Son of David, Have Mercy on Me!

Introduction

Good evening. Welcome everyone here tonight. Appreciate you being here so much. As we have every night throughout this gospel meeting. And I hope that this these series of lessons through the Gospel of Mark have been beneficial to you. I hope that I’ve been able to bring some things out to you that maybe you hadn’t noticed or thought about before, made some connections in the scriptures that always I think help us to increase our faith in God’s word. And I of course want to also extend my thanks to the church here for once again for inviting me and to the elders for extending the invitation for me to come and to and to do this meeting. it’s just been a wonderful experience and wonderful opportunity for me.

And always I love the singing here, right? And one of the good things about filling a building, probably past its capacity, is the singing at least is gonna sound really good. And so it’s been wonderful to worship God and song together with you. I just want to also extend my thanks to the those who’ve had me in your homes or out to eat, and I really appreciate that. It’s appreciate you accommodating my dietary restrictions, which is always a little bit difficult. You go to a place and you never know exactly how that’s gonna go. and like Sunday I got to the e-gulfs, and I’m sitting here going, man, am I gonna be able to eat anything?

And I get to talking to him. I get there, and the first thing I see is these big plates of meat, and I’m like, perfect. I’m alright. So I’m a carnivore diet, and you know, I get to talking to him, and they’re on Carnivore 2. I’m like, yes, this is providential, I think. and then of course the Campbells take me out, and then Caleb Emerson cooked me, I think the best steak I’ve ever had in my life last night. just did way too much. and so I just really appreciate all that y’all have done for me and my family and while we’ve been here. And I can’t wait to be with you again. And I told my wife we might just have to start being frequent visitors.

We got home last night in 40 minutes, door to door. So that is not bad at all. And so maybe we’ll just have to show up every now and then. I hope you all have us. If you would open your Bibles to, if you haven’t already, to Mark chapter 10. And we’ll conclude our study there tonight. Mark chapter 10, beginning in verse 46. And in one way, we’re going to wind up where we began, which is a story of the healing of someone who is blind.

Both Mark chapter 8, verses 22 through 26, which we studied previously in Mark chapter 10, where we’re at tonight, narrate the healing of a blind man. And these two stories serve as sort of literary bookends surrounding three major predictions of Jesus about his impending death and resurrection. And those three predictions occur in chapter 8 and verse 31, and chapter 9, verses 30 and 32. And then here in chapter 10, verses 32 through 34. And surrounding that you have these healings of blind men, which again, as we noted so extensively on Sunday morning, that this is these were signs of the Messiah. That the Old Testament prophesied very explicitly that the Messiah would be the one who would come and do things that no one else had done.

He would perform miracles to confirm his identity. And one of those specific miracles that no one else would do was the healing of the blind. And so it’s no accident then that these signs bookend these predictions of Jesus’ resurrection death and resurrection because, well, that’s what the Messiah was sent to do to die on behalf of the sins of all mankind. And yet, in the midst of all these stories, as we’ve seen, we have this stark contrast of how these people who started out blind end up being healed so that they can see, and yet the disciples remain somewhat blind spiritually regarding Jesus and his identity and his true mission as going to the cross. And Jesus uses these opportunities to teach them and heal their spiritual blindness.

But tonight we look at a text of blind Barnamaeus. Hopefully you’ve heard him called that before. And one of the things that Bartimaeus says to Jesus is he calls him son of David. And he begs, pleads with him to have mercy on me. We live in a day and age where mercy is not a very highly valued virtue. We live in the midst of a cancel culture. And cancel culture shows no mercy. Someone is pronounced guilty in the court of public opinion, and there’s no turning back. No one wants to forgive them, even if it’s later proven that they didn’t actually do the thing that they were accused of. It’t value grace and mercy and forgiveness. And yet, Jesus tells us that’s exactly the kind of people we ought to be.

And he shows us that in his own willingness to extend mercy to those who society would have deemed unworthy of it. Jesus exemplified mercy. Our story tonight takes place around the city of Jericho. Maybe an oft forgotten or overlooked aspect of this story, but I think a meaningful one.

