Altared: Blind Bartimaeus and the Disciples who don't see
Altared • Sermon • Submitted
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· 17 viewsThe healing of blind Bartimaeus is a miraculous story of an "Altared" life, but I think Jesus is also calling his followers deeper in this story. Too often we miss opportunities to be the invitation to Christ because of our distractions.
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Introduction
Introduction
New sermon series: Altared....
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Take your everyday, ordinary life and place it before God. This series we will look at these stories of altared life. People coming into contact with Christ and everything changes. Not just salvation stories, but stories of deeper transformation.
Mark 10:
Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.
The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”
“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
Pray
Old blind Bart. This is an obvious altared story from the gospel narrative. The blind beggar sitting by the roadside. The only person healed in the gospels that we are told his name, which is interesting. Jesus and the disciples come walking by this blind beggar and he begins to shout, what a scene!
“Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.” The blind man who could not see yet he knew who Jesus was and recognized him as he walked by.
Many rebuke Bart, probably even the disciples. Which reminds us of the marginalized in this culture. Women, widows, lepers, and blind beggars. A leper, or the bleeding woman, or some others that we see in the gospels are pushed away because ceremoniously they are unclean. They cannot participate in the temple. Bart’s may just be because he cannot provide for himself. Irregardless, the disciples and the PR peeps, just wish this guy would quit messing up the schedule and the photo ops....Jesus has to keep moving. He is a busy man, helping those that need it. Those that deserve it.
And Jesus, of course, hears the cries of those that are being ignored.
Church, don’t miss this point. Jesus hears the cries of the marginalized…above all the other noise.
Immigration here?
Jesus tells the disciples to call him over. The blind man is seeking physical relief so that he can function and his torture and desperation be put to an end, and he finds more than sight, he find Christ and follows him.
Blind Bart and the Disciples who can’t see
Blind Bart and the Disciples who can’t see
But as I studied this text, it is clear that Bart is not the only blind person and not the only one that has the opportunity for an altared life.....J.R. Edwards writes...
The story of this blind beggar who ironically sees Jesus more clearly than those with two good eyes climaxes Mark’s teaching on faith and discipleship. Chap. 10 is full of references to discipleship, but none of the disciples demonstrates the faith, insight, and discipleship of Bartimaeus.
The story of this blind beggar who ironically sees Jesus more clearly than those with two good eyes climaxes Mark’s teaching on faith and discipleship. Chap. 10 is full of references to discipleship, but none of the disciples demonstrates the faith, insight, and discipleship of Bartimaeus.
1 Edwards, J. R. (2002). The Gospel according to Mark (pp. 328–329). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos.
All throughout chapter 10 there is this discipleship dance where Jesus is trying to show them what it means and they keep getting it wrong.
If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you.
People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them.
Missing teaching that Jesus is laying down in other places, they just keep missing the main point.
What is it that has the disciples blind to what Jesus is up to? Well there are clues in the context...
and then just before the encounter with Bart we have this story about James and John, the sons of Zebedee, two of the more prominent followers arguing about something.
and then just before the encounter with Bart we have this story about James and John, the sons of Zebedee, two of the more prominent followers arguing about something.
Shotgun! Growing up the one thing that got my brother and i in the biggest fights....
Check it out later . They are fighting over status in the kingdom. They want second chair with Jesus
Check it out later . They are fighting over status in the kingdom. They want second chair with Jesus
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
“What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
“What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
“We can,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”
When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:35
The comparison to Bart is so subtle and so big. They ask for some material thing, for status, for recognition. Jesus asks, What do you want me to do for you? Literally the same words he asks Bart in a few verses.
Let me just pause really quick and say, sometimes we are guilty of praying for cosmetic blessings. And maybe we are asking God to fix something when there is a deeper need in us. Like your praying for finances when he wants you to know security is in him. Like you are praying for a relationship, when he wants you to know that he is the living water.
Furthermore, it is the first world problems that cause the disciples to miss what is going on right around them.
When I was a student minister, I remember being so busy one week getting ready for an event. I had to run by the grocery store really quick to get something for that evening’s activity. Everything in my life was on overdrive. When life is like that for me you can tell by my pace of walking. fly by the grocery store and I am almost done checking out when I look up to see my bagger is a former participant in the student ministry. I acknowledged him quickly and told him I had to run and took off. Did not think twice about it. I learned that he took his own life just days later. I dont blame myself for this but I do regret not stopping to look him in the eye and ask him how he was doing.
Listen, what first world problems, what distractions are keeping you from seeing the Barts of the world?
To take this to another level…they are not simply missing Bart, they are impeding the way to Jesus. Being a follower of Jesus, a disciple, is a contradiction to someone who impedes the way to Christ.
Discipleship:
Love of God
Discipline
Mission
Witness
Jesus is about to altar their life....
Jesus sends them
First, I want you to see that Jesus interrupts and sends them. Blind beggars showing a blind beggar where to find bread is what is happening right now. Jesus says go to him.
Friends, any amount of time following Jesus and He will not allow you to pass people by. No matter your distractions. If you are on the road with Jesus, there will be unscheduled stops, but in those stops there will be healing and miracles.
Healing Messengers
What is it that has the disciples blind to what Jesus is up to? Well there are clues in the context...
The disciples become conduits of healing as they are sent to Bart. You can read over this like they just went to fetch old Bart, but I think there is more at work.
Mark 10:
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.”
NIV translates Tharseo as “Cheer up” here and I think its too week. The word means be confident or take heart, take courage. The other times I can see this word used are in the context of Jesus about to do something remarkable and He is always the one who says it:
Parlalyzed man
Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”
The bleeding woman
Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
to Peter stepping out of the boat: Take courage!
The resurrected Jesus speaking to his disciples in the upper room.
The disciples become the mouth piece of Jesus already speaking what is about to happen. Take courage, He’s calling you.
There are people all around us that need food, a word, hope, a couple of bucks, and Jesus will not only empower you to meet that need but to be the first word of spiritual healing.
Invitation to the road
Our calling is to bring people onto the journey. To join us.
Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, is “sitting by the roadside.” He is, in other words, sidelined or marginalized. The difference in his position “beside the road” (Gk. para tēn hodon) at the beginning of the story and “on the road” (Gk. en tȩ̄ hodō̧) at the end of the story signifies the difference between being an outsider and an insider, a bystander and a disciple.1
1 Edwards, J. R. (2002). The Gospel according to Mark (p. 329). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos.
R.A. Whitacre puts it this way....
They will be an advertisement, inviting people to join in this union with God. The love of God evident in the church is a revelation that there is a welcome awaiting those who will quit the rebellion and return home. Here is the missionary strategy of this Gospel—the community of disciples, indwelt with God’s life and light and love, witnessing to the Father in the Son by the Spirit by word and deed, continuing to bear witness as the Son has done.
Whitacre, R. A. (1999). John (Vol. 4, p. 420). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Challenge: Who is on the road because of you? Because you listened to the prompting of Jesus and extended an invitation.
The altared life is when we see others sitting in the peripheral and introduce them to Christ. This does not mean having all the answers, it does not mean you save someone. Jesus saves.
It might look like opening up your home to someone, or sharing a meal, or grabbing a cup of coffee, or paying for someone’s light bill, and in the middle of that… “Take heart, on your feet, He’s calling you...