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Jesus Stopped - Mark 10:46-52

By Mike Osborne | May 21, 2007

Introduction:
Attention deficit disorder…we all have it.

I’m not talking about THAT kind of A.D.D. I’m talking about everyone’s need for attention…everyone’s need to be noticed, to be loved, to be significant to someone, to be considered important.

We come into this world with an attention deficit, and we spend the greater part of our lives trying to fill up that deficit. We just go about it in a billion different ways.

The need to be noticed…

● It’s what moves some people to become politicians and others star athletes… some movie stars and others mountain climbers.
● It’s what makes some people well-behaved and others rebellious.
● It’s what motivates us to buy new clothes and work out at the gym and get promotions and make all A’s and finish our work on time and look for a girlfriend or boyfriend, a husband or wife.

And this isn’t a bad thing…it just is.

It’s a fact. We need someone to see us, to care that we’re here, to notice us, to pay us attention. C. S. Lewis (in The Weight of Glory) called it “the longing to be acknowledged,” “to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside.”

Do you feel noticed by God? Has He fulfilled your longing to be known, to be on the inside? Or are you still suffering from acute A.D.D.?

This morning we are reading about a man who desperately needed to be noticed. His name: Bartimaeus.

His story is so important it’s told 3 times, by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He’d lived all his years on the sidelines of life.

He was blind and dirt poor. Scholars believe his blindness was probably caused by purulent ophthalmia – the most common eye disease in Palestine at the time. Flies would land on the eyes of infants and spread the disease from person to person. It was highly infectious. The cornea of the eye would eventually become opaque.

Probably, Bartimaeus had been blind most of his life. He had no job, no family to take care of him. So day after day, Bartimaeus sat begging by the road near the gate of the city of Jericho. He would spread out his cloak on the ground for people to throw a little bit of pocket money into, and just sit there and beg.

Jericho was about 15 miles from Jerusalem. It was a busy road. Jewish pilgrims traveled back and forth to the Temple in Jerusalem on their way to their religious festivals. Passover was about a week away, so the road was especially full of travelers. Whole families with their animals and belongings were walking past Bartimaeus. Little did he know that THIS day, everything would change.

It was a dry, dusty, hot afternoon when Jesus and his disciples left Jericho headed for Jerusalem.

It says in vs. 46 there was “a large crowd” walking with Jesus. He was a celebrity, you see. He’d become well-known all around Judea and Galilee as an amazing teacher, a healer, a miracle-worker. He’d healed lepers, cast out demons, raised people from the dead, fed multitudes of people with just a few loaves of bread and fish. Why, He’d even walked on water! He’d made cripples walk. He’d healed the deaf, the mute, and even the blind.

Everyone in Jericho knew these things, including Bartimaeus. So you can imagine what was going through his head when he heard people saying, “Jesus is coming! Jesus is passing through!”

So Bartimaeus did the only thing he could think of to do…he shouted! At the top of his lungs! “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” He did it again and again: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Would it make any difference? Would the Rabbi even hear him above the noise at the city gate? Would he be too busy, too engaged in discussion, too involved with the people in the crowd to pay attention to a blind beggar?

Look at vs. 49 – “Jesus stopped.”

Why? Why did Jesus stop for Bartimaeus, this poor little man sitting by the road begging?

After all, I can think of a few good reasons for Jesus not to stop.
1. Jesus was on the most important mission of His life…indeed, of all of history (vs. 33). In about a week, Jesus would be nailed to a cross outside the gates of Jerusalem. Why take time to talk to a beggar?
2. What good would it serve to reduce the number of beggars in Jericho by one? I mean, there were dozens, maybe hundreds of them.
3. And anyway, Bartimaeus is a sinner. He’s dirty, he’s poor; most people thought he deserved his lot in life. And everybody knows that panhandlers are manipulative people; you can’t trust them.

So why did Jesus stop? Four reasons:

I. Jesus stopped because Bartimaeus was helpless and had nothing to offer.

● Notice Bartimaeus shouts out in vss. 47-48, “Have mercy on me.”

o It kind of reminds me of the story Jesus told one time in Luke 18 about two men who went up to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about all the great things he’d done for God: “Lord, I thank you that I’m not like other men (robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even this tax collector). I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”
o But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
o Jesus said, “That tax collector went home justified before God.”
● This was always Jesus’ way. He loved being merciful to the undeserving. He ate with tax collectors and sinners. He touched lepers. He preferred the company of the disreputable. He said one time that it’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
● See, if you want to be noticed by God, realize how much you need Him. You and I are just like blind Bartimaeus. We’re poor and blind apart from the mercy of Jesus Christ.

