Bartimaeus is sitting by the dusty roadside outside Jericho when he hears the crowd approaching. It’s the man he has heard so much about: Jesus! The promised Messiah has come to “proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind” (Lk. 4:18). He has come traveled south from his hometown in Galilee for the holy days. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Bartimaeus shouts. But it is just the front edge of the crowd. Those in the crowd are embarrassed.

The year was 1990. II was eleven years old, and skateboarding was HOT. Tony Hawk was soaring and Rodney Mullen was innovating street skating, popularizing tricks like the ollie. I watched in awe as kids jumped up and then slid down handrails (a grind). I dreamed of doing so myself. 

At the top of my Christmas list was, of course, a skateboard. 

I counted down the days until I would unwrap my rad new board. I bolted up on Christmas morning, raced down to the tree, and, to my dismay did not locate anything that looked like a skateboard. Sure enough, that morning ended in disappointment. But hope was not totally lost. That night we headed over to my adopted grandma’s for Christmas dinner. And sure enough, the package was juuust the right size. When time came to open presents, I ripped off the paper savagely. I was going to be so dope! 

My heart fell. What I uncovered was the least cool skateboard in the history of skateboards: a K-Mart special. I voiced an insincere “thank you” to my grandma. The skateboard would never leave our garage. I was too embarrassed. We human beings are odd creatures. Why do we care so much about what others think about us? Mark Twain famously said, “Man is the only animal that blushes… or needs to.”

How much does your embarrassment influence your spiritual life? How many times do you hold back in your pursuit of God for fear of what others might think of you? 

Again and again the heroes in the Bible are those who press through embarrassment to pursue Christ. Consider the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years who pressed through the crowd to touch Christ (Matt. 9:20-22, Mk 5:25-34, Lk. 8:43-48). Or the woman at the well, who left the well to go to the town to tell them that Jesus “told me all that I ever did” (Jn 4:39)—a beautifully transparent (and embarrassing admission). Or consider the blind beggar Bartimaeus. Mark shares the story:

46 And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent…

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