What do you Want?
What Do You Want?
It is amazing the number of ways the same words can be heard and understood, or not really heard and misunderstood! There is so much that we can miss when we only listen to what is said, and fail to listen to how it is said, or how we interpret what is said. Those two hows are huge!
In fact, there are probably few places where the hows can be so huge as when it comes to listening carefully to the words of Jesus. While it is probably not possible to ever full do this, this side of eternity, careful listening involves not reading into what other are saying things they are not, and not allowing our own presupposition to filter out the very things they most want to communicate.
Those are some of the sensitivities that Pastor Ken suggests that we need to have, not only as we handle the scriptures, particularly this passage where Jesus poses the question to Bartimaeus, "What do you want?", but also as we listen to the way that God poses the same question to us.
When we listen carefully, one of the things we may discover is that God is more interested in connecting with us - sharing that He is with us in the midst of our journeys, rather than just sharing information or answers - and that perhaps that is where much of our healing is found.
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Luke 18:35-43
NIV
35 As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36 When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”
38 He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
39 Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
40 Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?”
“Lord, I want to see,” he replied.
42 Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” 43 Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.
This story is situated in the midst of a string of stories that seem to focus on the irony of those who should "get it" not getting it, and those who one would think would not who do. Some of the other passages noticed in this sermon include the conversation between Jesus and His disciples in verses 31-34 of chapter 18, and the parable which opens chapter 18 in verses 1-8. You may wish to take some time to reflect on those and the others clustered around them as well as you think about the implications of the message of this sermon.