I’ve always been fascinated by the story of Bartimaeus. I’ll admit that part of it comes from realizing that he was probably called Blind Bart, and that has an old western feel to it, which makes the story even cooler to me.
But the crowd is what always gets me. The crowd that ignored Bart every day as he sat begging. The crowd that tried to silence him when he called out to Jesus. It was that same crowd who suddenly appeared to be on his side the minute Jesus acknowledged him.
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” (Mark 10:49 NIV, emphasis mine)
Of course, this same crowd didn’t help him up. They just cheered him on. Fans are like that. They appear to be on our side when our side is winning, or in this case, noticed by Jesus. But our faith must never be in fans because they can’t ultimately give us what we need. Our sight — our vision — has to come from the Lord.
He gave vision to Blind Bart, and He’ll give it to you and me, too. Just don’t get distracted by the cheering or the jeering fans.
