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Nov 03, 2024

Jesus in the Neighborhood

Passage: Mark 10:46-52

Preacher: John Repsold

Series: Gospel of Mark

Keywords: healing, miracles, blindness, desperation, neighborhood, spokane

Summary:

What could happen when Jesus drops into your neighborhood? Jesus did that for Bartimaeus in Jericho, a city that had been under the judgment of God for over 500 years. This message looks at the kids of traits Bartimaeus evidenced that would serve any of us well in seeking a transforming touch of God in our lives and city.

Detail:

Jesus In the Neighborhood

Mark 10:46-52

November 3, 2024

 

Fellowship Question:  Whose one of the most famous people you have ever seen or met in Spokane?

INTRO: 

  • Story of my mother being on Hayden Lake one summer with my older siblings (when they were little) in a boat that was taking on water...and ending up seeking refuge on Bing Crosby's dock!

I don’t know about you, but when I’m in the presence of someone famous, I tend to hang in the shadows.  Unlike some people who push forward trying to get an autograph or kick into Jay Leno mode and start interviewing them as if they were on the late night show, I feel pretty timid in the presence of famous people. 

            Today’s passage is about a relative ‘nobody’ finding himself near a really big ‘somebody’ of his day…and that encounter utterly upending his life.  It’s about a guy named Bartimaeus who would never have become famous if it weren’t for Jesus walking through his neighborhood that day.  Here’s how the story unfolded.

Mark 10:46-52

46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”

So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” 50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.

The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

52 “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

            At this point in Mark, Jesus is headed to Jerusalem.  He’s changing his focus from discipling his disciples to accomplishing his most important work in the world—redeeming sinners through his death on the cross and resurrection.  He’s starting to become very focused on the task before him—rescuing us from our sins and reconciling us to His Father. 

            But even at a time in his life when he needed to be extremely ‘task-focused,’ Jesus displays yet again his genuine love for people…individuals…especially people who know they need Him.  Unlike me on many a Sunday morning when I’m motoring around here trying to get things done before the service, flying past people, focused on the building temperature or announcements I’ve got to make or who’s missing that we need to compensate for, Jesus seemed to always be listening for the ‘little guy’ in the crowd. 

APP:  That should be really encouraging to any of us who may feel like we’re not very important today…or that we’re somehow a burden to God…or a nuisance to others.  In all of his encounters with people, Jesus never once showed irritation at an interruption or disinterest in someone feeling downcast.  Remember that when Satan whispers this lie in your ear, “You don’t really matter here…or to God.”  We always have and always will!

            This story, as with the last few stories we’ve looked at, appears in Matthew (10:19-34), Mark (10:46-52) and Luke (18:35-43).  Matthew tells us that Jesus actually healed 2 blind beggars in Jericho that day.  Mark and Luke only focus on one (but don’t limit it to one).  So, all 3 accounts are accurate, though different.             

So, Jesus is passing through Jericho on his way to Jerusalem.  Jericho is mentioned some 60 times in the Bible (53 O.T., 6 N.T.).  It was the first town destroyed and everything in it dedicated to the Lord in the conquest of Canaan by Joshua.  It lay desolate for some 500 years, probably due to a curse Joshua had spoken over it (Josh. 6:26).  It was only rebuilt during the time of Elijah and Elisha at the cost of the death of its rebuilder’s two sons, (Hiel of Bethel, 1 Kings 16:34), thus fulfilling Joshua’s word.  Which brings us to another truth:

Jesus is happy to bring blessing even to cities that have experienced his judgment.  Past judgment doesn’t prohibit present blessings.  That is really good news for Spokane! 

            You might be thinking, “Well, what judgment has Spokane experienced?”  Well, if you have moderate eyesight, it’s not hard to spot in about 3 seconds that Spokane is a city in decline…right now. 

  • Journal of Business study (see slide)
  • We’re in the top 10 cities in America for human trafficking while we’re only the 97th largest city in the U.S.
  • We’re seen a 5,800% increase in overdose deaths in 6 years (2017-2023)…and it’s getting worse.
  • In the past year nation-wide, drug deaths dropped 10%. In Spokane, they increased 18%!
  • Washington State has more drug addicted babies than any other state across the country… and Spokane has twice the Washington State average. 1/3rd to ½ of the babies born in Spokane are born to drug-addicted moms and thus drug-addicted themselves. (John’s ministry holding babies.)

Cities where God’s hand of blessing is resting don’t look like this.  They get healthier, not more deadly.  They get cleaner, not dirtier.  They get more prosperous, not poorer. 

            I don’t tell you these things to discourage you.  I tell you these things because we really need Jesus to pass through our city!  Jericho really needed Jesus to pass by…and He did.  Spokane really needs Jesus to pass through this place and touch us…and he will IF we demonstrate the same heart as blind Bart. 

