THY FAITH HATH MADE THEE WHOLE

Mark 11:52

Morning Meditation 4/7/16

“And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.”

The story of blind Bartimaeus is one of my favorite stories in the New Testament. Here is a blind man that had the opportunity of a life time and took advantage of it. The whole world is living in a day of opportunity and they are not taking advantage of it. Jesus said, and it describes this whole age, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” (Matt. 7:13). And they are more blind than was Bartimaeus: “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Cor. 4:3-4). Satan does have people blinded but there is hope because Jesus is passing this way.

Not only did Blind Bartimaeus take advantage of the opportunity but he did it when there were those who were trying to discourage him. He was making too much noise (vs 46-47). Many charged him “to hold his peace.” He didn’t obey. He didn’t pay any attention to the discouragement. This is the way prayer is. There are those who will discourage you in prayer. They may not put it like these men did, but they will play down the importance of crying out to Jesus. They will tell you that you need not bother Jesus. Your problem can be handled by someone else. But that is not true. Jesus is the only one who can help us. He sometimes waits to see of we are determined. He waits to see how much it will take to discourage us. But he will always answer if we will persist.

Let’s look at this verse. The words “And Jesus said unto him” translate an aorist active indicative verb. It suggests that Jesus spoke abruptly, suddenly and emphatically. It was unexpected by his followers and probably surprised many. I doubt if many of them even heard Blind Bartimaeus. If they did, they had already forgotten. It is surprising how quickly we can forget those outside the immediate sphere of our activity. Bartimaeus was out on the fringe. But his voice penetrated the throng. His voice was heard by Jesus above the busy voices of the multitude that surrounded him. It is like the woman with the issue of blood who said “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.” She slipped through the crowd and managed to reach through some and around some to touch his garment. When she did, something wonderful happened. She was immediately healed of her plague. Then Jesus said, “Who touched my clothes?” This amazed the disciples. They told him, “Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?” But this was a different touch. And Blind Bartimaeus had a voice that penetrated the crowd. So Jesus spoke abruptly, which got the attention of everyone, and said, “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” Blind Bartimaeus now has the attention of Jesus. He said, “Lord, that I might receive my sight.” He made his request.

The words “Go thy way” (hupago) means “to withdraw one's self, to go away, depart.” It is a present active imperative verb. The imperative mood is a command. Faith commands the impossible. Jesus speaks with perfect faith. The one who said, “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23), has just made a command. The impossible became possible. Jesus was a man (the God man) with perfect faith in his Father. He did not say “some of you take this poor blind man home.” He addressed the blind man while he was still blind and said, “Go thy way...” God’s orders are his enablements. The lost sinner cries out for salvation and says, “Lord, save me. Be merciful to me a sinner.” Jesus says, “I will.” The believing sinner says, “Thank you, Lord..”

The words “thy faith hath made thee whole” is a description of the faith of Christ and the faith of the man getting together. It takes both. There is the “command of faith” addressed to Blind Bartimaeus and there is the “reception of faith” acknowledged by the Lord. The word “faith” is the conviction of the truth of anything. The words “hath made thee whole” (sozo) means “to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction.” It is sozo and is the same word that is used in Matthew 1:21: “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” So it could mean more than just the restoring of his sight. It is a perfect active indicative verb which means that his sight had been restored in the past with the result that he is now a seeing person. Is that a truth? Or, are we playing too much on Greek tenses? When God speaks, he speaks of the future as though it had already happened and it will come to pass exactly as he says. This is what faith does. Faith speaks of what it wants in the past tense. Jesus said “thy faith hath made thee whole” in the perfect tense. It is also active voice which means that it is an “acting” faith. It is not passive. It is not a noun (his creed), it is a verb (what he was doing). Blind Bartimaeus believed what Jesus said on the spot and Jesus gave testimony to it so there is no guessing.

The words “And immediately he received his sight” describes the suddenness and the completeness of this miracle. The verb is an aorist tense which means at that point of time, suddenly, on the spot. This is the way the Lord created the earth, healed lepers and opened Blind Bartimaeus’ eyes. I can’t imagine, since I have never been blind, the effect that a miracle like this would have on a man like this. I’m sure the first response would be wonder and praise. I am sure there would be tears of joy and thoughts that could not be expressed in words. Overwhelmed would be a good word. The words “And immediately he received his sight” declare a new world for this man. What will he do now that he has received something more important than anything in the world?

The words “and he followed Jesus in the way” answers the question. Jesus said, “Go thy way...” Now the man says, “Thy way is my way.” This is perfectly normal. It would be abnormal for a person on whom Jesus has worked a great miracle not to follow him in the way. The word translated “followed” is an imperfect tense. The imperfect tense is incompleted action or continuous action in the past without any hint of it stopping. This suggests that he never got through following Jesus. I trust that this can be said of all of us who have been saved from a much greater thing that physical blindness.

May God bless you.

In Christ

Bro. White