God's Grace - Our Healing

David Compere

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Introduction

Scripture

Mark 10:46-52

Mark 10:46–52 NIV

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.

When I was younger, maybe 11 or 12. I had a friend named Troy Brown. We were not best friends, or even close friends. But I played baseball with him and that meant we spent summers together. This particular summer Troy’s family faced the stress of their home burning down, which also meant the loss of their business property. It was a total loss of everything they owned. I don’t remember all the details, but I do remember the prayers we made on their behalf. Just days after the fire through a series of crazy circumstances Troy touched an exposed live power line at the site of the burned home and was killed. I remember that at the funeral the preacher, in an effort to comfort the family, made a statement to the effect that God had caused these events and had wanted Troy in heaven with him.

At the time, and still to this day, I felt this to be fundamentally wrong. I did not, and do not, see Troy’s death as a gesture by God to bring Troy to heaven. While I believe Troy is indeed with Christ in heaven, I also believe that God’s heart broke that day just as his mother and father’s heart broke.

We struggle with what to do with suffering. We struggle to feel confidence that God hears our cries out of our pain. And even more, we struggle to find confidence that God cares about our pain.

Looking Towards the Cross

The healing of Bartimaeus takes place as the last event prior to Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem and the last week of Jesus’s life. I think of it as the gateway into that week and I believe has some important messages for us as we make our journey through Lent with our hopes and hearts set on the resurrection. I believe that it reflects a clear view of Jesus’s, and therefore God’s, grace and mercy.

Grace and Mercy

What is grace and mercy? How are they different?

The Greek word used for mercy is most often eleos (pity, compassion) and for grace is charis(favor). Mercy and grace, as paraphrased from Willmington’s Guide to the Bible, can be differentiated as follows: mercy is the act of withholding deserved punishment, while grace is the act of endowing unmerited favor. In His mercy, God does not give us punishment we deserve, namely hell; while in His grace, God gives us the gift we do not deserve, namely heaven.

Mercy and grace are two sides of a coin – and the coin is love. Mercy is a compassionate love to the weak, and grace is a generous love to the unworthy. - Philip Wijaya (Christianity.com)

Grace and Mercy in the Ministry of Jesus

I. Jesus responds to pleas for help. He reacts and takes action.

Jesus is willing to engage with our need regardless if it is large or small - common or uncommon. You would think that blindness was an uncommon need. It is in our society. But for people living in that region in the 1st century, problems with eyes or vision were quite common. This probably relates to the amount of fine dust particles in the air and the lack truly enclosed spaces. Beggars were also common. It is likely that Bartimaeus was typically found at this spot each day. The local people probably knew him well and accepted his condition and need as normal. Bartimaeus is seeking Jesus’s help with a common, but profound need.

Jesus responded to Bartimaeus despite the resistance to the man’s needs and cries for help. The people told Bartimaeus to be quiet, but he cried out anyway. More importantly, Jesus took his eyes off of Jerusalem and turned them to Bartimaeus. Jesus is never too busy or distracted to hear us. Our needs fit fully in the scope of Jesus’s mission.

II. His teaching reflects his grace and mercy

Mercy and grace are two sides of a coin – and the coin is love. Mercy is a compassionate love to the weak, and grace is a generous love to the unworthy. - Philip Wijaya (Christianity.com)

How are these qualities reflected in Jesus’s teachings?

The disciples were there, day in and day out, with Jesus as he lived out the heart of God. Being in the living presence of God’s grace was a profound experience for the disciples.

1 John 1:1 NIV

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

John 1:1 LEB

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

They saw grace in Jesus’s teachings and actions daily. What are ways that Jesus did this?

1. Jesus touches and heals lepers.

In those days leprosy was considered to be a curse from God as a result of sin. Because it was a contagious disease, lepers were quarantined, required to live “outside the camp”—away from towns and villages and contact with other people. A leper had to visually signify that he carried disease by wearing torn clothing and unkempt hair, covering his mouth and lower part of his face and crying out, “Unclean, Unclean!” when near other people ().

Leprosy was a horrible disease, made worse by the fact that lepers were viewed as having done something so evil that God had cursed them in punishment for their sins.

