Following the spiritual blindness of James and John, we see Bartimaeus receiving his physical sight. Jericho is, of course, famous for the incident with Joshua shortly after entering the Promised Land. Herod the Great had built a new city a little south of the original one. The old city was very much just ruins.
Bartimaeus was sitting by the road begging. When he heard Jesus of Nazareth was passing by he called on Jesus to have mercy upon him.
The crowds rebuked him. When someone calls upon the Lord there will always be those who say we are wasting our time, or rebuke us for some reason or other. Fortunately God is far more willing to hear our cries, as was Jesus here who called Bartimaeus to Himself.
So the crowds now change their attitude! The man threw his cloak aside and went to Jesus. The cloak was essential to his begging activities. So his throwing this aside may be symbolic of him entering into a new life.
"What do you want me to do?" asked Jesus. "I want to see" answered the man, and immediately he was healed. Notice that in this incident there is no commanding, no spitting or laying on of hands. It is faith that is the key ingredient. Notice also how simple it was. There are times when we need to come to God with the same simplicity.
The faith we have affects what God will do in our lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment