1051. That’s an easy number to remember. Now add the book, Mark. Mark 10:51 is one place to find a compelling story. I love this story because I struggle with it so much. It seems like such an obvious question, doesn’t it? Let’s imagine you have a healing ministry, it’s how people know about you. And lots of people seem to know about you. Everywhere you go you heal people. Sometime you even feed them, for free. Now, sitting by the road you are traveling is a blind man. He knows who you are, he knows what you do and he’s yelling at you, “Have mercy on me!” You call him over so he throws off his cloak excitedly, jumps to his feet, and someone lead’s him to you: after all, he’s blind, not lame.
I wonder what this blind man is expecting. There he stands, cloakless, blind, expecting. And you say the most obvious thing…
“What do you want me to do for you?”
But its not you, it’s Jesus. I’m pretty sure I’d be giving Jesus this kind of look…
Huh, what you mean, “What do you want me to do for you?” Isn’t is obvious, Jesus? Now I turn to someone else and say, “Is he serious?” The guy is blind…, BLIND. I’m just gonna take a shot in the dark here say he wants you to help him see.
But Jesus wasn’t willing to give Bartimaeus what He thought the blind man wanted. Apparently Jesus wanted Bartimaeus to say it, or admit it, or commit to it. Anything but be handed this healing without asking for it.
Now, play a little game with me. Play the scene one more time. This time you play Bartimaeus. You get to be the son, or daughter, of Timaeus. Now Jesus is looking YOU in the eye and asking the same question, “What do you want me to do for you?”
Jesus is inviting you
What is your answer?
There he is, a person many people say is the Messiah. And he’s looking right at you and asking you, “Well, what do you want? What can I do for YOU?” Maybe it’s obvious, maybe it’s not. Do you know what you would say?
I think many of us really don’t. More specifically, I’ve struggled with that question for a long time. Jesus asked lots of this kind of question. He asked a lame man at the Pool of Bethesda, “Do you want to be made well?” To the Samaritan women coming to the well for water he asked, “Will you give me a drink?”
Jesus is always asking and inviting, rarely pushing and demanding. Another question to think about, as you imagine Jesus standing in front of you is, “How long has Jesus been waiting for my answer?” When did Jesus ask me this question? What was the question again? Well?
I saw a church sign here in town that read, “Jesus is listening, are you talking?” But I think it should be, “Jesus is talking, are you listening?” We are full of questions, full of needs, full of requests that fill up our prayers. But I wonder if we could only choose one, the most important one, what would we choose?
The most important question is…
What is the one question that is lying at the center of your being, maybe that hasn’t even been spoken by you in years. Maybe you’ve never even been able to comprehend exactly what it is you want. After all, there are so many things that we need.
We need food (good food mind you), clothes, jobs, good health, health all around the family, answers for pressing questions, safe travel for this weekend, there’s that little test coming up next week, my coworker’s daughter is really struggling right now, my mother has been feeling really bad and she’s got an appointment at the doctor next week, I know this guy and his family really needs our prayers right now…
But you’ve got one shot right now, son of Timeaus, daughter of Eve. Jesus is waiting. “What do you want me to do for you?”
Yeah. That’s a lot to think about. Doesn’t that picture just about sum up an average prayer? So many things clamoring to be heard, be expressed, attended to.
How do we answer this question? May I suggest …
So, you’ve got some work of ahead of you. And this is a really important question for you to answer. It’s not a question I tell you how to answer, no one can. You’re the one Jesus asked the question to, well, sort of.
So, I’ve got some work ahead of me. And I hope you’ll do some hard work yourself. Jesus is still waiting. “What do you want me to do for you?”