Religious leaders developed strict rules to prevent lepers from having contact with others. Lepers were not allowed to come within six feet of an uninfected person lest contamination or defilement be spread. If the wind was blowing from a leper toward others, he had to stay at least 100 cubits (150 feet) away. These weren’t God’s rules. They were manmade rules added onto what God had said regarding preventing disease.

2. Jesus touches and heals the woman with a flow of blood.

The healing of the leper has parallels with a healing recorded in : “Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse” ().

As with the leper, it’s easy to read over this and not really grasp what this meant for the woman. What did this mean in the first century? She had an ongoing flow of blood. That meant she was unclean and untouchable (). If she were married, her husband could not touch her lest he also become unclean. If she had children, they also could not touch her, nor she touch them.

Again, these laws that the One who became Jesus had given as part of God’s grace were being misapplied, with ceremonial defilements magnified above the need for compassion. The law had merely required that a person who had contact with someone with a flow of blood bathe and wait out a short period of uncleanness until sunset. People could easily have routinely contracted that brief impurity for the sake of spending time with those suffering—or they could have often just taken steps to avoid direct contact. But sufferers came to be regarded as cursed and repulsive—and so were avoided.

This had been this woman’s lot in life for 12 excruciatingly long years. Perhaps she hadn’t felt a human touch for all that time. She probably hadn’t been hugged, or kissed, or held—not by her husband, not by her children, not by family, not by friends. She was unclean and an outcast.

3. Jesus saw children as important.

The Gospels record how Jesus often concerned Himself with the needs of others. In His day children were rightly viewed as a blessing from God (), but were at times overlooked when it came to adult matters such as spiritual discussions.

Jesus, however, went out of His way to show concern to even very young children. We find this recorded in : “Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

4. Jesus felt compassion for the need of others even when those needs interfered with his need.

Mark 6:31–34 NIV

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

Mark 6:31–34 NIV

Mark

5. Jesus understood basic needs, such as hunger.

Mark 6:42–44 NIV

They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

Mark 6:44 LEB

And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

Mark 6:4

Jesus recognizes, acknowledges, and addresses our needs. He is moved with compassion, he employees the help of the faithful, and he takes action. And the result? We are filled to overflowing.

Grace and Mercy in Relation to Salvation

Titus 3:4–7 NIV

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

"In the midst of our failed attempts at loving Jesus, His grace covers us." – Francis Chan, Crazy Love

The mercy of Jesus

Life, eternal and full, is a gift of grace and mercy

Grace and Mercy in Christian Life

We must seek grace and mercy

The blind man sought out Jesus. He aggressively and eagerly called out to him. The blind man overcame barriers and hostility to reach Jesus. He could have waited in his usual place, hoping Jesus would notice him and take pity on him. Instead, Bartimaeus acknowledged who Jesus was and shouted his need for him.

We must rely on grace and mercy

"If you fear you’ve written too many checks on God’s kindness account, drag regrets around like a broken bumper, huff and puff more than you delight and rest, and, most of all, if you wonder whether God can do something with the mess of your life, then grace is what you need." – Max Lucado, Grace

3. We must reflect and project grace and mercy

Conclusion

Here is the thing. God’s grace and mercy are not just abstract theological concepts. Grace and mercy are not just words that look good on pictures or embroidered on a pillow. Grace and mercy cut to the center of God’s very being and the heart of his relationship and interaction with us. The sequence of events in today’s passage is repeated throughout the stories of the bible. It is repeated in the stories of our lives.

We find ourselves separated from God’s holiness. We find ourselves blind, leprous, hemorrhaging our very souls. And in desperation we cry out. And if we acknowledge Jesus for who he is - God’s son, messianic and sacrificial - then he hears us. He hears us even if the world - or our fears and doubts or anger - tries to stifle our cries and rob us of our voice. And hearing us, he calls us to him and says, “Your faith has healed you.” And on the other side of that experience, we find ourselves healed and whole. It is truly a life-changing soul-saving event as we turn and follow Jesus.

Lamentations 3:22–23 NLT

The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.