The Gospel of Luke tells us:
As Jesus drew near to Jericho, a blind man was
sitting by the roadside begging.
And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant.
They told him,
“Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”
And he cried out,
"Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Jesus stopped. “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind beggar said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.”
And Jesus said to him,
“Recover your sight;
your faith has made you well.”
And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
(Luke 18:35-43)
They saw a man who had been born blind.
The disciples asked if the man was blind
because he had sinned or because his parents had sinned.
The Savior said that neither the parents nor the man had sinned.
The man was blind so that
Jesus could heal him and show people God's power.
Jericho and Jesus – Bartimaeus the Blind Beggar
At the time of Jesus, Jericho was known as an oasis city.
In fact, Herod the Great built his winter palace near here
because of its warm climate and fresh water springs.
The Bible describes Jericho as the
"City of Palm Trees.”
Since Jericho catered to the rich and powerful
during the time of Jesus, homeless outcasts often lined the roads
in and out of town
because it was a good place
to encounter the well-to-do traders and political elites.
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.
A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus;
he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.
He wanted to see who Jesus was,
but being a short man he could not,
because of the crowd.
Luke 19:1-3 NIV
Here we see Jesus entering the town of Jericho.
There was a man there who wanted to see Jesus.
The problem is twofold.
First of all, he’s a tax-collector.
While that’s a respectable job in our society,
that wasn’t the case back in ancient Israel.
He was a man both hated and feared
by most of the townspeople.
Yet, the Bible says that he was seeking to see Jesus.
The reason it was a problem to him was because
he had a small stature.
Because of this, and the fact that the crowd wouldn’t let him through,
Luke states that
he did not have the power
to see Jesus.
He came up with a good solution for his problem.
So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree
to see him,
since Jesus was coming that way
Luke 19:4 NIV
Notice how he handled the situation.
We should learn from him in
our walk with the Lord.
He saw where Jesus was headed
and went in that direction
so he could meet the Lord when
He got there.
When Jesus reached the spot,
he looked up
and said to him,
"Zacchaeus, come down immediately.
I must stay
at your house today.”
Luke 19:5 NIV
The words of Christ are very important.
He literally said to Zacchaeus,
“I must abide, remain,
dwell
with you today.”
This is the very call that Christ is making to each one of us.
It’s His heart’s desire that we make our dwelling place with Him.
That’s where we find the power that can transform everything.
This man was still an Israelite. He was a son of Abraham, a
member of God’s household. Jesus was able to look
beyond the external things and
see into his heart
I encourage our position of Sonship from the Scripture.
I believe in the freedom
we have as sons and daughters of God.
Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house.
And we are his house,
if we hold on to our
courage and the hope of which we boast.
Hebrews 3:6 NIV
This is another important part of our position as sons in God’s house.
It must never be forgotten that Sonship is a
position of relationship.
In this relationship Jesus Christ is the eldest Son
He’s the One
from whom and through all power and authority flows.
The three temptations by Satan
in the wilderness
were not the only temptations our Lord
ever suffered on Earth.
We read in Luke 4:2
He was tempted by the devil
for forty days,
but He was undoubtedly tempted at other times
(Luke 4:13; Matthew 16:21–23; Luke 22:42),
and yet in all this He was without sin or compromise.
Although some have suggested that the Lord’s period of fasting
compares with that of both
Moses (Exodus 34:28) and Elijah (1 Kings 19:8),
the main point is how the Lord deals with temptation in
the
light of His humanity.
It is because He is human, and made
like us in every way,
that He could do three vital things:
1) destroy the devil’s power and free those who were held in
slavery by their fear of death
(Hebrews 2:15);
2) become a merciful and faithful High Priest in service
to God and atone for our sins
(Hebrews 2:17); and
3) be the One who is able to sympathize with us in
all our weaknesses and infirmities
(Hebrews 4:15).
Our Lord’s human nature enables Him
to
sympathize with our own weaknesses, because
He was subjected to weakness,
too.
More importantly, we have a High Priest who is able
to intercede on our behalf
and provide the grace of forgiveness.
Temptation is never as great as when
one has made a public declaration of faith
as did our Lord
when He was baptized
in the Jordan
(Matthew 3:13–17).
However, we also note that,
during this time of exhaustive testing,
our Lord was also ministered to by angels,
a mystery indeed
that the omnipotent One should condescend
to receive such help from
lesser beings!
Here is a beautiful description
of the ministry that
His people also benefit from.
During times of testing and trial,
we too are aided by angels
who
are ministering spirits sent
to those who will inherit salvation
(Hebrews 1:14).
Jesus’ temptations follow
three patterns
that are common to all men.
The first temptation concerns the lust of the flesh
(Matthew 4:3–4).
Our Lord is hungry,
and the devil tempts Him to
convert stones into bread,
but He replies with Scripture, quoting
Deuteronomy 8:3.
The second temptation concerns the
pride of life
(Matthew 4:5–7),
and here the devil uses a verse of Scripture (Psalm 91:11–12), but the Lord replies again with Scripture to the contrary
(Deuteronomy 6:16),
stating that it is wrong for Him to abuse His own powers.
The third temptation concerns the lust of the eyes
(Matthew 4:8–10),
and if any
quick route to the
Messiahship could be attained,
bypassing the passion and crucifixion
for which
He had originally come,
this was
The way.
The devil already had control over
the
kingdoms of the world
(Ephesians 2:2)
but was now ready to give
everything to
Christ
in return for His allegiance.
But the mere thought almost causes the
Lord’s divine nature to shudder at such a concept and
He replies sharply,
“You shall worship the Lord your God and
serve Him only”
(Deuteronomy 6:13).
There are many temptations that we sadly fall
into because our flesh is naturally weak,
but we have a God who will
not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear;
He will provide a way out
(1 Corinthians 10:13).
We can therefore be victorious and then will
thank the Lord for deliverance.
Jesus’ experience in the desert
helps us to see
these common temptations that keep us from
serving God effectively.
Furthermore, we learn from Jesus’ response to the temptations
exactly how we are to respond--
with Scripture.
The forces of evil come to us with a myriad of temptations,
but all have the same three things
at their core:
lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.
We can only recognize and combat these temptations
by saturating our
hearts and minds with the
Truth
The armor of a Christian solider in the spiritual battle of life
includes only one offensive weapon,
the sword of the Spirit which is the
Word of God
(Ephesians 6:17)
Knowing the Bible intimately
will put the Sword in our hands
and enable us
to be victorious over temptations.