Bothersome Bartemaeus
Job 42: 1-6, 10-17 / Mark 10: 46-52
Intro: One of the great mysteries of life is how the idiot that your daughter married can be the father of the smartest grandchildren in the whole world. --- Officer, the guy yelled, my father-in-law knocked me down with his car! Are you sure it was your father-in-law? ABSOLUTELY! I’d recognize that laugh anywhere! “Pain-in-the-neck” people
I. Vs. 47 – Here is a beggar, seeking to draw attention to himself – shouting, disruptive.
A. Surely knew something about Jesus – hears it is Jesus and raises fuss. – faith
B. Desperate desire or desperate need sometimes brings people to take desperate action.
C. Vs. 48 – rebuke comes from the crowd. “The good of the many outweighs the need of the one.”
II. Bartemaeus knew exactly what he wanted and needed. Vs. 51.
A. Go to dentist – pull teeth until your find the one that is hurting me.
B. Self-examination before we go to Jesus with “NEEDS” the art of stopping takes humility and reverence.
C. The beggar is a nuisance – Yet, Jesus turns from the many to the needs of the one. – says YOU COUNT. One more blind man healed would make no difference
III. Cheer up / get up / STOP!
A. Jesus stops to address the need.
B. In 2007, a experiment was launched to see how people responded to musicians playing the metro station in Washington, DC. No one knew the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars and no one stopped to listen.
C. Bartemaeus stopped. Jesus stopped to address a need. We need to stop, think and respond when Christ calls.
Conclusion – Bartemaeus did not fold garment carefully – he threw it away and leaped to his feet. Such a headlong response to the words “he is calling you” is something we greatly need. We like to look before we leap. . . So frequently, after a look, we do not leap at all. Christ is calling you . . .Will you leap to your feet and follow or walk away?
