Mark 10:46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus was leaving the city with his disciples and a large crowd, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" 49 Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Take courage! On your feet! He's calling you." 50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. 51 "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." 52 "Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
Introduction: Act 2 (Greatness and Insight)
Context of Act 2
On a scale from one to ten, how insightful would you say you are? How clearly do you see the world? And when I say, “the world,” I mean the whole world—not just the physical realm. When you consider the whole scope of reality—physical, tangible things, thoughts, spirits, truth, error, right and wrong, angels, demons, God, the meaning of events that take place, the relative value of things—how clearly do you perceive all that?
It’s not an easy question to answer, because one thing about poor vision—you never know how poor it is until you get glasses. I remember when I first got my glasses. The day I got them, I went on a long road trip and they were pinching my head, so I took them off. And when I did, it was so blurry that I thought, This isn’t safe! and put them right back on. But prior to that day I had driven every day without glasses and didn’t have any idea how unsafe it was. It’s hard to know how bad your vision is until it gets corrected.
The question of how much insight you have is an important one—so important that it dominates Act 2 of Jesus’ life. Mark divides Jesus’ life into three parts. Act 1 is the first half of the book, which is all about who Jesus is. Act 3 is the passion week in Jerusalem. In between those is Act 2, which starts at that midpoint (chapter 8), and covers that long journey that begins way up north of Israel and ends at Jerusalem. The focus of that journey is for Jesus to train the Twelve. That’s Act 2, and it’s easy to spot in the book of Mark because it begins and ends exactly the same way—with Jesus healing a blind man. It’s a section all about Jesus giving insight to his disciples, and it starts and ends with the only two blind men in the book of Mark, and they both get healed.
Healing a blind man is a big deal. For one thing it was considered the most impossible of all healing miracles. Never in the history of the world, prior to Jesus’ time, is there any record of any blind person being healed. None of the OT miracle workers ever did it, and yet the OT prophets said that in the messianic age, it would happen.
Isaiah 29:18 In that day the deaf will hear … and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
That will be the mark of the coming of Messiah. And sure enough, Jesus comes and heals blind people routinely. And two of them are recorded in Mark. And Mark strategically places them as bookends to this whole section about spiritual insight.
And if you doubt whether it’s about spiritual insight—when Jesus heals a blind man and you wonder, Is that meant to teach us something about Jesus providing spiritual insight? Or is it just Jesus showing compassion to someone who needs physical healing?—Jesus answers that question unequivocally when he heals the first blind man. Right before healing him, Jesus teaches his disciples something and they don’t understand. And Jesus gets on them about it. He says, “Do you still not understand? Do you have eyes but fail to see?” Then he immediately takes a blind man and heals him in two stages. First he heals his eyes but not his understanding, so he saw men like trees walking around—he could see but couldn’t understand what he was seeing. Then Jesus did a second miracle and healed his understanding, so he could properly interpret what he saw. That healing was a parable of what Jesus meant in spiritual terms when he said the disciples had eyes but couldn’t understand. So yes—no question about it—when Jesus healed the blind, he did it in ways designed to teach us about gaining spiritual insight from him. So that’s what we should be getting from this passage.
And all through Act 2, we get to see exactly what it looks like when a group of 12 guys have partial vision. In some areas they see as clear as day; other areas they’re blind as bats. “Who do you say I am?” “You’re the Christ!” Good eye, Peter. But then just seconds later Peter is rebuking Jesus for talking about the cross. Not such a good eye, Peter.
They understood Jesus was the Christ. They understood that they were to leave everything behind and follow him. They understood enough that Jesus could send them out on their own to preach repentance and to entrust them with the power to work miracles. They understood a lot, but they had blind spots. And one in particular that was especially troublesome. What was their biggest blind spot? Hand’s down, it was the first shall be last principle—lowliness as the path to true greatness.
This world’s concept of greatness is completely upside-down. The path to earthly greatness and the path to kingdom greatness are polar opposites. One involves exalting yourself above other people and the other involves getting below other people are serving them. And the disciples were infected with that upside-down vision of this world—that was their big blind spot, and Jesus devotes all of Act 2 working at healing that blind spot. To save their lives, they couldn’t get that one straight, which is why they could never understand when Jesus told them about his suffering and death.
Mark 9:31 … "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise." 32 But they did not understand what he meant.
