Project 119: Mark 10:32-52 (ESV):

 |  Project 119

“Your Faith Has Healed You”

When reading the rather short story of Jesus and Bartimaeus, we can quickly skim through and count it as just another one of Jesus’s many miracles. I want to challenge you, though, to look intently at this passage and the parallels it may have with your own salvation story.

Like Bartimaeus, you and I were blind before we received salvation. Perhaps we weren’t physically blind, but we were spiritually blind to the horror of our sin. We lived in ways that displeased God. We did not see the light. However, just as Jesus showed up in Jericho, Jesus showed up in up in our lives when we needed Him most. We did not travel to find Him, but He met us, beggars on the roadside, where we were.

Our prayer was that of Bartimaeus’s: “Jesus, have mercy on me!” We knew we could not heal ourselves of our sin sickness. Only by Christ’s mercy could we be made whole. Like Bartimaeus’s peers, many of us had believers encouraging us on and pushing us toward Christ: “Cheer up!” they’d say. We were reminded that Jesus was calling for us.

In humility we told Jesus that we wanted to see. We wanted to see the glory of the Father, and we wanted to see others as He did. We needed the sin that separated Him from view to be washed away. Jesus said to us what he told the blind man: “Your faith has made you well.” By faith we entered into the grace offered to us.

In response to this healing from sin, this salvation Christ gave us, we daily “follow Jesus along the road.” Receiving sight merits a response. In thankfulness, let us follow Jesus wherever He leads. Let us stay on the path, not straying from the way in which Christ walked. Rejoice today if Christ has healed you, not just physically, but spiritually as well!

Mark 10:32-52 (ESV):

32 And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33 saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. 34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”

35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39 And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. 42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

46 And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” 50 And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” 52 And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.