What does First B Jackson teach about blind bartimaeus?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the story of blind Bartimaeus is taught as one of the clearest pictures in the Gospels of what genuine faith looks like in practice. Bartimaeus couldn't see the crowd and couldn't navigate through it, but he used every sense he had. He heard the noise, found out Jesus was passing by, and called out. When the crowd tried to silence him, he shouted louder. Pastor Blake, preaching from Luke 18-19, noted that the crowd's attempt to quiet Bartimaeus directly echoes the earlier passage about hindering the children from coming to Jesus, and that Bartimaeus refused to be hindered. Jesus stopped, called for him, and asked what he wanted. Bartimaeus said he wanted to see. Jesus replied that his faith had made him well, and immediately he could see. He followed Jesus, glorifying God, and the people around him gave praise too.
Pastor Rob, working through Mark 10:46-52 on a Monday evening, lingered on what Bartimaeus did after the healing: he followed Jesus down the road. Rob drew a distinction between believing in Jesus and following him, and said the story of Bartimaeus holds both together. He also took time to describe faith not as something a person musters up on their own but as a gift from God, a divine persuasion that grows as it is exercised. The father in Mark 9 who said "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief" was offered as a companion for anyone who finds that harder than it sounds.
The teaching also returns to Bartimaeus when the question of how we read Scripture comes up. Pastor Jason and Pastor Ray have both used the three gospel accounts of the healing near Jericho, which appear to conflict on details of geography and the number of men healed, to show what a hermeneutic of goodwill looks like versus a posture of suspicion. The details that seem to clash, once examined, dissolve. More to the point, as Pastor Jason put it, those differences never touch the actual point of the story: a person used the senses he had, cried out to God for what he was lacking, and was made whole.
Taught from Mark 10:46-52 · Luke 18:35-19:10 · Matthew 20:29-34 · Mark 9:24 · Psalm 34:4
The passage taught · 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
16 Rejoice always.
17 Pray without ceasing.
18 In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- October 8, 2023 Checking Our Lenses A Wyoming pastor explores how the lens we bring to Scripture shapes what we see, using the healing of Bartimaeus and Jesus's teaching on marriage and divorce.
- October 1, 2023 Use the Senses You Have and Call Out for the Rest Two people seek Jesus near Jericho: a blind beggar who cries out and a wealthy tax collector who climbs a tree. Both find what they were looking for.
- September 8, 2023 Checking Your Lenses Pastor Aaron explores how the lens we bring to Scripture shapes what we find there, and why trusting God's goodness changes everything we read.
- May 23, 2022 Monday Night @ Frist B May 22nd Jesus hears blind Bartimaeus cry out in faith and stops to heal him. A study of Mark 10:46-52 on mercy, faith, and what it means to follow Jesus.