Bartimaeus was probably not a man who got out a lot.  He didn’t travel a lot.  Most of his life had probably been spent sitting at the city gate where the traffic flow was greatest, begging for alms.  He was a whole lot like the dozens of people you and I see at freeway exits and stop lights all over downtown Spokane.

            But there was a vast difference between blind Bart and most of the poverty-dominated of Spokane.  Poor as Bart was, he had some really vital qualities that made him one of the best candidates for a miraculous work of God in all of Jericho. 

TRUTH:  That is also really good news for Spokane.  Poverty, disabilities and desperate needs are THE best candidates for a work of God.  The more we feel our deficits, the greater the possibility that we’ll experience God’s divine intervention.

            That doesn’t mean you have to be living on the street or begging on the street corner.  But of all the people in Jericho that day, the desperation of blind Bartimaeus was something very few others had.  And that desperation drove him to do and say things that caught Jesus’ attention and made him a candidate for an amazing work of God.

NOTE:  This is one of the few miracles where we know the name of the recipient—Bartimaeus.  Why would Mark give us his name?  Commentators think that it is probably because Bart had gone on to be a significant member of the Christian community at the time of this Gospel’s writing (about 55-60 A.D.).  Mark probably included his name because people would have known about him by first-hand experience.

APP:  What ‘deficit label’ have you been tagged with?  What do you consider to be your “disabilities”…or if you wouldn’t call them outright handicaps how about “weak points/deficits/ downsides/limiting realities”?  Strangely, in the kingdom of God, those are the very things that can move us to pursue Jesus more than people who may have what we lack in spades.  Oddly, God has a soft spot in His heart for people who are humble enough to recognize their deficits and discontent enough to not settle for being stuck there.  Whatever it is that you know you really need God to change, heal or rebuild, believe that is precisely where God may want to do His greatest miracles in your life. 

What do you want Jesus to change about you?

            So, what were some of Bartimaeus’ qualities that made him such a great candidate for a work of God?

1.) Bart was BLIND!  Whether this had been his condition from birth or whether he developed his blindness over time, he was a man whose life had been terribly altered by loss of sight.  He knew life could be different.  He was not content to live in the darkness. He wanted light and he wanted sight. 

APP:  He’s a spiritual metaphor for everyone without Jesus—spiritual darkness/blindness.  Without Jesus, we’ll all live this life and the next in darkness, separated from the glorious, life-giving light of God.  [CALL to the light of Jesus.]

2.) Bart was POOR!  Poverty comes in many forms—relationships, finances, abilities, family, confidence, wisdom, you name it.  But he knew that a deep encounter with Jesus would change his poverty.  It would make him able to work.  It would mean he would become a giver instead of a taker.  It meant he could develop a whole new circle of friends.  He could probably change his living situation/home.  He could now probably marry.  But had he been satisfied with his multi-faceted poverty, none of that would have changed. 

            While Paul tells us that “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim. 6:6-8) and that he “learned” to be content regardless of his physical condition (Phil 4:12), recognizing “poverty” that God often wants to replace with His ‘riches’ is a really good quality.  It doesn’t mean that God will do so every time.  But it does mean that when he touches our lives, a whole lot of our poverty will be able to change. 

3.) Bart was DESPERATE!  He was so desperate that when Jesus came walking through his town, he didn’t care what people thought of his desperation.  He didn’t care what it took to get Jesus’ attention.  He didn’t care what other people said to or about him.  He was desperate for change. 

APP:  while a whole lot of people in our city may not be desperate for change yet, thousands are…and we can be.  We see it up close.  We feel it all around us.  None of us here at Mosaic are choosing to hide away in our house in the suburbs or hole up on some acreage in the country.  We’re here because we want to feel the desperation of our city so that we will be desperate for Jesus to not pass us by. 

4.)  He WASN’T TIED to his PAST. An encounter with Jesus was going to change everything about Bart’s life. I don’t know if he’d really thought it through.  But he had to know that if Jesus did for him what he’d heard He had done for others, his life was going to look radically different.  Jesus’ touch wouldn’t just restore his sight.  He’d have to get a job, probably find housing, buy his own clothes, give to his begging-buddies some of what he earned.  He’d have to let go of his identity as a disabled man and step into an identity as a sighted man.  He’d have a new group of friends, a new social class, a new spiritual Teacher and Savior. His new life would demand lots of change. 

APP:  All of us tend to prefer where we are to where God wants to take us.  The “familiar” is a lot more attractive than “the unknown” …even when it promises to be better.  This is why we need to encourage each other when we see someone growing, changing and doing the hard work of leaving the past and creating a new future.  ILL: coins at CL. 

What do you want Jesus to change about YOU…about our city …about Mosaic?  Then we need to be more like Bart.  Let’s keep learning from this guy.

