Page 12 - Contact Summer 2020

REFLECTION Don’t Lose Hope
Read the passage: Mark 10:46-52 (NIVUK)
Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his
disciples, together with a large crowd, were
leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus
(which means ‘son of Timaeus’), was sitting
by the roadside begging. When he heard that
it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout,
‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’
Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet,
but he shouted all the more, ‘Son of David,
have mercy on me!’ Jesus stopped and said,
‘Call him.’ So they called to the blind man,
‘Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.’
Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his
feet and came to Jesus. ‘What do you want
me to do for you?’ Jesus asked him. The
blind man said, ‘Rabbi, I want to see.’ ‘Go,’
said Jesus, ‘your faith has healed you.’
Immediately he received his sight and
followed Jesus along the road.
In Into the Word, we like to try and see the
story through the dierent characters’ eyes.
To hear it the way they heard it. To feel their
emotions as the story unfolds. This may
sound a little childish, but try to imagine you
were making this into a lm. What would the
facial expressions be? How would the char-
acters be feeling? Would they be whispering
their words or shouting them? Do they look
joyful or sad? Go on; give it a go. Grab a
piece of paper, welcome the Holy Spirit to
open your eyes to see wonderful things in His
Word (Psalm 119:18), and then write down
what you see.
No, seriously. Read the passage yourself
before continuing on. If you don’t have time
at the minute, set a time to come back later.
Let’s focus on the blind man for a minute.
In his culture, it was common to connect
illnesses with sinfulness. In another story,
in John 9, we see the disciples wondering if
a man was blind because of his parents’ sin
or his own sin. It’s possible the people were
asking the same questions of this man. In
a highly religious culture, being known as a
sinner was not a good thing. Imagine the
shame. People talking about you, assuming
the worst, disgusted at your sin. “He’s got
what he deserves.” “Be quiet! Jesus doesn’t
want to see you.” “There’s no way He’ll come
to you. You’re not important enough, so stop
trying.”
We know they are lies at rst but hear a lie
long enough and you start to believe it. It
would have been so easy for this man to lose
hope in Jesus coming over and healing him.
He could have easily listened to the crowd’s
rebukes and remained silent. But he didn’t.
He shouted all the more loudly.
What about you?
We have a very real enemy out there. His
name is Satan, but he has another title:
the father of lies (John 8:44). His aim is to
stop you coming to Jesus at any cost. He
wants you to believe that God doesn’t want
you coming close to Him in an eort to put
you o. He wants you to be so ashamed of
yourself that you run away to hide from God
rather than run towards Him.
“You’ve gone too far this time. You’ve reached
the end of God’s grace.”
“You don’t really believe that Jesus would
forgive you, after what you’ve done?”
“You need to clean up your mess before you
call out to Him.”
“God doesn’t want you to come close to Him
at the minute. He is far too angry to accept
you.”