For many of us there came a time when we had to acknowledge that we could no longer see the way that we used to see. We were going blind. Perhaps the chalkboard began to get blurry, or we struggled to see the words on the page, or maybe we took the eye test at the DMV and didn’t pass, or we went to a routine eye examine and were informed there was a problem. For whatever reason we needed corrective lenses so that we could see again. But when we put them on, we were reminded of colors we forgot existed. We saw signs in the store again. We could read the score on the screen as we watched our favorite sports. Life was good again. In our text this morning, we meet another man who was blind. But his blindness serves for us as a picture of our spiritual blindness and gives us the path to spiritual sight. Mark 10:46-52 – And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. ⁴⁷ And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁸ And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁹ And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” ⁵⁰ And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. ⁵¹ And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” ⁵² And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. Sometimes in life we feel as though all is lost. We see all that is happening around us: in our relationships, in our finances, in our jobs, in our health, in our country, and we feel as though there is no hope. But this reveals that we have taken our eyes off of God. In the last text, James and John missed the message of Christ. So Jesus reveals to them again the new ethic in the Kingdom of God. They were blind to His working, so he sought to help them see. So often in life, we are blind to what God is doing. But he is at work, we just need to see. Mark uses another miracle in Christ’s ministry to reveal this important text to us. We will examine this text by looking at the four characters in the text and be reminded that we must call on God in faith if we want to find peace and joy in life.