Mark 10: 46-52
47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’
50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’
We are traveling to Jerusalem and the cross with Jesus and his followers. Our Lent challenge“ this year is “listening” as the “the Voice” of the Father at the Transfiguration commanded Peter. As this group leaves Jericho that is north east of Jerusalem and resumes their journey, a blind man hears that Jesus of Nazareth is passing. This man cannot see and like us, he too can only listen.
Jericho was where Joshua and the children of Israel entered the Promised Land after their journey in the Wilderness. Jericho was the home of Rahab the Harlot who hid the spies sent to check out the city, and who hid her family in obedience, and who later married and became the mother of Boaz, and who thus became the great grandmother of King David. Perhaps some of us sit at the edge of our own Jericho, wanting to enter the promised future, but still somehow blind and listening.
The blind man hears that Jesus of Nazareth is passing but he has also been listening to other people who have traveled past him. Perhaps, like him, we have heard others talk about faith but somehow we still feel like beggars on the road to life. The blind man puts two and two together and gets five. He calls out to Jesus not as “Jesus of Nazareth” but as “Jesus, son of David!” Our man appeals to Jesus as a potential inheritor of the thrown of David. It might mean he somehow was joining the crowd looking for a Messiah. We don’t know. But we do know he upped the title. He came to Jesus as a power greater than himself.
The blind man cried out for “mercy.” He did not define his request until Jesus asked him what he wanted. The blind man threw off his coat, possibly his only possession, possibly that upon which he sat while he begged and listened, and the people who had rebuked him for his disturbance now help him to go to Jesus. Jesus rewards “his faith.” His faith in what, Jesus as “Son of David” Messiah, Jesus as healer? We don’t know.
As we sit today listening for the “voice” to speak into our blindness, let us ponder this man’s request for mercy. What would God’s mercy look like in your life today? What is my next step for going from Jericho to Jerusalem, from confession to growth in faith? Let us continue to listen as we wait by the road of life.
On the Way to Wonder 