Leaving Jericho

Leaving Jericho

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. Mark 10:51-52 NIV

Intro: A young man, who had worked for years on the railroad,

wanted a job as the lead signalman for a train company.

For his interview the track foreman asked…,

"What would you do if you realized that two trains were heading toward each other on the same track?"

The young man said,

"That's easy. I would push the switch button and switch tracks for one of the trains."

"The foreman asked, "What if the switch button did not work?”

The young man said,

“Then I would jump down out of the switchbox and use the manual lever to change one of the tracks.

The foreman asked, “What if the manual lever broke?"

The young man said,

"Then I'd would call the next signal box and let them know what was happening."

The foreman continued on, "What if the phone was busy?"

The young man said, "Well, in that case, I would rush across the track to the emergency phone and call.”

Then, the foreman asked, "What would you do if the emergency phone had been vandalized?"

The young man said, "Well…, then I would run into town…, and get my uncle."

The foreman was a little puzzled by his answer

So he asked, "Why would you go get your uncle?"

The young man answered, "That's simple. Because my uncle…, has never seen a train crash before."

Everyone I know has been wounded to some degree or another and needs healing.

In Mark 10 Jesus tells the story about a man who must have felt hopeless,

like there was no way out…,

like life was unfair and had dealt him a crashing blow…

But Jesus came and turned his life around.

We can see how a person’s life is miraculously changed by an encounter with Jesus.

The man in this story was blind

His name was Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus had very little going for him.

Bartimaeus was begging on the side of road just at the edge of the city of Jericho.

There did not seem to be any chance that things were going to get much better for Bartimaeus…

There did not seem to be any way for him to break out of the cycle of poverty, and hunger,

and dependence upon someone else to take care of him.

You can only imagine what it would feel like to be totally blind…

When I close my eyes I can still see a glow of light…a glimmer of shadows.

The nearest I ever came to understanding what total blindness was like…

Was during a tour of Mammoth Cave National Park.

After walking down…, down…, into the deep part of the cave…,

They turned the lights off.

In the pitch black of the underground cave…, there was absolute darkness.

There was no glow

There was no glimmer of light…

Combined with the utter helplessness of not knowing your way back out of the cave…

The thoughts of having to feel your way along blindly…

Not knowing whether your next step could be your last step

That you might fall over the edge of a cliff

Or make a wrong turn and instead of going up toward the surface and the light

You would only go deeper and deeper into the underground.

Other thoughts of not seeing the sun rise…,

To never see a starry night,

To never see the beauty of the moon light…

To not see a smiling face in the crowd…,

To not see a family members face…,

Blind Bartimaeus had become totally dependent upon others.

Blind Bartimaeus had to be led around…

Blind Bartimaeus had to be led by someone to the well for a drink of water

Blind Bartimaeus had to be led by someone to the shade during the heat of the day

Blind Bartimeaus had to be led by someone to the roadside to beg…

Blind Bartimeaus had to be led back to the place where he slept….

When Jesus reached Jericho and Bartimaues heard that Jesus from Nazareth was nearby

He began to shout out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Some people in the crowd "rebuked him and told him to be quiet." Mark 10:48

You see, the crowd had Bartimaeus stereotyped.

In their eyes, he would never be anything more than a blind beggar.

In their eyes, he would never be anything but a burden.

All that Blind Bartimaeus could do…, was to stumble through life blindly

or be led by someone down the road.

And he would sit along the side of the road…, and beg.