II. Jesus stopped because Bartimaeus cried out to him in faith.

● Vs. 52 – “’Go,’ said Jesus, ‘your faith has healed you.’”
● Faith consists of three things:
o Knowledge – you have to have some facts, some content to believe in
o Assent – you have to agree with or believe that those facts are true
o Trust – you have to personally rely or act on the things you believe
● Example: The TV show, “24”
o Jack Bauer – every time he needs help back at CTU, he calls Chloe.
o He knows Chloe’s abilities.
o He believes Chloe is willing and able to help him.
o He calls her up; he trusts her to get him the help he needs.
● That’s what’s happening in this story.
o He’s got knowledge: Bartimaeus knows some facts about Jesus: he is from Nazareth, he’s the Son of David (Messianic title – the only time this title appears in Mark’s gospel), he’s said to have healed blind people before.
o He’s got assent: He personally embraces those facts; he believes they are true about Jesus – that Jesus really is the Messiah, that He’s able and willing to heal blind people like him.
o He’s got trust: Look at what Bartimaeus does in vs. 50 – “Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.” His cloak was what he needed to collect his money. His cloak was his security. It was his identity. But he cast that aside and trusted that whatever Jesus could do for him was better than that cloak.
● I wonder about you this morning. You obviously have knowledge about God, or you wouldn’t be here. You’re aware of the facts: God is our Creator, we are sinners, Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and died on the cross to reconcile us to God.
● Do you agree with those facts?
● OK, good enough. But have you trusted Jesus? Another way of asking that is, What’s your cloak? What is the source of your identity? Your security?
● Have you done what Bartimaeus did? Have you thrown aside your cloak and gone to Jesus and said something like this: “Lord Jesus, I have nothing but a history of mistakes and failures. I have broken your commandments. I am blind; help me see. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to your cross I cling. Naked, come to thee for dress; helpless, look to thee for grace.”
● I once heard a good definition of faith: Faith is coming to God with nothing and relying on him for everything.
● If you want to be noticed by God, cast yourself totally upon Christ.

III. Jesus stopped because he really wanted to meet Bartimaeus’ need.

● Verse 51 – “What do you want me to do for you?”
● Isn’t that amazing?
● That’s not the first time Jesus asked that question of people. Look at vss. 35-36…
● You know, there are two mistakes people make about God.
o One mistake is thinking that God is like a vending machine and He’ll do whatever I want. This is the thinking of James and John, and it’s also the thinking of modern-day prosperity preachers.
o But the other mistake is thinking that God doesn’t really care about my needs so I might as well not ask or expect anything of Him.
● If we learn anything at all from the Bartimaeus story, it is this: God wants to do something for you! Jesus said Himself up in vs. 45, “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
● I love Bartimaeus’ answer: “Rabbi, I want to see.” Simple and honest. This, Lord, is what I want.
● Do you believe this about your God – that He really does care about you?
● Through this passage today, Jesus is asking you, “What do you want me to do for you?”
● If you want to be noticed by Him, tell Him your needs. Lay them all out there. Leave the timing to Him.

IV. Jesus stopped because He wanted to leave us an example.

● Vss. 48-49a – “Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’”
● The word for “rebuked” in vs. 48 is the same word used in vs. 13.
● Isn’t that something? Sometimes people want to get to Jesus, and it’s the people who already know Jesus that do their best to keep them away!
● You know what? Today, or tomorrow, or sometime this week, you’ll meet a Bartimaeus… someone in need of hope. What will you do when you see them?

Conclusion:

About a week after Jesus met Bartimaeus on the road outside Jericho, He was betrayed by His friends, framed by the Jewish religious leaders, condemned by the Roman government, and nailed to a cross.

That was the ultimate act of noticing you…acknowledging you. He literally stopped…for you.

Now Jesus calls you to stop for one another, and for your neighbors, and for the hurting, ignored people around you.

Topics: Mark |

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