God’s Word for You
Mark 10:49-52 justified by faith
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Saturday, December 11, 2021
49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” They called the blind man, saying, “Cheer up! Get up. He is calling you!” 50 He tossed aside his outer garment, jumped up, and went to Jesus. 51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man replied, “Rabboni, I want to see again.” 52 Jesus told him, “Go. Your faith has made you well.” Immediately he received his sight and began following Jesus on the road.
The cry of the blind man, “Son of David, have mercy on me!,” stopped Jesus in his tracks, and the following crowd stopped with him. “Call him,” Jesus said, and when the blind man heard that Jesus wanted him to come, he threw aside his outer robe so that it wouldn’t get in the way as he hurried toward the voice of his Savior.
“Rabboni” is Aramaic, meaning “my Master” or “my Teacher.” “Master,” the man said, “I want to see.” Jesus’ reply isn’t about his vision at all, but about his faith: “Your faith has made you well.” Bartimaeus could see. But it wasn’t his eyesight that made him follow Jesus.
This healing demonstrates Paul’s words: “To the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness” (Romans 4:5). The blind man’s shouting is nothing but trust, faith exerting itself in the man’s throat. In Matthew’s account, it is only twelve verses from the cry, “Son of David, have mercy!” to the shouts of the crowd in Jerusalem: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Hosanna means “Save us, please!” (Psalm 118:25). Did the crowd following Jesus remember the blind man’s words, to begin shouting them along with other parts of the Psalm when the Master rode the foal of the donkey?
Only Mark records the detail about Bartimaeus tossing aside his outer garment. While it is generally accepted that Mark got his details from the preaching of Peter, the Holy Spirit worked through Mark’s pen and faith to record this Gospel. Did Mark intend for a comparison to be made between the two men who lose their shirts over Jesus? First there is Bartimaeus, who tossed his robe away in order to get to Jesus unimpeded. His was an act of faith and pure trust. Then there was the unnamed man who slipped out of his robe when men seized him in Gethsemane, leaving the linen robe in the hands of the soldiers and running away naked (Mark 15:52). His was an act of fear overpowering faith (yet an act that could be forgiven).
We plead with our Lord for forgiveness when we wriggle away from him. May we be like Bartimaeus, who showed nothing but faith! Like Abraham, he was “fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised” (Romans 4:21). Our God has promised us forgiveness, salvation, and everlasting life through Jesus Christ. How has he brought this about? “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25). The ancient pastor St. Anselm said: “Justification which is of faith makes peace with God, because it expels the hostile presumption of human merits and humbly submits itself to God, acknowledging that we are saved by grace alone. We are justified by faith… because even faith is a gift of God.”
Jesus gave Bartimaeus permission to leave (“Go,” he said), but instead the man followed him. Our Lord often gives us more than one path. There is only one path to salvation, which is faith in Jesus alone, but then we are given many possible paths to travel when it comes to living out our lives of faith. The choices we make reflect our faith, and some are bound to be better than others. But when we choose a task or even a word based on our faith, that pleases our Lord. So Bartimaeus was given permission to go home; he was even invited, commanded, to do so. But he chose to follow Jesus instead.
It may have been that everyone who knew Bartimaeus thought that his blindness was brought on by some past sin of his, or of his parents. Why else would God cause a man to go through life in such a way? But that isn’t how God operates. That wasn’t in God’s mind at all. God used the blindness of this man to give glory to Jesus his Son. Whatever stones and roots we trip over along the way of our lives, may they all be used to give glory to our Lord and our Savior. Jesus, Son of David! Have mercy on me!
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.