Push Through the Haters

1.Message: Reading through Mark 10 I found myself reading on auto-pilot. I have read it so many times, and I’ve heard plenty of sermons on these stories but today something jumped out at me as I read about blind Bartimaeus. As he was crying out to Jesus and everyone else was telling him to shut up, he cried even louder. He was determined. When Jesus heard him yelling, he told those same people to tell him to come. Not only did Jesus validate him to those who were shutting him down, but he told this man who was blind to come to him. An undetermined man would have told him that he couldn’t come because he couldn’t see but not this guy. This guy cried out to Jesus in his desperation with all of the people trying to shut him down, and then he pressed through who knows how many people in his blind condition to get to Jesus and Jesus told him that his faith made him whole.

2. Command: Cry out to Jesus and when he tells you to do what feels impossible, do it anyway.

3.Promise: Jesus will validate and vindicate us in the face of our enemies, and those who have opposed us.

4.Warning: People will oppose us, and our blindness will make us feel incapacitated.

5.Application: I saw so much in this as I thought about how easily I want to shut down when I feel like people are against me. It’s hard not to let those voices discourage. Especially when those voices are coming from familiar people. In this story I thought of the familiarity of these people to this man. They lived in the same town so they saw him probably every day. They may he been ashamed of him in front of Jesus and they most likely viewed him as a bother. What most impressed me about this story is that even after the people tried to shut him down he stayed determined and cried louder. Then when Jesus had the people too him to Jesus he brought his blind self through the crowd of people who were trying to shut him down. Talk about a tough crowd! He didn’t make excuses about being blind. He went right through that crowd of haters and Jesus healed him. I want that kind of tenacity!!! This is my challenge!

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