What Do You Want?

“As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.  And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant.  They told him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by’.  And he cried out, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’  And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent.  But he cried out all the more, ‘Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me!’  And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him.  And when he came near, he asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’  He said, ‘Lord let me recover my sight.  And Jesus said to him, ‘Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.’  And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God,” Luke 18:35-43.

None of us are in exactly the same condition when God passes by our weak and needy persons.   Some form of chaos has developed within the planetary atmospheres of our heart.  Whatever the condition may be, with all of its emotional and physical expressions, one thing is certain: we are not what He created us to be.  We are distant and disabled.  When the Son of God passes by our mess, He is not appalled and ashamed.  He does not purpose to stay distant and aloof no matter how disfiguring our condition.  He wants to know who reached out a hand.  What is the desire of this one crying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”?

I love how He gets in our face.  While others have rebuked us for our bellowing, He has come very near and asked us to make an honest request of His salvation.  What do you want?  Humanity is hilarious in its own evaluations.  Are we of the mistaken impressions that our blindness, neediness and nakedness does not show?  Do we really think that, had the blind man remained quiet, no one would have noticed his blindness?  Be silent!  Do not bother Divinity with the human condition!  We are building a kingdom, not ministering to blind men!  Did I really say it.  While we are constructing kingdoms, God is seeking the diseased.  He is actively praying for and chasing after the lost one, the sick one, the broken one, the face of the disfigured.  Christ has found value in the faith of one human searching for the salvation of a Savior sent from God.

His kingdom is truly not of this world.  It is built upon the conscious mess of human faith that bellows and cries out earnestly and constantly, “Son of David, HAVE MERCY…!”  Because in our messy condition, it is all we have to hope for.  Unable to save our own selves, not even imagining that He would so effortlessly breath “Son” or “Daughter” upon our forlorn spirits, we just cry out a great deal.  Weep.  Wail.  And spend our last bit of human energy to lay hold of anything He is willing to give us.  Faith is the crazy substance of such hope.  “Your faith has saved you,” Luke 7:50.  It is our honest response to His moving and weaving in our atmospheres that ushers in the opportunity to be delivered, rescued, saved.  When God passes by. …what do we want from Him?