What Do You Want: Devotion for August 24

This past Sunday, I talked about Jesus’ encounter with a blind man named Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46–52. In the middle of their exchange, Jesus asks him a question: “What do you want me to do for you?”

The answer seems obvious, doesn’t it? He wants to see.

But I wonder if the answer is always so obvious for us. If Jesus stood in front of you today and asked that same question, what would you say?

Most of us could probably come up with an answer pretty quickly. But is our first answer really the answer? Deep down, in that quiet place beneath all the noise, do we know what we truly want?

There is a cacophony of voices telling us what we should want. We are bombarded with images, opinions, advertisements, expectations, and endless scrolling—things designed to grab us in three seconds, capturing our attention before our minds have time to consider what is true or our spirits have time to discern what matters.

To discover what we really want requires something increasingly rare: stillness. We need time to listen. Time to reflect. Time to move past the easy answers and ask what lies beneath them.

Bartimaeus gives us a picture of what that might look like. He hears that Jesus is passing by and begins to call out to him. The crowd tries to silence him, but Bartimaeus refuses to be quiet. He cries out all the more. Jesus hears him.

Then Bartimaeus does something easy to miss: he throws aside his cloak, jumps to his feet, and goes to Jesus. Think about that cloak. For a blind beggar, it may have been one of his few possessions. It protected him from the cold at night and shielded him from the heat of the day. It was familiar. Dependable. Something he could wrap around himself when almost nothing else in life felt secure.

And Bartimaeus leaves it behind.

Sometimes coming to Jesus means loosening our grip on the very things we have convinced ourselves we cannot live without. We can cling so tightly to what makes us feel secure that we have no hands left open to receive what Jesus wants to give.

Bartimaeus lets go of his cloak and moves toward Jesus while he is still blind. He doesn't wait until he can see the way forward. He gets up and goes. And when he reaches Jesus, Jesus asks him that question.

Maybe that question becomes easier to answer when we remember who is asking it. This is not a stranger asking. This is the One who heard Bartimaeus when the crowd tried to silence him. The One who stopped. The One who called him closer. And the One who sees him.

To answer Jesus’ question requires more than knowing what we want on the surface. It requires enough self-awareness—and enough honesty—to recognize the deeper longing of our souls and bring it to the feet of the Healer.

That takes courage.

Bartimaeus begins this story unable to see. But Jesus sees him. And perhaps that is where our own seeing begins too. Whatever you are carrying today, the Savior sees you. He hears you. He invites you closer.

So imagine Jesus standing before you and asking: “What do you want me to do for you?” What would you say? And what might you need to leave behind to get up and go to him?

Featured art: Healing of the Blind Man, Michael Buesking