What Do You Want
The story about the Blind Man in the Gospel of Luke 18:35-43, describes when a blind man hears a crowd passing by and he realizes it is Jesus, so he cries out “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” Then the those who were leading Christ (the disciples?) tried to get him to quit making such a fuss and be quiet and respectful, but he cried all the more “Son of David have mercy on me.
This story has a lot to do with ‘us’, today-right now. Christ asks, “What do you want”? It is a profound question because it gets to the heart of our desires; God wants us to answer that question because what flows from that will be everything you do, everything you become, it will become your eternity. So, think about it carefully and articulate it, first to yourself and then to God.
Well of course we all want to be successful and to have a good family and live comfortably; but so far, we haven’t asked for much because God has already promised us food, shelter, and clothing. That covers success, good family and living comfortably. So, we have to shoot higher-think more deeply-look at the bigger picture. Christ came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Aren’t we already alive, what is He talking about? No, we are not yet alive, “we exist”! We begin to live when the Holy Spirit begins to move and live within us. When we begin to learn how to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and body. When we begin to wonder how to really love my neighbor as myself-and that means everyone-murderers, liars, dictators, bullies, the greedy, the needy, the irritable the sick-when that becomes what we ‘want’, then God has something to give us.
We have then become like the blind man, what we want is to “see”, to understand, to know how to live, -not just exist. Consuming, striving after money, self-preservation, that is “existing”. Living involves so much more. It involves conquering death within us. Death is when we don’t love God or our neighbor as we should. And that happens on a daily basis-the person we judge-the person we hate-the person we steal from by not giving what they have a right to, our attention, our honesty, our smile. Like I said this is not a simple thing, “What do you want?”, Christ asks the blind man.
I tell the college students, “You think you came here to get an education; I am telling you that you are here to become a ‘person’”. “But Father, I am already a person”. “No, you’re not-not by a long shot”. “It takes years to become a person. You can get educated, get married, get a great job-be wildly successful and still never become a person.” “A person is someone who loves as God loves. A person is someone who sees Christ in everyone he/she meets. A person is someone who knows themselves-their strengths, their weaknesses-someone who is vulnerable, transparent, authentic, humble, courageous, and wise. That has enough character to speak the truth in love-to be generous and kind and able to confront evil, -both within him/herself and others; to have virtue, humility, patience and long suffering. If you want this, God will give it to you.” As it says in John 14:12ff “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to my father, and whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. What is He saying and what is He not saying?
In the Orthodox Study Bible commentary, we read important clarifications. The greater works indicate that Christ working through mere humans after Pentecost is greater than His performing signs and wonders directly. It is getting us to let go of our agenda and our ego and actually do the work of the Father as Christ did, that is the greater accomplishment-because it means we are beginning to live and not just exist. And so for the ‘ask anything in my name I will give it to you.” We may be tempted to ask God for a Mercedes Benz-that is to temp God. God is not silly; God is not Santa Clause-any such request like that fall into that category “Tempting God.”
The Orthodox Study Bible tells us “To pray in Christ’s name does not simply mean to attach the phrase “in Jesus’ name we pray” to the end of prayers. Rather to pray in His name means to pray according to His will. Just as an emissary of a king can only be said to be speaking in the Kings name if he said what the King would want him to say, so also we can only be said to be praying in the name of Christ when we pray according to what He wants. The purpose here is not to get God to do our will, but for us to learn to pray properly according to God’s will. We must learn to say and mean “Yet not my will but Thy will be done.”
The other 2 elements of this parable that are vital for people of faith today are that the man was blind-He could not see Christ, but he knew, HE KNEW! He knew that Christ was the Messiah. So too we cannot see the works that Christ did-because we were not there-but we know, we know- “that HE is the Son of God-the second person of the Trinity who took on flesh and dwelt amongst us”. We know and so we act.
The other is that everyone told the blind man to be quiet. He was persecuted for his zeal-his enthusiasm-Society tried to dissuade him from making a scene-And so does ours-don’t be a fanatic, don’t be so zealous-don’t cause a fuss-don’t, don’t, don’t . . .
But Christ asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” Lord let me receive my sight. I want to know I want to understand. I want to live and not just exist. Receive your sight, your understanding, your knowledge, your wholeness-your faith has made you well.
And immediately he received his sight and followed him glorifying God, and all the people when they saw it gave praise to God.
May our Lenten Journey be blessed!
Fr. Anthony