What The Blind Man Saw

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0:00trip. One of the things we saw, really honestly, if you're anywhere close to that area, you need to make a trip to see the giant sequoias. They are unbelievable. These trees can only grow in one particular part of the park. Honestly, just a few places in the whole world have the right habitat for these trees to grow. So you can't drive right to where these trees are. You have to buy a ticket, and then you get on the back of a flatbed trailer where there's seats, and it's an open-top trailer, and they pull you in a cart. It's a, I don't know, 15-minute drive through the woods to get out where these sequoias are, and there's no loudspeaker talking to you. It's not like an amusement park or something. There's no guide leaning back, looking at you all, describing the scenery. You're just kind of riding along in quiet, talking with each other through the woods.

0:54I'm no tree expert, and so we're riding along, and they don't even tell you it's going to be a 15-minute ride or something like that. So I'm riding along, and I'm thinking, okay, we're on our way to see the sequoias. There's somewhere over here. So I start looking around, like looking at trees real closely. Is that one? Is that a sequoia? I'm looking around at all these trees. I'm trying to figure out, like, have I seen one yet? Eventually, I start wondering, well, gosh, without some help, am I even going to recognize one of these trees once I see it? And then suddenly we round a corner, and I see one, and I realize, oh, you don't need a guide. You don't need someone to tell you. You don't need a book. You don't need to be a tree expert. There is no missing these trees. They stand out from every other tree that I have ever seen anywhere in the world. Again, I'm not a tree expert, but there is no mistaking them. They are so enormous. They're so enormous, full-grown trees of different species that are nearby look like saplings to us. They almost look like they come from an alien planet or something. They're so different. There's like every other tree size, and then there's this one type of tree. It's unmistakable. Now, here's why I'm telling you this story. At the beginning of this chapter of Luke, chapter 18, Jesus says, when the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on the earth? And then he tells some parables and some stories, and he has a bunch of interactions with people, and then in this passage, Jesus rounds a corner,

2:54and he sees a giant sequoia. There is no doubt that he has found faith on the earth because it stands out from everyone else around. That's what this passage is about, a towering example of faith from someone that everyone else was looking past and looking over. So we're going to talk about faith that stands out, because sometimes contrast is all it takes to recognize the real thing, to recognize what you're looking for, and this story is a contrast from everything that's happened before in this chapter. So let's go there now. Let's go to Luke 18. This is the last major healing account in Luke, the conclusion of this chapter. This is starting in verse 35. This is God's Word.

3:55These are not myths. These are not fables. These things really happened. In case you haven't heard that before, or you maybe you haven't thought about that before, these things really happened with a real Jesus that walked the earth, who was the Son of God. We have these words to build our life on, to meet with God through, so let's do that right now. Let's pay attention to them and receive them as the very Word of God. As he, Jesus, drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. And he cried out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me.

5:01And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, what do you want me to do for you? He said, Lord, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, recover your sight. Your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. Pray with me.

5:41Lord God, full of glory and might and majesty and power, thank you for speaking to us, for revealing yourself to us, and for sending your Son, not just to teach us some good things, but to die in our place. Would you please bear fruit in us? Do good work in us as we rest in Christ more through coming to your word and sitting humbly under it. Change us, Lord. Give us life. Give us hope and strength. And in Jesus' name we pray this. Amen. We're going to talk about what the blind man saw. Faith in Jesus is faith that makes us well. As I said before, this is the last major healing in Luke. There is one little thing where Peter cuts off a guy's ear and Jesus picks it up and puts it back on. But this is the last major account of a miraculous healing in the book of Luke. But what this passage is really here for is to give us an example of faith, an example of all that Jesus has been calling for in this chapter, all that he's been speaking about. You can connect the story with every single thing that Jesus has said up to this point in this chapter. I would encourage you, if you've forgotten or if you weren't here, go back and read the rest of the chapter and see the connections. How this guy is fulfilling so much of what Jesus has been talking about. It's almost like Jesus has been giving all these lessons and parables and then he walks and he's like, here it is. Here's what I've been talking about. Is everybody looking at this guy?

7:29Why? He might not have heard what I said, but he gets it. But listen, as we examine his faith, I want to remind you, the most important aspect is who his faith is in. That is the distinguishing, remarkable thing about this blind man's faith, is who it is in. That's what makes it remarkable. Pastor and author Tim Keller said this, it is not the strength of your faith, but the object of your faith that actually saves you. Strong faith in a weak branch, he's thinking, imagining someone on a cliff. Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch. Now friends, Jesus is the strong branch. He's the only strong branch. The right person to put all of your faith in. So let's unpack this. There are four things about this blind man's faith that we're going to look at, and each one of them has to do with Jesus. Here's what he saw. First, he had faith in who Jesus is. Jesus and his crew, they're going to Jerusalem. They're on the final leg of their journey to Jerusalem. They come close to Jericho, and along the roadside is a blind man begging. In the ancient Near East, just like today, people who were disabled or sick, they were on the margins of society.

9:00They were poor. They were isolated. They were completely dependent on other people to help them. They couldn't help themselves. The blind man hears the den of the crowd getting a little bit louder. He knows something different is happening. This is different than previous days. He asks, what's going on? Someone tells him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, and this guy's ears perk up. Who? Who did you say? Jesus of Nazareth? Imagine for a second that you are a parent of a child with a rare neurological disease. You've been trying for months to see specialists, to get in with the right doctors, but all you're getting is voicemails, and no response, and waiting lists. You're trying, and you're trying, and you're trying, but you can't get anywhere. And then one day, you're having lunch with a friend who works downtown in Richmond, and on your way out from their building, you're in an elevator going down, and you're staring at the floor, and your mind has returned to, what am I going to do?

10:23I cannot get help from my child. There's chit-chat in the elevator from the other people that are there, and you're kind of screening it out, but then you hear someone introduce themselves. And you're like, that name, it sounds familiar. And then it hits you. That's the person in the elevator that's with you is the top neurological surgeon in the entire country, right there in the elevator with you. Nobody else knows, but you do, because you've been looking for it.

10:56You've been waiting for it. This person is one of the people on the list that you'd like to see. Now, you all know what you would do. Social decorum would go out the window, right? You would immediately go over and grab them. I've got to talk to you. I've got to talk to you today. I've got a problem. The other people, it's just a person in the elevator, but to you, you're like, you're the person that I've been looking for. You're the one who can give me help. That is exactly the blind man in this story. He knows that help has come near because he has faith in who Jesus is. Everybody else is calling him Jesus of Nazareth, but he cries out, son of David, son of David. Can you believe this is the only time, the only time in the gospel of Luke that anyone calls Jesus, son of David? A blind beggar at the side of the road calls him the son of David. The blind man sees this is not just a rabbi.

12:08He's the royal son, the one that we've been promised. He's not just a prophet. He is the fulfillment of the prophecies. He is the promised king, the redeemer, the one who brings good news to the poor, freedom to the captives, and yes, sight to the blind. Just like we heard about from Isaiah 35 earlier.

12:36Remember, friends, to get real help from Jesus, you've got to see him for who he really is. He is not just a life coach. He is not an assistant. He's not a good luck charm. To get real help, he's got to be the real king to you and in your life. That's who he is, and that's why the blind man pleads, have mercy on me, just like you would do in that elevator when you run across that doctor that you've been looking for. He sees an opportunity to appeal to the king, and he's not going to miss his chance. Now, you may remember earlier in this chapter, Jesus told a parable of two people praying. One of them was a tax collector. Do you remember what he cried out? He said, have mercy on me. This is exactly what the blind man's doing. Jesus said, be like the tax collector, and here is a guy doing exactly that. Have mercy on me. This is the second thing. He has faith in what Jesus is worth. When I was in late elementary school, I collected baseball cards.

13:54I started this hobby because my older brother was like, here, I don't want these anymore, and he gave me a couple folders, and I was like, all right, I guess I'll do this now, and so some kids, they would collect, they would trade, and they would collect baseball cards trying to get a certain team. Other kids would be going after their favorite player. Me, I was going for raw value. I was trying to get the binder that was worth the most. I tried to keep track using Beckett's and all these things that used to be published, which baseball cards were higher than others, which players were more desirable. I would look at card conditions and things that might hurt the value, the tears on the corners, things like that. Sometimes what I learned was the most popular card was not the most valuable card. Sometimes the popular cards, they would print a whole bunch of them, and so the value would go down. Sometimes the most valuable cards were the weird ones, the irregular ones, the ones that had been printed off-center or the ones where they got the stats wrong on the back, but what I learned was if I wanted to trade for a card that was actually worth something, the player might be a really unpopular player, and my friends might laugh at me and mock me.

15:14What? You want that card? They would all laugh. You're going to trade me that card of the lead-off batter of that team for this card of some no-name pitcher? Okay, idiot, laughing at me. So I had to ask myself, if I was going to initiate a trade, I had to ask myself, am I willing to endure the mockery to bring my baseball card collection up another 25 cents? Now listen, those two binders, they're in a box somewhere. You know how much they're worth today? Jack squat. They're worth nothing.

15:54This blind man faced a similar choice to me as a kid, though. Am I going to put up with the mockery to go after what I really believe is valuable? Because when he cried out for Jesus, people around him were not happy. Evidently, he was a loud guy. He was making a ruckus. He was banging on stuff. I don't know what he was doing, but he was annoying people. Shut up, they said to him. He was making a scene. And everyone was rebuking him, telling him to be silent. And remember, this is a guy who does not have a lot of social capital to spend. He is not a popular guy. He doesn't have a lot of friends, probably. He's blind. He's poor. He might be homeless. His life literally depends on the goodwill of people that walk by. To get on their bad side might mean that he goes hungry that day.

16:57This is a big risk. The crowd saw nothing valuable in Jesus. But the man does, and he's willing to risk it all. He cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. He did not listen to the crowds.

17:19Friends, if there are people or things in your life pulling you away from Jesus, those are things your people to not listen to. Earlier in this chapter, Jesus told a parable of a persistent widow who needed help and kept asking and asking and asking and asking. And here's a guy who just keeps on asking, just like the widow in that story. Jesus told us to be like her, and here's a guy who's doing it. The sequoia of faith standing by the roadside. He's also showing us what Jesus talked about just last week, that for the sake of the kingdom, we might have to leave behind people or things. When this story comes up in Mark's gospel, Jesus calls the man and he leaves behind his cloak.

18:19That's not mentioned here, but his cloak was probably one of the most valuable things that he had. It protected him from the sun. It gave him warmth at night, but he leaves it behind. He says, I might lose my stuff. People may turn against me. I don't care. Jesus is worth more. He's like Paul, who wrote this, indeed, I count everything, everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. What a faith to aspire to, that we would give up actual things and actual relationships for the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus more. Just knowing him more. Just being closer to him.

19:15So it must be for anyone who calls themselves a disciple of Jesus. Don't let possessions or people keep you from the real treasure. Now here's the third thing. He has faith in what Jesus can do. Jesus stops and he commands him to come. So now they're face to face. This is the moment that the blind man has been waiting for. And Jesus asks him a very strange question. One of the only times that Jesus ever asked someone this, what do you want me to do for you?

19:52Why would Jesus ask this? I mean, isn't it obvious what the guy needs? He's blind. Doesn't he know the man's needs better than anyone? Better than even the man himself? He does. Yes, of course. Here's why I think he asks, because it's for the man's sake. It's for this man's sake. He wants him to articulate his faith. He's asking him how, listen, friend, how deep do you think your needs really are? And how much power do you think I really have? All that is going to be revealed by what he asks for, by how he answers this question. There's a lot of ways. Think about it. There's a lot of ways that he could have answered that question. He could have asked Jesus for food, for money.

20:56He could have asked for a piece of land that he could farm. He could have asked for new clothes. He could have asked for a home. He could have asked for a job. But he doesn't want a short-term fix. He wants real help. And he believes that Jesus has the power to do that for him. So with a bold humility, he says, Lord, let me recover my sight. He asks for a miracle. And Jesus' response is overwhelmingly good. He smiles and he says, recover your sight. Your faith has made you well. I was hoping you were going to say that. Recover your sight. And what he receives is not just a miracle of being able to see again. It's even better. Jesus has affirmed his faith.

21:59Yes, there is faith here. There is faith in you. Rest assured that you are not just healed, healed, but you're forgiven. Even better than being healed. This theme of seeking help from God is found throughout this chapter. A widow going to a judge in need, a tax collector crying out to God in need, little children being brought to Jesus in need. This blind man came to Jesus. He came like a child, pleading for help. He came like the widow, asking over and over. And like the tax collector, he goes home justified. Now, before I go on, I want to do a little Easter egg here, a little sermon within a sermon. I want to pause for just a few minutes and talk about this question that Jesus asks.

22:59What do you want me to do for you? See, this is a really thought-provoking question. I want you to know that Jesus is still asking each one of you that question every day. Okay, that's the first thing to remember. Jesus is asking you that question. How do you answer him?

23:24I think we can learn a lot from the blind man. Because he brought forward to Jesus his deep need and his specific need. His deep need and his specific need. Okay, so go with me on this. Sometimes what we ask God to do is exclusively about surface-level things, kind of top-burner things, things that are most on our mind, things that are happening next week or tomorrow. We pray for help on a work project. We pray about a final exam. We ask God to help us get into a certain school or to get over COVID or to get through a grueling week. We ask for wisdom about a decision that's coming up. We ask for healing about an injury we have. Listen to me. These are all good prayers. Don't stop praying for those things, but don't stop there. Don't stop praying for those things, but don't stop there. How about your sanctification? How about Christ-like character and the new self that God says is growing in you and becoming bigger and stronger every day?

