Faith and Salvation (4)

"Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road (Mark 10:52)

Bartimaeus followed Jesus after receiving his eye sight healed by Jesus’ word. Here many episodes of the story were omitted. If Bartimaeus received his sight then his family, relatives and neighbors would have been greatly delighted. They might have arranged a great feast of joy to celebrate the miraculous healing of Bartimaeus’ blindness. Many people must have gathered to see him and to hear the news. In this case, he might not have followed Jesus immediately after receiving his sight.

Furthermore, those who have received their sight for the first time in life would require a period of time for adaptation and familiarization with the new environment he has to adjust with. Think of the person who sees the world at the first time. It might be a greater change and challenge for him than that of a larva just hatched out to become a butterfly. The world comes to them in a completely different way. Bartimaeus must have also lived in a status of complete puzzle for quite long time. In such status, as the content of today says, he could not have immediately followed Jesus.

The authors of Bible did not include all the insignificant details. The important fact of this story is that the blind man, Bartimaeus has been saved and would go the way of disciple, the way the saved people should go. At this point, the above verse is the summary of the entire gospels. It says that those who are saved from sin and death become disciples of Jesus and follow him.

We all are Bartimaeus of today. Our status might be the status of a beggar and of the blind man. We cannot eat and live by ourselves. Though we have great power with us, we can only live depending on others. The fact we cannot see the real truth is exactly similar to helpless status of Bartimaeus. However, our destiny entered into totally different level through Jesus. By virtue of Jesus’ love, we are now able to see the truth and the life. Those who have such joyful experience cannot but follow Jesus for Jesus indeed is the source of life.