One long hot summer in a place called St. Johns, there came into town a man with a big tent which he set up at the corner of Lombard and Clarendon, with a sign posted in front: THE GREAT MARCEL AND HIS FABULOUS SNAKE SHOW. He was dapper and slim, and he wore a stovepipe hat and a cutaway coat. And when the crowds thronged around the tent that night and oil torches flickered their light over a lithe young lady dancing with snakes, Marcel told of his wonderful oil ” oil extracted from snakes that cured every human ill. He promised it would cure corns, calluses, lumbago, colds, indigestion, and was especially potent in dealing with certain private diseases. Best of all, it was only a dollar a bottle. Everybody agreed it was worth a try, and for years afterwards nobody could open a drugstore in St. Johns, because Marcel's Snake Oil was good for everything, and everybody had plenty of it. (1)
There have always been healers. Some have gotten rich exploiting the pain of desperate folk with nowhere else to turn. Maybe that is why when Jesus healed people he often told them to tell no one. He did not want to be called "healer" ” but rather "teacher." He did not come to exploit, but to explain the Way to Life. But still, his compassion for people would not let him ignore those who were constantly pleading with him for help.
At one point he and his disciples were passing through the city of Jericho, a beautiful city some fifteen miles northeast of Jerusalem. Jesus was at the height of his popularity, and great crowds greeted him. Although we don't know for sure, perhaps Jesus spent a day in Jericho teaching, which might explain why the people were so excited about having him visit their city.
But regardless, as Jesus was leaving the city he encountered some of those desperate people with nowhere else to turn. Let me describe this to you. Ancient cities were surrounded by a wall to protect them from attack. At nightfall the gates in the wall would be closed for security. During the day, you could always find beggars just outside these gates. They were the forgotten people, cut off from their family and friends. Their only hope was that a stranger passing through might stop, take pity on them, and give them something to eat or possibly even a few coins. The situation was not unlike our present problem with the homeless living in the streets of our cities. And, like today, the beggars back then were an embarrassment to most people. They weren't what residents wanted important visitors like Jesus to see.
But Jesus did see them, and they stirred his compassion. There was one man in particular who got Jesus' attention ” a blind beggar named Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus was crying out louder than all the rest, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" So Jesus stopped to see what he could do.
BARTIMAEUS WAS DESPERATE TO CHANGE HIS SITUATION. That is the first thing that we need to see. Bartimaeus was tired of how he was living. Begging was all Bartimaeus knew. But he didn't want to beg. He wanted to work. He wanted to support his family. He wanted to live with dignity and pride. That takes a certain amount of courage, doesn't it ” to change the course of your life?
At the turn of the century there was a woman named Annie Johnson of Arkansas. Her husband had left her, and now she had to raise their sons alone. She had very little money, and some slight ability to read and add figures. She knew that there was no way she could ever be hired at the town's cotton gin or lumber mill. Besides she didn't want to leave her small sons alone all day. So she decided to cut herself a new path.
Early one morning Annie went outside the cotton gin with meat pies she had made the night before. Her plan was to heat them up so the aroma would entice the workers to buy them. At first her idea didn't catch on because most of the workers packed their own lunch, but gradually more and more of the workers bought her pies at a nickel apiece.
For the next few years, on balmy spring days, blistering summer noons, and in cold, wet, and wintry storms, Annie never disappointed her customers. The workers came to depend on her and her delicious meat pies. Before too long her simple stall became a store carrying meat and cheese. (2) Annie had stepped from the road which seemed to have been chosen for her and cut herself a brand new path. That takes courage. That's what Bartimaeus was saying he wanted to do when he called out to Jesus.
By all definitions Bartimaeus was a nobody. In society's eyes he was a worthless blind man who begged for food and money outside the city gate all day. No one really paid much attention to him. It was almost as if he didn't exist. But he was determined to change his situation.
The truly amazing thing was that Bartimaeus called out to Jesus with a title that no one had used before, "Son of David, have mercy on me." It is ironic: Blind Bartimaeus knew who Jesus was while the people who surrounded Jesus did not. When the crowd heard this nobody calling out to Jesus, they did everything they could to try to silence him. Like I said, he was an embarrassment. He didn't need to bother Jesus. Notice how Mark records the incident, "Many sternly ordered him to be quiet." But this just made Bartimaeus call out all the more loudly. Jesus heard Bartimaeus, stopped, and asked his disciples to call the blind man to him. This was what Bartimaeus was waiting for. He didn't waste a single second. He threw off his cloak, sprang up and came to Jesus. No one had to help him up; no one had to lead him. Bartimaeus was ready for a change.
JESUS ASKED BARTIMAEUS, "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO FOR YOU?" That's a powerful question. Imagine, just for a moment, that Jesus were here in the flesh, and that he approached your pew and asked you that simple question, "What do you want me to do for you?" Your answer would reveal much about your values and where you stand in your relationship with Christ. Would you have him change your family life, your health, your situation at work? Would you have him help you pay your bills, help you find the right person to love, help you pass a biology exam? What would you have Jesus do for you?
There's a certain woman named Millie who is an alcoholic. For years Millie's master has been drink. Other family members recognized her problem, but Millie refused to. And the more her family protested her drinking, the more Millie drank. Finally her oldest son begged her to hear an evangelist one evening at a local church. For the first time in her life Millie felt her son's deep concern, and she agreed to go.
Going to a church service certainly wasn't something that Millie was comfortable doing, though. But something very beautiful happened to her that night. "Even though the surroundings seemed foreign," Millie explains, "I felt God's love and peace." She describes her experience that night as feeling "reborn."
That wasn't enough for her to kick her problem with alcohol, however. For the next several months Millie read the Bible with one hand while holding a drink in the other. But reading daily gave her strength to confront her problem head-on. She prayed that God would help her overcome her alcohol problem.
One afternoon, some nine months after her first visit to church, Millie had a drink in the afternoon and went to church that evening. That evening the pastor asked her, "What would you have the Lord do for you, Child?" Millie knew her answer right away as she cried out, "To be free from alcohol!" At the altar that night she wept as she never had before. "I was free!" she exclaimed, "I was forgiven!" During the next few days her family could not believe the change in Millie's life. Her husband could not believe it when she remained sober at a wedding reception. "By God's power," Millie testifies, "I have remained sober to this day." She had her last drink almost twenty years ago.
Millie gives advice to anyone who might be struggling to overcome addictions. "Whatever we may be in bondage to," she says, "if we want to give it up, our faithful and patient God offers us help." Millie is able to say this because she knows its true ” it happened to her. (3)
Jesus asks each one of us, "What would you have me do for you?" What is your answer? Deliverance from a destructive relationship? A cure for an addiction? Help with your sense of self-esteem? He can help you. He will help you. Jesus asks, "What do you want me to do for you?" Bartimaeus answers, "My teacher, let me see again."
All Jesus said in response was, "Go, your faith has made you well," and Bartimaeus could see. Just like that, he was healed. He would no longer have to depend on other people's charity. He was free to live a useful life. But not only could Bartimaeus see clearly, he also gained insight. He knew who Jesus was, and more importantly, he was willing to do whatever Jesus wanted him to do. Bartimaeus began to follow Jesus. How far did he follow? No one knows for sure, but we imagine him following Jesus into Jerusalem, shouting "Hosanna" with the crowd. Perhaps he was there as Jesus died on the cross. Perhaps Bartimaeus was one of the first to see Jesus in his glorious resurrection. We don't know. All we know is that Bartimaeus began to follow Jesus.
THIS EPISODE SUGGESTS THAT THERE MIGHT BE PEOPLE ALL AROUND US WHO ARE WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO CALL THEM, TO GIVE THEM A FRESH CHANCE IN LIFE. There may be people we know who are lost in the crowds of life, yet who are ready, and even eager, for someone to reach out to them with genuine compassion and concern.
Like Lupe. Lupe is thirty-seven years, but he looks twenty years older. His body is covered with tattoos. He has been a drug addict since he was thirteen. His mother was a drug addict, too, as were his uncles. His brothers were all in prison. Lupe spent most of his life in gangs because, as he says, "that's where the love was." But he felt trapped in that life. He wanted out, but he didn't know how to get out. Lupe expected to die of a drug overdose.
But then he met some people who told him about Jesus. They witnessed their faith to him, telling him how Jesus changed their lives. At one time they were drug addicts like Lupe was now. "I thought that God was telling me, `This is your last chance,'" Lupe remembers. A drug dealer was looking for him at the time, so Lupe hid in a motel bathroom for two days, frightened for his very life. Then he tried something new: he prayed. "God," he prayed, "if you are real, give me a way out. I will serve you," he promised. "I will give you my whole life. Everything." Lupe says that a bright light appeared that directed him out of his hiding place. The people outside waiting to harm him didn't even see him leave. Lupe felt the presence of Jesus in his life. "I kicked heroin," Lupe claims of his new life, "and I am serving Him." Jesus has shown Lupe a better way of life, and Lupe has followed him. (4)
What would you have Christ do for you? If you really want to change, it can happen. You can begin a new life. Jesus told Bartimaeus, "Go, your faith has made you well."
1. U.S. Andersen, SUCCESS CYBERNETICS, (West Nyack: Parker Publishing Co. 1966).
2. Maya Angelou, WOULDN'T TAKE NOTHING FOR MY JOURNEY NOW, (New York: Random House, 1993), pp. 1-24.
3. Millicent Arendt, "Freed from Bondage," UPPER ROOM, March/April 1994, p.
4. Charles Colson, THE BODY, (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1992), pp. 350-351.