Bartimaeus: A Man of Vision
As you may already know Bartimaeus was a blind man who received his sight when he met Yeshua. I have used the title "Bartimaeus - A Man of Vision" for two reasons. First, there is the obvious fact that he receives his sight and secondly, I believe he had a vision of being able to see long before that vision was a reality. The story of Bartimaeus is found in the Gospel of Mark 10:46-52. I will be using the New International Version (NIV).
"Then they came to Jericho. As Yeshua and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. {47} When he heard that it was Yeshua of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Yeshua, Son of David, have mercy on me!" {48} Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" {49} Yeshua stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." {50} Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Yeshua. {51} "What do you want me to do for you?" Yeshua asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." {52} "Go," said Yeshua, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Yeshua along the road."
Picture this scene: Yeshua is walking with his disciples and a large crowd was following him. It was customary for a traveling teacher to teach as he walked--his disciples would walk with him and listen. Bartimaeus was sitting by the roadside begging. Bartmaeus knew his place. As a blind man, begging was the only way he could feed himself. He probably sat there in the same place by the road all day long, day after day.
I believe he had a dream of being able to see. He probably sat on the side of the road dreaming about what it would be like to see the people who passed by him every day. He probably wondered what the things looked like that made all of the smells and sounds he experienced everyday. He certainly knew he was different from the people who could see. I am positive he dreamed of being able to see because this is what he asked Yeshua for, but we will get to that in a minute. Back to our scene...
One day he hears a large crowd. He had surely heard large crowds before but this crowd was different. He heard Yeshua was in this crowd. We don't know what he heard about Yeshua or if he heard Yeshua himself speaking. He may have even heard Yeshua teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven as he walked. We do know that hearing about Yeshua stirred up his faith. Romans 10:17 says, "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." Bartimaeus' faith was stirred when he heard about Yeshua. He began to envision his dream of seeing as a reality rather than a fantasy to pass the time.
In our society, there are many who claim to have a dream or vision. My question to them is this: What are you going to do about it? It is only a fantasy until you make some kind of positive movement toward seeing it become a reality.
This is the first place where we get a glimpse of the vision of Bartimaeus. If he did not have a vision of being able to see he would have remained quiet....but....he was not about to stay quiet.
He began to shout, "Yeshua, Son of David, have mercy on me!" He must have been thinking, "I am not going to sit here the rest of my life and I'm not going to miss this opportunity. The Amplified Bible says, "...have mercy on me, now." This implies that Bartimaeus knows the urgency of this moment and the importance of getting Yeshua' attention. We too, must discern the importance of action in making our visions into realities. I believe the saying "every moment counts" is very true.
When Bartimaeus starts shouting some in the crowd tell him to be quiet. Let me tell you now, there will always be people who tell you to be quiet--they are the ones who will sit by and let Yeshua pass by. Then, complain about their missed opportunity or continue to dream with no intention of pursuing God's will in the situation.
I have noticed in my life that people around me often do not believe strongly in the things I believe in--I am speaking of visions that God has given me. The reason is simple--they are visions that God has given me. If God had given the vision to my friends, then, they would believe in them. Let me share a story that a friend told me that illustrates this point completely.
My friend told of a man who began coming to his church. When my friend noticed him in the congregation he felt a nudge to pray for him and reach out to him (maybe visit or call him) to let him know how much God loved him--to make sure he was saved. He mentioned this to the pastor of the church and said that someone needed to visit the man. A week went by and the man was in church again. Again, my friend felt that someone needed to go visit this man. As he told the story, I could hear the urgency in his voice--the great need to visit this man. Again, he mentioned it to the pastor and also to some of the leaders of the church. Another week went by and he noticed that this man did not come to church. Later that day he found out this man had committed suicide 2 days before. The lesson my friend learned in this experience is that God was telling him to visit the man and not the pastor and not the other leaders in the church. My friend has learned not to neglect the nudge of God. I know this is a dramatic story and some will say but my situation is not that serious. I will anticipate that response and say, "How do you know your situation is not that serious?" Do you know what will happen because of your actions or non-actions. Do you have the mind of God that you know all things. Obviously, you do not know all things--none of us do. We must learn to act--like Bartimaeus--we must take that first step to making our visions realities.
Another factor to consider is the devil will do anything in his power to keep you from achieving the vision God has given you. He will bring people to come against you if he has to in order to stop you. Satan wants to defeat you--one way to do that is to keep you sitting on the side of the road begging rather than doing the work God is calling you to do.
