When He Asks You What You Want

Mark 10:46-52           They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

+++

I don’t think you ever know how many lonely people there are in the world – until you stumble on the places where they hang out. 

That might sound paradoxical.  You wouldn’t think that lonely people would hang out; they don’t have friends to hang out with.  Lonely people sit at home by themselves feeling lonely, watching Love Boat on a Saturday night (self-disclosure).

But that’s not the definition of loneliness.  There are people who spend a lot of time alone simply because they are content in their solitude.  And likewise, there are people who can always be found in a crowd but they are, in their hearts, very lonely.

The places you can find lonely people are the places where they dare to reveal their loneliness.  Web sites like Postsecret.com – a place that combines analog and digital activity to allow people to share their secrets anonymously.  People mail in unsigned postcards with a secret written on it.  It’s like a confession to the universe.  And the curator of this project posts them online.  Sometimes they are funny, sometimes they are embarrassing, sometimes they are tragic.  Very often, their loneliness is revealed in their secrets.

Then there is Whisper, an app you can use on your phone.  It touts itself as the best place to express yourself – anonymously.  It’s very similar to Postsecret but it’s all done online.  Reading through some of these posts you find a great deal of sadness and loneliness.

Sites like Postsecret and Whisper have an interesting function in our hyper-connected world: they give people an opportunity to express the things that are hard to say, to open up the parts of themselves that are most vulnerable, the parts that are lonely, to seek out an authentic connection.  In reality, I think that many of us are somewhat lonely inside.  Most of us have an emptiness inside of us that longs to be filled.  There aren’t too many ways to express that.

Bartimaeus was probably a lonely man.  A blind beggar in a crowd of people, but still alone.  No one spoke to him except to scold him.  I doubt that anyone invited him over to dinner; he was a marginal person with serious flaws, pushed to the edges of society. 

And he was aware of what he was missing – don’t think for a moment he was not.  He was blind but he was not oblivious to the rest of the world around him.  He was blind and he wanted to see.

It might be that the people around Bartimaeus shunned him because they believed he was cursed, that he had been punished with blindness because of his sins, or the sins of his parents.  Such beliefs, we know, were not uncommon. But Bartimaeus did not seem to be disheartened by their negativity, because he knew what he wanted: he wanted to see.

When Jesus came through town, Bartimaeus knew this was the man who could restore his sight so he put everything he had into calling out to him: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  The people shouted at him to shut up, but he was not cowed by them.  He cried out even louder, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

When Jesus heard Bartimaeus calling, everything came to a halt.  Imagine this sea of humanity moving down the road – suddenly, the man in the center of it stops.  The crowds of people around him stop, confused, unaware of what was going on.  The noise dies down and all eyes turn to Jesus, who asks Bartimaeus the question: what do you want me to do for you?  And Bartimaeus answers him, because he knows what he wants.  He wants to see.

It’s a simple thing, and yet it’s a marvelous thing, because how many of us would be able to answer if Jesus asked us the question: what do you want me to do for you?  How many of us really have a good answer to that question?

Jesus asked his disciples, James and John, the same question just a few verses ago – do you remember?  He said, “What do you want me to do for you?”  And they replied:

Let us sit one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.  Let us be the first; give us the seat of privilege; give us the glory.

And it strikes me that James and John were just as blind – if not more blind – than Bartimaeus the beggar.  The only difference was that they did not want to see.  They did not want to know that the way of discipleship was to choose to be last instead of first, to make oneself servant of all, to be a living sacrifice. 

In a way, Bartimaeus already saw more than they did, even in his blindness. He was the last, the lowest, the servant of all.  He was like the little children coming to Jesus who were being pushed away, but about whom Jesus would say, “let them come to me.” 

And Bartimaeus comes freely, joyfully, to tell Jesus what he wants from him.  He wants to see.  And to this Jesus replies, “Your faith has made you well.”

That always seems to us an odd reply – a non sequitur.  We are not sure what faith has to do with anything that has happened here.  Bartimaeus has not been asked to profess his faith.  He has not been examined for doctrinal purity.  He has not made a confession of sin and the necessary penitence.  He has done nothing but cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me – I want to see!”  But –

If that’s not an expression of faith – what is?

Blind Bartimaeus sees so much already – and he deeply, passionately, wants to see more fully.  He wants to know Jesus and love Jesus and follow Jesus with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength – everything he has.  We know, because as he regains his sight he follows him on the way.

Jesus asks the hard questions of his friends – like what do you want me to do for you.  And it is up to us to answer him.  Do you want fame and glory?  Do you want power and riches?  Do you want a life of ease with everything you desire at your fingertips? 

I’m not gonna lie – it all sounds pretty good to me. 

Or do you want to know love in its fullness, peace that passes understanding, life that is really life?  Do you want to have that lonely place inside of you filled?

It’s not always easy for Christians to really understand what Jesus is offering us, or what kind of life we are trying to live into.  With so many messages coming at us, so many choices before us, we do our best while moving along on the highway of life.  And maybe one day we look around to find ourselves out in a spiritual wilderness.  We’ve lost the way.

Sometimes it feels like the church has lost our way.  Perhaps it is time for another beggar to stand up and say, Jesus, Son of David, I want to see. 

In the confusing, the conflicting, messages of this world we may dare to stop.  Listen.  Hear Jesus asking us, what do you want me to do for you?  And when you hear it –

What will you say?