They knew Jesus was great, and so with their concept of human greatness, the idea of him being humiliated and suffering and being put to death just didn’t compute. Three times Jesus tells the whole group that he’s going to die and each time their response focused on their desire for human greatness. First time: “I’m going to die” Peter: “No you’re not.” Second time: “I’m going to die.” “Okay, but which one of us is the greatest? It’s me, right?” Third time, “I’m going to die.” James and John: “Hey, can we have the top two spots in the kingdom?” Clear spiritual vision in some areas, but 12 Mr. Magoo’s when it came to understanding true greatness.
So Jesus keeps teaching them about the last being first, and the greatest being the greatest servant, and the disciples keep not getting it. And so Jesus makes one last effort to get the point across before arriving in Jerusalem. This will be the last of Jesus’ healings.
The Story
Mark 10:46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus was leaving the city with his disciples and a large crowd
That’s the second time Mark has mentioned this growing crowd.
46 … a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging.
Where is Bartimaeus on the Greatness Scale?
Anyone who has been tracking for the last three chapters should immediately ask, “Where does this guy fall on the greatness scale?” The last guy we encountered—the rich young ruler—he was off the charts on the scale of human greatness, and he couldn’t even enter the kingdom of God. How about this guy? A beggar is about as low as it goes. A blind beggar goes even lower. If you want to know where he is on the earthly greatness scale, just look at how Jesus’ followers treat him down in v.48.
47 … he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet
“Jesus, please …” “Shut up!” Three chapters of Jesus saying, “Welcome the lowly, serve them—babies, children, outcasts—welcome them.” “Ok, Jesus, got it.” Then the first lowly person they meet—“Shut up!”
Why do they rebuke this guy? How does it hurt them if he calls out to Jesus? It doesn’t—this is just the way people at the bottom of the honor scale are treated in this world. When you’re this lowly in whatever culture you’re in, everyone’s your boss. People boss you around, treat you like a child, say no to you just out of reflex. It’s how the whole human greatness system works. And this crowd following Jesus has bought into that that system hook, line, and sinker.
So right off the bat in this story you’re asking—who is it that’s really blind in this account? Is this the story of blind Bartimaeus, or the blind crowd?
Son of Honor
Anyway, Bartimaeus is way down at the bottom of the earthly greatness scale—what about the scale of true greatness? Let’s take a closer look at v.46. 46 … a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus) Mark tells us this guy’s name and his father’s name. Does that strike you as unusual? Did you know that of all the thousands of people Jesus healed, this is the only one where we’re told the person’s name? We never get the names of people who were healed—why this guy? Could it be that the Holy Spirit wanted to take this nobody—this beggar that people didn’t even notice as a human being—and honor him by memorializing his name forever on the pages of Holy Scripture?
All the commentators say it’s probably because Bartimaeus became well known later on in the church, but that’s pure speculation. We don’t have any evidence along that line. Nor does it explain why his father would be mentioned.
The explanation that Bar-timaeus means Son of Timaeus reminds us once again of the fact that Mark is writing to Gentiles, not Jews, so he always has to explain Jewish customs and Jewish lingo. Any Jew would know that in Hebrew (and Aramaic), “bar” means “son of.” So Mark explains that to the readers—what he doesn’t explain is what the name Timaeus means. Why not? Because the readers already knew. It’s a Greek name, they spoke Greek, so they already knew what Timaeus meant. It’s a form of timao—the Greek word for … honor. Mark says, “This blind beggar—his name was Bartimaeus, which means Son of Honor.”
Remember, this is the climax of Act 2 where Jesus is teaching this first will be last and last will be first principle. And it ends with a guy who’s all the way at the bottom of the human honor scale, he’s kicked aside by Jesus’ followers, and Mark says, “Let me just break a rule and for the only time in all the gospels, I’ve got to tell you the name of someone Jesus healed because it’s so fitting. This filthy, worthless, despised beggar’s name was Son of Honor. Everyone who saw this beggar every day heard his name and thought, That’s ironic Son of honor? And Mark says, “No, not ironic. Perfectly fitting.”