And it had been rebuilt, of course, in kind of similar locations over the years. The old Jericho, near there was a pilgrimage path, the ESV says to Jerusalem that may no longer have been populated at the time of Jesus. There was a newer Herodian Jericho situated southeast of this pilgrimage path, serving as a meeting place for pilgrims. And to reach this new Jericho from the pilgrimage road, one had to travel the same road there and back, which might explain the slight differences between Mark’s account and those of Matthew and Luke. But this healing occurs when Jesus heads back to the pilgrimage road from Jericho. And of course, there would have been what? Blind and other sorts of beggars sitting there along these roads, near the entrances to these towns, waiting, asking for alms from people.

1. Jesus, Son of David, Have Mercy on Me

And that’s where Jesus encounters blind Bartimaeus. It says there in verse 46, and they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said, Call him. And he called the blind man, saying to him, Take heart, get up, he is calling you. And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, What do you want me to do for you?

And the blind man said to him, Rabbi, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, Go your way. Your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. Here Jesus is near the town of Jericho. And I want to make just a couple of observations about the importance of that real quick before we get into the text. Number one, recall Jericho is the home of none other than Rahab the harlot, right? Rahab the harlot being a prime example of someone whose faith saved them. Being the prime example of someone who received mercy, even though by worldly standards she was undeserving. And so the location, I think, is important for those corollary reasons. And secondly, Jericho, of course, was the place where the spies took shelter at Rahab’s house as they had been sent out to spy the land.

In other words, they had been sent out to see the land. And so it’s a place of seeing. It’s associated with the receiving of sight, of knowledge. And so I think it’s no accident then that Jesus performs one of these healings of giving sight to the blind here in this location. And so we get here to Barnamaeus. And he’s hearing that this is Jesus walking by, and he begins to cry out. And again, I want us to notice here about this. This is not some half-hearted effort, right? I mean, he is desperate to get Jesus’ attention. He is crying out as loud as he can. Desperate to be noticed, determined to be heard. Why? Just because he knew what Jesus could do. If he didn’t have faith that Jesus could help him, he wouldn’t have bothered.

And yet he knew this Jesus of Nazareth has the ability to bring sight to the blind. And so he cries out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And what makes that so significant? It’s the fact that this title, Son of David, was explicitly Messianic. I just have to give credit here to Barnamaeus, who we don’t really know much about, and yet, for whatever reason, he has this knowledge that says Jesus of Nazareth must be the Messiah. You don’t assigned this title on accident. You don’t call someone son of David unless you really believe that this person is fulfilling all of these prophecies. The Messiah was promised to come through the line of David, and so he recognizes Jesus for who he is. Though he is blind, physically, he sees what he ought to have seen.

And I hope that the alarm bells are going off for you in your mind right now because that’s what we’ve been focusing on this whole week. Seeing Jesus for who he is. And blind Bartermaeus is exemplary for that theme this week. We’ve looked at people of varying levels of faith and varying levels of knowledge, and we don’t always know exactly what they know and what they don’t know, but it seems like from this text, from this use of this name, that Bartimaeus knew exactly who Jesus was fully. And so he calls him the son of David. Not only does he recognize Jesus as the Messiah, he sees Jesus for who he is. He understands that because he is the Messiah, he has the ability to grant mercy towards him.

And I think maybe on some level he understood that this mercy could extend beyond just the physical healing that Jesus had to offer, but also the spiritual healing as well.

Only God has the power and authority to forgive sins. He wanted healing, but he would receive much more. We often define mercy as just, you know, maybe from a legal standpoint of not getting punishment that we deserve, right? We talk about mercy and grace and how those different, we give these kind of stock definitions of, well, mercy is not getting what you do deserve, and getting grace is something, getting giving this gift, right? That is more than what you deserve. And that’s fine. But it can also mean to receive mercy can be a blessing that’s an act of divine favor or compassion, compassionate treatment of someone who is in distress. And I think that’s really more along the lines of what Barnamaus is seeking here.

2. Many Rebuked Him, But He Cried Out All the More

And when you think about it, shouldn’t this be all of us? Yes, we should be desirous of mercy in regards to forgiveness of sin, but we also should be desirous of God just treating us compassionately because of who we are, because we are flawed, sinful human beings, and because we need his divine favor and his grace. Shouldn’t we all be like blind Barnabaius, crying out to Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And yet when we do that, what happens? All too often, people around us, sometimes even in the church, are just like this crowd. Because what does the crowd do? As soon as they hear him yelling, and they’re basically saying, shut up, Barnamaeus. It says there that many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.

