Skip to main content

Making the Right Choice

Jesus' question in Mark 10:51 "What do you want me to do for you?" is baffling. Jesus knows everything, moreover the man who is crying to him is obviously blind and needs healing. Why then this question; Jesus cannot be that dumb!

The blind beggar in Jericho (Mark 10:46-52) was engaged in something demeaning. His name is mentioned in the Bible as Bartimaeus, which means son of honor. Though "a son of honor" he was doing the most dishonorable profession of begging in the city of Jericho. When Jesus met him he was begging. His style of begging (like all beggars do) is to catch people's attention by crying loud "have mercy on me" so that they can throw a coin in to his bowl.

He did the same thing when Jesus passed by in the company of a large crowd. This time he did not just cry "have mercy on me" but was more specific because his plea was aimed at Jesus and not the crowd. He cries, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
However, it is the plea of a beggar. That is how the crowd who rebuked him to keep quiet took it. He should not nag Jesus for a coin! No beggar should bother Jesus, he has greater things to attend to! However, Jesus stopped, knowing that in that plea there is something more than a beggar's longing for a coin.

The crowd (who earlier tried to stop him) now encouraged him to walk towards Jesus saying "cheer up! On your feet! He is calling you." Probably, they might have thought that Jesus is going to give him a considerable amount.
The possibilities were limited: a donation to a beggar and nothing more. That's all that we can think at the moment. Even Bartimaeus cry was ambiguous. That's what makes Jesus ask him specifically: "what do you want me to do for you?" That is to ask, "Do you want a coin, another donation?" or something else. The beggar's answer was specific: "Rabbi, I want to see". Jesus can do both, he can toss a coin into the beggar's bowl. Any one who has coin to give away can do that. However, Jesus can also do something else; that is to deal with his problem at its root.

Jesus demands us always to make that choice. Do we want Jesus to deal with our immediate, felt needs alone, or work at the root of our problems. A coin or two that Jesus could toss in to his bowl may make him happy for a day. However, dealing with his blindness, the reason for being a beggar will change his stigma of a beggar and bring the honor back to him. Bartimaues made the wise choice and challenges us to make a wise choice in our lives too. Jesus poses the question to us because we are the ones who should make that choice.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

The Days of Antipas

"The days of Antipas" means not only a period of persecution but a period of perseverance as well. It signifies the days of believers who withstood the pressures from outside to surrender. In the church in the city of Pergamum, there were some people who remained faithful to Jesus in the days of severe persecution. Apostle John calls these days of persecution "the day of Antipas" (Rev. 2:13).  The Antipas mentioned here should not be confused with Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great. Herod Antipas was a wicked ruler whom Jesus called "fox". He is the one who offered the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter to his daughter. He might have tried to kill Jesus and presided over Jesus' trial. However, the Antipas mentioned in Revelation 2 was the bishop of Pergamum, a pagan city in the first century AD. The name means "against all." There is a great con trast in the names -- Herod was against all that was good, however, Antipas th...
Read more

The Lonely Jungle Babbler

Every day it comes, and pecks at the glass panel of the window of my study. It is a Jungle Babbler, a very common bird in the Indian subcontinent. It dances flying up and down and fluttering its wings. Sometimes, three or four times a day it repeats this ritual. I thought it is trying to get  into  my room or fly through as it can see the other side. But why does it keep coming, can't it make out after three or four attempts that it can't fly through?   I told my Neighbor, whom I consider an expert on birds, about this winged visitor. She explained that the babbler is pecking at its own reflection, thinking that it is another bird. I thought of verifying her suggestion. The following day I kept the window half open, drawing one panel fully open. The babbler came as usual. Perched on the window,  looked into  my room through the open panel but did not enter the room or peck. But it moved to the side of the window where there is glass and started pecking on the gl...
Read more

The Conquering Grace

  Grace of God is hard to define. When I was making baby steps in Christian faith, mentors told me that ‘grace is unmerited favor.’ I found that helpful. But as I continued to experience God’s grace as I grew, I found that this definition is inadequate to express all that God does in my life. Now, I have come to realize that grace of God is such a thing that eludes any definition. Grace, as I understand now is what God alone and no human can do in our lives. It comes in various colors, shapes and sizes! John, the gospel writer seems to have understood the multifarious nature of grace that he talks about the ‘fullness of grace’ and ‘grace upon grace’ (John 1:17). Or the New Living Translation puts it: ‘From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.’ These expressions mean that grace is not just one-sided reality but a multi-faceted reality. Its fullness is beyond our comprehension just as God evades our understanding. One of the rare but ...
Read more