A Crowd Wandering In the Dark.

In the Narrative of Jesus and blind Bartimaeus, Luke tells us it was the crowd in front, those leading the way, who reproved Bartimaeus for calling out to the Son of God.  They were ‘rebuking him, censuring him,’ telling him, in effect, to “become silent.”  This man’s insistence was an unwelcome intrusion, just like the children earlier in the ch. {18:15-17}.  The lesson?  When you disturb the religious crowd, they’ll do everything they can to shout you down and shut you up.  Unfortunately, I can tell you this one from experience.  As you can see from our context, this did little to dissuade him from his objective.  In truth, it only increased his sense of desperation to be seen and heard by the King of Israel.

Notice how in v. 40 when Jesus heard Bartimaeus’ desperate cries, He came to a “standstill.”  Luke say’s He “commanded”— a very strong word meaning- ‘incite, order’— those who rebuked Bartimaeus to in Mark’s words, “call him at once,” to “bring him to Me.”  At once their words turn from hostility to kindness, from severe to sympathetic— “courage, rise, He calls you.”  There are no wasted words in the Greek; it’s just as a crowd would speak.

This is a side note, but one worth mentioning, especially in light of our nation’s present fondness for marching, protesting, and mobs.  A crowd, what might more accurately be termed a ‘mob,’ has no ability to think, to reason, to process what is happening within and around it.  A mob has only the ability to emote, to react, to ‘run with rest of the herd.’  You tracking?  That’s why a decidedly ‘non-violent protest’ can turn violent with the flick of a switch.  True democracies, like 5th century Athens, were mob rules, swayed this way and that by skilled orators and mass manipulators, i.e., tyrants and petty kings who hold power over the people.  They are some of the worst forms of government man has ever devised.  Everything, every last detail of life, winds up subject to the whims of, ‘How does the mob feel today?’

Now imagine yourself in the place of Bartimaeus.  Since the day you lost your sight you’ve struggled and strained to remember the gorgeous colors of Palestine: the wheat fields in harvest, shimmering in the golden Sun; the ripe red grapes just before the wine is pressed; the colors of a desert Sunset as it sinks slowly behind the eastern mountains of Moab and Ammon.  You know, all too well, the stories of how the crystal-white marble covering the dome of Herod’s Temple makes it appear from a distance as a snow covered mountain, about the midnight blue waters of the Mediterranean, dark and deep.  But you haven’t actually seen them, haven’t experienced the grand sight of them for yourself in soooooo many years.

Then one day as you’re begging for alms by the side of the road you hear a great commotion and a crowd begins to stir.  “What is it?,” you ask, “what is it?”  It is Him.  It is the Messiah— the One the prophets predicted, the One the Scriptures speak of— the Son of David is here!  You’ve listened to the Scriptures read of the Redeemer who was promised from the beginning of Time.  You know this is the One who came as Isaiah said, to “strengthen the feeble hands” and “steady the knees that give way,” to “say to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong, do not fear; your God will come …He will come to save you.”  In the time of His appearance to the nation of Israel it was said, “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.  Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue will shout for joy...,” Isaiah 35:3, 5-6b.  “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon Me [Jesus the Messiah], because the LORD has anointed Me to proclaim Good News to the poor and oppressed.  He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor...,” Isaiah 61:1-2a.

Amen and amen.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
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