The Healing of Bartimaeus

In this part of the sermon: Martin uses an analogy of chewing bones instead of meat to caution against getting sidetracked by apparent discrepancies in parallel Gospel accounts, advocating for focusing on…

An analogy of someone meticulously cutting meat off chicken bones to chew the bones, representing those who focus on minor discrepancies in Scripture rather than the nourishing truths.

And for our good. Amen. Now in a matter of a couple of hours. Most of us will be sitting at a table.

4:05 - 4:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces Bartimaeus by detailing the setting in Jericho, the presence of Jesus and a great multitude, and Bartimaeus's tragic personal condition as a blind beggar…

Recalling the Negro spiritual and the biblical account of Joshua's conquest of Jericho, to introduce the city's historical context.

The incident occurs around a place called Jericho. Now, many of you children will immediately recognize the word Jericho. Some of you remember the old Negro spiritual, Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, and the walls came a-tumbling down. And we often think of Jericho in terms of that mighty conquest as Joshua led the armies of God into the promised land.

15:15 - 15:44 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces Bartimaeus by detailing the setting in Jericho, the presence of Jesus and a great multitude, and Bartimaeus's tragic personal condition as a blind beggar…

An anecdote about someone rebuilding old Jericho with tragic consequences and Herod the Great building a new resort city, providing historical context for the setting.

Well, that particular Jericho was destroyed. And God had said that anyone who attempted to reconstruct it would do so with tragic consequences. And in the period of Israel's apostasy, someone became so bold as to put God to the test and attempted to rebuild that old Jericho and did so with the death of his own son. But under Herod, Herod the Great, a new Jericho, came to unusual prominence as a beautiful resort city approximately one mile south of the old Jericho.

15:45 - 16:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces Bartimaeus by detailing the setting in Jericho, the presence of Jesus and a great multitude, and Bartimaeus's tragic personal condition as a blind beggar…

Referencing the parable to illustrate the commonness of the Jericho road for travel between Jerusalem and Galilee.

And it is that particular Jericho that was right smack in the middle of the main road leading up out of Jerusalem and going north and eastward, or if you were coming down from the Galilean region of Upper Palestine, you would pass through Jericho if you were following the main thoroughfare. You remember when our Lord gave the parable of the Good Samaritan. He talked about a man going up to Jerusalem from Jericho, up geographically, down in terms of the direction of the compass. It would have been very natural for any businessman to travel the Jericho road.

16:26 - 17:08 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces Bartimaeus by detailing the setting in Jericho, the presence of Jesus and a great multitude, and Bartimaeus's tragic personal condition as a blind beggar…

An example of how blind people cultivate their hearing to an uncanny degree, explaining how Bartimaeus could discern the unusual crowd.

For in the parallel passage in Luke, we read in Luke 18.36, and hearing a multitude going by, he inquired what this meant. We are told that blind people's hearing becomes cultivated to an almost uncanny degree. For their ears must in great measure become their eyes and their hands and their other faculties.

20:31 - 21:00 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces Bartimaeus by detailing the setting in Jericho, the presence of Jesus and a great multitude, and Bartimaeus's tragic personal condition as a blind beggar…

An analogy of psychological panic experienced when shut in total darkness for five minutes, to help listeners understand the horror of Bartimaeus's permanent blindness.

A man who was unable to use the faculty of sight that so often we all take for granted, and yet how horrified we are if for five minutes we are shut up in a room in which there is absolute and total darkness, most of us psychologically and emotionally panic. Well, here is a man whose world was shut up in that thick, horrible darkness of blindness. And his blindness then led to his having to sustain himself in this most degrading of all positions, the position of a beggar. One who had to sit by the gate of a large city where many people were going and coming, and there cry out for alms and cry ...

23:54 - 25:09 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces Bartimaeus by detailing the setting in Jericho, the presence of Jesus and a great multitude, and Bartimaeus's tragic personal condition as a blind beggar…

Referencing Jesus's parable of the unjust steward who was ashamed to beg, to emphasize the degrading nature of Bartimaeus's profession.

He records him as saying, I am ashamed to beg. And he came up with another alternative. So here is a man who has experienced the horrible privation of sight and all that that brings. And then it has brought him to such a state of destitution that he must sustain himself by begging.

25:09 - 25:34 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces Bartimaeus by detailing the setting in Jericho, the presence of Jesus and a great multitude, and Bartimaeus's tragic personal condition as a blind beggar…

An analogy of beggars having unwritten rules and marked-out turf in cities, to visualize Bartimaeus's daily routine.

And there, as often happens. He probably had his own way. He had his own marked-out turf. In cities where beggars gather, there are unwritten rules of how they carry out and ply their trade of begging.

26:03 - 26:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces Bartimaeus by detailing the setting in Jericho, the presence of Jesus and a great multitude, and Bartimaeus's tragic personal condition as a blind beggar…

Quoting a hymn to evoke empathy and help the audience visualize Bartimaeus's condition.

If that doesn't help you, remember the song many of us learned as early Christians. One sat alone beside the highway begging, his eyes were blind, the light he could not see. Do you see and feel something of this needy man as he's introduced to us? Well then, let us move, secondly, to see what the text says about the needy man's encounter with Jesus.

27:03 - 27:36 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section describes Bartimaeus hearing about Jesus, his hope being awakened, and his fervent, persistent cry for mercy, addressing Jesus as 'Son of David' despite rebukes from…

An analogy of indulging 'holy fantasies' if one heard a healer was near, to describe Bartimaeus's internal hope.

