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A Blind Man Meets a Healer
Stevie Wonder (the singer) and Jack Nicklaus (the golfer) are sitting around the pool talking.
Inevitably the conversation turns to golf and Nicklaus is surprised to find out that Stevie Wonder, who is blind, has been playing golf for years.
The golf pro can’t believe it.
He wants some details so Stevie Wonder explains how he does it: “My caddy stands out in the middle of the fairway and calls out to me.
I listen for the sound of his voice and play the ball towards him.
Then when I get to where the ball lands, the caddy moves further down the green, shouts out and I hit the ball again.
Nicklaus is obviously impressed but then asks, “But how do you putt?”
The famous singer replies: “Well, I get my caddy to lean down in front of the hole and call to me with his head on the ground and his mouth just over the cup.
I just play the ball towards his voice.”
Nicklaus finds all this very amazing and then asks Wonder if they can play a round sometime.
Stevie agrees but says that because people don’t take him very seriously he only plays for money ­ and he never plays for less than $10,000 a hole.
Nicklaus thinks about it for a minute and then says, “OK, that’s serious money, but I’m up for it.
When do we play?”
To which Steve Wonder answers, “You name the night.”
This morning I want to talk about another blind man.
But Instead of being a professional golfer or a famous musician, this guy was wiped out by life.
Blind and unable to see he spent his days sitting by the fairways and highways, just waiting for someone to give him a shekel or a piece of bread.
he spent his days sitting by the fairways and highways, just waiting for someone to give him a shekel or a piece of bread.
but before we get to far into let me set the context for you.
Please turn in your Bibles to
.Here we read that Jesus is walking to the Cross in order to accomplish what He came to do:
Here we read that Jesus is walking to the Cross in order to accomplish what He came to do:
Here we read that Jesus is walking to the Cross in order to accomplish what He came to do:
As they start out Jesus pulls the 12 to the side and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.
He will be handed over to the Gentiles.
They will mock Him, insult Him, spit on Him, flog Him and kill Him.
Then On the third day He will rise again.”
The disciples did not understand any of this.
Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what He was talking about.
This is the third time in the Gospel of Luke that Jesus predicted His impending death.
And, each time He told them about what was to come, He got more explicit.
If you were to read through the Gospel of Luke, you would notice that beginning in chapter 9, there is a major shift in Jesus’ orientation.
We’re introduced to a “travel motif” that permeates the remainder of the book.
9:51: “As the time approached for Him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”
We see here that His approaching goal is not only His death and resurrection, but also His ascension.
The phrase, “resolutely set” out for Jerusalem means that He “set His face towards” the place where He was going to die as the final sacrifice.
And so, He begins His walk to the Cross.
10:38: “As Jesus and His disciples were on their way, He came to a village…”
13:22: “Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as He made His way to Jerusalem.”
13:33: “In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day ­ for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!”
17:11: “Now on His way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.”
18:31: “…we are going up to Jerusalem.”
Without a doubt, Jesus is on a mission.
He’s headed to Jerusalem.
And the caravan of people that are following Him is growing at each rest stop.
Then in they are now approaching the city of Jericho, which is about 15 miles from his final destination.
Since it is about 800 feet below sea level, Jericho has a climate that is tropical and at times very hot.
The town is known as an oasis because of its fresh water spring and is called, “the city of palm trees.”
In fact, I’m told that Yassar Arafat is building a summer home in Jericho.
It was in Jericho that the pilgrims gathered to make the final leg of the journey to Jerusalem to celebrate the annual Passover feast.
Let me show you on a map where Jesus is as we come to our text this morning.
[ Show PowerPoint Slide ]
As Jesus heads into Jericho, He meets a blind man named Bartimaeus ­ we know that’s his name from Mark’s account of the story.
In order to help us get a better feel for what happened when Blind Bart met Jesus that day in Jericho, I’m going to play a short clip from the Jesus Video, which is based entirely on the Gospel of Luke.
By the way, it now looks like this evangelistic video will be distributed to every home in Pontiac this December instead of during the summer.
I’ll keep you posted.
Play Video Clip.
As I try to understand this incredible encounter between Bartimaeus and Jesus, I see four different stages that Bartimaeus goes through.
The four Stages that Bartimaeus went through
The first stage is blindness.
We see this in verse 35: “As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.”
Blindness was a very common problem in Palestine.
Generally, one who was blind was never healed.
In the city of Lydda, the saying was that everyone was either blind or had only one eye.
In Jaffa, there were 500 blind people out of a population of 5,000.
While establishes that God’s people were to care for those who are blind, there was also a cultural and religious stigma against blindness.
We see this especially in the account of another man who was healed of his blindness in .
There, as Jesus and the disciples are out walking, the disciples ask Jesus a question in : “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
And so, there’s a sense in which those who were blind deserved their blindness.
Many people thought this disease was a consequence of sin, either by the individual himself, or because of something the parents did.
As a result, blind people were often ignored or even castigated.
Because this man was blind, he was relegated to a life of begging.
In the Gospel of Mark we learn that this man was wearing an old garment, which was a sign that he was a beggar.
He’s just sitting there, waiting for something to happen because there was nothing he could do to improve his condition.
This is really a word picture for our spiritual condition, isn’t it?
states that “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel…”
We are spiritually blind and there is nothing we can do to change that on our own.
Just as Jesus gives sight to those who are physically blind, so too He grants spiritual insight to those who are in moral darkness.
This man knew he was blind, and so did everyone else.
Now, take a look at verse 36: “When he heard the crowd going by, He asked what was happening.”
Now, take a look at verse 36: “When he heard the crowd going by, He asked what was happening.”
This man was smart.
He knew that there would be a mass of people in Jericho that day preparing to make the final journey to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.
That’s why he was sitting by the side of the road with his hand out.
He couldn’t see what was happening, but he could hear the commotion and excitement.
And so he’s curious.
He wants to know what was happening.
Perhaps he heard some unusual comments about a Healer who was headed to Jerusalem.
This man was smart.
He knew that there would be a mass of people in Jericho that day preparing to make the final journey to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.
That’s why he was sitting by the side of the road with his hand out.
He couldn’t see what was happening, but he could hear the commotion and excitement.
And so he’s curious.
He wants to know what was happening.
Perhaps he heard some unusual comments about a Healer who was headed to Jerusalem.
Verse 37 gives us the answer to his question, “…Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” Bart’s heart begins to race.
Could it be, that the person He had heard of before was right here in front of him?
It was almost too good to be true.
His Belief
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