SUNDAY SERMON: Blind Bartimaeus

By Rev. Stephen Baldwin

OT: Psalm 126

NT: Mark 10.46-52

Whenever you’re reading the Bible, it’s good to be aware of layers of meaning. Today’s scripture from Mark is a great example. Let’s think out loud about the story and see what layers of meaning we can unearth. 

What’s the headline from the story? What’s the main thing that happens? Jesus heals Bartimaeus. He once was blind, but now he sees! A beggar in Jericho, who had been passed by countless times by countless people happened to encounter Jesus one day. He seeks healing, and Jesus provides it. 

That’s the plain meaning of the story. Jesus heals. And that’s powerful. It speaks to who he is and what he is like. It establishes his story. But it also has a spiritual level of meaning. 

We want to know that Jesus can heal. We need to know Jesus can heal. We long to experience it. The text plainly gives an example of Jesus healing a man who cannot see. That’s level one of meaning. Jesus heals. 

So let’s dig a little deeper now. How does Jesus heal him? With a word. He doesn’t touch him like he does for others in similar stories; he doesn’t need to. He speaks the word. “Your faith has made you well.” 

Does that mean faith is all that’s required for us to be healed? Well, it’s not that simple, right? We know plenty of faithful, good people who endure all sorts of illness, tragedy, and heartache. They too ask to be healed, but it doesn’t always happen. Does that mean they’re not faithful? Of course not. 

Job was faithful, and he still experienced it. Jesus was faithful, and he still experienced it. Faithful as we all may be, we will still experience illness, tragedy, and heartache. 

How do we make sense of Jesus telling Bartimaeus, “Your faith has made you well?” Perhaps he is not saying that Bartimaeus achieved this on his own by his faithfulness; perhaps he is saying that because he was faithful he was open to the healing work Jesus was there to do. Because Jesus heals. He makes us well. It is his doing alone, not ours. But we can lighten his load and make his work smoother if we are open to it. 

When Harrison was a child, he had just begun walking. One Saturday night, he was playing in the living room with Kerry and I. The night makes me wince to think about. He reached down in a bin to pull out a toy and fell in. We giggled, but when I picked him up, his face was covered in blood. He had cut his forehead on something in the bin, and we rushed to the emergency room. 

He needed stitches right between his eyes. “How are you going to put the stitches in?” we asked the doctor. 

“You’re going to hold him,” he told us. 

Sometimes healing requires pain and discomfort. You have to be open to being healed and going through whatever that healing entails. Including kicking and screaming. Sometimes you have to go through a harder time in order to get better. 

That’s the deeper level of meaning in today’s story. We don’t heal ourselves; Jesus heals. Jesus doesn’t depend on our faithfulness for his pronouncements of wellness. But if we are faithful throughout whatever that healing entails, it makes the pill easier to swallow…or the stitches easier to place. 

Finally, if we dig even deeper, I think there is another level of meaning in this story. It starts with comparing today’s story to last week’s. Do you remember what James and John wanted in last week’s story? They wanted to be beside Jesus in glory. Bartimaeus, on the other hand, only wants to follow behind Jesus.

The disciples, who were chosen to follow Jesus, get greedy. They want not just to follow behind him; they want to stand beside him. Now and in glory! While the blind beggar Jesus had never met, that no one else gave a second thought to, follows like a disciple is supposed to. 

It’s an easy detail to miss, but Jesus actually says to Bartimaeus, “GO, your faith has made you well.” Jesus tells him to leave. Go and enjoy your new life with sight. But Bartimaeus doesn’t leave. He follows Jesus all the way to Jerusalem. All the way to the cross. All the way to our healing. 

There are layers of meaning to every Scripture we read. Just like there are layers to healing. Sometimes it comes easy. But often, it comes hard. Whatever it takes, follow behind Jesus and you’ll be right where you need to be. Amen.