He was called “Bartimaeus” – a name that simply means “the son of Timaeus”.  That name itself tells us something about him.  He didn’t really have a name of his own - he was just the son of a guy who didn’t care enough about his child to give him a name.  His father  probably didn’t give him much of anything else either.  It seems, at best, he was destined for the difficult life of the poor in first century Jericho.  Can you put yourself in the sandals of Bartimaeus?  Can you “see” him?

Some translations of this story suggest that he could see at some point in the past.  How had he lost his vision?  An accident?  A disease?  Whatever the case, the merely difficult life of the poor became the desperate life of the disabled.  Unable to work, he is doomed to beg for whatever scraps of food or money his fellow citizens might be willing to share, just to stay alive.  How is he seen by those passing him on the road?  Just another dirty, lazy beggar?  Maybe he became practically invisible to them – ignored as they passed by - he couldn’t see them, and they wouldn’t see him.

Can you imagine his thoughts, his questions, his doubts, his fears?  “Why has this happened to me?  Am I being punished by God like the Pharisees claim?  Maybe I don’t deserve to see?  Maybe God has abandoned me?”  His eyes are blind, but his ears are keen.  He hears every insult hurled by the passers-by.  He hears every conversation of the normal, happy people as they make plans for the future.  None of that “blessed life” was ever going to be in his future.  Can you sense that, on top of his desperation, he lives each day on the verge of despair?

Until suddenly, Jesus is there.  We don’t know how Bartimaeus had come to faith before that moment.  Perhaps he had overheard people talking about Jesus.  But his faith is clear in the words he desperately screams – “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  

Now he stands before Jesus, and the first thing he sees is the face of Jesus, telling him that his faith has saved him.  He is saved in every respect – saved from blindness, from desperation, from despair, from a life and an eternity separated from God.  

And here’s my favorite part of the story:

Bartimaeus is saved so thoroughly that he figures grace is big enough to cover him even if he ignores a direct command of Jesus.  Rather than doing what Jesus told him to do and “Go his way”, he follows Jesus.  Can’t you hear him thinking, “Go my way?  He has given me everything.  My way is with Him, forever!”  And he followed Jesus to the Triumphal Entry in Jerusalem, and to the cross, and to the Resurrection, and to Pentecost and beyond. 

You ask, “How do I know this?”  Well, I admit it’s speculation.  But, have you ever wondered why the writer of The Gospel of Mark tells us this blind guy’s name?  [In the Matthew and Luke accounts of the story, he is simply “a blind beggar”.]  I believe Mark tells us his name because he is writing to people who knew this man in their church!  Bartimaeus wasn’t just another anonymous person who experienced a miracle of Jesus.  He was real, and he was still alive and active in the church when Mark sent them the letter we call The Gospel of Mark.

 The story of Bartimaeus became a part of the story of Jesus.  And it’s part of our story too - mercy, grace, compassion, a changed life, an unstoppable need to speak of Jesus, an unquenchable desire to be close to Jesus and to His people.  Doesn’t that describe all of us who have met Jesus?  Now that we have put ourselves in the sandals of Bartimaeus, now that we “see” him in ourselves, let’s pray for a little bit of the faith he had – a faith where believing is seeing.               

~Shepherd Ambrose Ramsey