Story 156: Blind Bartemeaus
The eyes of the whole nation were on Jesus, wondering what the unpredictable young preacher would do next. Everyone knew that the most powerful religious leaders in the land had turned against Him. They were looking for any excuse to get rid of Him. Yet there was such great authority in His teaching. It was as if He took all the gross distortions and lies of humanity and made them right and true again. What is more, His remarkable miracles seemed to fulfill the prophecies of old. His works of healing and freedom for the broken were so powerful and beautiful that the crowds continued to be in awe of Him. He couldn’t be silenced.
The Lord Jesus had traveled all over the nation of Israel, starting in the north, around the Sea of Galilee where He had grown up. He began by going to the synagogues, offering the religious leaders of Israel a chance to recognize that their Messiah had come. All they had to do was honor Him. And yet they didn’t. Their determination to protect their own positions of power and status and their own rules and traditions about what God meant in the Bible kept them from surrendering when God actually showed up. What an honor it would have been for them to be the generation of Israel that welcomed the Savior! But in clinging to the honors of this world, they lost the honors of eternity.
And so Jesus left the synagogues and began preaching out in the countryside, on the hills and plains where the crowds would come by the thousands to meet Him. He traveled to the towns and villages all across the land, reaching out towards those who hadn’t come to Him, preaching the Good News of His Kingdom all along the way.
Now the time of Jesus’ preaching ministry was coming to a close. The Passover Feast had come and the people of Israel would be making the pilgrimage to offer their sacrifices at the Temple. They would bring their wheat and lambs, but Jesus would bring the ultimate sacrifice, He, Himself. He was going to lay down His own life. Yet His sacrifice was not only for Himself or His family and it was not only for the generation in which He was living. It was for every generation that has ever lived. And for that, Jesus had to journey straight into the heart of danger…to the City of David, the great king and ancestor of Christ. Jesus would die outside the gates of King David’s city, and in doing so, He would make the way for the fulfillment of God’s covenant with David.
This is what God promised David a thousand years before Jesus came:
I have found David, My servant;
with My sacred oil I have anointed him.
My hand will sustain him;
surely My arm will strengthen him.
The enemy will not get the better of him;
the wicked will not oppress him.
I will crush his foes before him
and strike down his adversaries.
My faithful love will be with him,
and through My name his horn will be exalted.
I will set his hand over the sea,
his right hand over the rivers.
He will call out to Me, ‘You are my Father,
my God, the Rock, my Savior.’
And I will appoint him to be My firstborn,
the most exalted of the kings of the earth.
I will maintain My love to him forever,
and My covenant with him will never fail.
I will establish his line forever,
his throne as long as the heavens endure.
Psalm 89:20-29
By the time of Jesus, King David had been long dead and the king that then reigned over Jerusalem was Herod, a man of great folly and corruption. But the True King was coming to wage war on sin and death and the victory would be totally His.
Would the people understand? Would they worship the One who had come? Did they have the courage to acknowledge Him now as He journeyed towards Jerusalem?
When Jesus and His disciples arrived in Jericho, just forty five miles outside of Jerusalem, they had been joined by a great crowd on the way to the Passover Feast. How exciting it must have been to be journeying with this radical Preacher.
Imagine the sight of the energized multitudes converging on Jericho. Can you feel the hustle and bustle of people bumping up against each other, trying to get a look at Jesus, wondering to one another what He would do next?
As they went along, they came upon a blind beggar, who sat by the side of the road. His name was Bartemaeus, and he was the son of Timaeus. When he heard the crowds coming, he asked what all the noise was about. They told him that it was Jesus of Nazareth, coming his way.
As soon as Bartemaeus heard that, he began to cry out, “‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’”People began to rebuke him harshly, telling him to shut his mouth, but Bartemaeus refused. It only made him shout out even louder than before: “‘SON OF DAVID, HAVE MERCY ON ME!!!’”
Wow! That is the power of perseverance!Jesus heard him. In the midst of the throng and the forward motion of the crowd, He stopped. “‘Call him here,’” He said. The people called out to Bartemaeus and said, “‘Take courage, arise! He is calling for you!’”The second he heard that, Bartemaeus threw off his cloak, jumped up, and ran straight to Jesus.Jesus asked, “‘What do you want Me to do for you?’”“‘Rabboni,’” Bartemaues implored, “‘I want to regain my sight!’”The Lord Jesus touched his blind eyes and said, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.’”
Bartemaeus’ sight came back instantly. Imagine how he felt as the light came flooding in!Sit for a minute and imagine all the ways his life would change. He would see the blue sky again. He would be able to look on the faces of the people he loved. He would be able to work and provide for himself and his family. The days where he had to stumble around and be led from place to place were over.
But that was not the only healing that took place. His faith in Jesus had brought the far greater healing of his heart and soul as well. He was saved!
As Jesus began to walk forward with the throng of people, Bartemaeus followed along, giving glory to God and praising Him with outrageous joy. When the crowds saw the jubilant happiness of Bartemaeus and realized what had happened, they were amazed and gave praise to God as well.
There is so much richness in this story that is easy to see just by reading it through the first time. But the amazing thing about God’s stories is that we can never go deep enough…there is always more treasure to find if we only dig a little deeper. One of the tools we can use to dig are questions about the story. We can pay closer attention to what happened in the story by asking: What did each character say and do at each stage of the story? What choices did they make…and what other choices could they have made? And what were the impact and consequences of these choices?
For example, the crowd that was so excited to be traveling with Jesus were also very quick to try to shut up Bartemaeus. Their reaction to him was very different from the response of Christ. What do we learn about the people who showed such contempt for a blind beggar seeking the attention of a spiritual leader? They seemed to like the idea of the radical nature of Jesus' teachings and healings, yet in the practical outworking in daily life, they found it rather inconvenient. But for Jesus, His radical words matched His radical way of life.
Or think about what Bartemaeus did when he learned that Jesus was in the crowd. He immediately began crying out, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Why did he choose to call Jesus the Son of David? Didn’t Bartemaeus know that it was dangerous to say that he believed that Jesus was the Messiah? What if the religious leaders found out? What if one of them was there in the crowd, taking notes? Bartemaeus could have chosen to cry out the name of Jesus instead. It would have been safer. But he chose to declare Jesus for who He was. Blind Bartemaeus could see what so many others refused to see, and he was bold in faith and proclamation.
Jesus had many choices, too. He was bearing the greatest burden any human has ever had to carry…and He was walking towards the greatest suffering any human ever had to experience. Yet when He heard Bartemaeus cry out in faith, it compelled Him to stop. The whole force of the movement of the crowd was going forward; the people themselves thought Bartemaeus was a nuisance. The disciples were there and they didn't do anything to help him. But Christ stopped everything to show him mercy.
There are many times in life when the people in our lives…the crowds…may fail to see what God is doing. Sometimes these people will be among the Lord's most faithful followers. But if the Lord has given us sight…if we have a chance to declare the Son of David…if there are ways we need to cry out for His mercy…then Blind Bartemaeus, the beggar, is our model. We are never too inconvenient for the Lord, and He will stop everything to respond to the cry of faith.