The Beggar Who Wouldn't Be Quiet

By the road outside Jericho, there sat a man named Bartimaeus.

He was blind. He could not see the sky, or the faces of the people walking by, or even his own hands. So he sat in the dust, day after day, and held out a cup, and hoped someone kind would drop in a coin.

Do you know what that is like? To wait and wait, and feel forgotten?

Bartimaeus was used to being passed by. People stepped around him the way you step around a puddle. To them, he was just part of the road.

But one day, the road got loud.

Feet, and voices, and the rustle of a great crowd coming closer. Bartimaeus tilted his head. "What is happening?" he asked. "Who is coming?"

And someone told him. "It's Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth is passing by."

Now, Bartimaeus could not see Jesus. But oh, he had heard. He had heard that this Jesus opened blind eyes and made broken people whole. And something deep inside him sat up straight.

This was it. This was the One.

So he opened his mouth, and he shouted with everything in him.

"Jesus! Son of David! Have mercy on me!"

Son of David. Long before, when David wore the crown, God had promised him that a King from his own family would reign forever. Bartimaeus could not see the man on the road, but he knew exactly who he was calling to.

The crowd tried to shush him. "Be quiet," they hissed. "Hush. Stop making a scene."

It is a terrible thing to be told to hush when you are crying out for help, as if your trouble were an embarrassment, as if you were too small to be worth the bother.

But Bartimaeus would not be quiet.

He shouted even louder. "Son of David! Have mercy on me!"

And then something wonderful happened.

Jesus stopped.

All those important hurrying people, all that rush and clamor, and Jesus stopped it. For one blind beggar in the dust. "Call him," Jesus said.

And the very people who had hushed him now turned soft. "Cheer up! Get up! He's calling for you!"

Bartimaeus threw off his old cloak and jumped to his feet and came stumbling toward the voice. And Jesus, the King the whole world had been waiting for, looked at this man nobody looked at, and asked him gently:

"What do you want me to do for you?"

"Teacher," said Bartimaeus, "I want to see."

"Go," said Jesus. "Your faith has made you well."

And at once the light poured in, color and faces and the wide blue sky. The very first face those new eyes ever saw was the face of Jesus.

He did not go back to the road. He followed Jesus down it.

All his life, Bartimaeus had been longing for someone to stop. And here, at last, someone had.

The King hears the cry the world tries to silence.

So if you have ever felt too small, or too much trouble, or been told to hush when you needed help, remember Bartimaeus. Jesus has not gone past you. He is stopping, even now, and the One Bartimaeus waited for his whole life long is the very One who is calling your name.