Mk.10:47-49 – And when he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here.”

There was something different about the cries of Bartimaeus. There was this crying out that Jesus just couldn’t ignore, there was something beneath the surface that grabbed the Lord’s attention. The original language here described the loudness and shrill nature of his screaming but it was even more than that. One Greek lexicon explained the shouts as the screeching of an animal. Jesus was accustomed to all kinds of shouting, everything from the profane insults often hurled His way mixed in with the general pandemonium that His crowds would often generate but this was different from any of that. There was a cry of faith that was somehow intertwined in Bartimaeus’ voice. He was there to receive his miracle. Here is how Barclay describes this scene.

“There is the sheer persistence of Bartimaeus. Nothing would stop his clamor to come face to face with Jesus. He was utterly determined to meet the one person whom he longed to confront with his trouble. In the mind of Bartimaeus there was not just a vague, wistful, sentimental wish to see Jesus. It was a desperate desire, and it is that desperate desire that gets things done.”

Desperation can make some people uncomfortable, it shakes up the status quo. The people in the streets of Jericho were not happy with the commotion Bartimaeus was making that day, even the disciples seemed to be a little uncomfortable with the scene Bartimaeus was making. Apparently no one else could hear what the cries of Bartimaeus were really saying, often we miss what is really going on being distracted by what we see on the surface. Maybe its their dirty, disheveled appearance, or the way someone is worshipping that we are fixated on that is blocking us from being able to see what is really going on. Beneath the surface is a desperate cry of faith that will not stop until they receive their miracle. Maybe we should ask the Lord to allow us to see and hear what He sees and hears, maybe then we will experience more of the miracle power of the Lord.