When Jesus opened the eyes of the man born blind, the man understood what had just happened. He told the unbelieving leaders, “Why, this is a marvelous thing that you do not know where He is from; yet He opened my eyes!” He then said, “Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of the one who was born blind” (John 9:30, 32). Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would open the eyes of the blind (Isa. 35:4-5). It had never happened until Jesus came, and Matthew records Jesus doing this at least six times.
There is a remarkable lesson to be learned as one reads Mark’s account of that time when Jesus opened the eyes of blind Bartimaeus in Jericho. When Jesus gave him this blessing He said, “Go your way; your faith has made you well” (Mark 10:52). His eyes were immediately opened. Now if you had been Bartimaeus what would you have done? Would you have rushed to tell others, perhaps your friends or those who cared for you? The remarkable thing is that Jesus told the blind man to go his way. What way did He go? He followed Jesus! The way He chose to go was the way Jesus went!
What an amazing lesson there is to be learned. Salvation does not come by saying a sinner’s prayer of about fifty words and then going your way. The way of Jesus involves far more than words. Just before He ascended, Jesus told the apostles to go and made disciples of every nation. He then told them how this was done. It involved both teaching and baptism. One makes disciples by telling them about Jesus who will save them, but He is far more than our Savior. He has all authority, and one makes disciples by “…teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:18-20). Until this is taught one is not a disciple of Jesus.
The problem is that sometimes those who find Jesus do not follow the example of Bartimaeus. When they are saved, they literally go their own way and do not follow His way. When that blind man had his eyes opened, he immediately surrendered his way to follow Jesus. Far too many Christians fail to grow like Jesus by following Him. Jesus did teach about worship, the Lord’s supper, studying the Bible, assembling with the saints, standards of morality including sexual matters, the way we speak, dress and react to others.
Being a Christian involves surrendering our ways and walking in the ways of Jesus, following Him. We are His slaves and in every walk of our lives we give up our lives to follow him. We acknowledge Him in our confession before we are baptized, and then every day of our lives it is a confession that He is Lord, and we surrender to Him (Rom. 10:9-10).