Binocular Bart
So Bartimaeus is at the very bottom on the earthly greatness scale, and we get a hint that he may be way up high on the true greatness scale. How about on the blindness scale? Just how blind is blind Bartimaeus? Close your eyes for a second and imagine. He’s sitting there by the road in total darkness, listening. He hears what he heard every day—crunching gravel under sandals and conversations as people passed by. But then, something different. A crowd. This is a bunch of people all travelling together—lots of conversations, louder volume like you get with a crowd. So he asks someone, “What’s going on?” “Oh, it’s Jesus, the Nazarene, and his crowd of followers.” And he faces the direction of the noise and looks out into the blackness, knowing that somewhere out there in front of him was this man Jesus he had heard about. And so he shouts.
47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
Do you see what he did there? He asks who it is and they tell him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” That’s the blandest way you could possibly describe him. Jesus was one of the commonest names there was at that time. It’s like Dave in our culture—or Mike. “Who is it?” “Mike.” “Mike? Mike who?” “The guy from Platteville.” That’s our culture’s equivalent to Jesus of Nazareth—Mike from Platteville.
That’s what they tell him, so you expect him to use that same title to call for Jesus. “Who is it?” “Jesus of Nazareth.” “Oh, well, Hey! Jesus of Nazareth! Have mercy on me.” That’s what you would expect, but instead he gives him a messianic title. This is the only time in the whole gospel of Mark that Jesus is called the Son of David. So he says, “Tell me who he is,” they tell him, and then he says, “Okay, now that I know who you’re talking about, let me tell you who he really is.”
Son of David
A thousand years before this, God came to King David and made him a promise.
2 Samuel 7:12 When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring … and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son.
Jeremiah 23:5 "The days are coming," declares the Yahweh, "when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. 6 … he will be called: The Yahweh Our Righteousness.
Ezekiel 34:23 I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David.
Hosea 3:5 Afterwards the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king.
The Jews didn’t always pick up everything the OT said about the Messiah, but this was something that was impossible to miss. And this blind man is the only one in the whole book of Mark who could see that (at least, he’s the only one who says it). Where other people say nothing but ordinary Mike from Platteville, Bartimaeus saw none other than the eternal Son of David.
Persistent Cry
So they tell him who it is, and he immediately shouts for Jesus to show him mercy. Have you ever been near a crowd like this and suddenly shouted? What do you do next? You look around to see if everyone is staring at you. Bartimaeus can’t look around, but he can listen. So he shouts, then he listens. Would Jesus respond? Did the Son of David even hear him? Crunch, crunch, crunch on the gravel. Someone’s approaching! “Hey, beggar, shut up! Nobody wants to hear your whining right now.” And it says many rebuked him. Suddenly he’s surrounded by a bunch of angry voices. But no response from Jesus.
What do you suppose this guy is thinking at this point? It’s not looking good, is it? If those people in the crowd had time to respond, then Jesus would have been able to respond by now if he was going to. But he hasn’t. What would you be thinking at that point? Maybe Jesus doesn’t bother with people like me? Wouldn’t blame him. All my life I’ve been told it was because of my sin that God cursed me with this blindness; maybe that’s true. Maybe the Son of David looked at me, shook his head, and kept walking. Or maybe he’s just in a hurry. It’s another 6 hours to Jerusalem, it’s a torturous climb—he needs to get going. Or maybe—just maybe—he’s willing to stop and help me; he just didn’t hear me.
48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"
Right while everyone is rebuking him, he sucks in a huge breath, musters all his strength, and stretches his voice to the limit. SON OF DAVID! HAVE MERCY ON ME! Then it gets real quiet. He listens again. What’s going on? There’s no noise. Are they all gone now? Then there’s some movement—some people approaching again—crunch, crunch. Someone touches his shoulder. His arms jerk up instinctively to protect himself, but then they say, “Hey. Hey—get up. He’s calling you!”
Jesus Delegates the Call
49 Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Take courage! On your feet! He's calling you."
Why did Jesus do that? Why not just walk over to the guy himself? I’ll talk about that in a separate podcast—we don’t have time tonight. For now I’ll just say it’s significant that Jesus called him—that’s mentioned three times in one verse (v.49). And it’s significant that Jesus delegated that task instead of doing it himself.
The Man’s Response
Okay, let’s look at Bartimaeus’ response. Look how excited he gets.
