Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus and Us (Luke 18:35-43 and Mark 10:46-52)

The account of Jesus healing blind Bartimaeus is found in Matthew 20:29-34, Luke 18:35-43, and Mark 10:46-52. Unbelievers are as spiritually poor and blind as Bartimaeus was physically poor and blind. When they cry out for mercy, he gives them spiritual sight. Like blind Bartimaeus they move from darkness to light, become Jesus’s follower, and glorify him.

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00:00 Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus and Us (Luke 18:35-43
12:01 Lesson One: Jesus’s physical miracles were signs illustrating spiritual truths.
19:32 Lesson Two: Like Bartimaeus, unbelievers (Part One) are blind.
23:03 Lesson Two: Like Bartimaeus, unbelievers (Part Two) are poor.
37:07 Lesson Two: Like Bartimaeus, unbelievers (Part Three) must cry out for mercy.
46:13 Lesson Three: Like Bartimaeus, believers (Part One) move from darkness to light.
49:11 Lesson Three: Like Bartimaeus, believers (Part Two) become Jesus’s followers.
50:18 Lesson Three: Like Bartimaeus, believers (Part Three) glorify God.
52:38 Lesson Three: Like Bartimaeus, believers (Part Four) lead others to glorify God.

In Jesus’s day, blindness was a common affliction that had no cure. Because blind people could not work, they had to make their living as beggars. Bartimaeus spent his days sitting by the side of the road begging for money from people who passed by. It is hard to imagine a more miserable existence. Perhaps only a leper’s life could rival Bartimaeus’s depressing life. If he was fortunate enough to receive money, he would make his way into Jericho and struggle to buy food. This was a good day. On a bad day, he would spend the night hungry.

Thinking about Bartimaeus’s life, one of the words that comes to mind is boring. I cannot think of many things more boring than spending days sitting on the side of the road begging. One of the only things that could make the boredom worse would be blindness, because then you can’t even see anything of any interest while the hours pass by. But on this day Bartimaeus noticed the excitement:

Luke 18:36 And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”

Bartimaeus had no idea what was happening. He asked those around him, hoping they would be kind enough to answer. Because as we will see in a moment, the crowd was very inconsiderate.

He would not have expected the answer he received. This would have been an exciting moment for anyone, and we know that because so many people had gathered for the occasion. But for blind Bartimaeus, a man whose life was characterized by boredom and monotony, this likely would have been the most exciting moment of his life.

How Much Did People Want to See Jesus?

Just so you can picture this scene better, consider what happened right after this when Jesus entered Jericho:

Luke 19:1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature.

Huge crowds were following Jesus and people, like Zacchaeus, wanted nothing more than to be able to see him. As Jesus approached Jericho numerous others gathered on the sides of the road.

Jesus’s Miracles Were Signs Illustrating Spiritual Truths

We must pause the account with blind Bartimaeus for a moment to make sure we view it correctly:

John 6:1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw THE SIGNS that he was doing on the sick.

Notice Jesus’s miracles Jesus were called “signs.” In the following verses Jesus feeds the 5,000:

John 6:14 When the people saw THE SIGN that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

Again, the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 was called a sign. Jesus didn’t perform miracles for the sake of performing miracles. He performed miracles because they served as signs. If you read about Jesus’s miracles and don’t understand that they serve as signs, then you will...

Read the rest of the blog post: https://www.scottlapierre.org/jesus-heals-blind-bartimaeus/