I love what happen next in this story. After the people tried to keep Bartimaeus quiet "he shouted all the more, 'Son of David, have mercy on me!" This is a man with a vision and who will not let anyone steal it from him. He is a man with a purpose. He doesn't let the people around pull him down or even slow him down. In the face of opposition he goes at it even harder and shouts..."Yeshua...have mercy on me!"
Bartimaeus was not willing to let anything or anyone keep him from Yeshua. The good news is...it worked. We already know the end of the story. He gets his sight because of his persistence in holding on to his vision and taking the appropriate actions. But, that is not all this passage has to say to us.
When Yeshua heard him, he stopped and said, "Call him." Do you understand what happened here? When Bartimaeus called, Yeshua responded. Yeshua stopped what he was doing and took the time out of His busy schedule to give a few moments to a blind beggar on the side of the road. Yeshua will always respond when we call. Isn't that the essence of the several passages in which Yeshua says something like: "You will receive whatever you ask for in prayer and believe you have received." We must ask with the confidence that Yeshua will stop and give us what we ask for, because, amazingly, God loves us that much. In fact, he loves us enough to give us the desire (vision) in the first place. He will respond.
Just in case you didn't like my paraphrase above here are some passages where Yeshua tells us about this:
Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
Matthew 21:21-22 "Yeshua replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. {22} If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."
John 14:13-14 "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. {14} You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."
I didn't make this stuff up--this is what the Bible says. There are many people in our day who say, "You must interpret that in some other context," or "that has a symbolic meaning." My belief is this: If I choose to be a Christian then what is my belief based on...the thoughts of people who have nothing more in life than me...or the Inspired Word of God. (I know, that is another debate altogether. All I have to say is...you can rip out the pages you don't like in your Bible, I choose to believe in the Bible as the Word of God.) Since I believe the Bible is the inspired word of God then I have to believe all that it says. I don't claim to understand it all. But, the phrase, "ask and you will receive," doesn't seem to me to need a lot in interpretation. I believe it says what it mean and I believe what it says. Back to the story...Bartimaeus asked and Yeshua responded.
This next part is very interesting. Notice what the crowd says to Bartimaeus. This is the same crowd who tried to make him shut up just seconds earlier. Now, they say, "Cheer up! He's calling you." The same people who persecute you will be right by you when Yeshua' miracle working power is revealed in your life. You see, the truth is, they also want to receive from Yeshua though they lacked the faith until they saw with their own eyes the result of your faith which was prompted by a vision. Are you starting to see how this works?
Next, an amazing thing happens. Bartimaeus throws his cloak aside and comes to Yeshua. There are two things to notice here. First, his faith produced an immediate response. His faith was building with every second. He wasn't going to wait any longer.
Second, clothing often displayed the condition of a person, then, as it does, today, in our society. His cloak was a symbol of his station in life--blind beggar. It was like a sign that said, "I am blind, please have pity on me." Throwing off his cloak is a demonstration of his growing faith--he is expecting a miracle. His faith told him he wouldn't need the cloak anymore. He was ready to receive.
This next part amazes me. Bartimaeus comes to him and Yeshua asks him what he wants. Now you know Yeshua saw him stumbling and feeling his way through the crowd not to mention Yeshua is the Son of God with knowledge greater than any other man. He knew what Bartimaeus wanted. I believe there are two reasons for this. First, Yeshua cares what we want. He doesn't just give and leave, he takes the time to talk with us about it. Even though He knows what we need and want He gives us the opportunity to share it with Him ourselves. This is a beautiful picture of Yeshua--a small glimpse into his campassion for us. Second, there is something necessary about us telling Yeshua what we want. He knows our needs and desires but that is not always enough. Sometimes He does for us exactly what we need and we don't even realize what has happened until it is long over. On the other hand, there are times like this, when God knows exactly what we want and is just waiting for us to tell Him.
So, Bartimaeus told him exactly what he wanted. He didn't waste any time with extra words. He didn't waste time with mind games and say something like, "come on, Yeshua, you know what I want." He said, "I want to see."
Then comes the moment we have all been waiting for--Yeshua heals him and says it is because of his faith. We have gotten a glimpse of that faith in the vision of Bartimaeus.
The story ends with Bartimaeus following Yeshua. Isn't that the way it should end? In our lives, everything must end and begin with following Yeshua.
I hope that you now understand that Bartimaeus was a man of vision before he could see. And I hope this hearing of the word has increased and triggered your faith to step out and reach toward the vision God has given you.
Tim Gray
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|