50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
Pretty spry for a beggar, isn’t he? He’s excited. He throws his cloak aside—his cloak is probably the only thing he owned. And it was so essential for life that the OT law said it’s the one thing you can never take from someone no matter how much he owes you. The rich young ruler wouldn’t get rid of the things Jesus told him to get rid up, but Bartimaeus throws his most essential possession aside just to avoid being slowed down even one second in getting to Jesus.
51 "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him.
Obvious Question?
Jesus takes some heat from the commentators for asking that question. They all say the same thing: “Why does Jesus have to ask what he wants? Isn’t it obvious?” Um … no. How many of you have met a blind person before? And how many of those blind people asked you to restore their sight? None? Oh, that’s so strange because I thought that was super-obvious that’s what a blind person would ask for.
If you ask a beggar what he wants, there is an obvious answer, but it’s not a request for a miraculous healing. It’s what? Money! That’s what every beggar wants—that’s why they’re begging.
Do you think Bartimaeus asked anyone else to give him sight? I doubt it. The fact that Bartimaeus answers “I want to see” instead of “Can you spare a dollar” tells us what he believed about Jesus. He had remarkable faith, remarkable insight, he knew exactly who Jesus was and what he was capable of, and Jesus asks this question to expose all that. If Jesus would have just healed him without first asking this question, we never would have seen Bartimaeus’ faith. When Jesus sees faith, he always wants to expose it. I wonder how many of the hardships and problems in your life are there just because Jesus saw the faith in your heart and wanted to expose it—and grow it and build it.
So Jesus exposes his faith and then heals him instantly.
51 … The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." 52 "Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
He was blind at the beginning of Christ’s little sentence; he saw at the end of it. ‘ To paraphrase one writer: Whenever the lungs are opened the air rushes in. The faith is all but contemporaneous with the fulfilment
Rabboni
And when he speaks to Jesus, look how he addresses him.
51 … "Rabbi, I want to see.".
The NIV says Rabbi, but the Greek word here is actually Rabboni. Rabboni was rarely used to refer to human beings, and almost never as a form of address. It was mostly used of God. It was a way of addressing God, not humans.
Clear Vision
This guy is the first human being outside of the 12 who understands who Jesus is. Other people are saying Jesus is a prophet or John the Baptist back from the dead or Elijah. Others said he was demonic, his family thought he was insane. But this guy is the first onlooker to hit the nail right on the head. While almost everyone is blind when it comes to Jesus, and even the disciples’ vision of him is still foggy, this man has 20-20 spiritual vision.
Binocular Bart
This man has been known throughout history as blind Bartimaeus, but if we paid attention to the context of the book of Mark and what Jesus has been teaching for the last few chapters, we’d name this guy something more like eagle eye Bartimaeus, or Binocular Vision Bart or something like that. Just look at the insight this guy has compared to everyone else in the gospel. He understands exactly who Jesus was—none other than the promised Son of David. He sees what Jesus is capable of—the most impossible of all miracles, healing the blind, is something Jesus can do at will. He had insight into the way the kingdom of God functions, with the greatest serving the least.
He knew what to ask for, and he knew what to do when his request was granted. Binocular Bart. He didn’t have eyesight but he had a whole lot of insight.
Blessed Are Those Who Haven’t Seen
And it’s a great encouragement for us that the person in Mark who has the greatest spiritual insight is someone who never saw any of Jesus’ miracles before he believed. That’s encouraging, because that’s us.
John 20:29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
1 Peter 1:8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.
You have to wonder if maybe the blindness was an advantage. He didn’t have physical eyes that could deceive him about Jesus’ ordinary appearance, so he could look directly through the lens of God’s Word.
So what insights can we gain from this passage about insight? Quite a few. We learn some things about the value of insight, and about how get it. We’ll start with the value—why is it so important for you to gain more insight?
The Value of Insight
1) Turns the world right-side-up
We’re all infected with the same disease that makes us see things upside-down and backwards. And that makes it hard to live the Christian life. Have you ever tried one of those games that where the controls are reversed, so to move up you have to down, and left is right? That’s what the Christian life is like when you see things through the world’s distorted prism. But when Jesus gives you insight, the world turns right-side up and you can see things as they really are. And the more that happens, the more all the most difficult aspects of the Christian life fall into place and become natural.
2) Insight Energizes
Once you see the world right-side up and forward instead of upside down and backward, it fills you with energy and passion.
