What Do You Want?

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

Mark 10:46-52

46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" 49 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. 51 "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." 52 "Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

NIV

It is amazing how people think about Jesus. They must had thought him to be so important that this lowly blind man should not be bothering Jesus. Could this be like making sure the ill-dressed poorer person should sit in the back, while us well-dressed wealthy ones sit close to Jesus? Could this be like it is us four and no more? We cannot be sure why everyone else including what appears to his twelve did not want this man to have access to Jesus. We would think that knowing the power he has to heal they would be looking for people to bring to him. Maybe it was because of this man’s financial state of affairs; after all he was sitting by the road begging. Surely there must have been some prejudice attitudes going on. Surely anyone who loves Jesus and claims to what to be like him would not keep anyone from having access to the healing power of Jesus, yet that is exactly what is going on here in this narrative. We also see that this man would not be kept silent, he wanted to get to Jesus, he wanted to be healed, he wanted to see, and he was tired of his condition, of his need to beg for a living. If he could see then he could work for his own living, be a productive member of society, and enjoy his life like others, but those who followed Jesus did not want this man to have access to Jesus. That is the strangest thing. What truth can we glean from this account? We certainly do not keep anyone from Jesus. We surely invite all, anyone, no matter their appearance, or their infirmity to come to Jesus and be healed. We can also learn that, at least in this case, it was the man’s faith, his insistence to get to Jesus, his perseverance to overcome all objections by others that caused Jesus to heal him. True it is the nature if Jesus to heal, but here we do see that it was because of this man’s faith. So we learn we should not keep others from Jesus and others should not keep us from Jesus, that faith can make us whole. Sometimes we may be embarrassed to come to Jesus for a healing because of what others may think. We always ask for pray for some nephew of a cousin who has a friend whose mother’s aunt is sick. All too often we never yell out for a healing of our own. Someone is keeping us from Jesus and we are keeping someone from Jesus. But Jesus says, “What do you want me to do for you?”