road. Now this word made you well. In Greek is the word sozo.

We would transliterate it, s-o-z-o. It’s the word we use for salvation. That word has a double meaning.

That word can apply to physical healing and it can apply to spiritual healing. And I believe that Jesus is talking about both. And the reason I believe that Jesus is talking about both in this instances because of what happens there in verse 52.

Jesus touched Bartimaeus’ eyes. Matthew chapter 20 verse 32 tells us that he actually touched his eyes in the midst of this whole process and restored his sight according to verse 52 here in Mark. So Jesus said, your faith has made you well.

Bartimaeus had received the physical healing that he was looking for. Jesus touched his eyes, his eyes got better, there’s your physical healing. But again, sozo can apply to spiritual healing or salvation.

And he seems to have received this as well because of what we see happening in verse 52 where it says he followed Jesus. And I don’t think he was just following Jesus the way some in the crowds did to see what he was going to do next or to get fed because Luke tells us that he followed Jesus and went around glorifying God. He followed Jesus and he was worshiping.

Something changed in Bartimaeus that day. And this all tells us that when Bartimaeus called out to Jesus in faith, he didn’t just receive physical healing. There was a spiritual transformation that took place as well.

He gave him the spiritual transformation that he needed even more than the physical healing. And that’s what Jesus came to do. Yes, Jesus healed and yes, Jesus did miracles.

Jesus turned water into wine and raised the dead and all those things. But ultimately what Jesus came to do was bring about our spiritual transformation. Jesus came to mankind because we were dead in our sins, because we were separated from God, because our disobedience had so separated us from God that there was nothing we could do to earn our way back.

And there’s still not. And so Jesus came to change us. He came to transform us, to cleanse us, to forgive us, to bring about this spiritual healing.

Jesus’ lordship means more for us than just getting our earthly needs met. Because our physical needs, our earthly needs, as important as they are, I don’t want to downplay them, especially if you’re struggling with something today, you’re struggling with a health concern, you’re struggling with a financial concern, a relationship concern, whatever it may be, job problems, whatever. I don’t want to downplay those.

Those are very real. They’re very important. I’m just saying there are other things that are even more important than those. Because ultimately, those are resolved one way or another, whether it’s a way we like it resolved or not.

Eventually, those are behind us. There are things that I stress over that in a few years I will have forgotten about. A hundred years from now, nobody will remember the things I stressed over.

These are temporary. But there’s a part of us that lives forever. And Jesus came to deal with that.

We’re all going to spend eternity somewhere. And eternity goes on and on and on. You want to mess with your brain sometime?

Start trying to contemplate eternity. Because you think the longest something could possibly be. And it still keeps going.

And you run that out and it’s still going. I can’t even, I can’t. I can’t wrap my mind around it.

So where we’re going to spend that eternity is of enormous importance. And who we are going to spend that eternity with is of enormous importance. And Jesus came to deal with that.

Now, I am not saying that Jesus does not care about your problems. I believe he does. He tells us to cast our cares on him. He can deal with those problems. But we have an even bigger issue that Jesus came to deal with.

And there were many in those crowds who were just looking for the physical need to be met. There were people who were just following Jesus because they wanted to see the show. There were some people that were following Jesus just because he provided lunch.

There were some people following Jesus because they wanted to hear what outlandish, they thought, thing he was going to say next. There were some people coming to Jesus just because they wanted the healing. And there’s nothing wrong with going to Him for those things.

But for many in those crowds, and many in the crowds today, they’re willing to look to Jesus as Lord in order to get their needs met and their wish list filled, but not willing to go a step further and let Him transform us spiritually. It’s very easy to come to Him and come to church once a week, say prayers occasionally, read our Bibles occasionally, just as an insurance policy in case anything goes wrong. You think, well, I’ll deal with the Lord, I’ll have a relationship with the Lord, and He’ll take care of these things for me.

God’s plan for you does not stop at your physical needs and earthly priorities. There’s something far more important at stake. And when He does take care of our earthly needs, just like He did for Bartimaeus, it is a picture of His ability to take care of our deepest needs.

Again, I’ve said it many times already in this message. The point of what Mark is talking about here is not the healing. It’s a point, but it’s a secondary point.

He is making the case, chapter by chapter, that Jesus Christ is the Messiah of God. And if He’s the Messiah, if He’s the one that God sent, if He’s God, the Son, and human flesh, if He’s all the things He claimed to be, He can tackle much bigger problems than our healing and these other concerns. Because as I’ve already mentioned, there is a gulf between us and a holy God.

The Bible says that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Anytime we disobey Him, it can be our words, it can be our thoughts even, our attitudes. Listen, I’m not going out and hanging out at the bars, and I’m not running around chasing women, but I struggle with sin in my attitude a whole lot.

Sometimes it can be the things we don’t even think about. All of that, anything that we think, do, say, or don’t do, I got those out of order. Everything we think, say, do, or don’t do that displeases God is sin.

and it separates us from him. And to the world that sounds so harsh, but holy God cannot be in the presence of sin. He cannot just accept sin any more than when you leave here and go have lunch, whether it’s at a restaurant or at your house, you cannot accept somebody taking a big handful of something out of the garbage and putting it on your plate.

You say, well, just a little bit, it doesn’t matter. You’re going to want a different plate, right? How much more is a holy God offended by our sin.

And you and I can’t do enough good to erase the wrong that we’ve done. And so we are stuck. We are separated from God and we are helpless to do anything about it.

But Jesus came as the promised hope, the promised Messiah, the one that God had said for thousands of years he was going to sin. The one that I talked about on Christmas day coming to crush the serpent’s head, coming to destroy the effects of sin on our walk with God. The one who would set us free from that.

The one who would purchase our forgiveness. And that’s exactly what he did. Jesus Christ came as our Messiah.

And he took responsibility for my sin and your sin. He had none of his own. The reason he was on that cross was for every wrong thing that you or I have ever done, said, or thought.

He took responsibility for our sin. He was nailed to the cross and he died. to pay for that sin so that our slate could be wiped clean, so that we could be forgiven, so that we could go free.

He’s our Messiah. He’s our Lord. And for us, it is as simple as what Bartimaeus found out that day, turning to him in faith, calling out to him.

You don’t have to get your life together to come to Jesus. If you could, you wouldn’t need to. The answer is coming to Jesus as you are and trusting him to change you into what he wants you to be.

We come to Jesus and we acknowledge that we’ve sinned, that we’ve fallen short, that we cannot get right with God on our own. We believe that He died to pay for us, pay for our sins, and rose again to prove it, and we ask His forgiveness. It’s faith.

Just believe what He said about Himself and ask for His forgiveness on that basis.