“Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
I cannot tell you how many times I have read or heard this story about the blind man yelling at Jesus. Sitting in church the other day, our pastor was preaching. He mentioned the same miracle Jesus did when healing blind Bartimaeus. We all know he was healed immediately, and Jesus told the man that his faith had healed him.
For the first time, the Holy Spirit told me to focus on the people rebuking him. Now, Jesus was pretty popular by this point, and large crowds were following Him. This was the case at this time as well. Blind Bartimaeus, no doubt, heard that Jesus was walking down the very street where he had been begging. Being blind, I am sure all his other senses were heightened, and hearing the crowd talking about Jesus coming down the road, he sprang into action by shouting for Jesus to have mercy on him.
Like I said before, what about the people rebuking him and telling him to basically shut up? I can just hear a desperate man screaming for Jesus so loudly that it overwhelms the crowd’s noise. What a scene this must have been! “SHUT UP,” they must have said repeatedly, attempting to quiet him, but they only caused the blind man to shout even louder, “JESUS, SON OF DAVID, HAVE MERCY ON ME!”
At this point, Jesus calls to him to come over and heals him. How often are we the blind man on the road, needing something from the Lord? Right place, right time, right atmosphere, but we stay quiet. We let the people around us define our relationship with the Lord. “BE QUIET,” they say. “Don’t be so open with your faith. It turns people off and makes you look foolish.” So in response, we hear the crowd and sink back into our issues with a quiet faith that others have defined for us.
Is your faith in the Lord convenient when you are around faith-filled people and a closet faith when the crowd has told you to stop that kind of foolish Jesus stuff? “Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet.” Is this your faith? Is it quiet, only showing itself when around like-minded people? Bartimaeus was not going to stop until Jesus Himself showed up. Today, practice your loud faith. Do not be embarrassed by your commitment to the Lord. If Bartimaeus had shut up as the crowd wanted him to, he would have died blind! Be a loud, faith-filled believer, paying no attention to the crowd. You might just have the Lord God of the universe say, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
Prayer: Father, help us to live our faith out loud. Help us speak the promises of Your Word, and not shrink back into the crowd. Help us to speak up and exercise our faith when the Holy Spirit prompts us to pray for someone, and to pray bold prayers, speaking to mountains in Jesus’ name, amen.
Let It Go 
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