“What do you want me to do for you?”
“What do you want me to do for you?”
Jesus asked Bartimaeus the same question he asked James and John. The brothers’ answer was preceded with “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” Bartimaeus’ request was prefaced with “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Not long before these events, James and John had an attitude similar to Bartimaeus. How quickly their attitude changed from “how remarkable a blessing that the Son of Man would reach out to us and invite us to follow him,” to “this is something we’ve earned.” Even if we don’t think of ourselves as approaching Jesus as something earned, do we look at others and think, “I deserve more than you deserve”? This leads to thinking “I do deserve a place next to Jesus” and leads away from “how fortunate that I’m given his mercy.”
Jesus asks both Bartimaeus and the brothers, “What do you want me to do for you?” The Son of Man, the Messiah, the creator of the universe asked these men what he could do for them. God asks this of us, too. His approach to us is, “I’m here to serve you.” “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).