The account of Jesus healing blind Bartimaeus is found in Matthew 20:29-34, Luke 18:35-43, and Mark 10:46-52. Unbelievers are as spiritually poor and blind as Bartimaeus was physically poor and blind. When they cry out for mercy, he gives them spiritual sight. Like blind Bartimaeus they move from darkness to light, become Jesus’s follower, and glorify him.

Table of contentsMeet Blind BartimaeusHow Much Did People Want to See Jesus?Jesus’s Miracles Were Signs Illustrating Spiritual TruthsMuch of What Jesus Did Physically Pictures What He Wants to Do for Us SpirituallyDon't Miss the "Sign" with BartimaeusLike Blind Bartimaeus, Unbelievers Are BlindLike Blind Bartimaeus, Unbelievers Are PoorContrast the Paralytic's Friends with Bartimaeus's CrowdWhy Was Blind Bartimaeus So Persistent?Like Blind Bartimaeus, Unbelievers Must Cry Out for MercyJesus Healed Blind Bartimaeus Physically and SpirituallyMoving from Unbeliever to BelieverLike Bartimaeus, Believers Move from Darkness to LightLike Bartimaeus, Believers Become Jesus’s FollowersLike Bartimaeus, Believers Glorify GodLike Bartimaeus, Believers Lead Others to Glorify GodSalvation Requires Faith, but not Persistence

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Unbelievers are as spiritually poor and blind as blind Bartimaeus the beggar (Matthew 20:29-34, Luke 18:35-43, and Mark 10:46-52).

Spiritual blindness is an inability to understand spiritual truths:

As it is difficult to convey an idea of color to the blind, so it is difficult to describe to [the spiritually blind] the [spiritual truths understood by those] whose eyes have been opened by the Spirit…[Think] of a man who sees, but has no sense of beauty…such is the case of a natural man…on whose ear the sound of the Gospel falls without awakening music in his soul.

James Buchanan, Office and Work, 1842.

In this account a man who serves as a picture of all who are spiritually blind, but then given spiritual sight.

Meet Blind Bartimaeus

Luke 18:35 As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.

In the parallel account in Mark 10:46 we learn the blind beggar’s name is Bartimaeus.

In narratives you should do more than simply read the verses. You will get much more out of your Bible reading when you picture what the verses describe. If you are a parent, when you read the Bible with your children, describe the accounts for them, or ask them to describe the accounts to you. In this account we can appreciate it much more if we picture what we are reading. As we move through the verses, I will do my best to help us understand what this looked like, because I believe it would have been very dramatic to witness.

In Jesus’s day, blindness was a common affliction that had no cure. Because blind people could not work, they had to make their living as beggars. Bartimaeus spent his days sitting by the side of the road begging for money from people who passed by. It is hard to imagine a more miserable existence. Perhaps only a leper's life could rival Bartimaeus’s depressing life. If he was fortunate enough to receive money, he would make his way into Jericho and struggle to buy food. This was a good day. On a bad day, he would spend the night hungry.

Thinking about Bartimaeus’s life, one of the words that comes to mind is boring. I cannot think of many things more boring than spending days sitting on the side of the road begging. One of the only things that could make the boredom worse would be blindness, because then you can’t even see anything of any interest while the hours pass by. But on this day Bartimaeus noticed the excitement:

Luke 18:36 And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”

Bartimaeus had no idea what was happening. He asked those around him, hoping they would be kind enough to answer. Because as we will see in a moment, the crowd was very inconsiderate.

He would not have expected the answer he received. This would have been an exciting moment for anyone, and we know that because so many people had gathered for the occasion. But for blind Bartimaeus, a man whose life was characterized by boredom and monotony, this likely would have been the most exciting moment of his life.

How Much Did People Want to See Jesus?

Just so you can picture this scene better, consider what happened right after this when Jesus entered Jericho:

Luke 19:1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. 