Given the popularity of Jesus, this socially insignificant blind man is considered to be a nuisance, a bother, an interruption. So not only do they want him to remain blind, which is pretty harsh if you ask me, they wanted him to basically be mute as well. I think there’s a little bit of tension and irony there in that. He’s already blind. That’s bad enough. They want him to be mute as well.

And yet it was this type of person. That’s exactly who Jesus came to seek and save and serve. This is the type of person he would use to confirm himself as the Messiah. The Messiah was prophesied to come and to heal the lame and the blind and open the tongues of the mute. And isn’t this a lot of times? Sorry, got a little head there. A lot of time what people do to us. We cry out whatever the case might be. And what do people do? They tell us to be quiet. They say, deal with your problems yourself. They tell us to leave it out of school or out of the workplace. They rebuke our faith as being antiquated and out of touch.

Are we going to listen to those who tell us to be quiet, or are we going to cry out all the more? What’s interesting about this as well, maybe it’s a stretch, maybe not, but the people who are telling him to be quiet are the very people that seemingly are interested in Jesus.

They wanted to hear him.

We can tell people to be quiet about Jesus. Stop trying so hard. Stop trying to do so much, stop trying to push the borders so much. Maybe not explicitly, but maybe implicitly. We say things like, stop complaining, stop telling about your problems. We don’t really want to have to get in the mess. Stop coming forward and confessing. Stop pushing us out of our comfort zones. Stop having new ideas and telling us to trust in God and see what kind of great things he might be willing to do through us. Because we don’t really want to do any of that, right? We want to come and sit in the four-walled box and do things the way they’ve always been done. We just want to see Jesus from a distance.

We just want to kind of look, but we don’t want to get our hands dirty. We want to be passive observers rather than active participants. It’s one thing for people in the world to say be quiet about Jesus. It’s another thing when people in the church say to be quiet about Jesus. And I think the devil loves that kind of napitude. That’s exactly what’s going on here, right? The devil doesn’t want us crying out to Jesus because he knows Jesus will answer. And thankfully, this man’s response is not to listen to the crowd, to give in to the peer pressure, but to do just the opposite. When he’s pressured to be quiet, he cries out all the more. Why? Because he saw Jesus for who he really was, and he wasn’t about to pass up that opportunity.

He was the Son of David, the Messiah, the Christ. What an amazing example. When the world tells us to be quiet, what should we do? We should be unashamed. We should cry out all the more. Because the world needs to hear about the saving grace of Jesus. So ignore everyone else. Ignore the noise. And when we are in distress, don’t listen to the devil telling you that you don’t need Jesus and that he cannot help you. Cry out all the more. And when we do that, scripture tells us that Jesus will respond.

3. And Jesus Stopped

Isn’t that beautiful? To think that the master of the universe has a time to stop and take notice of one person. No matter how seemingly insignificant they are. And we think about those words, and Jesus wept. What about and Jesus stopped? What does Jesus do when we cry out? He stops to help. He helps those who cannot help themselves. He helps those who are considered insignificant. He helps those who have faith in him and cry out to him, who take the time, who recognize they are helpless without him. Because Jesus is our high priest and mediator. The Hebrew writer tells us in Hebrews chapter 7, verse 26 and following, for it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath which came later than the law appoints a son who has been made perfect forever. Now the point of what we’re saying is this that we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.

For Moses, when he was about to wreck to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry, in other words, a service, an office of service, that is as much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. What is the Hebrew writer telling us there? He’s telling us that essentially we have a servant in Jesus. What does a servant do? They stop and help. That’s their job. Jesus stopped because that was his job. He was this minister, he was intent on becoming this minister now, is a minister in the heavenly places, the Hebrew writer tells us.

And if you back up a few chapters in Hebrews chapter 4, verses 14 through 16, the Hebrew writer likewise says, Since then we have a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Again, what is the high priest’s job? To serve the people.

But one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then, and I love this, and I hope we’re gonna see how this correlates. Let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Jesus stops because that’s what he came to the earth to do, to serve, to minister, to sympathize, to show mercy. And so what is blind Barnamae able to do? He is able to draw near. What, right? He calls him. And they say, Get up, take heart, he is calling you. And so he’s able to go and literally draw near to Jesus. And he finds grace and mercy in his time of need, just like the Hebrew writer says, Jesus is still able and willing to do for us today.

