Is That All?

So Jesus answered and said to him, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
The blind man said to Him, “Rabboni, that I may receive my sight.” Mark 10:51

At the end of Mark 10 we come to the story of a man outside Jericho begging. He was also blind. Jesus comes by, and the man calls out for mercy. And then Jesus asks the question we read in our verse for today, "What do you want Me to do for you?" The man was begging, we might see him asking for wealth so that he could give up his occupation. But the man wanted to see, as other people did all around him. We can almost hear Jesus sighing within himself, "Is that all?" The man had called out for mercy, and mercy we all need. But not for our physical limitations, we need mercy for our sin.

The story brings up one of our most common failings. We pray often for the short-term problems of this current life and set aside the spiritual need of forgiveness of sins for eternal life. I understand, I feel them too. Those problems of the body and emotion hurt right now. We keenly feel our pain and limitations. If pain grew muscles, we would all look like comic-book superheroes by now. But Jesus did not go to the cross because Bartimaeus was blind or we feel some pain. He died to save us from our sin.

A little more prayer for mercy, forgiveness of sin, and grace, may be in our eternal best interest,

Bucky