Hope in the midst of storm. Blind Bartimaeus case study
Mark 10.46-52
We greet you the beloved of God and welcome you to our today's services. We remind you that you are so important before God because you are created in the image and likeness of God and each one of us really matters to God. Our today's topic is hope in the midst of storms using the story of the blind Bartimaeus.
The story of the blind Bartimaeus is recorded in the synoptic gospels that is Matthew, Mark and Luke. We are not told much about Bartimaeus but his story is made important by the type of faith and determination that he portrayed in the midst of his storms.
We read that Jesus was passing through Jericho when the blind Bartimaeus heard that he was passing nearby. By this time Jesus ministry of evangelising, teaching, healing, casting out demons among others had spread far and wide and Bartimaeus had heard what Jesus was doing. Knowing that he could not walk over to meet Jesus, Bartimaeus used the only resource that he had and that was his voice. He cried loudly saying, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. The crowd tried to silence him using the logic from the Deutronomic blessings and curses where illness and physical handcuffs were interpreted as a punishment from God at that time(Deutronomy 28)armed with this belief, the crowd thought that Jesus could not have time for a blind man. The more they tried to persuade him to keep quite, the more Bartimaeus shouted as he called Jesus. Bartimaeus disregarded the crowd opinion because he's the one who had a need and he had faith that Jesus was able to heal him.
When Jesus heard the cry of Bartimaeus, He ordered for him to be taken to him. Its important to note that When the crowd told Bartimaeus to cheer up because Jesus was calling him, he threw away his cloak and headed towards Jesus. As we read in Exodus 22.26-27 and Deutronomy 24.12-13, the cloak was so important that God had instructed the Israelites that if a person gave his cloak to another as a guarantee for a soft loan, the lender had to return the cloak before Sun set because it could also be used as a blanket at night. For Bartimaeus, he also used it to collect the coins he collected in his begging career. By leaving the cloak behind, he showed that he had faith that Jesus would heal him and hence will no longer need the cloak to collect coins from people because he was no longer going to beg.
When Jesus asked him, what do you want, Bartimaeus told him that he wanted to see again. Jesus pronounced the words of hope and comfort, be healed , your faith has healed you and immediately Bartimaeus started seeing and followed Jesus.
From Bartimaeus story, we are encouraged to know that Jesus count each one of us as very important. He stopped when Bartimaeus called Him because in the presence of God, all human beings are equally important.
We are encouraged to remember that Jesus always hear us when we call to Him. When we find us in the midst of storms, we should call to Him as Bartimaeus did.
We also learn that we should not allow anybody or anything block us from assessing Jesus as the crowd tried to silence Bartimaeus. As Hebrews 12.1-2 says,we must get rid of anything that will hinder our relationship with God.
Finally, Jesus is able to deliver us from any form of storm. Bartimaeus needed physical healing and his sight was restored. Jesus is able to help us overcome all sort of storms because He's merciful and always willing to give us the best.
