Tuesday, August 18, 2009

What Do You Want Me to Do for You?

They came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, son of David, have pity on me." And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, "Son of David, have pity on me."Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take courage; get up, he is calling you."He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man replied to him, "Master, I want to see."Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has saved you." Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way. Mark 10: 46-52
In meditating on this passage in Mark's Gospel there are two thoughts that jump out at me. First, Jesus is asking us like he asked the blind man "what do you want me to do for you"? and what is the blindness that I possess? In my prayer and contemplation am I even asking Jesus the question and perhaps what I really need for Him to do for me is to first identify my blindness. I am may not be aware that I am not seeing the truth in any particular area of my life. I may be blind to the fact that what I keep asking Jesus to do for me is detrimental and not conducive to improving my vision. So here I am in a noisy crowd, its 2009, I, too, am being rebuked by a secular society, and a lot of things are happening in the world, will I call out to Him to stop and have pity on me. I will make it my prayer, will be it be your prayer too?

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