Eugene was a wimpy prince; stunted in growth, ugly, sickly, pale and hunched back. Everyone in Louis XIV's castle had written him off and ignored him. The young prince wandered around in the shadows of the French monarch's castle going unnoticed among the nobles and royalty who attended the balls, ballets, and parties.

Eugene's friends were the slaves. No one else would have anything to do with him. Eugene wanted to be a soldier so he went to Louis XIV and asked for a commission in his army. Louis wouldn't even look at him. That was one of the biggest mistakes the French king would ever make.

Eugene sneaked out of the palace dressed as a woman and stole away to Vienna where the Turks were invading Europe. There he joined Austria's army. Now the homely prince was more than a shadow in a castle, he was a soldier and a good one too. By the age of 20 he was a commander; by 29 a Field Marshall; by 40 Austria's Commander and Chief. He became a pain in the side of Louis XIV for years to come, and was eventually recognized by Napoleon as one of the great generals of all time. (1)

What has this homely prince got to do with blind Bartimaeus? Just this: you have to admire any person, who through faith and determination, refuses to accept unfavorable circumstances. Like Eugene, Bartimaeus was disadvantaged. He was blind. He was a beggar.

These were primitive times. There was no Goodwill Industry to provide employment for Bartimaeus. There were no recordings for the blind, no seeing eye dog program, no hope of a cornea transplant. Blind Bartimaeus was destined to spend his life in rags begging by the side of the road. He was truly among the disadvantaged.

It is amazing to anyone who studies history, how many great people start out with the odds against them. Leopold Auer, the great Russian teacher of the violin, found out through his experiences of training musical geniuses that if you want to be a great musician it is almost necessary that you should be born in poverty.

Auer contended that there was something, he does not know exactly what, but something buried in the soul by poverty, something mystic, something beautiful, something that helps nurture feeling, force, and tenderness.

Mozart, for example, was so poor that he was unable to buy wood to heat the shabby room in which he lived. He sat with his hands wrapped in woolen socks to keep them warm while he composed the music that was to make him great. He died of consumption at the age of 35, his vitality lowered by constant hunger, cold, and lack of proper nourishment. Just six people followed the cheap coffin of pine, and even they turned back because it started to rain. His pitiful funeral cost exactly $3.10. (2) It is not unusual to find eventually great people among the disadvantaged.

A recent study of 300 highly successful people, people like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Winston Churchill, Albert Schweitzer, Mahatma Gandhi, and Albert Einstein, reveals that one fourth had handicaps: blindness, deafness, crippled limbs. Three fourths had either been born in poverty, came from broken homes, or at least came from exceedingly tense or disturbed situations. (3)

Bartimaeus was disadvantaged. Many great people have fallen into that category. Bartimaeus probably was not only disadvantaged but was also made to feel rejected. Even his name, Bartimaeus simply means "Son of Timaeus." We don't even know Bartimaeus' given name. He was not even important enough for them to have called him by any name except "Son of Timaeus."

Religious people were probably small comfort to his feelings of rejection. As you know from reading the New Testament, there were many people, in that time, who felt that a physical handicap was a punishment by God. In their ignorance and superstition, they felt that someone surely sinned if a child was born with a handicap.

It is amazing how many dumb things people can say, in the face of problems, in the name of religion. You hear them at funerals. How many hearts have been broken because of someone's outrageous interpretation of adversity.

Even Charlie Brown, in the Peanuts cartoons, encountered this. One day Charlie Brown says to Linus, "I feel good. I just got back from the grocery store. Guess what? The owner and his wife both complimented me. They said I was a very nice boy."

Linus replied, "In the sixth chapter of Luke, it says, `Woe to you when all men speak well of you.'"

Charlie Brown leans his head on his hand and sighs, "So much for feeling good."

It is amazing how, in the name of religion, people can spread such ill feelings. Probably Bartimaeus had to put up with some of this. He was blind, and he was a beggar, and he was probably rejected.

His situation was like that of the cat who was found in London. Its finders advertised for it's owners in these words:

Found kitten with white paws and bib. Very affectionate. Answers to the name "Go Away."

There must have been times when Bartimaeus felt his name was Go Away, Son of Timaeus. Bartimaeus was disadvantaged. All of us are, to a certain extent. We all have our handicaps. They may not be physical, they may be emotional. They may be handicaps of attitude. Perhaps one of the most dangerous handicaps is that of living a privileged life, because we never develop the mental, and emotional, and spiritual toughness that is required for dealing with life situations.

In Jerry Kramer's book, DISTANT REPLAY, he tells about his days with the Green Bay Packers, the most dominant team in the NFL under coach Vince Lombardi. Kramer contends that the Packers felt that a player wasn't worth anything unless he came out of poverty. Poverty makes you hungry. Privilege makes you lazy and weak.

We all are disadvantaged in our own way. There was a sign on a plant manager's door, "If you have problems, come in and tell me about them. If you don't, come in and tell me how you do it."

Bartimaeus was disadvantaged, but look at something else; Bartimaeus was determined. Bartimaeus was sitting beside the road going away from Jericho. Word came to him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. Bartimaeus started crying out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."

Many of the people in the crowd started to rebuke him and tell him not to make a scene, but he cried out all the more, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."

Jesus stopped and said to his disciples, "Call him."

They called Bartimaeus saying, "Take heart. Arise, He is calling for you."

Look what Bartimaeus did next. He threw off his mantle and sprang up and came to Jesus.

Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?"

The blind man said to Him, "Master! Let me receive my sight!"

Jesus said, "Go your way. Your faith has made you well."

Bartimaeus was disadvantaged but Bartimaeus was determined. He was not going to let people tell him to be quiet. When he saw the opportunity for healing, he came. He wasn't like the rich young ruler who came to Jesus asking, "What must I do to be saved?" He went away sadly when he learned that he would have to choose between his wealth and Jesus. Bartimaeus wasn't like the man beside the pool of Bethesda, who, when Jesus asked him if he really wanted to be healed, made excuses for his situation.

Bartimaeus wanted to see with his eyes, and he was willing to pay any price to achieve this goal. He was determined. What a difference determination makes in life. Thank God for the Bartimaeuses of this world who will not be denied by their circumstances.

The story is told of Emperor Tarmerlane, whose army was defeated and scattered in every direction. Tarmerlane himself had to go into hiding. He was hiding in an old barn. While he was hiding there he observed an ant trying to carry off a kernel of corn. The kernel of corn was larger than the ant and the ant needed to push it over a wall in order to get it out of the barn. Tarmerlane watched that ant struggle with that kernel of corn pushing it up that wall. As the ant nearly reached the top, it fell, as did the kernel of corn. But the ant did not quit. It pushed that kernel of corn back up that wall. Sixty-nine times this sequence of events was repeated. Finally, on the 70th try the ant successfully pushed the kernel over the wall. Tarmerlane, watching that ant, made a commitment. He said, "If an ant can do it, so can I," and he went out and reorganized his army and came back to defeat the enemy. How wonderful it is when a person, in trying circumstances, simply will not give up until the victory is won.

There was an interesting article in the New York DAILY NEWS last fall. According to this article pro football player Marty Lyons, of the New York Jets, feels fortunate and blessed that his wife and son are alive. His wife Kelly was driving their son Rocky home after visiting his grandparents when their 4wheel drive pickup hit a dip in the road, swerved from side to side, turned on it's side, and then rolled over a guardrail into a 20 foot ditch.

Kelly had instinctively thrown her body across that of her son, which probably saved his life. In the process though, both her shoulder bones, her cheek bones, and nose were broken. Rocky, the five-year-old son, saw that his mother could not help herself. Somehow, however, he was able to push her through the truck's rear window and help her up the embankment. Every time his mother would fall down and want to stop, five-year-old Rocky would say, "Momma, you've got to remember the train."

Rocky was referring to the train in the popular children's book, THE LITTLE TRAIN THAT COULD, which kept saying over and over, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can." (4)

Thank God for the little Rockys of this world, and the Tarmerlanes of this world, and the Mozarts of this world, and the Bartimaeuses of this world, who will not be defeated by their circumstances.

Bartimaeus was disadvantaged. He was determined and finally he was discipled. Discipled is a verb we have made out of a noun. We talk about making disciples in the church. The shorthand version is to say that we "disciple" people. Bartimaeus was discipled. Listen to the last few words: "Jesus said to him.`Go your way. Your faith has made you well.' and immediately [Bartimaeus] received his sight and followed Him on the way."

Bartimaeus became a follower of Jesus Christ. How could he do anything else? All his life Bartimaeus had been blind and finally this man Jesus had set him free of this tremendous disadvantage.

I believe something happened to Bartimaeus that day, don't you? I believe the scales not only fell away from his eyes; I believe they fell away from his heart. For not only did his healing represent a victory over a physical problem, but his healing said to Bartimaeus, "You really matter. You're a person of worth. The incarnate God cares about you."

I don't believe that this determined man was ever again the same. I doubt if he ever let anyone put him down again. I doubt if he ever gave in to discouragement. Why? Because he knew he mattered. His healing was proof of that.

Dennis Rainey tells a story about a young African man who was kidnapped from his home and forced to cross the ocean to America on a stinking barge of festering humanity known as a slave ship. After months of experiencing rotten food, disease, the ever lingering stench of human waste, and observing the deaths of many of those about him, the young man arrived in America.

The traders pushed the youth onto the slave auction block to be sold. To the surprise of the audience, this slave didn't hang his head in shame and humiliation, as most did. Instead he stood rigidly erect, thrusting his chest out and lifting his chin high, his eyes fixed straight ahead. The crowd stirred and murmured as the proud black man stood on the block. Why was he so different?

The slave trader knew the answer. He said to the crowd, "This boy is the son of a King in Africa and he can't forget it." (5)

I have a feeling that Bartimaeus knew from the day he met Jesus that he was a "Child of the King" and he never forgot it. Thank God for this blind man with no name sitting beside the road out of Jericho, who was disadvantaged but determined, and finally was discipled, who became a follower of Jesus Christ, the man by whose love and whose grace he was healed.

1. SMITHSONIAN, January, 1985, p.55ff.

2. Charles H. Schmitz

3. Victo and Mildred Goertzel, CRADLES OF EMINENCE

4. November 7, 1987, p. 30

5. BUILDING YOUR MATE'S SELF ESTEEM, (San Bernadino: Here's Life), pp. 6465.