What I want to say as I begin this evening is that this is a dangerous passage. Now, maybe you're wondering how can a passage in the Word of God be dangerous? Well, it's not that the content of this passage is dangerous; it's that it's tempting to miss the point of this passage. If you're still confused, let me say it to you this way: there are only two lenses that you can look at this passage in Mark 10, if you want to turn there in your 'Order of Worship.' You can look at it through the lens of the gospel of religion, or you can look at it through the lens of the Gospel of redemption.
The Gospel of Religion
The gospel of religion makes Bartimaeus the hero of the story and reduces this account to how to be a person of faith; "let's learn from Bartimaeus how to be a person of faith." And when we do that, we turn this story into a list of moral, spiritual lessons to be learned from the life Bartimaeus. How can you be good in the eyes of God? Or, more crassly, you could title the story, "How to Get God's Attention," or, "Buck Up and Believe." Why is that tempting for us? It's tempting because it does appeal to this thing that still is resident in the heart of all sinners - we want to believe that we're different than what the Bible describes us to be.
We don't want to believe that we're utterly as dependent as we are. We don't want to believe that there's nothing we could ever do to achieve God's favor, to get God's attention. We don't want to believe that we are devastatingly poor, and needy, and weak as Scripture describes us to be; we want to believe there's something good in us; we want to believe that, somehow, we can get God's attention, we can achieve His favor; that we're more righteous than Scripture describes us to be. Oh, it's not hard for us to believe that other people are unrighteous!
It's easier for us to keep a list of their weaknesses and failures than our own. And so it's easy for us to take a story like this and moralize it away, once again, buying into the delusion of independent righteousness. Well, we're not to do that this evening, tempting as it may be. I want to look at this story with you through the lens of the Gospel of redemption. Whatever we say about Bartimaeus, whatever we say about what he knew about Jesus, whatever we say about his refusal to be passed by by Jesus, Bartimaeus is not the hero of this story; Jesus is.
And where this stands in Mark's history is Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem; He's passing through Jericho, eighteen miles outside of Jerusalem. And He's going to Jerusalem to do that thing that is the epicenter of His reason for coming to earth: He's going to be tried there; He's going to be tortured; He's going to suffer and die; He's going to be the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world - praise God! But it's like Mark wants to remind us, one more time, of who this Jesus is. And so he records this brief little miracle; it's the final miracle that's recorded in the Gospel of Mark.
It's like he wants to preach to us, one more time, about this Jesus; that's why it's so sad that we would ever make this story about Bartimaeus and about lessons of faith when the story really has Jesus front and center. Jesus is moving out of Jericho with His disciples. As usual, when He's in public, there's a large crowd that's following Him; you have seen that throughout the Gospel of Mark. Often when Jesus tries to get away, He gets into some kind of private home just to have a breath, because the crowds have followed Him as His renown has spread.
And clearly this beggar outside of the city has heard about Jesus; we don't know anything about Bartimaeus; we don't know anything about how he acquired his knowledge of Christ; but as Jesus passes by, he's begging on the roadside. He cries out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Now, you may wonder why, if this story is not about Bartimaeus, why do we have such detail; why are we given his name; why are we given the name of his father? I think Mark is wanting us to focus on the glory, and the importance, and the redemptive practicality and hope of the individual encounter of this moment.
Think about this: this is one poor man, of one family, along one road, along the way between Jericho and Jerusalem; an unremarkable man, a man of no station and no importance; a man who happens to be suffering with something he can't solve. And Jesus is marching His way toward this universally important mission; all of history has been moving toward this moment where Jesus would offer Himself up as a willing sacrifice for sin. You could argue that it would make sense that Jesus was too busy for this guy!
We Are Bartimaeus
"I've got things to do! I'm on a mission!" And it's like Mark wants us to focus on this one single individual man of need. Listen, we're Bartimaeus! We're unremarkable people. We won't be written up in history books; humbling, isn't it? A little while after you die, people won't remember the events of your lives. We live in these little mundane moments, in little situations, and little circumstances. We only make three or four important decisions in our entire lives. We live these unremarkable lives in little mundane moments; and if grace can't reach us in those moments, if God doesn't care about that kind of person, there is no hope for us!
What a beautiful picture! Perhaps I would've argued with myself if I was in that Jesus position: "I'm busy; I've got things to do; God has called me; I've got to be faithful to my calling; I've got to be a good steward of what He's called me to do." And the individual detail is meant to blow into our minds the beauty of that mercy. Listen - there will not be in heaven a numberless company of those who believe if Jesus doesn't care for individuals. He cares! And you must never wonder if He's too busy to hear your prayers, if He's too busy to respond to your needs, if He's too busy to care about what you're going through in your marriage, and what you're going through in your parenting, and what you're facing in your physical body, and what's going on in other forms of suffering, the little details of your day that frustrate you and get you down.