And so we need to take this encouragement to be just like blind Bartimaeus, to with confidence draw near to the throne of grace in order to find mercy, crying out, Son of David, have mercy on me in our times of need.

4. What Do You Want Me to Do for You?

So the crowd says to him, Take heart. Get up, he is calling you. Amazing how quickly their attitude changes now that Jesus pays attention, they go from saying, Be quiet, to, hey, get up, good luck, you know, good for you. And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. You see how quickly he does this, how quickly he responds when this way is opened unto him, and he goes and he draws near. Again, what an amazing example that when Jesus calls, we answer and we answer quickly. There’s no hesitation here. He eagerly comes, seeing the amazing opportunity that he has, knowing what Jesus can do, and having a saving faith that he is willing. And Jesus asked the question that would have seemed obvious.

What do you want me to do for you? I often wonder what kind of response Jesus expected to get from that question. Sometimes people can surprise you, right? I mean, think about Solomon, and God says, hey, name it. I’ll give you whatever you want. And then he asked for wisdom. Of course, God blesses him with much more than that. Here you wonder what’s going on in Bartimaeus’ head. Well, obviously, I want to receive my sight. But you can’t, maybe there was a little moment where he thought, hmm, maybe there’s something else I could ask for. Maybe something that might not have been the right answer, the question. But isn’t that the question for all of us? Jesus asks every single one, what do you need me to do for you?

And that answer is going to be different for all of us.

Right? We looked at it last night. If you can, right? If you can, and Jesus to do for us, head explodes and said, Of course I can do.

The disciples didn’t have the power, but Jesus had the power. What do you want Jesus to do for you? And why does Jesus ask the question? Because after, again, Jesus knew exactly what this man needed. There’s no doubt about that. Jesus asks the obvious question in order to give the blind man the opportunity to express his trust in Jesus. And he says, Rabbi, let me recover my sight. And I think we likewise oftentimes need to examine ourselves and see what we’re lacking. Are we lacking in sight? Are we lacking in hearing? Are we lacking in faith? Are we lacking in understanding? Are we lacking in holiness? And we can ask Jesus to help fulfill that need.

5. Go Your Way, Your Faith Has Made You Well

And the same is true for us. We have to come to him asking for help. We have to be honest with ourselves and with him about our struggles and shortcomings. We need to go to him in prayer and petition and repentance. And when we do that, we will find the same type of help and grace and mercy in time of need as this blind man did. And when we’re willing to be honest and have and place our faith in Jesus, we’re going to get the same answer. Go your way, your faith has made you well. What was it that enabled this man’s healing? Once again, as with all of our other examples this week, it was his faith. His belief. Same as the woman, but the flow of blood the same as with Jairus, and on and on.

His belief in the power of Jesus to save. Now, Jesus’ statement here, I think, is clearly hinting at not just his receiving sight, the physical healing, but at his spiritual healing as well. He is made spiritually whole. And likewise is our faith in Jesus that saves us. Jesus does the work of healing, but we have to believe and trust and obey in order to enable that power to work upon us. And it says that when he did that, immediately, Mark’s favorite word once again, oopsor, immediately, he recovered his sight.

Just as in his crying out to Jesus when he heard that he was coming. And just as in his coming to Jesus when he was called, the healing he receives is immediate.

Such is the power of Jesus. In the same way, our salvation is immediate when we believe in the Lord and act upon it by coming to him in baptism. It would have done this man absolutely no good to believe in the Lord’s power to heal him without acting upon it. If he had sat there and said absolutely nothing would have happened. If he had sat there and listened when the crowd told him to be quiet, and he just said, okay, well, you know, I guess, oh well, and had been quiet, I’m guessing nothing would have happened. If he had sat there when Jesus told the crowd to call him that he might come up, if he had said, well, actually, never mind, and stayed seated, I don’t think Jesus would have healed him.

If he had not answered Jesus’ question of what do you want me to do for you? Nothing would have happened. Obedience and action were required to activate the power of Jesus. His faith motivated him to act and enabled Jesus’ power to work upon him. It says then that he followed him on the way.

6. He Followed Him on the Way

We find Mark’s account of the rich young ruler. Says, as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Now, this story starts the same as a lot of other stories of people’s encounters with Jesus. Just like so many others, he hears Jesus’ coming, he runs up to him. Starts out well, right? He honors him, he bows down before him. He asks him a question. He asks him a good question. What must I do to inherit eternal life? But you notice the difference. I think a stark difference between the fact that Bartimaeus calls Jesus the son of David, whereas this rich young ruler simply calls him good teacher.

