A Miracle by the Side of a Dusty Road — The Meaning of Christmas
I believe that the healing of Bartimaeus by the side of that dusty road represents the hope and peace we sing about and long for at Christmas. So, I’ll write one more post about Jesus, Bartimaeus, and the promise of Christmas.
Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was blind; I assume blind from birth but the Bible does not say. As Jesus passed through Jericho on His way to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover and make His triumphant entry into Jerusalem (and within a week be crucified), He passed by Bartimaeus begging on the side of that dusty, well-travelled road. This scene is recorded for us in Mark 10: 46-52 and Luke 18: 35-43; the two passages are nearly identical.
In Mark and Luke, miraculously restoring Bartimaeus’ sight is the last healing miracle Jesus performed before He was crucified (in Matthew 21: 14 Jesus healed the blind and the lame in the temple). Bartimaeus is not included in John, but after Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem in John’s Gospel there are no recorded healing miracles.
It seems to me then, that the restoration of Bartimaeus’ sight was the end of Jesus’ teaching- and healing-ministry phase to the world. True, Jesus taught His disciples after He entered Jerusalem, but this was private teaching, preparing them for His soon-to-be death and departure. But His Kingdom work to the world came to a climax/conclusion with this final healing on the road outside of Jericho on the way to Jerusalem fulfilling the prophesy in Isaiah 35 “”Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, He will come with vengeance; with divine retribution He will come to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened” (Isaiah 35: 4, 5 NIV). Isaiah prophesies that when the Savior, the Messiah comes the eyes of the blind will be opened. As I have said before, one of the meanings of the Greek word for save, Sozo, means to heal and make whole.
I see the episode with Bartimaeus as one end of a continuum that began with the birth of Jesus. God was born a man in lowly Bethlehem; some 30 years later that Man performed a miracle that only God could do for a lowly beggar who was virtually invisible to the people around him. The promises of Christmas are manifested and given flesh in the Kingdom healing of this lowly blind beggar.
At one time in our lives we lived in darkness like Bartimaeus, blind to the grace and beauty of God. Today, in at least in some parts of our hearts, we are still blind and living in darkness. And we have all been objects of God’s wrath when we followed our own way, just as Bartimaeus was in the eyes of Jewish leaders of the time. And then, when we became desperate enough, many of us cried out “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” We have much in common with this 1st Century beggar by the side of the road.
I have difficulty understanding how marginalized Bartimaeus was by the Jews in 1st Century Palestine, especially by the religious elite. They assumed that his blindness was the consequence of serious sin in his life or the life of his parents. He was a social outcast, unclean, and unworthy of their attention. By healing Bartimaeus Jesus was not just releasing the Kingdom of God and fulfilling prophesy, we was sending a message about the Kingdom to Jewish society at the time and to us. Jesus is making the point that no matter how lowly a man or woman in a given society is perceived by that society, God sees everyone as worthy of salvation. And if they cry out, He is willing and able to restore them to health and wholeness. God proves this to us in the healing of Bartimaeus.
The Christmas message is that God is impartial, all are welcome into His Kingdom. The hope and joy of Christmas is for all humanity, as Jesus demonstrated with this miracle over 2000 years ago. But, we know from experience in our own spheres of influence not all will respond to Jesus’ invitation the way Bartimaeus did.
What a healing miracle! Christmas is about the hope we have in a powerful God who has come among us to defeat God’s enemies. His enemies are the powers and principalities of the dark world — Satan and his minions. Sickness, blindness, disease, and other physical, spiritual, and emotional afflictions are the way that the enemy steals joy and peace; kills life and liveliness; and destroys relationships throughout all of God’s creation. By restoring Bartimaeus’ sight, Jesus is affirming His Kingdom mission and His power over the enemy. At several levels He is rescuing Bartimeaus from the kingdom of darkness and bringing him into the Kingdom of Light, also called the Kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:13). With this healing, Jesus destroys the power of the enemy, pushes back the darkness, and takes back Kingdom territory. He does these things one person at a time; as Jesus restores Bartimaeus, He releases the Kingdom of God.
A powerful God moves among His people, saving them from the kingdom of darkness and restoring them into the Kingdom of Light. Light breaking into the darkness is the hope and the joy of Christmas.
What actuated Bartimaeus’ healing? Jesus tells him “your faith has healed you.” Jesus healed him, but healed him in response to his faith. This was not always the case in Jesus’ ministry. Sometimes He healed people with little or no faith — He healed people who didn’t even know who He was. But in this case it was faith that produced the healing. We see Bartimaeus’ belief in his first cry “Jesus, son of David.” This was a messianic title that the Jews in Jesus’ time used to describe the anticipated coming King and His Kingdom. One of the prophesies in Isaiah was “He will reign on David’s throne and over his Kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on forever” (Isaiah 9: 7 NIV). Bartimaeus knew who Jesus was, even if the religious leaders of the time did not.
But knowing that Jesus is the Messiah is not the same as having faith in Jesus. When summoned by Jesus he threw his cloak aside, jumped to his feet, and came to Jesus. If it was me, I would have approached Jesus, but kept my cloak. Bartimaeus didn’t have much, but he did have a cloak to keep him warm in the winter and shaded in the summer. It might have acted as a tent and even been his abode. If the miracle didn’t happen and I was still blind after talking with Jesus (because He couldn’t or wouldn’t heal me) I would still have my cloak and be no worse off after Jesus moved on.
But not Bartimaeus. He threw the cloak away. He knew Jesus would heal him; he would not need that cloak after his sight was restored!! He didn’t just believe Jesus, in the sense that He knew who Jesus was. He believed in Jesus, trusted Jesus, committed his life to Jesus. He approached Jesus not just with hope, but with certainty and expectancy. And that is the faith that Jesus was talking about. Also, the cloak of Bartimaeus represented his old life. By casting off his cloak, he anticipated the new life that Jesus will give him (by faith). He would be a new creation.
This is the same way we should approach Christmas. Not just with joy and hope, but with certainty and expectancy. If we surrender that part of our life we have withheld from Him or invite Jesus into our deep place of woundedness crying out “Jesu, Son of David, have mercy on me”, He will heal us and set us free from anger, fear, anxiety, or whatever the enemy uses to take us down. Not only do we have hope that this year we too will be made new by this Messiah, this Savior; we are certain and we can’t wait to see the results.
On Christmas eve we celebrate God entering into the world as a baby who would grow up to be a man. A man whose life was circumscribed by the biological necessities of humanity, but still, God! A baby in a manger — the hope “that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8: 21, NIV). The baby is one end of the continuum of Christ’s ministry to the world. This hope is realized, is manifested in the words and deeds of Jesus ministry, and summed up, I think, in those few minutes on the dusty road between Jericho and Jerusalem. That is the other end of the continuum. The promise on the one hand and the fulfillment of the promise — the Kingdom of God, the now and the not yet — on the other. God did not just promise; He acted. We remember this on Christmas Eve as we worship God for His faithfulness, power, and love.
(Of course, the final culmination of Jesus ministry in Israel would take place in a week or so on the cross, in the tomb, and then in the world again as the resurrected Jesus walks and talks with His disciples and others before He ascends into Heaven to sit at the right hand of His Father.)
I try to imagine the shock, joy, surprise, and overwhelming emotions Bartimaeus felt in that moment when he first saw the world around him — colors, shapes, people, and landscapes. Beauty! What a gift. How did he respond? Did he fall on his knees, weeping with joy? Did he run off to the nearest party, take in the sights along the Dead Sea, check out the closest sporting event? Scripture tells us that “immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road” (or “on the way” in the NKJV). No delay — He surrendered to Jesus, on the spot. Luke says “Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God”.
Christmas is not just a time of remembrance; it is time of action, of choosing to “love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength” and just as importantly “love our neighbors”. Who are our neighbors? Everyone. It is a time to commit or recommit to following Jesus on ‘the way’, loving our neighbors, and praising God each day with hearts overflowing with gratitude
Bartimaeus received his spiritual and physical sight. His eyes were opened and he saw his Savior. People could say whatever they wanted to him about Jesus; Bartimaeus knew the truth, and the truth set him free to follow and serve the true Master.
It is the same today for us who follow Jesus. We are valued, accepted, and significant in Christ; our lives have meaning and purpose when we trust Jesus the way Bartimaeus did — when we choose the Kingdom of God. But we are all like Bartimaeus — our eyes were opened at some point, and this experience for each of us was real, just as it was for him. And just as significantly, as we follow Jesus each day as Bartimaeus did, He reveals Himself again and again through sign and wonders, answered prayers; through fellowship, a tangible sense of His presence, speaking with us, dreams and visions, and many other ways. For true believers, His presence and power are undeniable. He is real and working in our world — God of the Unseen Real, incarnate in the real world. God breaking into our lives, penetrating that membrane that separates these two realities with power. That is the basis for our hope this season.
The secular world tells me I am ‘self deceived’ or calls me ‘fanatical’. But I cannot deny that there is a better way. Or, I should say ‘A best way’. It is Jesus and only He can set us free. That is the ultimate hope and meaning of Christmas. Just ask Bartimaeus.
Merry Christmas, all of you Bartimaeus’ out there. Rejoice in our Christmas gift of freedom in Christ. We have been redeemed and are being restored, even today.
Grace and peace,
John