Summary
Now I See
In the week just before Holy Week, Jesus set His face toward Jerusalem. For three years He had walked the Holy Land teaching, healing, and preaching always under the shadow of the cross, but this final journey had a different weight to it. Luke 9 tells us He "set His face to go to Jerusalem," and Mark records that the disciples followed Him afraid. There was no more time. Jesus was walking the last twenty-two and a half miles from Jericho to the place of His sacrifice—the fulfillment of the plan determined before the foundation of the world.
Sitting along that road was Bartimaeus, whose name means "son of the honorable" but whose life looked anything but. In that culture, blindness was assumed to be the wages of sin, his own or his parents'. He could not work, could not provide, could not even move without being led. He was, in every social sense, expendable. Yet when he heard the commotion and was told that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, he cried out using a title the crowd would not: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me" Luke 18:38. The crowd saw a teacher from Nazareth. The blind man saw the Messiah.
When the people sternly told him to be quiet, he shouted all the louder. There is a deep temptation, in us as in that crowd, to believe that our needs are too small and Jesus too busy—that we ought not bother Him with the cries of our hearts. But Bartimaeus refused to be silenced, because he knew the Son of David was the only one who could help him. And then comes one of the most striking lines in the Gospel: "Jesus stood still." The Lord whose face was set toward Calvary, who could not stop, stopped. The shouts of the unworthy were heard, and the shouts of the unworthy were answered. He still stops for us, calling us to Himself through His Word and through the community of believers, asking, "What do you want me to do for you?" This is the heart of the lesson in "Now I See" 3-5-23.
Bartimaeus did not hesitate: "Lord, let me see again." His blindness is ours. We are all born blind—blind to our sin, blind to the Gospel, blind to God Himself. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that "the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel." In that blindness we stumble, and worse, we ask other blind sinners to lead us. The blind cannot lead the blind; the sinner cannot save the sinner. Only the Son of David can.
"Receive your sight; your faith has saved you" Luke 18:42. Bartimaeus did not boast that his faith had achieved anything—it was Christ who gave the faith, Christ who opened the eyes, Christ who saved. So it is for us. God has opened our eyes to see the truth of our sin and the greater truth of our Savior; He has opened our eyes to see the empty tomb and the victory already won. We were blind, but now we see, and like Bartimaeus we follow Him, glorifying God, while those around us join in the praise. Amazing grace, indeed—how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
Video citations
- "Now I See" 3-5-23 — If you would please open your Bibles to Luke the 18th chapter, Luke the 18th chapter. If you're using a Pue edition of the Bible, you can find this on page 71 in the New Testament. We are in Luke…