 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 

We already addressed the desperation he had to do this.  What we didn’t address was the content of his cry—“Have mercy on ME.”  Mark records that he shouted this at least two times and probably many more.  Bartimaeus knew that what he needed most was Jesus’ mercy.  He may not have known that Jesus wanted to save his soul.  Perhaps he thought Jesus would give him some alms.  But he’d probably heard that Jesus had healed another blind man in Jerusalem earlier (see John 9).  I think he was hoping against hope that just maybe Jesus would restore his eyesight. 

            But whatever he was thinking, he recognized that a touch from Jesus was an act of mercy.  He didn’t deserve it.  He couldn’t earn it.  And he would trust Jesus to give him what he really needed. 

APP:  Mercy is what all of us need most from God.  And when we cry out for mercy, we usually get grace too. 

            Jesus is going to go on and ask him specifically how he would like that mercy to look.  And Bartimaeus is going to ask for sight.  Often God will do just what we ask for.  But more important than the specific ‘thing’ we may want God to do is the mercy He knows we need.  Mercy is what we all need from God constantly… and Jesus knows just what form is best for us in the moment. 

            If we knew that Jesus was passing by our home or apartment, our church or our city, for what would we be seeking mercy?  Jesus had just told his disciples, who questioned how anyone could be saved if not a wealthy person, that “with God ALL things are possible” (10:27).  We have Jesus!  He IS here! Let’s be people who boldly ‘cry out’ for the mercy of God in things that are humanly impossible.

STOP:  write down 2 or 3 “impossibilities” in which you long to see the mercy of God flow.  If you haven’t been praying about

them, start today. 

            Let’s keep moving.  There is a sad reality in our world that Bartimaeus had to contend with too.  It is that people around us may not applaud our passion for Jesus or healing.  In Bart’s case, they didn’t just not applaud; they “rebuked” him and told him to effectively “shut up.”

48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Here were people who had probably seen Bart every day, begging.  They had grown calloused to his presence and his condition.  Their few minutes of glory with Jesus on the street was more important to them than the rest of Bartimaeus’ life in this world.  That’s what we can expect from people without Jesus.  There will always be opposition to any steps of faith we try to take.  It may sometimes come from the last place you expect it to.  Who knows, perhaps the other beggars sitting with Bart even tried to shush him. The crowd certainly did. 

            But here’s another great quality of Bart:  he let opposition fuel his determination. 

STORY:  Sandy and I just watched a really good movie, Harriot.  It’s a dramatization of the life of Harriot Tubman, a deeply committed Christian African-American woman, born into slavery in Maryland in 1822.  She experienced the pain of having her family split up by slaveholders when she was young.  She also suffered a skull fracture at the hands of an angry slave owner that left her with a brain injury and constant pain. 

In 1849, now married and at the age of 27, she determined to run north to the freedom of Philadelphia, PA.  Helped there by the “underground railroad” that helped slaves south of the Mason-Dixon Line to escape to freedom in the north, Harriet decided to dedicate her life to freeing other slaves.  She had reasoned this simple truth out.  “There was one of two things I had a right to: liberty or death.  If I could have one (death), I would have the other.” 

            Harriot eventually became a “conductor” on that “railroad.”  Often misunderstood as a railroad with tracks and trains, the Underground Railroad (UGRR) actually refers to various safehouses in which abolitionists provided sanctuary for freedom seekers. “Conductors” led the journeys to freedom, while “Station Masters” hosted freedom seekers within their homes, churches, or other safe spaces. 

            The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 made it illegal to help or harbor runaway slaves.  Many escaped slaves pushed farther north into the safety of Canada.  But Harriot kept making trips south to free her own family and others.  Over the next few years she made no less than 19 trips that brought freedom to over 70 slaves before the Civil War descended in 1861.  When it did, she joined the Union Army as a nurse.  In 1863 she volunteered as a scout and organized a group of spies. She helped coordinate a raid in S. Caroline that was wildly successful and freed some 750 slaves.  She is today recognized as the first women in U.S. history to both plan and lead a military raid. 

            The movie has this wonderful scene when the Fugitive Slave Act was passed and many in the abolitionist movement wanted to close up shop and stop bringing slaves to freedom.  Harriot stand before them all, recounting the horrors of slavery to a room full of free blacks and privileged whites.  Then and there she takes her stand to continue helping slaves escape regardless of the increased dangers and bounty of today’s equivalent of $2 million on her head.  Her faith in God’s hand upon her and her passion for freedom gave her one of the brighter places in our nation’s dark history of slavery.  And God gave her both freedom and life until she died at age 91 in 1913 in N.Y. 

We must let opposition fuel our determination!  We must leave our comfort and safety in God’s hands and trust Him to give us all the years we need to accomplish what he placed us here to do. 

