Casting Away Garments (Clothed in Affliction)

Well, guest blogger month is here! Our lead off hitter is not only one of the most godly men I know, but my very best friend in the world- Pastor Daniel Jackson of Divine Cathedral of Faith in Tampa, FL. PD has been a major influence in my life since day one and is truly one of the vessels God used to help form me into the man I am today. To learn more about the ministry of DCOF, visit http://www.divinecathedral.org/.


^"Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 
 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” ⁵⁰ Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.
The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”
“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road." -Mark 10:46-52 (NIV)

Because of life’s ups & down’s we can sometimes develop a bad habit of putting on cloaks that cover and disguise our true purpose and our true identity. Some of us have been in disguise for so long that we are starting to forget who we really are. Instead of allowing situations that arise in our life to cause us to put on the garment of praise (Isaiah 61:3), we have put on garments to conceal our true identity.

Through life’s journey we have suffered many things and the hurt and sometimes even embarrassment that came upon us as a result of those things, has caused us to put on layers of garments.

Now I have to be honest with you today, this Christian journey is no picnic. You have to be kind to folks who don’t like you, forgive those who intentionally hurt you and even pray for those who desire to see you fail. However, I promise you that in the end, if you hold on, it will be a walk to remember!

I want to talk about the blind man named Bartimaeus who suffered with an affliction. If you noticed I stated that he was a blind man who suffered with an affliction. Most people would think that his blindness was his affliction, but I’m here today to tell you that his blindness was just a condition that gave God the opportunity to show off His glory!

The affliction came upon him during his process of trying to be accepted by man. I’m sure that some hurt person, who was dealing with insecurity issues themselves, came along and told Bartimaeus that he was not normal. They probably picked on Bartimaeus just to take the attention off of the fact that they hadn’t really accomplished anything themselves.

And they said in awe, look at the blind man, he must have done something wrong to deserve this punishment. I’m sure that they would even go and play evil jokes on him and as a result, year after year Bartimaeus added a new garment of shame and a new garment of depression. These new garments are what his afflictions were made of. He was no longer just a man that had a condition of being blind; his garments made it comfortable for him to now sit on the side of the road and be labeled a beggar.

There are two things that Bartimaeus needed to do in order to receive his complete healing for his condition and deliverance from his afflictions. He had to cry out and say Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. No matter who charged him to hold his peace, he still cried out Jesus, “Have mercy on me”. The second thing that Bartimaeus had to do was to cast away his garment and get up from his condition that his affliction caused him to be in.

Take off that garment of depression, take off that garment of shame, take off that garment of hopelessness and watch God make you whole again, if you only believe that He can.