24:48How about the killing off of sinful desire in your life? How about bearing the fruit of the Spirit? When Jesus asks, what do you want me to do for you? We should ask for this kind of work too. Pray about your grueling week that's coming up, about healing for your injury, but don't forget to pray about these things too. Go deep with God. We know that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus, right? You all believe that, right? God says that and he doesn't lie. Doesn't that make you want to ask for it? You ever think about the scripture that says, could you put up that scripture? Luke, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. You ever think about this verse and also the verse where James says, you do not have because you do not ask? Well, put those two things together. Wouldn't it be a shame to get to the end of your life and realize there could have been even more fruit of the Spirit happening in my life if I had just asked for it? Ask for it. What do you want me to do for you, Jesus is saying. And he is leaning in, eager to hear how you're going to respond to that question. We have a mighty God, don't we?

26:21Who made big promises, deep promises. And so we should bring him our deep needs, right? Hallelujah for the promises of God that will always be true. And we should bring to him our specific needs. Listen, the blind man didn't say, I don't know what I need, Jesus, you figure it out, right? He went from have mercy on me to then when he was face to face with Jesus, he said, restore my sight. Right? That's a movement, right? Have mercy on me is very general. Let me restore my sight. He brought a very specific thing to Jesus. It is good to bring God the particular ways that we want him to heal us and change us. The particular things. Prayers like, instead of just saying, God, change me, please help me. Praying, Lord, give me more self-control. Or, God, I've got a critical spirit. Please help me with that. Or, I'm really struggling with contentment. Please help me grow in contentment in my life. These kinds of prayers can lead to significant spiritual growth in you. If for no other reason the Lord is listening to you and you are now, you now have eyes to see these things in your life. The next time you realize that you're about to give in and you're struggling with self-control, you remember the prayer that you prayed. Oh, that's right. I'm asking God for help on this. You're more prepared to come alongside him and resist what it is that you're struggling to resist.

28:17You and the Spirit are partnered up in your own sanctification and growth. But how are you going to pray these things if you don't know what needs you have? To pray that, we have to take time with God and ask him questions like, why did I say that thing that I said yesterday? Why did I do that thing that I did that I knew I didn't want to do? Why am I feeling how I feel? What is it that I'm even feeling? We have to take these questions to God over and over, sit with him in those questions, ask him those questions, and let him grow us in our understanding of what we need. And then we bring those things right back to God and we say, now I see more specifically, more concretely, I see with a finer focus what I need from you, God. What I call this is spirit-led self-reflection.

29:18This is what David was doing when he prayed this, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Test me and know my thoughts. Friends, get ready to answer that question from Jesus with deep and specific needs that you have. Take time with God to understand those things and then ask him like the blind man did. Have faith in what he can do. Bring those things to him. All right, sermon within a sermon over. The last point is this. Last and most briefly, this man had faith in where Jesus is leading.

30:02In Mark's account of this story, he gives us an important detail. The blind man's name was Bartimaeus. We know his name. This is the only instance in his gospel where a person who is healed is named. The only one. Jesus had healed so many people. What makes this guy different? I think it's because of what happens in verse 43. Immediately, he recovered his sight and followed him. Last week, Jesus called the rich ruler to follow him, and he went away sad.

30:48This guy is going to make a different choice. Jesus healed a lot of people, but not all of them followed him afterwards. Some of them took their healed body and they went their way. Thank you so much, Jesus. I'm back to my life now. This blind bystander becomes a seeing disciple of Christ. The mark of faith, friends, is not just wanting something from Jesus, but wanting Jesus himself. Jesus once asked the disciples if they wanted to go someplace else because it had gotten hard.

31:28Discipleship was getting harder. And Peter says this, Lord, to whom shall we go? To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Peter's like, yes, this is hard, but there's no one else that has life to give but you, Jesus. And so we're all in. Here we are. We're following you. Following him might be costly and difficult, but it's still the right path because God is there with us. He is our treasure, our delight, our refuge, our portion, our strength, no matter what. That's why we follow him. Like Bartimaeus, let's fix our eyes on Jesus. Let's see what he sees. The object of our faith, the author and the perfecter of our faith. Let's bring to him our deep needs and let's follow him. And like this man did, let's do it glorifying God. Pray with me.

32:38Jesus, we praise you because you are the only one that's worth it, that's valuable. It's worth leaving everything behind to follow. Lord, you do help and heal and change us in the deep and specific ways that we need. Would you please help us to grow in that? Help us to grow in answering the question like Bartimaeus did, believing that you have the power to do it. Lord, help us to be content in you to glorify your name as we follow. Thank you for this example, but most of all, Jesus, we thank you for you, for being our anchor, our rock. Jesus, do good work in us as we follow after you. We pray this in your name. Amen.