            It is interesting how one determined, faith-filled person can be used to change a faithless crowd.  That happened with Harriot Tubman.  It also happened with Bartimaeus, blind though he was. 

            Jesus heard his cries, crowded as the street was.  We’re told in vs. 49--49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” 50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

            It is no accident that Jesus told the CROWD to do something for Bartimaeus, the same crowd that had just been using their voices to silence him.  Jesus knew that Bart was not the only “blind man” there that day; the crowd was blinded by their own indifference and callousness.  So Jesus gave them a command:  “Call him.”  “Use your voice to bring him closer to me, not push him away.” 

            This story is a continuation of Jesus’ teaching that, “If you do it to the least of these, you are doing it to me.”  Jesus doesn’t just want to show mercy to an isolated person here or there.  He wants to change as many people as possible.  He knew that the sighted people in that crowd needed just as much of a miracle to change their hearts as blind Bartimaeus needed to change his sight. 

God often uses the most simple and unlikely people to teach us the most profound spiritual lessons.

Pastor Steven Cole from Flagstaff, AZ, tells a story about when he was living in CA.  “

“Years ago, when I lived in Seal Beach, California, there was a young man whom everyone called “Seal Beach James.” James was mentally impaired, but he knew Christ as his Savior. He couldn’t drive, but he would often ride his bike to the beach and talk to people about Christ. He had a basket on his bike that he would fill with gospel tracts. He had no fear. He would walk up to the tanned, muscular beach bums playing volleyball and ask, “Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ?” Surprisingly, they would often stop and listen.

James’ mother did not know Christ. If you were at a gathering with James, he would call his mother and if you walked by he would say to her, “[Hey Mom,] here is Steve Cole and he is going to tell you about the Lord Jesus Christ.” He’d hand you the phone and you were on! Sad to say, his mother, who had normal intelligence, never learned from her mentally impaired son. She died without trusting in the Savior.

But I’ll bet lots of other people met Jesus when they met James, including a lot of Christians like Steven Cole who needed to be challenged to have a heart to share the Lord with others as much as James did. 

            Our story today ends with Jesus simply asking Bartimaeus, “What do you want me to do for you?”  I would have thought it was pretty obvious what needed to be done.  But Jesus still wanted to respect this man’s personhood.  I think he wanted to show him that his desires mattered to God.  And he wanted to hear, as he still does from heaven today, the voice of one who would soon be part of His family through faith in Him.

The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

Jesus doesn’t make mud and put it on his eyes like he had with others.  He doesn’t tell him to go wash in the city pool or well.  He just speaks the word, “Go,” and lets him know that his faith was all he needed to see this miracle. 

52 “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

            I love the way this ends.  When Jesus says, “Go,” where does Bartimaeus go?  He doesn’t go home.  He doesn’t go back to begging.  He doesn’t even go to Jerusalem.  He just goes after Jesus (“…[he] followed Jesus along the road.”). 

            This accompanying phrase “he received his sight” is a good translation of a single Greek word in the original, sodzo.  It is also the word used in the N.T. for “saved”…spiritually and physically.  While healing is clearly the context here, I think Mark under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit may have recognized that there was more than a healing happening here.  There was a saving of the entire man. 

            When Jesus comes into our town, into our life, and we cry out for whatever temporary healing we are longing for, Jesus gives us far more than we may have dreamed of.  He saves us.  He brings light to our darkness.  He lifts us up from being beggars to being brothers.  He invites us into an entirely new life.  And we get to choose what we will do with the One who saved us. 

CLOSE:

  • Have you sought the mercy of Jesus to save you? Jesus is calling to every one of us, “Get up.  Come to me.  Have faith that I can heal both whatever you think is so troubling right now in your life as well as your whole person.”  Will you respond to him today?  [Call to put your faith in Jesus.]
  • Would you like Jesus to turn your perceived disability or weakness into something that can demonstrate His mercy and grace before others? Ask God to give you the heart and soul of a Bartimaeus—desperate, determined, and dogged.
  • Have you been guilty, as I have, of sometimes discouraging others when you see their obnoxious behavior/speech rather than calling them to come get close to Jesus? How about we recommit ourselves to helping people who look like they have impossible, insurmountable weaknesses in their lives get closer to Jesus?  Why not invite that obnoxious coworker to your Bible study or dinner group?  Why not stop and talk to that person on the street corner who God puts in my path and tell them that “Jesus is calling you.  Get up.  I’ll take you to Him.  He really wants to heal you.” 

BENEDICTION:

May the God who made both sight and blindness use us this week to bring encouragement to those sitting in darkness, bring sight to those blinded by sin and selfishness, bring hope to those who have given up hoping.  May we call someone this week to come by faith closer to Jesus.  And may we have eyes to see God give them mercy, give them grace, and give them the miracle they so desperately long for from Him. 

            In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen!