FOLLOWING JESUS
“And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.” Mark 10:52
Blind Bartimaeus was sitting and begging on the side of the road when he heard that Jesus was passing by. Jesus heard this poor, yet persistent, blind man cry out to Him. Our wonderful Savior spoke the word and gave this man his sight. Our text gives us the immediate response of Bartimaeus; he “followed Jesus in the way.” This should be the natural response of a person who has been marvelously helped by the Lord. He should want to follow Jesus. No one had to coerce this man to follow the One who gave him his sight. Bartimaeus did not hear a sermon on FOLLOWING JESUS. He impulsively wanted to follow Him. Certainly, he must have appreciated the gift of his sight. Surely, he must have loved Jesus for His demonstration of compassion and mercy. He wanted to be near the One who so drastically changed his life. Bartimaeus resolved to follow Him wherever that might lead him.
It is perplexing when we see people who claim to have been touched by Jesus, but they show no evidence of wanting to follow Him. It is inconsistent with all that is reasonable. None of us are perfect, and we all know that we do not follow Him as faithfully as we should, but, we want more than anything to be followers of Jesus. We want to be near Him. We want to hear His Words and learn His ways.
We can remember when we were poor and blind beggars. It was not so long ago that we can’t recall what it was like to be without God and without hope in this world. We remember when we were blind to anything spiritual and unable to see God’s hand of goodness in our world. We were spiritually impoverished and morally bankrupt. And then Jesus passed by, and in a moment of time, He gave light and life and meaning to our world. We could see as we have never seen before. No one could ever do for us what Jesus did for us. Immediately, we wanted to follow Him. We wanted to be with Him, to be near Him, to become more like Him. It did not matter if our friends followed Him or not, we were committed to following the Master. Our lives should be dedicated to FOLLOWING JESUS, and one day those steps will lead us to our heavenly home.