Bartimaeus: Luke 18:35-43
Bartimaeus: Faith, Sight, and Sound
Luke 18:35-43
Bartimaeus may be blind, but he’s not quiet. Sitting by the roadside in Jericho, he’s not just a man in need—he’s a voice crying out. Oft overlooked, he’s undeterred.
See him there! A blind beggar, sidelined by life’s harshness, living on the charity of others. He’s invisible to society, but when he hears that Jesus is near, he calls out with everything that’s in him—“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Luke 18:38).
This isn’t blind hope. This is a blind man who hoped Jesus would finally visit his town and now, after three years, he has finally come to Jericho while making his way to Jerusalem.
The crowd, for some reason, tries to quiet him. How disquieting.
Bartimaeus isn’t interested in being the same. The status quo crowd is in their own kind of darkness. He’s getting out of his, if only he could get in front of Jesus! He calls louder. He turns it up to eleven.
Faith begins to outshine his blindness.
Jesus tells the crowd, “Call him over,” teaching them that Bartimaeus is not a problem; he matters. Can’t they see that?
The man in the dark now stands in front of the Light of the World. The man from Nazareth asks the man from Jericho one of life’s most important and difficult-to-answer questions, “What do you want out of this?”
Swirling inside of Bartimaeus are memories of the world, the sights, the people, the colors. He longs to live with clarity and fullness. His faith is driven by memory and by a deep trust in what he’s heard about Jesus. Jesus can intervene and can do things thought impossible. He can change situations against all odds.
Bartimaeus answers, “Teacher, I want to see again.” He’s not like the man in John 9 who was born blind. Bartimaeus has known the gift of sight. He’s seen the marvel of a sunset, felt the relief of blossoms after winter’s barrenness, and noticed the shadows within loved ones’ wrinkled smiles. He knows what he’s missing.
He wants it back. Restoration.
To know the world is color but to only see black is not what he wants. He wants a new future. A big bang of creative healing that bursts forth into a new way of living.
“Receive your sight; your faith has healed you” (Luke 18:42). His life, once altered by blindness, is now being rewritten by faith in a startling grace that caused him to howl for mercy.
Long before Bartimaeus could see Jesus, and he finally did gaze upon the face of the Teacher, the Teacher had gazed upon him with grace.
He’s healed, sure. Better, he’s transformed.
Jesus tells him to go, but he doesn’t. What’s this?! Instead of going back to Jericho, home, Bartimaeus begins to follow Jesus in the countryside as a disciple. He becomes part of the crowd, Christ’s caravan of the redeemed.
For Bartimaeus, it was only a matter of time, for his eyes of faith were already opened and they were never blind to the dazzling grace that always sees us first.