Yeah, Jesus was a good teacher, and it’s a perfectly acceptable term to use. Probably on a different level than understanding. He is the son of David. And then we’ll notice another difference. Of course, we know that Jesus says to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. And he tells him, you know, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father, mother. Of course, he says, I’ve kept all these things from my youth. And Jesus, looking at him, loved him. I think Mark notes that because it’s almost like a desperate love that Jesus has, knowing what is actually on this man’s heart. And said to him, You lack one thing.

Go and sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come and follow me. And disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And then Jesus says a few verses later. Or continuing in verse 23, the next few verses, Jesus looked around. He said, You see that? Looked and said to his disciples, How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

And they are exceedingly astonished and said to him, Then who can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.

I mean, these stories are almost right next to one another in the same chapter. The only thing in between is Jesus foretelling of his death a third time, and then this request of James and John, which again, ironically, Jesus says, What do you want me to do for you? But here comes one man who doesn’t, he’s just not quite there, and yet, and yet Jesus still extends the invitation. He still has the love for this man, and he says, If you would just do this, then you can come and follow me. If you would just remove your idols, if you would just sell all that you have and put your faith in Jesus, that God will provide for you, then you can have it all. Truly.

He has wealth, he has power, he has knowledge, he’s been a model Jew. And yet he rejects the call. Because he’s attached to his worldly riches. And then you have just the opposite. You have the poor man who is dishonored by society who cannot even see. He has nothing by the world’s standards. And yet it says at the end of this text, when Jesus. Again, remember, there’s many people that Jesus healed, and he said, Turn around and go home. Right?

But what does Jesus say to him? He says, Go your way, your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. Jesus allowed him to stay. He said, go your way. But what happened? His way became Jesus’ way. The poor beggar took the opportunity, clearly demonstrating the principle Jesus taught that it would be much more difficult for the rich in the present age to inherit the kingdom of God. And he decided that spiritual wealth was much more important than earthly wealth. And so the question remains for all of us.

Conclusion

For the rich man, it was money. For the poor man, it was nothing. And so we have to frame the question for ourselves and put it in the right perspective. What do we have to lose? And the right answer is nothing of consequence in this life.

And we can lose out on a lot of things, a lot of earthly things like this rich man was afraid of losing out on earthly wealth and fame, right?

But we could lose out on so much more if we don’t answer this question the right way. We can lose out on eternal life itself, which is infinitely more important. And so as we walk away from these lessons in the gospel of Mark, let us try and put these things into the right perspective. Would you bow with me? Lord Jesus. Help us to see you for who you are. The Son of David, the Messiah, our God and our creator, our healer, our redeemer and our friend. Help us to cry out to you for mercy and heal us when we do. Help us to tell of your name to the peoples. Help us not to listen when they tell us to be silent. We know, Lord, that you can do all things and that we can do all things through you.

Help us to have the kind of faith in you that activates your power in us. Help us never to hesitate to come to you, but to make known to you all that is on our hearts. We humbly plead that you do for us all that we need for you to do. As we understand that only you can do these things. Help us to see our own blindness, our own spiritual hardheartedness, and our own need for mercy. Help us, Lord, to recover our sight, to see our faithlessness and the shortcomings in our lives, and to desire to make them right, to be filled by you, to be strengthened. And finally, Lord, help us not to go our own way, but to make our way your way, and to follow you more faithfully wherever you go.

Have mercy on us, O Lord. We pray these things in the name of Jesus, the Son of David, and amen. Thank you all again so much for this week. It’s been such an encouragement to me. And I hope that it has been for you as well. Here tonight we offer you the opportunity to become a Christian. If you’re not, we offer the invitation of Jesus that says, Come and receive your sight, and I will heal. We have a baptistry behind me where you can confess your faith, your belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and put to death the old man and rise to walk in newness of life, committing yourself to Him. Or maybe you’re here and there’s just something in your life that you’re having trouble with.

Don’t be afraid, don’t hesitate to know that the people here in this room care about you, are willing to pray for you and help you in any way that we possibly can. So if there’s anyone here tonight that needs to respond to the gospel call, why don’t you do so now while together we stand and sing.