Reflective Bible Study

For this journal entry, let’s turn our focus towards the crowd in our passage, and see what we can learn about ourselves from how the crowd acts and reacts to what happens.

In this passage, the crowd is only referenced three times: The first reference simply tells us a large crowd was with Jesus (v. 46), but the second and third reference (v. 48 & 49) gives us a valuable insight into human nature.

“Many of the people scolded him and told him to be quiet.” (v. 48a)

The first reference to the crowd comes as Bartimaeus begins shouting for Jesus. The crowd’s reaction is one of annoyance and exclusion. It is really silly to look on this scenario in hindsight because the crowd had the perfect opportunity to witness a miracle, but they are too busy focusing on the moment and on listening to Jesus (who may have been in the middle of teaching one of His famous parables) and not on the opportunity that Bartimaeus presented. The crowd first wanted to ignore/silence the blind man, rather than include him in the event.

“So they called the blind man. ‘Cheer up!’ they said. ‘Get up, he is calling you.’” (v. 49b)

Only after Jesus takes notice of Bartimaeus does the crowd change their attitude. Now the crowd is one of eager anticipation and inclusion. They are about to witness a miracle.

So what does this mean for each of us?

Too often in our lives, we (and I’m the first to include myself here) ignore things that don’t seem to fit nicely into our plans/goals. We try to ignore or silence issues that we don’t want to deal with, and instead push our focus on things that either are a waste of time, or are not the highest priority. I too often choose to play games on the computer, tablet, or phone rather than on spending time with my wife, or time writing and/or otherwise developing Reflective Bible Study.

Where we face real challenges is when the games/distractions don’t solve the real issues. Our “Bartimaeus” is not going away. It is better to acknowledge him and take advantage of the opportunity rather than ignore it. It is like saying “I’ll do this today, so I don’t have to worry about it tomorrow,” instead of procrastinating – knowing that it causes worry/stress/etc.

The other big idea within this theme is this: We have the power, when we actively choose to pay attention to the fringes in society, to include those the world excludes, and bring help to them when they would otherwise be ignored. Helping the ignored is what Jesus loved to do, and we can be like Jesus when we intentionally help those that the world pays no attention to.

During Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount”, He shares a few statements regarding how we should display our generosity and help towards others. In many ways, Jesus lived out this teaching in how He ministered, taught, and helped those around Him who were in need, but here, earlier in His ministry, Jesus shares some interesting words that describe how we should give without being hypocritical givers.

In His sermon, Jesus instructs those listening, “So when you give to the poor, don’t announce it with trumpet fanfare. This is what hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets in order to be praised by people. I can guarantee this truth: That will be their only reward.” (v. 2)

Jesus had just finished saying that public giving will not be rewarded by God, and then He describes how the praise (or lack thereof) from the people who witness good deeds will be the only reward for those who helps others in order to make themselves look good.

At the close of this section, Jesus describes how God rewards the things that are done in secret. In other words, the more hidden our help and generosity are, the more likely God will reward us. Actually, in some ways, we could describe the principle Jesus is teaching us here is that we all will be rewarded for our good actions. We simply have to decide whether we want God to reward us or whether we want to receive our reward/praise from those around us.

In my own life, too often I have acted in ways in order to draw attention to myself, but following being reminded of this truth, I aim to live differently.

The big truth in this section of Jesus’ sermon is that we will be rewarded for our actions. Our choice is whether to do good actions privately and let God reward us, or publicly and let the public be the only one to give us praise.

Something I never really understood while reading the gospels is how the disciples often left everything when Jesus called them to follow Him. We can see this clearly when Jesus called several fishermen, and we can see it when Jesus called Levi (also known as Matthew) to follow Him.

Luke describes this event by saying, “After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax collector’s booth. Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me!’ So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.” (v. 27-28)

Part of the reason this amazes me is that these men had occupations and were established in what they were doing. While the fishermen were part of a family business and in some ways they were their own bosses, Levi would have been better understood as an employee or a contracted worker. Leaving work without giving notice or transitioning responsibilities to a new person seems pretty unprofessional.

However, the culture was different, and I wonder if tax collectors ever reached a tipping point where they would give up fighting the society and quit their jobs in order to escape the hostility – because almost everyone hated tax collectors.

But in Levi’s case, I wonder if some of the tax collectors he invited were his superiors. I wonder if at this supper, Levi let his bosses know that he would not be returning to work the next day because he had accepted Jesus’ call.

Sometimes the gospel writers leave gaps in their narratives that prompt us to wonder what might fill in these details. However, the goal of all four gospel writers is to give us a clear picture of God through what Jesus accomplished, and if they had to edit out other details to save space, anything not directly related to Jesus would be subject for deletion.

Levi (Matthew) chose to leave a lucrative job in order to follow Jesus. Tax collecting was likely all he had and all he knew. But Jesus was more than willing to teach Matthew a new set of skills, and He is just as willing to teach us new skills when we give up our lives to follow Him. In this event, choosing to follow Jesus regardless of the cost is the key the gospels want us to know!