Jesus Responds to Our Cries of Faith
When Jesus heard Bartimaeus crying out to Him, the Bible says that Jesus “stopped,” or as The Message version puts it, “Jesus stopped in His tracks.” That’s right. The God of the universe put on hold what He was doing when He heard someone in need calling out to Him. He could have just kept walking. In fact, He could have walked right past Bartimaeus, patted him on the head, and gone on down the road. But that’s not what Jesus did…and it’s not what He will do when He hears you crying out to Him in faith, either!
To the very people who had tried to shut Bartimaeus up, He commanded them to tell him to come to Him. At that point, they suddenly changed their tune with Bartimaeus. Now they even encouraged him to cheer up! They said, “Hurry. Get up! Jesus is calling you.” And they were ready to help him come to Jesus.
And it’s very interesting what Bartimaeus did next. The Bible says that he “threw aside his outer garment, jumped up, and came to Jesus.”
Even before anything else happened, Bartimaeus took off his beggar’s robe and threw it on the ground. And that’s a very important thing to remember. Because in those days, people who were beggars—who had permission from the local government to beg for a living—wore a certain kind of outer garment. I don’t know if it had stripes. I don’t know if it had checks. I don’t know what color it was, but it was a certain type of garment that showed that they were legally a beggar. When they had the garment on, it identified them as being at one of life’s lowest stations.
When we have a problem, or a serious sickness—maybe one even called “incurable”—or some other kind of failure in our lives, how easy it would be to just “park” there. How easy it would have been for Bartimaeus to do that…to park beside his blindness, and his station in life as a beggar.
But the message of the Gospel shows us that he didn’t do that. It says that when Bartimaeus heard that he was going to stand before Jesus of Nazareth, he threw off his beggar’s robe before even meeting Jesus. It was as if he threw down his old life in preparation and expectation for receiving something new from Jesus. He must have heard about Jesus, and the miracles He was performing!
As soon as Bartimaeus came before Jesus, Jesus said something to him that was very important…and something that shows what the true nature of the Lord really is. Jesus could have said, “I’m very busy. What do you want?” in a surly way, as people sometimes do.
But Jesus looked at Bartimaeus with kindness and compassion, and He asked him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” Jesus was used to people coming to Him. He could have just said some kind of quick “blessing” over Bartimaeus and been on His way. But Jesus saw Bartimaeus…He saw him as an individual, and He was interested in Bartimaeus’ individual needs. And that’s how Jesus feels about you. He cares about your individual desires and needs.
It appears that Bartimaeus was certainly ready to tell Jesus what he needed from Him. Can’t you just see him throwing down his beggar’s robe with the full force of his faith, standing before Jesus, and answering Him clearly, as He declared, “Master, I want to see!”
And Scripture shows that there wasn’t even a moment’s hesitation with Jesus. He immediately said to Bartimaeus, “‘Go your way; your faith has made you well.’ And immediately he [Bartimaeus] received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.”
Now, wouldn’t it have been sad if Jesus had said to Bartimaeus something like, “Well, Bartimaeus, you’ll have to come back some other time. I already healed one person this week and I’m fresh out of healing power right now.” Or what if He’d said, “Maybe God made you blind in the first place, and maybe He wants you to stay that way.”
Sounds like the way some people think about Jesus, doesn’t it? I know people who think that way and you probably do too. That’s why we can’t make people our Source. God may use them as instruments in our lives, but we must never make them our Source. Only God can be our Source. People will let you down. That’s just part of our human nature. We need to remember that, and always make God alone our Source.
If you’ve listened to people who aren’t sure about Jesus’ healing power, or they aren’t sure if Jesus really wants to heal you, I want you to remember what Jesus said as Bartimaeus stood before Him. He said, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
What Will Your Answer Be?
I believe Jesus is asking you that same question right now: “Carol…or John…or Mary…or Jim…what do you want Me to do for you?”
Is it cancer that you need Him to heal? Is it arterial sclerosis? Is it arthritis? Is it a problem with your knees…or pain in your back…or a heart problem…or some other physical problem?
Is it a problem in your family that needs restoring? Is one of your children on drugs? Is someone being abused? Are you going through a separation or a divorce?
Maybe you’ve lost your job and you need employment. Or you’re wondering where your next house or rent payment is coming from.
Or do you need to get back on track in your relationship with the Lord? Maybe you’ve backslidden and need to go back to church. Or maybe you’ve hurt someone, or someone has hurt you, and there needs to be repentance and forgiveness, and you need healing for the hurt.
Whatever it is, Jesus is asking you, “What do you want Me to do for you?” He’s asking you, just as He asked Bartimaeus in the Bible, because He’s still a healing Jesus. He hasn’t changed. And He wants to heal you and make you whole. Acts 10:34 tells us that God is no respecter of persons, which means He doesn’t “play favorites.” His healing power is not just available to certain people at certain times…but it’s available to everyone. If He ever healed anyone—and we know He did because many healings are recorded in the Bible—He’s still healing people today.
I know people who question whether or not it’s God’s will for us to be well. And when they pray for someone who’s sick, or they are sick themselves, rather than just asking God to heal them, they say words to this effect: “Lord, if it be Your will, please heal this person.” I think possibly the reason why some people pray that way may be because they’ve interpreted a couple of Scriptures in the wrong way.
The first Scripture that may be misunderstood is in Matthew 8:2–3, where we’re told about a leper who came before Jesus. Leprosy was a slow death sentence in those days, and people who had it were generally ostracized and separated from the rest of the population. You can imagine that if you had it, you’d be desperate for healing if you heard of someone, like Jesus, who had the reputation of having the power to heal the sick.
This particular leper came to Jesus and said, “Lord, You can heal me, if it be your will”—in other words, if you want to. Notice that Jesus didn’t hesitate. He didn’t have to think about His answer. He didn’t have to stop and wonder, “Do I want to heal him, or don’t I?” He immediately said to the leper, “I will…or “It’s my will to heal you.” Today, He would say it like this, “Yes. I want to heal you.”
The second Scripture that is often misinterpreted, or wrongly applied, is in Luke, chapter 22, when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing that He was about to face torture and death, and He prayed to His Father, “Lord, if it be your will, let this cup of death pass” (v. 42).
In that instance, Jesus wasn’t talking about anything to do with healing. He was talking about how, in His human flesh, He didn’t want to go to the Cross to cut a new covenant in His shed blood, because He knew He was going to have to suffer and die to do it. Though He didn’t want to, He was still willing to obey His Father. He knew it was God’s will. He knew that’s why He came. He knew He came to die that you and I might have life and have it more abundantly. He knew He was going to have His back bloodied and striped that we might be healed from the crown of our heads to the soles of our feet.
He wasn’t talking about whether or not it was God’s will to heal. He was talking