God's Amazing Grace

Mark 10:46-52

1. The Right Place - vs. 46 2. The Right Person - vs. 47-48 3. The Right Partition - vs. 49-51 4. The Right Praise - vs. 52

- Bartimeus was a blind beggar

Key Words: 46: Great Multitude, begging blind man 47: He Heard 48: He Cried Out More 49: Jesus commanded Him; Be of good cheer 50: Threw aside his garment 51: 52:

Blindness in Scripture can hold both a literal and metaphorical sense. For example, Eli the priest’s blindness in 1 Sam 3:1–3 represents Israel’s blindness to God

There are three different accounts of this miracle:

• Mark 10:46–52. Christ restores the beggar’s sight when going from Jericho to Jerusalem. The beggar’s name is given as Bartimaeus.

• Luke 18:35–43. Christ performs the same miracle “as he drew near to Jericho” (ESV). The blind man is not named.

• Matthew 20:29–34. Jesus heals two unnamed blind men as he was leaving Jericho.

Because these records are so similar, it is likely that they all describe the same event. The minor differences can be taken as evidence of how widely the incident was known before the Gospels were given their final form.

Leviticus 21:18 restricts anyone from entering the sanctuary who has a defect of any kind, including blindness, lameness, having a disfigured face or deformed limb, broken bones, ocular defects, eczema, scabs, crushed testicles, and hunchbacks or dwarfism.

BLINDNESS. Disqualified for priestly office, Lev. 21:18. Of animals, disqualified for a sacrifice, Lev. 22:22; Deut. 15:21; Mal. 1:8. Miraculously inflicted upon the Sodomites, Gen. 19:11; Syrians, 2 Kin. 6:18–23; Saul of Tarsus, Acts 9:8, 9; Elymas, Acts 13:11. Sent as a judgment, Deut. 28:28. Miraculous healing of, Matt. 9:27–30; 11:5; 12:22; 21:14; of Bartimaeus, Matt. 20:30–34; Mark 10:46–52; a man of Bethsaida, Mark 8:22–25; man born blind, John 9:1–7.

The term “spiritual blindness” is a figurative way of defining the lost and hopeless condition of sinful mankind. Such blindness includes willful rejection of God’s revelation in his creation and in Scripture, and an inability to see the truth of the gospel. Moses spoke of Israel’s apostasy as “blindness” (Dt 29:4); Isaiah called it “dim eyes” (Is 6:10 NASB). Jesus charged the Pharisees with unbelief that made them “blind guides of the blind” (Mt 15:14; 23:16). Spiritual blindness is related to “hardness of heart” (Mk 8:17, 18; Eph 4:17, 18) and is understood as the judgment of God both upon unbelievers (Rom 1:20, 21) and upon Israel (Is 29:10; Rom 11:7, 8). According to Paul it is also the work of Satan, who “has blinded the minds of the unbelievers” (2 Cor 4:4). Healing from spiritual blindness is a special gift of God’s grace through the “new birth” (Jn 3:3) and by seeing “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Cor 4:4).

ELYMAS, a false prophet, punished with blindness, Acts 13:8, 10

Bribery was strictly forbidden: “You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the officials, and subverts the cause of those who are in the right” (Ex 23:8