He cares! He cares! He cares! His Gospel courses into all those individual moments of our lives; this is a God of glorious mercy! That's why you have the detail. It's to lift before you this One who was walking to Jerusalem to remind you of His character, to remind you of His care. Look what it says here: "And many rebuked him." Jesus's handlers didn't share His character. They saw this guy as an interruption. Listen, you will never pray a prayer of need to your Messiah that He will receive as an interruption.
How beautiful is that? You will never pray a prayer to your Messiah that He will ever receive as an interruption. Bartimaeus refuses to be silent. They tell him essentially to shut up and he won't. He cries out again, "Son of David, have mercy on me." Now, here's what I want you to see: the turning point of this passage is not Bartimaeus's persistence; yes, he was persistent; but all the persistence in the world, all the crying in the world, all the running after in the world of Jesus wouldn't help if Jesus isn't full of mercy.
The epicenter of the passage, the turning point of the passage, is when Jesus stops. He stops! He stops! He stops for one man; that's His mercy! Not for 1000, not for kings and rulers, not because this man has importance. He doesn't stop because of what's in this man; He stops because of what's in Him. He stops! He stops! He stops! It's an amazing thing. And when He stops, you just know that things are going to radically change. What a beautiful moment. And Jesus, next, does the unthinkable. He calls this poor, infirmed, unremarkable man to come to Him.
And what you see, in that moment, is the Lord Creator standing before His broken creation; that's what you see: Creator God standing now, looking at the horrible effects of The Fall. There was a day on earth where there was no blindness; there was no sickness; there was none of that suffering. This is Jesus, viewing the ravages of The Fall, of sin. The Creator, standing in front of His broken creation; this is why He has come. He has come to make all things new. This is exactly why He is here. "He comes to make His blessings known, far as the curse is found."
They call to the blind man and say to him, "Take heart. Get up; he is calling you." Essentially, Bartimaeus throws off his cloak, springs to his feet, and runs to Jesus. I don't believe this man had done much running in his life, but he ran this time. And although he couldn't see, he knew where he was running. And Jesus asked this question, "What do you want me to do?" Before we consider that question, I want to just get you to think about a couple of things. This moment now where Jesus calls Bartimaeus and Bartimaeus runs to Him reminds us of a couple things.
No One Outside the Spread of Mercy
I've hinted at one. Here's the first one: that no one is outside of the spread of the mercy of this Messiah. His Kingdom devastates all those standards of race, and gender, and station, and power, and money, and possessions, and appearance. His mercy levels the playing field. Before this Messiah, the king is but a beggar, and before this Messiah, the beggar gets the reception of a king! That's how it works. And Bartimaeus is as welcomed before Jesus as Herod would be; both of them would stand before Jesus completely unable to solve their problem.
He doesn't look, Jesus doesn't look at people with the eyes that we look at. It's so hard for us to get beyond appearance, and get beyond power, and get beyond politics, and get beyond education, and get beyond wealth. We still struggle with treating people differently, but not Christ. His heart is pure. His mercy is open! You run to Him, and you'll receive mercy no matter who you are. I mentioned this, hinted at this as I quoted that Christmas hymn, that clearly we see, in this moment, that Jesus cares about all of the effects of the fall.
Yes, He understands that the epicenter of what He will do is His work of redemption, that work of forgiveness and deliverance from sin and the gift of righteousness and eternal life. But you should never think that Jesus only cares about your soul; He cares about all of the effects of sin on this world and will restore it all. Well, that question, "What do you want me to do?" is the second time we've heard that; we just saw that recently. The last time Jesus asked that question, the motives of the people who approached him weren't as noble as Bartimaeus.
It was James and John wanting to make sure that they had a special seat in the Kingdom, and what they got was a rebuke because they weren't seeking mercy; they were seeking personal prominence. Not so Bartimaeus, he knows that he has no hope but Christ. And Jesus essentially says this, "Go your way; you have done the one thing that I require. You have come to me in faith, and you are whole." Scripture says, "Immediately he recovered his sight and he followed him on the way." Bartimaeus not only got the recovery of his sight; he got a new life, and followed Christ.
You see, what are the lessons of this passage? The lessons are not, "Here's what faith looks like." The lessons are not, "Here's how to get God's attention." The lessons are not, "Buck up and believe." The lessons are: Jesus is glorious in mercy; and no matter where I am, no matter who I am, no matter what my struggle, you run to Him, and you will find mercy that greets you in your time of need. We are Bartimaeus; we have nothing to offer; we have a problem that is as unsolvable as his blindness; it's called sin.
We can't do anything to deliver ourselves from it. Our hope is that this Messiah stops; He calls us; He touches us by His grace, and we are made whole. He is the only hero we need; His name is Jesus. Let's pray: Lord, thank you for this beautiful hope-giving, encouraging passage. Thank you that it reminds us of that Gospel equation that courses its way through Mark: Divine Power + Divine Compassion = Everything You Need! Thank you for Your tender mercy. Thank you that You are not a respecter of persons.
Thank you that You never receive our cries as an interruption. The Psalm says that Your eyes scan Your people, and Your ears are attentive to their cries. Oh Lord! May we run to You and find mercy to meet us in our time of need? In Jesus's name, Amen.