50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
James and John weren’t going to be satisfied until they got the two top thrones in heaven; Bartimaeus is thrilled just to be called. James and John are like a star player getting $20 million a year renegotiating his contract because it’s not enough. Bartimaeus is like Rudy—the scrawny little guy who wasn’t very good but finally made the Notre Dame football team, and the climax of the movie was when the coach put him in a game. It was the highlight of his whole life just to get into the game. That’s Bartimaeus.
Why is he so excited to come to Jesus while others are so lackadaisical? Because of his insight. If someone gave me a free raft trip through the Grand Canyon, I would be elated. Offer the same thing to someone who’s never been rafting and has never heard of the Grand Canyon, and they might not care much. They wouldn’t have enthusiasm because they lack insight into the value of the trip.
Being aware that something is true—that’s knowledge. When it feels true—so true that it affects your emotions and motivation and affections—that’s insight. Insight takes dry facts and opens them into a kaleidoscope of color and texture that move your soul.
One of the worst things that can happen to us is when we lose our zeal. When that happens—the passion cools and your heart turns into one big dial tone, and you read in Romans 12:11 where it says “Never be lacking in zeal but keep your spiritual fervor,” what do you do? You can’t just snap your fingers and get passion back. Kindling a spiritual fire is one of the most difficult tasks there is. One of the ways to do it is through insight.
3) Insight Inspires Courage
And not only does insight give you zeal; it gives you courage. That’s a third benefit. Bartimaeus has a whole crowd rebuking him, but it doesn’t even faze him—he just shouts all the louder. Why? Because insight puts things into perspective. A little bit of jeering from a crowd vs. a chance at getting grace from Jesus? No brainer. Insight into who Jesus is will make you so desperate to get to him that any price is no price at all. The whole world could be against you and it won’t matter.
4) Answered prayer
Insight turns the world right-side up, it energizes, it inspires courage, and one more—it results in answered prayer. Why did Jesus heal Bartimaeus?
52 … your faith has healed you.
Jesus healed him because he believed the truth and trusted Jesus. But belief and trust don’t happen until the truth really feels true, and that comes with insight. When you get insight, you’ll really believe, and that’s when prayers start getting answered.
How to Gain Insight
1) Seek it from Scripture
First, seek it from Scripture, not from a clever mind. Where did Bartimaeus get so much insight into who Jesus was? Right out of the Old Testament—the Son of David. If you sit around trying to dream up insightful ideas in your own head, you’re just going to come up with various versions of this world’s upside-down perspectives. Insight always begins in God’s Word.
2) Believe what you know
How was it that Bartimaeus had more insight than the Apostles? Did he have more information than they had? No. He had the same information—probably less. The difference was in how much he believed in response to that information. If you want greater insight, you must first believe what Jesus has already shown you.
3) Make Obedience Your Motive
Make sure your motive is to use it to follow Jesus. As soon as Jesus gave Bartimaeus his sight, Bartimaeus put it to use and followed Jesus.
When Jesus says, “Go,” it’s not a command to leave; it’s a declaration of emancipation. Jesus was letting this guy know he was free to go—to do whatever he wanted. And that’s exactly what happened. He went where he wanted, and where he wanted to go was wherever Jesus was going. Instead of going home, he followed Jesus along the very difficult road up to Jerusalem where Jesus would face suffering and death. We find out from Jesus’ instruction that James and John wanted to use what they requested to lord it over people. James and John: “I want you to lift me high.” Bartimaeus: “I want you to make me whole.” Bartimaeus used what he got to follow Jesus on the road of suffering. James and John wanted to use their request to bypass the cross and go straight to glory. Bartimaeus used his to follow Jesus in his final approach to the cross.
Those are three principles implied by this passage, but none of those are the main point. By far the greatest emphasis of the passage is on the fourth principle for how to gain greater insight. And it’s such a strong emphasis that I don’t want to short-change it, so I’m going to devote a whole podcast to that one. For now, let me just say this to you: “Take courage! On your feet! He’s calling you.”
Summary
This event ends Act 2, where Jesus labors to teach heal the blindness in his disciples over the right-side up principle. Bartimaeus is at the bottom of the world’s greatness scale and is blind, but he turns out to be a son of honor with more insight than the 12. We are in as desperate straits as he was when we lack spiritual insight, and should seek insight from Christ by seeking it from Scripture, believing, and using it for obedience.
