“Lord, have mercy!”
Matthew 20: 29-34
Sunday our text will come from the Gospel of John where John shares about Jesus reaching out to heal a man born blind. This incident and Sunday’s are different in major ways. Unlike Sunday, these two men are yelling out against the pressure of the crowd to attract Jesus’ attention. They have obviously heard stories about Jesus and the healings he had been doing and obviously they heard from the crowd that Jesus was near. Interestingly they approach Jesus crying out to him for mercy.
My sister and I were talking about mercy. Mercy is when we do not receive that which we know we deserve. Grace is when we receive that which we know we do not deserve. The two men plead for mercy implying they are not fighting their diagnosis. Jesus asks the men what they want. They respond, “We want our sight.” Jesus touches their eyes and they see.
During Lent we focus on the journey to the cross, a journey of mercy. We confess we have not loved God with our whole heart, mind and strength and we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are broken people and we need mercy. Perhaps our issue is not blindness. Perhaps there is a secret resentment we struggle with or a sense of inferiority. Perhaps it is very difficult to say we love God given our circumstances that hurt so much. We all struggle in some way with our brokenness.
If Jesus were to ask you today, “What do you want me to do for you?” what would you reply? Let us spend a few moments confessing our brokenness and need for help. Perhaps the crowd in your ears is telling you to be quiet and get your act together but Jesus calls you into conversation this day. “What do you want me to do for you?”
On the Way to Wonder 