The Bartimaeus Miracle

Mark 10:46-52 TLB And so they reached Jericho. Later, as they left town, a great crowd was following. Now it happened that a blind beggar named Bartimaeus (the son of Timaeus) was sitting beside the road as Jesus was going by. [47] When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus from Nazareth was near, he began to shout out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" [48] "Shut up!" some of the people yelled at him. But he only shouted the louder, again and again, "O Son of David, have mercy on me!" [49] When Jesus heard him, he stopped there in the road and said, "Tell him to come here." So they called the blind man. "You lucky fellow," they said, "come on, he's calling you!" [50] Bartimaeus yanked off his old coat and flung it aside, jumped up and came to Jesus. [51] "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked. "O Teacher," the blind man said, "I want to see!" [52] And Jesus said to him, "All right, it's done. Your faith has healed you." And instantly the blind man could see and followed Jesus down the road!

I have to start by saying this portion of scripture really got my attention, starting with the first sentence. It says, and they came to Jericho: then it says, and as he went out of Jericho.

Now here is what got my attention. Jesus, the son of God. The anointed of God. The one who heals the sick, cleanses the lepers, casts out devils, and raises the dead, comes to Jericho, goes through Jericho, and there's no record anything happens until blind Bartimaeus gets his attention.

So here is my question, is it possible for Jesus to pass by us, and we don't receive anything from him? I don't know about you, but thats a scary prospect to me. And yet I believe not only is it possible, I believe it happens all the time.

I'm going to shock somebody right now. God doesn't heal you, deliver you, anoint you, bless you, or give you a miracle just because you need it, and you're in the right place.

I'm sure that was the case for many in Jericho, but Jesus didn't stop to do a miracle for anyone in Jericho. Do you know why? Because nobody stopped him.

Nobody reached out in faith and put a demand on him, until Blind Bartimaeus.

The point is, Jesus is capable of healing you, blessing you, and giving you a miracle or breakthrough, or whatever you need. But need is not the catylast for Jesus touching you. Need is certainly an ingredient, but millions of people that need the miracle touch of Jesus will never receive it. Why? Because God is waiting for you to initiate the encounter.

Examples: The syrophenecian woman, the centurian, the woman with the issue of blood, Mary and Martha, Lazarus sisters, the leprous man, Jairus the ruler of the synagogue. And the list goes on and on.

God is waiting for you to initiate an encounter. He sees your need, and he feels your need, but need is not enough, there must be a reaching. There must be a desire that expresses itself in a tangible way.

In life we don't get what we need or even what we want. We get what we reach for. Pursuit is the proof of desire. You are not qualified for anything that you are unwilling to pursue.

Jesus didn't say, you have not because you don't have a need. He said ye have not because ye ask not. Then he presented to us 3 levels of asking. Ask, Seek, and Knock.

What did the blind man feel: We can't say positively exactly what this blind man felt, but knowing human nature we can guess that he was feeling slighted or cheated, like life hadn't been fair to him.

He may have been angry, and resentful. He may even have been angry at God.

What we do know for sure is... He was a beggar. This means that he basically lived on the generosity of others. So we can rightly assume that being a beggar, he was living a very scrappy, skimpy life, Just barely getting by.

We don't know how long he had been blind. It could have been a year, or he could have been born blind. It's very possible that by this time, he had given up hope that he would ever see again. In all likely hood we're looking at a man who struggles every day just to survive. He is likely, frustrated, angry, and feels that life has dealt him a bad hand. Very possibly he was angry at society and possibly even blamed God for his blindness.

Now we look at what the blind man heard: He heard good news. We don't know exactly what he heard, but we know he heard enough. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.