Mark 10:46-52 The Man With No Name Grace 10/25/2009

Jesus and His disciples were on their way to Jerusalem for one of the biggest festivities celebrated by the Jews. It was nearing the time of the Passover and Jesus, along with thousands would be in Jerusalem for that time. On their way to Jerusalem for that celebration, they passed through the city of Jericho. On the outskirts of Jericho, there were beggars sitting by the roadside begging for money. And among these by the roadside was a man called Bartimaeus.

As a blind beggar, he was really a nobody in the eyes of many. Now I don’t say that to be mean. I say that because the word “bar” in Hebrew means son and Timaeus was a name. So Bartimaeus was simply known as son of Timaeus. He didn’t have a name, at least not one that anyone knew. He was just son of Timaeus. Now men were often known as someone, son of someone. For example, the Apostle Peter was Simon bar Jonah or Simon, son of Jonah. James and John, the sons of Zebedee. This helped distinguish which Simon or James or John one was speaking about. But here we have just son of Timaeus. Do you get the idea that this guy was not very well thought of if thought of at all? He was a poor, helpless, blind beggar. He was a nobody who would have been easy to walk by and ignore altogether. And that’s probably just what people did. We see it today. Someone homeless comes up looking for a handout and many people just look past and ignore them as if there was no one there at all.

Bartimaeus sits there by the roadside when he hears a crowd approaching. Aha! An opportunity for a little extra money today from this crowd. But when he hears that Jesus of Nazareth is there he began to shout out to Him saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many of the somebodies in the crowd sternly warned the nobody sitting there to be quiet, but he cried out all the more saying, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” It is rather telling that Bartimaeus, even though he is blind and a beggar, addresses Jesus as “Son of David.” This was actually the title of the Messiah. Bartimaeus may have been blind physically, but his spiritual vision was far more acute than many of the religious leaders of his day.

So here he is, crying out for all he’s worth saying, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” You know what? Jesus noticed. That’s the first thing I want us to see this morning. Jesus notices people that the crowd misses or ignores. He pays attention to those who are not always so popular with the main group. Jesus sees and cares about those who are invisible to many others. It’s one of the marvelous characteristics of the One sent from God who walked among us.

The second thing to see in this story is that Bartimaeus ignored the crowds advice and called out all the more. Good thing. If he had listened to the crowd and been silent, he would have still been blind. He would have missed this gift of healing. I love how Bart responds here. Jesus says, “Call him here” and the crowd says, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” Bartimaeus doesn’t just get up. He throws off his cloak as if it hinders him, springs up like a young lad and went to Jesus. He’s excited. He’s expectant. He’s still blind but you wouldn’t know it from the way he just moved.

Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” It’s a straightforward question. And Bartimaeus gives an equally straightforward answer. “Let me see again.” As I was preparing for this I read some other sermons on this text and one of them was a masterfully crafted sermon about this blind beggar living his whole life unable to see and the wonder of it all when he could finally see colors and so on. The only problem with that sermon is the word again. Bart said let me see, again! That means that somewhere along the line he could see before. He knew what he was missing in his physical blindness. Jesus tells Bart that his faith has made him well and Bart regained his sight and followed Jesus. Bartimaeus didn’t just say “thank you” and go along his merry way. He followed Jesus on “the way”. He didn’t just have faith. He didn’t become just a believer> Bartimaeus became a follower of Jesus that day.

I am reminded here of the story of another beggar. This one is in the Monty Python movie, “The Life of Brian.” The movie is a fairly irreverent spoof on religion, especially Christianity, with Brian as the spoof figure of Jesus. In this one scene, Brian and his mother are walking through town and get hit up by a beggar. “Alms for an ex-leper. Alms for an ex-leper, please.” Brian says: “What do you mean an ex-leper?” And the leper says: “Well I was cured” “Who cured you?” Brian says. And the leper says: “That Jesus fellow. Now I have a hard time making a living. All I’ve ever known how to do is beg.” And Brian says: “Well why don’t you go back and ask him to make you a leper again?” And the leper says: “Well, I might not like that. Maybe he could just make me a leper during working hours or something.”

So Brian just sighs, drops a coin into his cup and walks away. And the ex-leper looks into his cup and says: “A half a dinari! Look at this - he only gives me a half a dinari!” And Brian says: “Some people are never satisfied.” To which the leper replies: “That’s just what Jesus said!”

So do you want to be like the leper, ungrateful for the help that has been given to him, unwilling to step out into something new and therefore stuck in a bad place? Or do you want to be like Bartimaeus, able to accept help, receive mercy and grace and move on in a new direction? And how do you respond when the Lord calls to you like He did to Bartimaeus? Do you leap at the chance to live better, grow and serve or do you cringe and think, “Oh no. What now?” How will you follow the Lord when He calls the next time? Amen