Our Willingness To Be Healed
The blind man jumped up, left his coat there, and went to Jesus.
Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man answered, “Teacher, I want to see.”
Jesus said, “Go, you are healed because you believed.”
(Mark 10: 50 - 52)
Many of us go through times of difficulties and pain, illness and disabilities, guilt and resentment. Sometimes, these periods of continued difficulty establish within us a few wounds that refuse to heal. There are unseen hurts within ourselves that we do not want to easily let go. We may be physically and emotionally sick, unable to cope with our daily struggles, and still, continue to resent over what has happened in our lives. Every morning becomes a time of forgiveness and then at the end of the day, the same pain of committing the same sin. And a few of us may also be with a terminal illness or a permanent disability that keeps us away from what we could do further every day.
We have a loving and compassionate God who wants us to live a life of fullness, and are we willing to be healed by His hands? How willing are we to submit ourselves, our guilts, our pains, our disabilities, our resentments, our wounds, our temptations, our sins, our illness to the Lord? I would like to draw an example from the encounter that happened between Jesus and Bartimaeus the blind man in Jericho (Mark 10: 46 - 52).
Even though this was an incident in the life of a blind man when he met Jesus. What Bartimaeus did that day would have been spontaneous, but every detail of what he did becomes an example of the expression of the willingness he had to be healed.
First of all, Bartimaeus did not keep quiet. There was excitement within him, an urge to make the maximum out of the presence of Christ Jesus. Probably he had heard before about Jesus, and indeed, his shouts for deliverance from blindness, from darkness, were his first expressions of faith. He had only known the genealogy of Jesus; “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And that was enough for him to believe what could come from the Lord.
After continuous shouts, in spite of the people warning Bartimaeus to be quiet, Jesus stopped and said, "Tell the man to come here." This is where things get interesting! Mark had a great purpose in writing these spontaneous expressions of Bartimaeus in detail. It is written that when the blind man heard people saying to him “Cheer up! Get to your feet. Jesus is calling you,” he jumped up, left his coat there, and went to Jesus. Three important spontaneous but deep expressions of the blind man's willingness to be healed. I would call it the physical, mental and spiritual expressions of his willingness to be healed on that day. His body just jumped up! He was only a blind man, and he did not need anyone's help to make him stand up. But his body, his physical willingness to be healed just launched him up from the ground. He jumped up! That was the most accurate expression of his physical willingness to be healed. Then, we find Bartimaeus leaving his coat there. He left his coat at the place of blindness and his mental willingness just did not bother him to take that coat with him. Probably he did not need it further. He just left it there. It was a sign to show how willing his mental state was to be healed on that day. He just ran away from whatever could hold him back; whatever reminded him of his restricted and limited movement and life. And finally, we find him not running everywhere around, but going to Jesus. Bartimaeus knew on that beautiful and bright day of his life that his heart was willing to surrender to Jesus. His spiritual willingness was shown in him being attracted to Jesus. He went all the way, probably with so much excitement and thrill, and he finds light on that day.
Everything else was done, and Jesus needed only the expression to be heard by the people around him. Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man answered, “Teacher, I want to see.” Interestingly, Bartimaeus did not say, I want to be healed. He did not say, "I want my eyes to be healed, do the best you can." No. The blind man said, "Teacher I want to see." Look to what extent did his willingness express his faith. Instead of the process, he was focussed on the result. He was right there, aimed at what he wanted out of this! And it did not take anything further for Jesus, and we witness in our reading that Bartimaeus was able to see that day.
Today how willing are you to be healed? How prepared are you to step into light from a life of darkness? It is about your conscious choice to move out of the darkness where you are in and to run into light. It is a calling today for you to jump up from where you are, leave the coat of sin, past, shame, hurts and resentments where you are and just run into the arms of Christ Jesus our Lord. Surely there is deliverance and healing awaiting you.
I pray that the blessings and power of God our Father, the love and grace of Christ Jesus the Son, and the fellowship and guidance of the Holy Spirit be with all of us and help us to express our willingness to step out of the darkness and enter into the light.
May God bless you.
Yours in Christ,
"I believe, you're my healer..." by Hillsong
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