Huge crowds were following Jesus and people, like Zacchaeus, wanted nothing more than to be able to see him. As Jesus approached Jericho numerous others gathered on the sides of the road.

Jesus’s Miracles Were Signs Illustrating Spiritual Truths

We must pause the account with blind Bartimaeus for a moment to make sure we view it correctly:

John 6:1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw THE SIGNS that he was doing on the sick.

Notice Jesus's miracles Jesus were called “signs.” In the following verses Jesus feeds the 5,000:

John 6:14 When the people saw THE SIGN that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

Again, the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 was called a sign. Jesus didn’t perform miracles for the sake of performing miracles. He performed miracles because they served as signs. If you read about Jesus’s miracles and don’t understand that they serve as signs, then you will misunderstand them, or at least misunderstand the sign.

Jesus’s miracles are called signs, because signs provide information to help us get to the right place:

You’re driving down the road and signs help you reach the right destination.

You’re walking through the airport and signs help you find the correct gate.

You’re in the grocery store and signs help you find the right I’ll aisle. Unless you’re like me and regardless of how many signs they put up in the store you still must call your wife to ask where to find things.

Similarly, Jesus’s miracles are called signs because they help people get to the right place. And the right place is: understanding a spiritual truth. Every one of Jesus’s physical miracles was intended to serve as a sign that illustrated a spiritual truth.

Much of What Jesus Did Physically Pictures What He Wants to Do for Us Spiritually

When Jesus healed deafness, it pictures how he wants to heal spiritual deafness so we can understand spiritual truths. When Jesus calmed the storm it pictures the peace he wants to give us when he calms the storms that rage in our hearts:

Philippians 4:7 the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

When Jesus healed the paralytic, it pictures how he wants to heal our spiritual lameness so we can, as Romans 6:4 says, "walk in newness of life." When Jesus cleansed physical leprosy, it pictures how he wants to cleanse our spiritual leprosy, or sin.

If the charismatic movement could just understand this one truth it would dramatically change the way they live. Instead of believing what Jesus wants to do for us is primarily physical, they would understand his miracles serve as signs of what he wants to do for us spiritually.

And in this chapter, there’s a perfect picture of people misunderstanding the sign because they looked at it physically instead of spiritually:

John 6:26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, NOT BECAUSE YOU SAW SIGNS, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

This sounds strange. Jesus told them they didn’t see the sign. Why would he say that? Of course they saw the sign. That’s why they were following him. They wanted more food. Jesus meant that they saw the sign physically, but not spiritually. The NLT reads:

John 6:26 “You want to be with me because I fed you, not because you UNDERSTOOD the miraculous signs.”

They didn’t understand the sign, or in other words, they didn’t understand what the miracle, or sign, was pointing to: Jesus wanting to feed them spiritually. So he spelled it out for them:

John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

In other words, “I am the food you should be hungering for…not another miracle that doesn’t last.” But they never understood the sign, which is why they ended up abandoning Jesus:

John 6:66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

Don't Miss the "Sign" with Bartimaeus

Let me be clear about why I took this detour to John 6. We are reading about one of Jesus’s miracles in Luke 18:35-43 that serves as a sign. I want to make sure we are not like the people in John 6 who misunderstood the sign because they only looked at it physically. We would be as spiritually blind as Bartimaeus was physically blind if we did that. So, let’s make sure we understand this account spiritually.

Like Blind Bartimaeus, Unbelievers Are Blind

Unbelievers are as spiritually blind as Bartimaeus was physically blind. Consider these verses that describe unbelievers who see physically but are blind spiritually:

Jeremiah 5:21 Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who HAVE EYES, BUT SEE NOT.

Ezekiel 12:2 Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, who HAVE EYES TO SEE, BUT SEE NOT.

Parables are like miracles in that they illustrate spiritual truths:

Physical miracles illustrate spiritual truths

Parables are physical stories that illustrate spiritual truths