He had heard passers-by speaking of what they had seen, what they had heard of this prophet, mighty in word and deed, who came out of Nazareth. No doubt many times he had heard the stories of how he had opened the eyes of the blind, unstopped the ears of the deaf, and it was reported that he had even raised the dead. And as I sat at my desk trying to read this, I heard a voice say, If I had been trying to think what would go through my mind had I been in his condition, I could describe them in no other way than I would indulge holy fantasies. If I had heard that the person who could actually o...

29:32 - 30:34 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section describes Bartimaeus hearing about Jesus, his hope being awakened, and his fervent, persistent cry for mercy, addressing Jesus as 'Son of David' despite rebukes from…

An analogy of a parent crying out to a child in a busy city street amidst traffic noise, to illustrate the vehemence and desperation of Bartimaeus's cry.

Here was desire, deep, real, pressing, all-consuming, like the desire of a parent who may stand on a busy thoroughfare in Newark or in the middle of New York and amidst all the din of the honking taxi cabs and all of the roar of the trucks and of the cars and the other background noises of a great city, sees his child begin to cross the street into the oncoming path and above the din and the blare of horns and the screech of tires, musters all of his or her faculties and cries out, Johnny, watch out! That's what we have in the passage. That's what we have in the passage. The hope awakened now ...

35:58 - 37:11 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section describes Bartimaeus hearing about Jesus, his hope being awakened, and his fervent, persistent cry for mercy, addressing Jesus as 'Son of David' despite rebukes from…

An example of New York street hawkers' amazing vocal powers, to emphasize Bartimaeus's ability to cry out persistently.

And remember, if you're a beggar like a street hawker, I'm amazed at the vocal powers of some of these guys that sell papers in New York. I think preachers could learn lessons from that. Paper! Get your paper!

37:11 - 37:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section describes Bartimaeus hearing about Jesus, his hope being awakened, and his fervent, persistent cry for mercy, addressing Jesus as 'Son of David' despite rebukes from…

A personal anecdote about his Swedish grandmother's terse command 'Rotten your lip' (shush up), to illustrate the crowd's rebukes to Bartimaeus.

And they kept rebuking him, telling him to hold his peace, shush up. My Swedish grandmother had a very terse little way of saying it. And I don't know whether it was sanguished Swedish or whether it was proper Swedish, but it was terse. And when she said terse, you know what that meant.

38:52 - 39:13 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The desperate, insistent, persistent, cry of a needy, blind man, froze him in his tracks.

An example of Jesus rebuking Peter ('Get behind me, Satan') when Peter tried to deter him from going to Jerusalem, contrasting it with Jesus stopping for Bartimaeus.

And Jesus stood still. May I say it reverently? It was his persistent, piercing, determined cry for mercy, that froze the Son of God in his tracks. He who would not stop his journey, knowing that rejection, and suffering, and scourging, and death awaited him, when his own close disciples, stood in his way, to say, no, Lord, you must not go that path.

42:23 - 42:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details Jesus's amazing response to Bartimaeus's cry by standing still and calling him, and Bartimaeus's immediate, eager response of casting off his garment and springing…

An analogy of casting away a jacket or cloak, to visualize Bartimaeus's immediate and eager discarding of his outer garment.

And then the response of Bartimaeus in its graphic in the original. And when you think of this being said of a blind man. He casting away his outer garment. That would be like my jacket.

44:46 - 45:01 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details Jesus's amazing response to Bartimaeus's cry by standing still and calling him, and Bartimaeus's immediate, eager response of casting off his garment and springing…

A vivid picture of Bartimaeus running to Jesus, being guided by others, straining to reach Him, to convey his intense eagerness.

No, look at the language. Even our English translation is vivid enough. And he casting away his garment sprang up upon his feet. And I like to picture him.

45:41 - 45:53 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The interaction between Jesus and Bartimaeus is explored, focusing on Jesus's pointed question, Bartimaeus's clear request for sight, Jesus's climactic words of healing based on…

Referencing Jesus asking James and John 'What do you want me to do for you?' to contrast their carnal ambition with Bartimaeus's genuine need.

Well, there's first of all, the pointed question of our Lord. Verse 51. And Jesus answers, Jesus answered him and said, What will you that I should do unto you? Very same question he asked James and John.

46:18 - 46:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Every true cry for mercy that pierces Jesus's ear will find there is room in his heart for the neediest, most insignificant sinner who cries, Son of David, have mercy.

An analogy of modern medical science restoring sight through delicate operations, to highlight the miraculous and immediate nature of Jesus's healing power.

Imagine that. To make sightless eyes see, not by the wonderful gift of common grace now deposited in medical science, whereby delicate operations performed with unusually precise instruments in greatly controlled circumstances, sanctified physicians' hands can help restore sight. But Jesus of Nazareth simply touches his eyes and says, Go your way. What you've desired is given.

55:43 - 56:19 Read in full sermon

The point: If you ever have eyes open, to see the beauty and the salvation of Christ, your heart will say, Lord Jesus, I want to follow you in love. I want to follow you in devotion. I want to follow you and serve you all the days …

A five-stanza poem that beautifully summarizes the essence of Bartimaeus's journey from blindness to sight and his subsequent devotion to Jesus, serving as a concluding illustration of salvation.

I want to follow you and serve you all the days of my life. One of the commentators has beautifully captured the whole essence of this message that's in the narrative. And I close by simply reading the way he's done it in these five brief stanzas of a poem. Lord, I know thy grace is nigh me.

65:12 - 65:43 Read in full sermon