Tuesday, 02 September 2008

• Persistent Faith

   

  In Mark 10:46-52 a blind man name Bartimaeus regained his sight after he called to Jesus in faith. Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus for mercy calling him the “son of David” – a messianic title. For when an angel declared to the virgin Mary that a son would be born to her he told her that her son would be “given the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32) – the throne of the King in Israel. So all Jews rightly expected their Messiah to come from the offspring of David who himself was a descendant of Isaac, Abraham’s son.

  While the blind man cried out to Jesus for mercy, the crowd told him to shut up. But this only caused him to shout louder in order to get Jesus’ attention. He had no shame in calling to Jesus to heal him. He didn’t care what anyone thought, and no one was going to get in his way. Jesus had to have heard the man’s initial cries, but just like he did on other occasions (cf. 7:24-30) he ignored the man before he answered him. This was likely a test to the man’s faith. After all, if he really knew Jesus as the Messiah his faith would persist. And it did, for at some point Jesus stopped and told the crowd to bring Bartimaeus to him. He is said to have left his cloak behind and “jumped” up in order to get to Jesus. His act of casting it aside reveals that he forsook all he had in order to get to Jesus to be healed. When Jesus did heal the man he didn’t touch him or pray for him. The miracle was of the man’s own doing, for Jesus told him, “Your faith has healed you.”

  Faith is central, not only to removing physical blindness, but more importantly, to the removal of spiritual blindness. The man’s faith that Jesus simply could heal him is what actually healed him. And Bartimaeus, after he received his sight, began to follow Jesus – the sign of true salvation. Bartimaeus was a sinner, and he knew it. He had fallen short of God’s perfect standard as ALL humans do, and he cried out to Jesus for mercy. And though Jesus had many things on his mind that day, he was never too preoccupied to be compassionate to the needy and to those who called to him in faith. He was never in too big a hurry, and he was never so afflicted that that he couldn’t give of himself to others.

  There was a rich young man in Mark 10:17-31 who came to Jesus asking for assurance of eternal life. But he wasn’t willing to sacrifice his riches to follow Jesus. So Jesus dismissed him. Bartimaeus, on the other hand, was poor and blind, yet his faith in Jesus brought him everything. He subsequently followed Jesus with sight and eternal riches.

  Eternal salvation is for those who realize that they are spiritually depraved (blind) and fall short of God’s perfect standard of righteousness. They subsequently call to Jesus Christ for mercy because they believe that he is God Almighty. These are the ones who will spend eternity in heaven – only these.. Salvation is found only in Jesus Christ and none other. Have you called to him in faith? If not, as long as you still have breath it’s never too late to do so.

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