TOPIC:‌"The Blind Man Who Was Desperate"

                 by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap

 

TEXT:‌Mark 10:46-52

 

‌‌"What do you want me to do for you? Jesus asked him. The blind man said,

Rabbi, I want to see" (Mark 10:51, NIV).

 

‌Though this incident is recorded also by Matthew and Luke, we are indebted to Mark for giving us a detailed account of what happened. As we come to this chapter we find Jesus making His last journey to Jerusalem to be crucified. A sizeable crowd is following Him. Jesus was going to die in order that lost men may be saved, blind men may see, and dead men may one day live again. So Bartimaeus in his lostness and in his blindness needed a meeting with Jesus who was both his life and light. Only Christ could meet his desperate need and as we look at Bartimaeus we find that he was indeed desperate.

 

‌As Jesus went out from Jericho some eighteen miles from Jerusalem, He beheld two blind men sitting by the roadside begging. The presence of a blind beggar outside the city gates on the road people traveled to Jerusalem was common sight in that day. Bartimaeus was the more active, the more outspoken of the two, and he alone is mentioned by name by Mark in his account of the incident. Having heard of the healing power of Christ, he cries out in verse 47: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." Let us now consider three important things in this story about Jesus and his healing of Bartimaeus.

 

I.

 

‌Think, first of all, of the SITUATION that CONFRONTED Jesus. We read about it in the words of verse 46: "As Jesus and His disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus...was sitting by the roadside begging." I want to tell you something beautiful that we glean from this story of Bartimaeus: Jesus Christ is able to meet every difficult situation. He is in the business of solving problems. From these words of Mark two things stand out about Bartimaeus that demand our attention.

 

‌For one thing, he was BLIND. He could not see. Notice the words: "a blind man, Bartimaeus" (v. 46). Marvin Vincent, the New Testament scholar, states that diseases of the eyes were a very common sight in the East. It seems that the slightest wind caused the air to be filled with a fine dust that was very injurious to the eyes. Blindness! What a condition that must be for any one. I have often wondered what would be worse, not able to hear or not able to see. Personally, I would rather lose my hearing than my sight.

 

‌Now spiritual blindness is a condition that characterizes modern man. Physical blindness is bad enough, but if a person has . . .