Jesus
stood still, and said, “Call him.” They called the blind man, saying to him, “Cheer up! Get up. He is calling you!”
Mark 10:49
Mark 10 [46.] They came to Jericho. As he went out from Jericho, with his disciples and a great multitude, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the road. When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out, and say, “Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him, that he should be quiet, but he cried out much more, “You son of David, have mercy on me!”
Mark 10 [49.] Jesus stood still, and said, “Call him.”
They called the blind man, saying to him, “Cheer up! Get up. He is calling you!”
Mark 10 [50.] He, casting away his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Meaning:
Blind Bartimaeus had been crying out by the roadside, “Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me!”, and the crowd had tried to silence him (Mark 10:46-48). Jesus was walking towards Jerusalem and the cross, surrounded by disciples and pilgrims. In this verse the whole procession comes to a halt because of one poor man’s cry. The verse is short, but it shows the heart of Jesus and the change that his call brings.
- “Jesus stood still”
Jesus was on the most important journey of his life. He had set out for Jerusalem knowing that he would be handed over, mocked and killed there (Mark 10:32-34). Yet he stopped for a blind beggar. The one who came “not to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10:45) proved it by standing still for someone the crowd thought unimportant. The Psalms promise that “The righteous cry, and Yahweh hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles” (Psalm 34:17). On the road out of Jericho that promise came true in a single moment.
- “Call him”
Jesus could have walked over to Bartimaeus himself, but instead he told the people around him to call the man. Those who a moment earlier had rebuked Bartimaeus were now sent to invite him. Jesus turned the crowd from an obstacle into a messenger. This is a picture of the church’s task: to carry Jesus’ call to people who are on the edge, and to welcome rather than silence those who are crying out for mercy.
- “Cheer up! Get up.”
The message the crowd carried had three parts. “Cheer up!” means take courage, be of good heart. Jesus himself had spoken the same word to his frightened disciples on the stormy lake: “Cheer up! It is I! Don’t be afraid” (Mark 6:50), and on the night before his death he told them, “In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). “Get up” calls Bartimaeus to rise from his place of begging. In Mark the same word is often used when Jesus raises the sick, as when he took the hand of Jairus’ daughter and told her to get up (Mark 5:41).
- “He is calling you!”
This is the best news Bartimaeus could hear. The son of David, to whom he had been crying, had heard him and was calling him personally. The same is true for everyone who hears the gospel. Jesus still calls: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Peter describes believers as people whom God “called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9), a description that fits a blind man about to receive his sight.
The Significance of Mark 10:49
- Jesus stops for the one
No one is too small or too poor to matter to Jesus. He hears the cry that others try to silence, and he stops for it.
- Pass on his call
Believers are sent, like the crowd at Jericho, to tell others, “Cheer up! Get up. He is calling you!” Encouragement, not discouragement, should mark the way we speak to those who are seeking Jesus.
Cross-References:
Psalm 34:17-18: "The righteous cry, and Yahweh hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit." God hears the cry of the needy.
Mark 6:50: "Cheer up! It is I! Don’t be afraid." The same encouragement Jesus gave his disciples on the lake.
John 16:33: "In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world." Courage grounded in Jesus’ victory.
Matthew 11:28: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest." Jesus’ call to all who are burdened.
Conclusion: When blind Bartimaeus cried out, Jesus stood still on the road to Jerusalem and told the crowd to call him. Those who had tried to silence the beggar now brought him Jesus’ invitation: “Cheer up! Get up. He is calling you!” The verse shows the compassion of the Son of Man, who stops for the one in need, and it gives his followers the joyful task of passing on his call to others.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible