Perspective: What Do You Want?

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What Do You Want?

Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.  Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:14-16 (NRSV)

He made the lame walk and the dumb talk

And He opened blinded eyes to see

That the sun rises on His time

Yet He knows our deepest desperate need

From "What Life Would Be Like" by Big Daddy Weave

Scattered throughout the Gospels, there are a number of stories in which Jesus miraculously gives sight to the blind.  In one such story, Jesus and His disciples are heading from Jericho to Jerusalem with a large crowd following them.  Suddenly, two blind men sitting at the side of the road begin calling out to Jesus, shouting, "Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!"  The people in the crowd try to silence them, but they start shouting even more loudly.  Jesus stops and asks the men what they want, and they reply that they want to be able to see.  Moved with compassion, Jesus touches their eyes, and their sight is restored.¹

There are a number of lessons we can glean from this seemingly simple story of healing.


Pray louder.

First, this story tells us that, when the blind men hear that Jesus is coming, they start shouting out to Him.  When the crowd tries to get them to shut up, they start shouting even louder.  I think that these blind men can teach us something about prayer.  When the voices of resistance in our lives tell us to shut up and accept our fate, we need to start praying to God all the more loudly.  Whether such voices come from other people or from our own inner dialogue, we need to drown them out with prayer.

Humans are ridiculously fickle creatures who are easily swayed.  In a very similar story, a blind man cries out to Jesus for help, and, once again, the crowd tells him to be quiet.  When Jesus turns His attention to him and invites him to come forward, the crowd changes its tune and tells him to take heart.²  It was such a crowd that would soon welcome Jesus with shouts of "Hosanna!" and then condemn Him just a few days later with shouts of "Crucify Him!"  Don't put too much stock in voices of resistance, whether they come from others or from within, because the voices are unreliable.  Instead, put your faith in the God who loves you.


God cares about what you want.

Second, the story tells us that, when Jesus hears the cries of the blind men, He stops and asks them, "What do you want Me to do for you?"  Jesus' action shows us that God actually cares about what we want.  St. Paul writes, "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."³  We are invited to lift up to God any desire in our hearts.

Though I say that God cares about what we want, please note that I am not claiming that God always gives us what we want.  God is the giver of every good and perfect gift,⁴ but sometimes the things we want for ourselves - or think we want for ourselves - aren't very good for us.  Still, there are times when we pray for something good but don't receive it, and we don't really understand why.  I suspect that most people who pray have experienced what they believe to be an answer to prayer yet also feel that some of their prayers have gone unanswered.

God cares about everything in our hearts, so it matters to God that we want what we want.  Whether or not God actually chooses to give us what we want, we are invited the throne of God where we will find grace and mercy.


God is compassionate.

Third, the story tells us that, when the blind men tell Jesus that they want to see, Jesus has compassion on them.  The word compassion literally means "to suffer together with" someone.⁵  To say that Jesus had compassion on the blind men is to say that Jesus entered into their suffering.  Perhaps Jesus remembered what a blessing the sense of sight truly is and was saddened that they didn't enjoy this blessing.  Perhaps it was a particularly beautiful sunny day, and it pained Jesus to know that they couldn't fully appreciate it.  Suffering with the two blind men moved Jesus to action.

God hasn't given us an explanation for suffering; instead, God entered into human suffering with us.  Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, and, in Jesus, the compassion of God is put on display for humanity.  One early Christian theologian compares Jesus to a heavenly high priest who intercedes on behalf of us, fully able to empathize with us.  To borrow a phrase from one ancient prophet, Jesus was "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,"⁶ and we see this truth most vividly when Jesus hangs on a cross and cries out in agony.  Christ knows what it means to suffer, and He knows what it means to overcome suffering.


Whatever desires are in our hearts, we are invited to offer them up to God.  We do not have a God who turns a deaf ear to our cries, or a God who is ambivalent to our wants and needs, or a God who is unable to empathize with us.  Our God is loving, compassionate, and abundantly gracious.  May we approach God boldly, that we may experience God's love and grace.


Notes:

1. Matthew 20:29-34 (NRSV)
2. Mark 10:46-52
3. Philippians 4:6 (NRSV)
4. James 1:17
5. Wiktionary: Compassion
6. Isaiah 53:3 (KJV)

Christ Healing the Blind Man was painted by Eustache Le Sueur in the 1600s.