When Jesus Healed a Blind Multitude

Picture the scene with me.

You're walking with a crowd down the street of a city, and you have to squeeze by someone begging.  Maybe a street musician, maybe clean cut, maybe not.  You don't want to stop because there's someone important ahead you want to keep up with, trying to grasp every word.  You don't have time to stop, but the question comes anyway, from a blind beggar.

"What in the world is going on?  Why the crowd?"

It's Jesus.  You pause long enough to say those two words before moving on, pushing your own way closer.  And then, when the cries of the blind man get louder as he attempts to be heard by the Everlasting Ear, you pause again to tell the ragged man on the sidewalk not to bother.

Jesus has more important things to do than listen to a blind man's cries.

You and I, reading the story in Luke 18:35-43, know that's a complete lie.  We self righteously side with Bartimaeus, mentally placing ourselves a notch higher in the kingdom than those selfish crowd members.

Yet how many times a day do we believe that lie?

I'm not important enough for Jesus to listen to me.

Or, I don't believe person x, y, or z is as important as I am, and I'm sure Jesus agrees with me.

We can't think those thoughts without them coming through in our actions.

Jesus knew that when He heard the voice of the blind man and the rude voices of the multitude.  And rather than moving toward the man in mercy, by His action proving His love, He commanded that the very ones who rebuked the man who cried out to God for help be the ones to bring him to Jesus.

They, too, needed healing, and obtained it by obeying the command.  In so doing, the relinquished their pride and selfishness, and acknowledged God's grace as a free gift to all.

Perhaps this blessing of twofold healing is still the reason Jesus would have us bring others to Him.  Perhaps in the exercise of our witness, our own hearts become transformed.