God’s Word for You
Mark 10:46-48 Jesus comes to Jericho
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Saturday, December 4, 2021
Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus
46 They came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho,...
Jericho was the first great conquest of the Israelites when they entered the Promised Land after the exodus. Located deep in the Jordan Valley, the city walls were destroyed by God. Centuries later, two men rebuilt Jericho. The first was Hiel of Bethel, who lost two sons doing it in accord with the prophetic curse laid down by Joshua (Joshua 18:21). More recently, Herod the Great had improved the city and built it up on both sides of the deep gorge known as the Wadi Qelt. The largely Roman city was south of the valley, but its suburbs were on the north side, just east of the old city’s ruins in the western hills.
It’s been observed that Jericho is unlike other Judean cities in many ways. Its climate is unusually hot in the summer and positively balmy in the winter. An important caravan road ran through it to Gilead and into the Arabian desert. Jericho was a city of fabulous wealth, luxury, and corruption. “It was the heir of the traditions of the ancient Canaanite cities of the plain (Sodom and Gomorrah).” From this deep pit of corruption it was a steady climb of three thousand feet to reach Bethany on the outskirts of Jerusalem, less than ten miles away.
...a blind man, Bartimaeus the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road begging.
Matthew 20:29 and Mark 10:46 agree that this meeting with the blind man took place as Jesus and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, while Luke (18:35) says that Jesus was approaching the city. Also, Matthew mentions two beggars, while Mark and Luke only mention one. These are not contradictions. Mark and Luke only mention the man who was healed, but Matthew (who was there as one of Jesus’ apostles) remembered another man who had been sitting there with Bartimaeus. But what about the location?
Professor Lenski proposes that the difference is in Luke himself, who wanted to include the story of Zacchaeus at this point. This is an interesting possibility that holds up to the text. But a simpler explanation may simply be that two Jerichos are meant. Jesus was on his way past the new city closer to the Jordan, and as he approached the ruined older city to the west, he met blind Bartimaeus who was sitting there begging. Matthew and Mark have the perspective of the new Jericho in mind, but Luke is thinking of the old, ruined city.
Any place along the road would be a good place to solicit coins from travelers, but perhaps sitting on the road to Jerusalem the beggar would prick the consciences of anyone who had indulged in new Jericho’s worldly delights before moving on toward Jerusalem. A coin or two would be a good deed and, taking the act in the kindest possible way, evidence of a repentant heart and a clear conscience. A man who gave to the beggar might be able to say in his heart, “I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger” (Job 29:15-16). But there was a man on his way who could say all these things in a very different way.
47 When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many told him to be quiet, but he kept shouting all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
The blind Bartimaeus heard the crowd telling him and others that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. From that moment, the blind man started to shout: “Son of David, have mercy on me!” The crowd didn’t think this was seemly, and they tried to quiet him down. But he just kept up his shouting. “Son of David! Have mercy on me!”
Cries for mercy are common in the Scriptures, but Bartimaeus was also shouting out the title, “Son of David!” God had promised to King David that his son’s throne would be established over the kingdom of Israel forever (1 Chronicles 22:10). Sometimes during Jesus’ ministry, he silenced people who recognized him as the Christ, the Messiah prophesied by the Old Testament. But not now. Not any longer. Bartimaeus knew that Jesus was the Savior, and his shouting would be answered with the mercy of God and the recognition by God himself that he had been healed by his faith.
Come, O precious Ransom, come,
Only Hope for sinful mortals!
Come, O Savior of the world!
Open are to you all portals.
Come, your beauty let us view;
Anxiously we wait for you. (Christian Worship 8:1)
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.