Quick Note – Luke 18:35-43/Luke 19:1-10 – Two People Unafraid in Jericho

Luke 18:35-43 – ³⁵ As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. ³⁶ And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. ³⁷ They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” ³⁸ And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” ³⁹ And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁰ And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, ⁴¹ “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” ⁴² And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” ⁴³ And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

Luke 19:1-10 – He entered Jericho and was passing through. ² And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. ³ And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. ⁴ So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. ⁵ And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. ⁷ And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” ⁸ And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” ⁹ And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Peer pressure is a powerful thing.  It can make you do things that you should never do like take drugs and get drunk.  That is why parents often tell their children, “If your friend jumped off a bridge, would you also do it?”  They say this phrase to get their children to think about their actions and what motivates them – to remind them that they shouldn’t do stupid things just because the crowd tells them to.  Moreover, peer pressure can also be used to dissuade people from doing things.  It can prevent people from doing what is right.  Have you ever read The Scarlet Letter?  In that book, a red letter A was forced to be worn by Hester Prynne for having a child out of wedlock.  From that point forward, all her neighbors would treat her like she had the plague.  Rather than showing compassion and care for a person who made a mistake and needed to be shown love, she was avoided.  Peer pressure kept people from doing what was right. 

In our two passages today, two people near or in Jericho could have allowed the crowds to keep them from seeing Jesus, but they did not allow others from preventing them from seeing the Lord.  They pushed through any obstacle that would keep them from Jesus and experienced the grace of God firsthand.  To them, nothing was more important than Jesus Christ. 

The first person mentioned in Luke 8:35-43 was a blind beggar named Bartimaeus.  Because he was blind, the only way he could make a living was to beg on the highway to Jericho.  To his surprise, that day, Jesus was walking by.  He must have heard of all the miracles that Christ had done, so when the crowds told him, Jesus was coming, He began to cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  When the crowds found him annoying and told him to be quiet, he only yelled louder, because he knew that Jesus was the only one that could heal him.  He wouldn’t allow the people to stop him from seeing Jesus.  He wouldn’t allow his pride, his “manners,” or even his disability to keep him from getting to the Lord.  Jesus, hearing Bartimaeus and seeing his faith, called to him, and healed him. 

The second person mentioned in Luke 19:1-10 was a tax collector who lived in Jericho named Zacchaeus.  Zacchaeus was a very short person, so when Jesus was coming into the town, he was unable to see him due to his height.  Rather than letting the crowds keep him from seeing the Lord, he climbed up a tree (which was not appropriate for a man of his social stature) just to get a peek at Jesus.  Jesus, seeing him in a tree, called him down and told him that He would stay in his house that day.  Zacchaeus overjoyed then repented and turned to Christ.  Just as with Bartimaeus, Zacchaeus did not let the crowd stop him from seeing the Lord. 

This is the question I ask you to contemplate today – “What is stopping you from seeing the LORD?”  Are you allowing the world to keep you from coming to Jesus Christ?  I know that many people choose not to give their lives to Jesus Christ, because they are afraid of what others will think.  They fear what their parents, their family, their friends will say.  They are afraid of how others might see them compared to their past, so they refuse to turn to Christ.  These two men on the road to and in Jericho show us that we shouldn’t allow how others perceive us to prevent us from finding Christ.  Our pride and our status in the sight of man should not stop us from coming to the Lord.  Be unabashedly bold, unafraid to know the Savior of the world.  You won’t believe the amazing miracles He can and will do in your life when you place your trust in Him.