What Do You Want

Bartimaeus was a blind man begging beside the road out of Jericho when Jesus came by with His disciples and "a great number of people." Read the whole story in Mark 10. It is short, and almost every line of it is someone speaking.

When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing, he cried out, "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me." The crowd tried to quiet him; Mark says "many charged him that he should hold his peace." That only made him louder: "Thou son of David, have mercy on me." Then Jesus "stood still, and commanded him to be called." The same crowd that had been hushing him now changed sides and told him, "Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee." He threw off his coat and came to Jesus.

Mark gives this man's name, and that is rare in his Gospel, because most of the people Jesus heals there are never named. Perhaps the church knew Bartimaeus afterward. Notice too that Jesus asks a question anyone standing there could have answered for him: "What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?" The man is blind and begging by the road, so his need is no mystery. Jesus asks anyway, because He wants to hear it from the man himself. And Bartimaeus asks for exactly what he needs, not a polite, smaller version of it: "Lord, that I might receive my sight." He does not settle for asking for a better day.

The promise comes in the last lines of the story. Jesus says, "Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole." Then Mark adds, "And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way." By the end of the paragraph, the man who could not see is walking down the road with Jesus.

Jesus still asks that question of people who have trained themselves to want nothing, and He asks it of you today. Tell Him plainly what you need. He has never once thought of you as a bother.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 141 is The Fare Thereof (Jonah 1:3).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna