Were you watching the news leading up to the drawing for the billion dollar plus lottery? The reporters would stick a microphone in front of someone who just bought a ticket and ask what they would do if they won. “I’d take a cruise around the world.” “I’d buy a sixty-two room mansion with a swimming pool.” “I’d go the plastic surgeon and get a whole new me.” It kind of reminded me of the old story about a man who found a magic lamp, rubbed it and a genii came out. “You get three wishes.” He knew the first thing he wanted – he asked that his wife would die so that he could marry a sweet, young thing. Poof, it was done. Well, at his wife’s funeral his family and friends gathered and began to recall all the great qualities of his wife. He thought, I’d forgotten all her virtues. He realized he wouldn’t find her like again. So he made his second wish: bring my wife back to life again. Poof, it was done. He wanted to be very careful with his last remaining wish. He consulted widely. Should I ask for riches? But what good is that if I die young? Should I ask for a long life? But what good is that if I am sick? Should I ask for good health? He couldn’t make up his mind. Finally he went to the genii. What was the best request that anyone every asked for? The genii answered, “Ask to for a contented heart, no matter what happens to you in life.”
We have in the gospel of St. Mark a scene where someone who you would think can grant wishes better than a genii appears. Jesus addressed the blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?” What should he ask for? Like the lottery hopefuls his answer is not all that surprising. He wants to see. He has a problem and he wants it fixed. He has an itch and he wants it scratched. He has a situation and he wants it resolved. Church, Jesus addresses the same question to us today. “What do you want me to do for you?” Most times we, like Bartimaeus, answer that question from our point of view, from the perspective of what we want or need. But did you notice that Jesus doesn’t claim to act like a genii who grants wishes. No, he said very clearly, “Your faith has saved you.” Jesus is explicit: it wasn’t his miraculous power, but rather the saving faith of the blind man was the source of healing. That suggests that Bartimaeus did not completely understand the question Jesus asked him: What do you want me to do for you? He thought it was about a “what” but Jesus was more interested in a “who.” And that is what Jesus addresses to us as well. What do you want me to do for you? Let’s hear in that question an invitation to intimacy, to closeness, to connection with the one who can fill up the hole in our soul. Jesus invites us into a relationship.
What can you do for us, Lord? You can walk with us. There’s a great deal that is frightening in the world today. There are threats to our family, our community, our neighborhood. The future can intimidate us with its uncertainty. And we can even become afraid of you, Lord, because we don’t know what you might ask of us. But we hear in the scriptures, “You have nothing whatever to fear from him.” So what you can do for us is walk by our side through thick and through thicker. Because I know if you with me there is nothing we cannot face together.
What can you do for us, Lord? You can forgive and forget all the sins and faults and failings which characterize our lives. In the epistle we are told that you are the great high priest who “is able to deal patiently with erring sinners, for he is himself beset by weakness.” Deal patiently with us, then. We are trying to live as you desire but it is difficult. It is difficult for us to stop thinking of ourselves and to start thinking of others. It is difficult not to try to generate some of our own happiness because the Lord’s sometimes takes a while. And it’s pretty near impossible to put up with those obnoxious people who keep coming into our lives. So Jesus, forgive us. Deal patiently with us. You know that we are trying. As you continue to forgive us we will have the strength to pick up the pieces and try again.
What can you do for us, Lord? You can weep with us when we are weeping. Tears spring so easily to our eyes anymore. We have our griefs which keep accumulating — loved ones taken from us that we miss more than words can say. Our sorrows are aplenty. Our frail worn-out bodies, for example, sometimes bring us to tears as we face diminishment and suffering. And besides all that we sometimes cry because we feel so alone, so misunderstood, so hurt, so abused, so neglected. We don’t even need an occasion for a sob to escape us. We just feel sad. But your prophet said, “They departed in tears, but I will console them and guide them.” So Jesus, what you can do for us is weep with those who weep. If we feel your tears mingle with our own we’ll feel that grace and consolation.
Jesus asks us, “What do you want me to do for you?” We can only answer, Lord, love us. Love us in our fears and our doubts. Love us in our sorrows and griefs. Love us in our tears and confusion. Love us, Lord, just as we are. For when you do then all things become possible. Because you love us we know that we are lovable. Because you love us we can see the face of God in one another. Because you love us all will be well, all manner of things will be well. What we want you to do for us, Jesus, is hold on to us and never let go. “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you!”
