None Shall Stumble

"As Jesus was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, 'Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.'  And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, 'Son of David, have pity on me.'  Jesus stopped and said, 'Call him.'  So they called the blind man, saying to him, 'Take courage, get up, Jesus is calling you.' He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.  Jesus said to him in reply, ' What do you want me to do for you?'  The blind man replied to Him, 'Master, I want to see.' Jesus told him, 'Go your way; your Faith has saved you.'  Immediately he received his sight and followed Him on the way." -[Mark 10: 46-52].

In this story, Bartimaeus is physically blind. But, he can "see" the divinity of Jesus, perhaps sooner and more clearly than those in the crowd.

We have seen this type of Divine Irony in John 9: 2, when Jesus encounters a man who is blind from birth. His disciples ask, "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?" The Pharisees refute that Jesus is the Son of Man. But, Jesus says, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."

I believe that we are all born a little bit blind. Physically, a newborn's sight is blurry or fuzzy. She can discern shapes, shadows and light. Spiritually, we are blind, as well; the only sense that we have of God is in the Love of our family, mostly from our mother and father.  A baby depends on being fed routinely, handled gently, assisted with the basics of life such as dressing and personal hygiene.

In my childhood, I did not receive these. When I was not fed, I went to the neighbors' houses, hoping they would feed me. When I was walking home from school in the rain, I hoped that a neighbor would see me and give me a ride. When I would go to school with black eyes, teachers would say, 'Oh! She is a tomboy!' But, no help came to protect me.

A child like this gradually begins to shut down. I started by crying a lot, hoping a neighbor would come to rescue me. Then, I began burying my emotions. I had trouble sleeping, because I was staying awake until everyone in the house was fast asleep. When I was ten, I stopped speaking -- by choice. I had given up on a rescue.

But, God was not done with me. He sent neighbors to feed me. He sent neighbors to give me rides to school. He sent a teacher, who asked me to stay after school to decorate the classroom. I was thrilled to be asked. Even more unbelievable to me, the teacher allowed me to choose a trinket from her prize box, a tin filled with shiny beads, buttons and little toys.

Every time we help someone, in even a small way, we give that person the hope that there IS Love --and there IS a God.

My parents took me to church for 14 years, then abruptly told me that religion was nonsense and there is no God. I call that "the day that my parents took church away."

What strikes me about this Bartimaeus story is the many who rebuked the blind man, telling him not to approach Jesus. They told him to be quiet. This story detail reminds me of my own family, admonishing me to stay away from church, because "we don't believe in that stuff."

This reminds me of our culture today, that makes having Faith seem irrelevant and even dangerous. I can understand now, that an essential part of being rescued from a bitter life is our Belief. If we don't teach our kids that, how long will we allow them to suffer?

And if we do not believe, then how will we know enough, like Bartimaeus, to even ask? Without Faith, the friends and neighbors who try to help us will seem like merely so many chance encounters; rather than a proof of God's Love, shining through others.

We need our Faith. We need to tune out the rebukers and the non-believers.

We need to possess the Courage to cry out to our God.

We also need to come to know our God. It was not until I had reached a milestone birthday in adulthood, that I even owned a Bible. I read with tears of Joy what Jesus promised to His disciples in John 14:18: "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."

I read with Joy, in John 20:19, that after Jesus' death, the disciples were in a room with doors shut, for "fear of the Jews", when Jesus came and stood among them. Jesus would walk through doors, to appear in our midst, to come to us!

I read with Joy today, in Jeremiah 31: 7-9, that the Lord says, "I will gather them from the ends of the world, with the blind and the lame in their midst, the mothers and those with child; they shall return as an immense throng. They departed in tears, but I will console them and guide them; I will lead them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble."

The Lord does not leave anyone behind. He saves the blind beggar. He saves the lame, the vulnerable mothers and the innocent children. He dries their tears and consoles them.

God forgets no one. Not even the mute, starving, numb, battered child. He leads on a level road, and He comforts everyone.

None shall stumble.

[Related Postings: "I Want To See God", Oct. 28, 2012; "Blind Judgment", April 1, 2014; "No Longer an Orphan"; May 24, 2014.]

(c) Spiritual Devotional 2015. All Rights Reserved.