The Pursuit

How many of you have ever been embarrassed to do something because no one around you was doing it or you thought people would make fun of you if you did it?  

How about the flip side?  EVERYBODY else (or so you think) is doing whatever it is, and you don’t want to do it, but you do it anyway because you don’t want to get made fun of?

Mark 10:46-52, tells us a story about a man named Bartimaeus, who decided not to worry about what others thought.

“Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus, was sitting by the roadside begging.  When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’ So they called to the blind man, ‘Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.’  Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Jesus asked him. The blind man said, ‘Rabbi, I want to see.’

‘Go,’ said Jesus, ‘your faith has healed you.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.”

So, there’s a guy who can’t see.  He’s heard of this Jesus guy that heals people, and now He is walking by.  He starts hollering at Jesus to help him and it says, “MANY rebuked him”, meaning all these people around him are telling him to hush and be quiet (that’s the polite southern way of saying what they did). They were worried about him embarrassing himself, and them!

So, what ultimately happened to Bartimaeus?  Jesus came over and healed him!  What if Bartimaeus had listened to them and stopped calling out to Jesus?? He would have died a beggar!

John 12:37-43 says, “But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees (religious leaders) they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue;  for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.”

and Acts 5:29 says, “But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.”

Why do we worry so much about what people think of us?  We should be more concerned about what God thinks and how God wants us to behave and who God believes we are.  He loves us! He DOES want our behavior to be good, but mostly He wants us to choose to be His child. 

 So instead of being concerned with what other people are doing, let’s start focusing on what God would have us do!  

 He would have us LOVE each other to the best of our ability by encouraging any and all to come to know Him as Savior.