Blind _Bartimeus_.
MARK x. 52.
_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_.
WHEN the apostle _Peter_ was recommending JESUS of _Nazareth_, in one of his sermons to the _Jews_, he gave him a short, but withal a glorious and exalted character, “That he went about doing good.” He went about, he sought occasions of doing good; it was his meat and drink to do the works of him that sent him, whilst the day of his public administration lasted. Justly was he stiled by the prophet, the sun of righteousness. For, as the sun in the natural firmament diffuses his quickening and reviving beams through the universe, so, wherever this sun of righteousness, the blessed JESUS arose, he arose with healing under his wings. He was indeed a prophet like unto _Moses_, and proved that he was the Messiah which was to come into the world, by the miracles which he wrought; though with this material difference, the miracles of _Moses_, agreeable to the Old Testament dispensation, were miracles of judgment; the miracles of JESUS, who came to bear our sicknesses and heal our infirmities, were miracles of mercy, and were wrought, not only for the cure of people’s bodies, but also for the conversion of their precious and immortal souls. Sometimes, one and the same person was the subject of both these mercies. A glorious proof of this, we have in the miraculous cure wrought upon a poor blind beggar, named _Bartimeus_, who is to be the subject of the following discourse, and to whom the words of the text refer. “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.”
My design is, _First_, to make some observations on the matter of fact, as recorded by the evangelists. And then,
_Secondly_, To point out the improvement that may be made thereof. May JESUS so bless this following discourse, that every spiritually blind hearer may receive his sight, and, after the example of _Bartimeus_, “follow JESUS in the way!”
If we would take a view of the whole story, we must go back to the 46th verse of this chapter. “And they (our LORD and his disciples, who, we find by the context, had been conversing together) came to _Jericho_,” a place devoted by _Joshua_ to the curse of GOD; and yet, even this place yields converts to JESUS; _Zaccheus_ had been called there formerly; and _Bartimeus_, as we shall hear by-and-by, in all probability, was called now. For some good may come even out of _Nazareth_. CHRIST himself was born there, and his sovereign grace can reach and overcome the worst of people, in the very worst of places. JESUS came to _Jericho_. Let not his ministers, if providence points out their way, shun going to seemingly the most unlikely places to do good, some chosen vessels may be therein. JESUS and his disciples came to _Jericho_. They were _itinerants_; and, as I have frequently observed, seldom stayed long in a place; not that this is any argument against the stated settlement of particular pastors over particular parishes. But however, our LORD’s practice, in this respect, gives a kind of a sanction to itinerant preaching, when persons are properly called to, and qualified for, such an employ. And I believe we may venture to affirm (though we would by no means prescribe or dictate to the Holy One of _Israel_) that, whenever there shall be a general revival of religion in any country, itinerant preaching will be more in vogue. And it is to be feared, that those who condemn it now, merely on account of the meanness of its appearances, would have joined with the self-righteous Scribes and Pharisees, in condemning even the Son of GOD himself, for such a practice.