In this message we shall continue to consider 10:32-52, the last section in the Gospel of Mark concerned with the move of the Slave-Savior’s gospel service. Here we have three matters: the Lord’s going up to Jerusalem and the unveiling of His death and resurrection the third time (10:32-34), His teaching concerning the way to the throne in the kingdom of God (vv. 35-45), and His coming to Jericho and healing blind Bartimaeus (vv. 46-52).
In 10:35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to the Lord Jesus and said to Him, “Teacher, we desire that whatever we ask You, You will do for us.” When He asked them what they wanted Him to do for them, they said, “Grant to us that we may sit, one on Your right, and one on Your left, in Your glory” (vv. 36-37).
These two brothers had been following the Lord from the very beginning. They were the next ones after Peter and Andrew to be called by Him. But, although they had followed the Lord for more than three years, they were still in their blindness and needed a further healing, a particular healing of their seeing organ. John and James were not able to see Christ and His death and resurrection. The Lord had spoken to them three times concerning His death, but because they were blind they were not able to understand what He was saying.
In 10:46 we are told that the Lord and His disciples came to Jericho, a place of curse. It was according to God’s sovereignty that they came to Jericho.
Mark 10:32 says, “Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.” The Lord was walking boldly in front of the disciples, and they were amazed and even frightened. While on the way, the Lord told them that He was going to Jerusalem in order to carry out an all-inclusive death, a death that would terminate the disciples and bring them into resurrection. As we have pointed out, because the disciples were blind, they could not understand the Lord’s word concerning His death, even after He had revealed it the third time.
Before they arrived at Jerusalem, a city of peace, they came to Jericho, a city of curse. It is very significant that near Jericho they met a blind man: “As He was going out from Jericho, and His disciples and a large crowd, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, sat by the road” (10:46). This blind man, like the one in 8:22, signifies one who has lost his inner sight, one spiritually blind (Acts 26:18; 2 Pet. 1:9).
We may say that blindness is the worst kind of curse. When someone is blind, he is cursed. Furthermore, blindness is a matter of darkness, and darkness is the issue of sin and death. Therefore, blindness indicates darkness, which is a composition of sin and death. Where there is blindness, there is darkness, and where there is darkness, there is sin and death.
Even though the Lord’s disciples had been following Him for more than three years, in chapter ten they were still blind. This means that, being in blindness, they were under darkness, and sin and death were present. Hence, they needed a clear vision of what the Lord Jesus would do in Jerusalem, a vision that He would enter into death in order to terminate the accursed situation. His death would eliminate blindness, darkness, sin, and death, and it would bring people into resurrection. Therefore, it was of God’s sovereignty that the Lord and His disciples came to Jericho, into a place where there was a blind man.
The case of Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, indicates that all the disciples were blind. Their ambition for position was a sign of their blindness. Their ambition was also an indication that they were still under the curse. It is truly significant that immediately after John and James made their request to sit at the Lord’s right and left in His glory, they all came to Jericho, a city of curse.