The Cure for Sin
Jesus healed many, many people. Most of the miraculous things Jesus did are not written down in scripture. John 21:25 tells us, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” So why are the ones we have the ones that were chosen to be recorded and kept for all time? I don’t believe God does anything without reason. The earth is far too ordered and interwoven for that to be true. I believe, if a story was written down, there is a reason. In today’s reading we find the story of a man referred to as Blind Bartimaeus. Two things strike me instantly when I read this account. 1) We are told the man’s name. 2) We are told who is father was. Again, I don’t believe anything is wasted or arbitrary in scripture, so why are we told their names when we are more often never told the name of the people Jesus healed, much less who their father was?
The answer to the question of why we know this man’s name lies in the name of Blind Bartimaeus’ father, Timaeus. Tradition holds that Timaeus (or the cursed one) was also blind. Now, we know of diseases which affect vision that are hereditary. Back in ancient times; however, they viewed disabilities as a signal of sin. For example, in John 9: 2-3, we read, “His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned: he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” To have a blind man father a blind son must have appeared as a major revelation of sin. In Matthew Henry’s words, “He was the blind son of a blind father, which made the case worse, and the cure more wonderful, and the more proper to typify the spiritual cures wrought by the grace of Christ, on those that not only are born blind, but are born of those that are blind.”
The healing of Blind Bartimaeus, son of blind Timaeus was more than a simple act of God’s grace. It was a lesson for all those who heard of it: Jesus holds the power over sin. He still does. Be as bold as Bartimaeus was. People told him to keep quiet, and he called out all the louder. No matter what afflicts you, cry out to Jesus. He can open our eyes and our hearts. Even if we are the son (or daughter) of a long line of hopeless sinners, the cross washes it all away.
(Written by Keegan Harkins.)
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