The blind man's victory of faith (Mark 10:46-52)

[Stephan Choe]

May 16, 2025

Key Verse 52: "And Jesus said to him, 'Go, your faith has helped you. And immediately he received his sight and followed him on his way."

The apostle John said it in his first letter,

"Everything that is born of God overcomes the world; and our faith is the victory that has overcome the world. But who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1 John 5:4-5)

What does it mean to conquer by faith? What does victorious faith look like?

Today we want to get to know this through a blind man named Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus was an outsider in society. But through faith, he brought his need to Jesus. As a result, he triumphed over his blindness!

Let us get to know how we can triumph over everything through faith.

I. He notices Jesus passing by!

We learn from this short account about Bartimaeus. He lived in Jericho, from where the steep road up to Jerusalem began. He was a beggar who had to beg alms for his daily bread. Nevertheless, he was not designated. He lived in hope of the coming Messiah. For he believed in the promise of the Messiah in the Old Testament.

He had probably heard the scriptures of the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue on the Sabbath. The prophet Isaiah had written about the Messiah:

"Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will rejoice. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and rivers in the dry land." (Isa. 35:5-6)

Bartimaeus hoped for this Messiah. Despite his daily hardship due to his blindness, he remained confident.

In general, blind people hear very well, much better than non-blind people. Although Bartimaeus was blind, his hearing worked all the better. And his spirit seemed alive.

Through his ears and his spirit, Bartimaeus heard a great commotion on the street in Jericho. He learned that Jesus was now passing through Jericho, as people were talking about Jesus from Nazareth! He was said to be a great miracle worker. He healed the paralyzed, the lepers, the lame, the deaf, and the blind! He was said to be the Messiah, the Son of God.

We remember what Jesus told John the Baptist's disciples about himself when they asked him whether he was the promised Messiah.

"Jesus answered and said to them: <Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind see and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have the gospel preached to them; and blessed is he who is not offended by me.>"

Bartimaeus drew the conclusion from what he had heard about Jesus of Nazareth that Jesus must be the Messiah. He believed that Jesus could also heal blind people like him.

Mark reports that Bartimaeus began to cry out in faith: "When Bartimaeus heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, <Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!>”

“You Son of David!” - With this address, Bartimaeus confessed his faith in Jesus as the Messiah. Through this request, he made his faith known to many people.

Bartimaeus could not see Jesus with his own eyes because of his blindness. Nor could he see a miracle of the Lord himself. But he believed in the words of Jesus: “Blessed are those who do not see and yet believe!”

If we want to overcome all obstacles and experience the help of Jesus, we should make the blind man's determined cry for help our own. We should resolutely bring our needs to Jesus and clearly call on him for help. Jesus is our Savior who can surely help us! He can open our physical eyes as well as our spiritual eyes.

Jesus came to be our friend and our savior. He knows our need and wants to help us. He has accepted us and set us free from both our spiritual blindness and our physical blindness. For example, he opened the eyes of me, a spiritually blind man, so that I recognized in him the Son of God, and I became a child of God.

Jesus can help us in every emergency situation so that we can be healed and full of hope. Jesus is the only helper in our distress, fears and worries, in pain and suffering, because he can surely help us.

That is why we can confess that Jesus is the Helper and Savior of the world. Jesus hears every cry for help and helps everyone! He hears every cry for help.

We need to believe that Jesus listens to our prayer and will certainly fulfill our request. We should firmly believe that God will surely hear our prayer and lead many students and people to faith in the gospel. We should also believe that God will surely answer our prayer for the rebirth of our children. We are to have firm conviction that God will change our children into good believers and do a marvelous work through them. We should also believe that God will spread the gospel in Germany, and in the world. Out of this faith we should continue to pray persistently and resolutely.

II. Do not let prayer fall silent!

Anyone who was blind in Israel at that time was despised. People believed that a blind person had become blind as a result of God's punishment for sin. They believed that the blind man had either sinned himself or that his parents had sinned. This was the opinion that was widespread among the people (cf. John 9:2). The people gave Bartimaeus alms, but otherwise they kept their distance from him.

When Bartimaeus called out to Jesus for help, the people shouted at him to keep quiet.

We all know the voices that come at us from inside and outside to silence our prayer. Our old man claims that praying cannot help us. The devil declares that God does not hear our prayer. Reason thinks that we should rather look for reasonable help from people or technology. Our weak faith wants to make us stop after praying once or twice.

Bartimaeus was sitting on the ground in the background, hidden by the crowd. But his voice echoed over everyone's heads. He did not remain silent, even when the people ordered him to keep quiet. But he would not remain silent, he kept shouting loudly for help.

Despite the opposition, he called on Jesus in faith. He believed in the goodness of God and clung to God's promise. His faith and hope did not let him fall silent. For God had promised:

“Call upon me in trouble, and I will deliver you and you shall praise me.” (Psalm 50:15).

He trusted the word of God more than the words of the people. Against the odds, Bartimaeus shouted out again and again.

We should learn from Bartimaeus that we should overcome all opposition through faith in Jesus Christ and pray persistently.

For Jesus promised us: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you!” (Mt 7:7).

And: “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13).

Bartimaeus shows us that it is worthwhile not to stop praying despite all resistance. Because Jesus will certainly answer our prayer.

When Bartimaeus kept calling out, Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here!”

And they called the blind man and said to him, “Be of good cheer, get up! He is calling you!” Then he threw off his cloak, jumped up and came to Jesus.

And Jesus answered and said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

The blind man said to him, “Rabbuni, that I may receive my sight.”

“Rabbuni” means “My Master!”

Bartimaeus confessed Jesus once again. “Master!” i.e. "You are my teacher, only you can help me! You have heard my cry. You will certainly help me!"

Let this biblical account encourage us to continue calling and pleading with the certainty that our prayers will be answered. Look at what our Savior has already done for us and what He will do.

“Overcoming the world” does not mean that we have not experienced hardship. No, we have overcome the difficulties in the world through faith in Jesus and his promise. Jesus sacrificed his life for us! Jesus has given us the hope of eternal life.

Let us open our eyes again and again to the fact that we are not only looking at our temporary needs, but at our Savior, who has given us eternal joy and glory. Yes, he can also help us in our needs that make our lives difficult.

So we too can overcome everything in faith! We should confess Jesus! And we should not stop praying!

III. Follow Jesus with gratitude!

“Go, your faith has helped you,” said Jesus after he had healed Bartimaeus. And Bartimaeus went! He was healed because he believed in Jesus and his word and obeyed him.

But his faith did not end with the healing of his eyes; he did not leave Jesus. Rather, he went with Jesus! He clung to Jesus and followed him.

It was and is certainly always a sad experience that people called out to him in their need, but then, when they were helped, walked away from Jesus.

Once, ten lepers were saved by going to the priests after Jesus' word. On the way to the priests, they were all healed of their leprosy. Only one of them came back to Jesus and thanked him for the healing. He was a Samaritan. But the nine, the Jews, forgot to come back to Jesus and thank him.

But Bartimaeus thanked Jesus by following Jesus after his healing.

We should follow Jesus out of gratitude, because he has freed us from the power of sin and death and given us God's kingdom.

Following Jesus means that we trust Jesus Christ as Christ and Lord and follow his guidance and his word.

A life of faith is a life of discipleship. Jesus' path is sometimes not easy. But it leads us to heaven, to the goal of our hope. This path is the path of victory. For Jesus promises: “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne, just as I also overcame and have sat down with my Father on his throne.”

Through faith in this promise and the power of God, we can triumph over the world. However, we cannot triumph over the world in our own strength, but through the power of the Lord. Bartimaeus showed us this path to victory: he confessed Jesus as his Lord, asked him for help and followed him in trust!

Let us silence all voices of unbelief through faith in Jesus! We need the constant prayer of faith. And let us follow Bartimaeus' example by gratefully following Jesus! For we are freed from the power of sin and death. Let us now lead a grateful life of discipleship.