What Do You Want Jesus To Do For You?

Blind Bartimaeus was a beggar. There was little else for him to do. He could not see; therefore, he could not work. Begging by the roadside was his only livelihood. It might have been all he’d ever done.

Then Jesus came along.

Bartimaeus called out, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And He did.

Jesus sent His disciples to tell Bartimaeus to come to Him. To stand face to face with God yet unable to truly behold his Savior.

This was not how Bartimaeus was meant to be. There was a glitch. A problem. It may have happened during childbirth; it may have come later in life. But it happened. Sin wrought sickness, and it kept him in darkness.

Jesus knew the problem. He’d healed the blind before. He knew the ancient enemy to whom this disease belonged. And He had come to bring the Kingdom near and make things like this right again.

But in this moment, Jesus did something amazing. Instead of presuming, He offered Bartimaeus a chance to truly reflect on his ailment. A chance to fully trust Him.

As this blind man stood in front of Jesus, Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”

In the milliseconds that followed, Bartimaeus had a choice. Believe in Jesus or don’t. He may have thought: Can Jesus heal me? What if He can’t? Or what if He won’t? What hope will I have then? 

And then the kicker. The real question hit Bartimaeus. What if Jesus actually does it? What then? I know no trade. I have never been anyone’s apprentice. I only know how to beg, and that will be useless to me once I can see. People will expect more of me. Life as I know it will stop.

But Bartimaeus was willing to leave behind all that he was relying upon to follow Jesus. The begging, the roadside, the pity, the wallowing, the entitlement to bitterness. All of it.

For when Bartimaeus said, “Rabbi, I want to see,” he was also saying, “Jesus, I will trust you with my life on the other side of a miraculous healing.”

What is it that you truly want Jesus to do for you? Will you trust Him not only to do it, but to provide for you once it’s done? What are you relying upon that you must lay aside to follow the King of Kings?

Jesus is still asking us, “What do you want me to do for you?”

The answer affects everything.