Jesus Heals the Humble

At one of our pep rally’s in high school they played this game. They got some guys, students, and they sat them all down in chairs. Then there were some girls, also students, standing across from them. The way the game worked was the guys would be blindfolded and one of the girls would kiss them on the cheek and they had to guess which one it was. So they all were pretty excited about this. They put the blindfolds on, some people checked to see if they were working, waved their hands in front of their faces and everything. Once they were good and blindfolded, all the oldest teachers in the school strut out onto the basketball court. The teachers went and sat in the laps of the guys! One by one, each teacher kissed her guy on the cheek. And these guys think it’s the pretty girl kissing them because they can’t see (and they were lied to)! I was just hoping one of them would turn and try to get her on the lips! I forget how it ended, but the fun part was how embarrassed these guys were when they realized that some old teachers sat on their laps and kissed them in front of the whole school!

It can get rough when you can’t see! And we’re looking at a story tonight where a guy has experienced this his whole life! But Jesus has compassion on him and heals him because of his faith.

We should show mercy to those in need as Jesus did for us.

We will see in this story that Jesus stops to show this unfortunate man compassion and then we are going to see that we are all unfortunate people who Jesus has offered compassion to.

Apologetics side note...

There are some minor differences between the different Gospel accounts of this story. Fear not, the Bible is still true!

Matthew and Luke both mention two blind men sitting there, but Mark mentions only one.

Mark doesn’t say there was only one, he just doesn’t mention the second man. This could be because he was focussing on the one who spoke more.

It could be because the person who told Mark the story only mentioned Bartimaeus.

Whatever it was, the accounts are identical, but they also don’t conflict.

The other thing is that Mark and Matthew say Jesus was leaving Jericho, but Luke says Jesus “drew near” to Jericho. So was He coming or going?

Luke doesn’t say the miracle happened as Jesus was on his way into Jericho, he just says that Jesus saw Bartimaeus as he was on his way into Jericho. That could explain it.

Another option, that I go with, is this. There were two Jerichos, the new one and the old one. Jesus was probably going from one to the other when this happened.

Sometimes things may seem to conflict in Scripture, but when you dig into it you will always find that our Scripture is trustworthy. God has given us something we can learn about Him through and live by. And one of the mains themes running through our Scripture is this...

We are made well when we humbly put our faith in Jesus.

We need to see ourselves in Bartimaeus. We need to see the spiritual truth being pointed out here.

I tore my Achilles tendon a few years ago… tell how it happened, thought it was a student

I didn’t know what I had done. The health professionals I was seeing didn’t know what I had done. So I just kept walking on it and trying to make it feel better. It wasn’t getting better. Finally I went to an orthopedic doctor and he checked it out...

Finally had an answer and was able to get it better.

So all of Jesus’ healings serve at least a couple purposes. They reveal who He is (God) and they draw people to him.

These healings are never just for the sake of healing people. They serve a greater purpose every time.

The purpose of this miracle is to show Jesus’ power and compassion, and to give a physical example of the spiritual truth that if we humble ourselves and put our faith in Jesus, He will heal us.

I want to take a minutes to talk about a misunderstanding of the miracles of Jesus. Some believe they are showing us that God wants to keep us healthy and wealthy.

This is known commonly as the “prosperity Gospel”, I might call it heresy instead.

People focus in on these stories and certain parts of Scripture and decide that if you give enough money to the church and build up enough faith in yourself, then God will make you rich, healthy, and happy.

The Bible does not say this! But it does say this...

Philippians 3:8 ESV

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

It says that there will be suffering in our lives because of Jesus. It says that we shouldn’t cling to the treasures of this world or love this world.

Paul certainly didn’t live the way these prosperity preachers talk about, and I think he had more faith than most Christians.

This false gospel is dangerous because it puts something besides Jesus up front.

It deflects attention onto God’s gifts as the main source of our happiness rather than God Himself. -John Piper

It deflects attention onto God’s gifts as the main source of our happiness rather than God Himself. -John Piper

It deflects attention onto God’s gifts as the main source of our happiness rather than God Himself. -John Piper

I had a dirt bike when I was in middle school. This guy who lived in my neighborhood started to be really friendly towards me. He started stopping by to ride my dirt bike a lot. Did he like me?

If you get interested in Jesus when you hear that you could get rich, that’s not faith that saves. That’s disguised greed.

Jesus is certainly capable of giving riches and healing to us, and He may, but those are not the prizes of following Him. He is the price of following Him!

That’s what Bartimaeus understood, because he hops up to follow Jesus immediately!

He got there by humbling himself and acknowledging that there was nothing he could do and he needed Jesus.

This describes us spiritually. We have to know that we cannot save ourselves. We are as capable to do that as Bartimaeus was to give himself sight.

We must admit we need healing and that we are unable to do it, then put our faith in Jesus for that healing.

He understood his need and he acted on it. He’s calling to Jesus and people are telling him to be quiet, and he just gets louder.

We should be so serious about pursuing Jesus! He is the only one with the power to heal our hearts!

Matthew 5:3 ESV

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Romans 10:10 ESV

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

If you’re going to confess your sin, you must admit you have them. And why would you confess them if you can do something yourself?

If you break something, do you tell your parents before seeing if you can fix it yourself?

We must humbly admit our inability to do anything about our spiritual condition ourselves and put faith in Jesus and call out to Him to be healed!

I want to give anyone who has not done that the opportunity to do it tonight...

And this is the lesson that Bartimaeus teaches us here, to humbly put faith in Jesus to be healed. Now for the lesson Jesus teaches us.

Jesus is compassionate. We should be also.

Isn’t it the worst when you’re trying to get somewhere and someone slows you down? Like, there have been times when I’ve been driving somewhere, clearly in a hurry because I’m driving fast, and then someone will pull up behind me and start flashing lights at me. Blue lights. And they make me pull over and then they give me this note to tell me how fast I was going. It’s like, I know how fast I was going! I don’t need this note!

Jesus is on his way somewhere in this story. He’s actually on his way to Jerusalem where He will be put to death on a cross, and He knows this. But He still takes time to show mercy and compassion. This isn’t what most people do.

But we are called to be merciful and show compassion to others.

Matthew 5:7 ESV

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Even if it’s inconvenient.

Use the parable of the two servants here.

Every now and then I go to lunch at the primary school with my oldest son Parker. I went one day and they were having crispitos for lunch! I love crispitos… So I got in line to get some crispitos and while I was in line I realized that they don’t take credit cards at Elementary schools! There was a lady in line behind me who is an acquaintance, wouldn’t really say we’re friends. But she paid for my lunch that day. She was kind, compassionate, and merciful to me.

We should do this because Jesus has done it to us. How can we receive the incredible mercy and kindness that we have from Jesus and then not show that to others?

I’ll borrow one of Jesus’ parables to explain this, the parable of the unforgiving servant.

For us to withhold kindness, compassion, mercy from others after Jesus has shown it to us is like that servant refusing to show it to his fellow servant.

Scripture also tells us that being a blessing to others will be a blessing to us.

Proverbs 11:24–26 ESV

One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered. The people curse him who holds back grain, but a blessing is on the head of him who sells it.

Proverbs

There are so many places in Scripture where God tells us to be generous and care for others. The golden rule in ...

Use the parable of the two servants here.

We are told to bear one another’s burdens in . By the way, that will be inconvenient, but we are still called to do it.

We are told to considers other more important than ourselves in .

So when you see someone in need, do what you are able. I know you won’t be able to help everyone, I don’t think that Jesus helped everyone He came across who needed help. But be generous. Give your friend a couple bucks if they need it, or more. Or if they’re just trying to get some candy from you, share!

When you see a needy person, help them out.

1 John 3:17–18 ESV

But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

I know not everyone has money they can be generous with (though you can still be generous with just a little money, Jesus told a parable about a poor widow…), but most of us are able to serve, and we are all able to pray.

We are called to be kind, generous, compassionate, and merciful. To everyone. If Jesus did this for a blind beggar on the street, then there are no exclusions!