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Day 3: When God Stopped
In the 1980 comedy The Gods Must Be Crazy, a traveling bushman creates a monkey trap. He digs a hole in a termite mound, while a baboon watches from a distance. The hole is large enough for the animal to stick his hand through but too small for him to pull out his clenched fist. The bushman then places melon seeds inside and waits.
After a while, the monkey's curiosity gets the best of him. He goes to the mound and reaches in to pull out the seeds. But he cannot get his arm out of the hole, because he will not let go of the seeds. As the baboon struggles to remove his fist from the hole, the bushman puts a rope around its neck. The monkey was only willing to let go of the seeds after it was too late. This comedy illustrates how we can become trapped by things we should let go of much more quickly in life.
The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is also revealing. It was built over the traditional birthplace of Jesus. It has a tiny door, called the Door of Humility. To enter, worshippers must stoop down. There is a legend the doorframe was built this way to ensure that everyone who enters will bow before they enter the holy place.
We all have opportunities to encounter God, but the greatest opportunities tend to require us to exhibit high levels of humility before we can fully experience Him.
The more we refuse to bow from our hearts, the more we bump our heads against the wall until we do.
In the verses that follow, we are going to watch a blind man avoid both the monkey trap and skillfully navigate through the tiny door. He was not studied theologian, priest, prophet, or even a disciple, yet the Bible says this about Bartimaeus: So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called.
What is so amazing in this story is not that this man cried out to Jesus for help; that is what we expect beggars to do.
What's mind-blowing is the fact that Jesus stopped for him.
Jesus was on His way to the most important event in human history, His Cross, and yet He stopped for this man. A poor, blind man armed with only heartfelt hope and faith made the Creator of the universe stop. The New Testament teaches that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This means if He did it then, He will do it again!
Do you think Jesus would stop for you? What if you called out to Hi with your needs? And your lack? And your hope? If he stopped for Bart, he will stop for you!
About this Plan
Jesus had departed for his final entry into Jerusalem. Death loomed less than two weeks away. In His characteristic and radical unselfishness, Jesus stopped for a final man before reaching Jerusalem. This would be the last healing He would perform before His final entry into the city to face the cross. In this reading pal, we'll take a deeper look at the story of the Bartimaeus and his healing.
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