A Job for JesusНамуна

 From Darkness to the Light 

At age eight, Fanny Crosby wrote her first poem, which described her blind condition. "I think it is a great pity that the Master did not give you sight when he showered so many other gifts upon you," remarked one well-meaning preacher. Trust a preacher to shoot an insensitive remark of such nature. Fanny Crosby responded at once, as she had heard such comments before. "Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I was born blind?" said the poet, who had been able to see only for her first six weeks of life. "Because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior.

"Blessed Assurance," "All the Way My Savior Leads Me," "To God Be the Glory," "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior," "Safe in the Arms of Jesus," "Rescue the Perishing," and "Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross" are some of her masterpieces. 

Bartimaeus was a man created in the image of God, but he had one disability that stood out—he couldn’t see. However, his other faculties were functional and alert. He had heard about Jesus of Nazareth. He had never had the opportunity to talk or see the widow of Nain’s son, or Jairus, or with Mary and her sister Martha and her brother Lazarus. He had never seen dead people raised with a word, and lepers healed with a touch. His blindness had totally robbed him of these thrilling opportunities. But he had his ears opened and his thought process was constantly evolving in his lonely dark world. He took seriously the hearing of many conversations and put together all the information he had gathered, all the chatter about the healer Jesus. At one time someone must have said to another in his hearing that Jesus had healed a man who was born blind. The man had washed in the pool of Siloam and had gone home seeing. How could you turn a blind eye to such things? Being blind himself, this would have never slipped his attention.

But Bartimaeus was not the only one blind. Jesus had just told the disciples that he was going to the cross to be crucified and he would be resurrected on the third day. The bible says that after his strong statements about what was going to happen they understood none of it. If you read Matthew 20: 17-24 you will notice the diversion of the topic in the discussion, Jesus is talking about his death, they are discussing the grabbing and allocation of power. Often, we are so fascinated by the melodrama that we totally ignore the underlying theology. You might think the blind man was in front of Jesus without realizing that the people thronging around Jesus were just as blind as the man without physical sight.

Jesus looks at him and tells him his faith has made him whole. That his faith was enough to want it even when it looked like it was impossible for a man like himself. But the people around Jesus had already assigned Bartimaeus into a category. He wasn’t mere Bartimaeus. He was blind Bartimaeus. We love labeling people. You are too old, too young and immature. We classify and pigeonhole people into boxes. You are too black; you are too white. That has been your place and will always be. 

Jesus does not tell him after his healing, "Follow me". He said, "Go your way". What will you do with Jesus? Now that you are in the light, how will you respond? Bartimaeus followed him. 

A worse thing than being blind is having sight and no vision.~Hellen Keller