The Same Question Twice

Imagine a doctor walking up to a man with a broken leg and asking, "What do you want me to do for you?" It sounds like a strange question. The answer seems obvious.

Jesus asks a blind man that exact question in Mark 10. But Mark, who wrote this account of Jesus' life, has set a trap for careless readers. Only a few verses earlier, Jesus asked the very same question, word for word, to two of his closest friends. Their answers could not be more different. Side by side, they show us how to come to Jesus.

1. The insiders asked for the wrong thing

First, the setting. Jesus is walking to Jerusalem, the capital city, for a big religious festival. Jesus has just told his twelve closest followers, for the third time, that he will be arrested and killed there, and will rise again three days later (Mark 10:32-34).

Right after that, two brothers named James and John come to him with a request. They were fishermen, and among his three closest friends.

And he said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?" And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory."

Mark 10:36-37

"Your glory" means the day Jesus rules openly as king. The seats on the right and left of a king were the most important seats in the kingdom. So James and John are asking for the top jobs. Jesus has just told them he is going to die, and they are thinking about their rank.

This is not a new temptation. Six hundred years earlier, a man named Baruch worked as the prophet Jeremiah's helper. When things got hard, God sent him this message:

And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not.

Jeremiah 45:5

God said this to a faithful man, not a wicked one. That is the warning. People who love God can still ask him mostly for things that make them look important.

A different James, Jesus' own brother, later led the church in Jerusalem. He explains why prayers like that go wrong:

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

James 4:3

He means that some prayers are really just our own wants dressed up in religious words. Think of a student who prays to win the class election so everyone will notice. The prayer mentions God, but it is really about the student.

Jesus answers the brothers by pointing to the kind of king he is. Paul, an early follower of Jesus who wrote letters to churches, later put it this way:

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:8

The king James and John wanted to sit beside was heading for a cross. A cross was how Rome, the empire in charge, executed criminals, in public and in pain. Jesus says it plainly in Mark 10:45: he came "not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." A ransom is the price paid to set a prisoner free. The brothers wanted a throne. Jesus came to pay a price.

2. The outsider knew exactly what he needed

Jesus reaches Jericho, an old town about a day's walk from Jerusalem. As he leaves, a blind man is sitting by the road, begging. Mark gives us his name: Bartimaeus, which means "son of Timaeus." In that time a blind man usually could not work, so he sat where crowds passed and asked for coins.

And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more.

Mark 10:47-48

Notice two things. First, what he calls Jesus. David was Israel's greatest king, a thousand years earlier. God had made him a promise:

I will raise up your offspring after you ... and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

2 Samuel 7:12-13

God promised that a king from David's family would one day rule forever. People called that coming king the "Son of David." So when a blind beggar shouts "Son of David," he is saying: you are the king God promised. He cannot see Jesus, but he sees who Jesus is more clearly than most people on that road.

Second, what he asks for. He asks for mercy. Mercy is kindness shown to someone who is in trouble, cannot fix it, and has no right to demand help. He does not ask for a seat or try to bargain.

The crowd tells him to be quiet. He gets louder. The Psalms, the old song book of Israel, describe this kind of prayer:

This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

Psalm 34:6

David wrote that song after escaping real danger. God listens to the person with nothing to offer but their need.

But not every cry is answered that fast. Another psalm says:

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?

Psalm 13:1

Some people cry out for years and feel no answer. Bartimaeus does not teach us that shouting louder gets faster results. He teaches us to keep asking, and not to let the people around us embarrass us into silence.

3. Jesus stopped

This is the turning point of the story:

And Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." And they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take heart. Get up; he is calling you." And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.

Mark 10:49-50

Jesus is walking toward the worst week of his life, in a huge crowd. And he stops for one man everyone else wanted to hush. The same people who told Bartimaeus to be quiet now tell him, "Take heart."

Then Bartimaeus throws off his cloak. God's law to Israel shows how much a cloak meant to a poor man:

If ever you take your neighbor's cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering ... in what else shall he sleep?

Exodus 22:26-27

A pledge was something you handed over to promise you would repay a loan. God said a poor man's cloak had to be given back before night, because it was his blanket. For a blind beggar, it may have been nearly all he owned. He leaves it on the ground and runs toward a voice.

The letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament invites every reader to come to Jesus the same way:

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:16

Grace means a gift given to someone who has not earned it. The "throne of grace" pictures Jesus as a king whose seat needy people may approach. Bartimaeus did not tidy himself up first. He came as he was, and he came quickly.

4. What he did with his new eyes

Now comes the question again:

And Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him, "Rabbi, let me recover my sight."

Mark 10:51

"Rabbi" means teacher. His answer is short and honest: he names his real need.

The prophet Isaiah had promised what God's coming king would do:

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened.

Isaiah 35:5

Isaiah was describing the day God would come to rescue his people. When Jesus opens blind eyes, he shows that this day has begun.

And Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

Mark 10:52

The Greek word behind "made you well" is sōzō, the same word the New Testament uses for being saved. Faith here means trusting Jesus enough to come to him. And Jesus says, "Go your way." Bartimaeus is free to go anywhere. He chooses to follow Jesus, and the road leads up to Jerusalem, where Jesus will die for him.

Another man Jesus healed from blindness said it simply:

One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.

John 9:25

That man could not answer every question the religious leaders asked. But he knew what Jesus had done. So does Bartimaeus, and it is enough to make him follow.

One last honest word. Jesus does not always give us what we ask for. Paul asked God three times to take away a painful problem:

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

2 Corinthians 12:9

God said no to Paul, and gave him something better: his own strength in the middle of the weakness. Jesus is not a machine that hands out whatever we name. But he stops for people who come to him honestly, asking for mercy.

What this looks like this week

Jesus still asks, "What do you want me to do for you?" Answer him like Bartimaeus.

• Name your real need. Before you pray this week, write down one thing you actually need from Jesus. Pray that, in plain words.
• Check your requests. Think about what you usually ask God for. If most of it is about looking good or getting noticed, ask him to change what you want.
• Do not let others quiet you. If someone makes you feel silly for needing help, keep asking.
• Stop for the one others ignore. This week, notice one person people talk over, at school, at work, or at home, and give them your full attention.
• Follow after the answer. When God helps you, do not just walk away. Thank him, and ask what following him looks like tomorrow.

The friends asked for seats beside a throne. The beggar asked for mercy. The beggar got the better answer. Then he followed Jesus up the road to Jerusalem, where Jesus gave his life to pay for that mercy.