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Daily Scripture
Luke 18:35 – 19:10
During Lent, we are using short videos to share a daily idea (linked to the gospel of Luke) on how to grow spiritually. Watch today’s video. Click here or on the image below:
Note: We are reading the entire gospel of Luke in the GPS. Some day’s readings are longer than usual. We hope you’ll have an extra cup of coffee, or use your lunch break, and read Luke’s entire story of Jesus.
35 As Jesus came to Jericho, a certain blind man was sitting beside the road begging. 36 When the man heard the crowd passing by, he asked what was happening. 37 They told him, “Jesus the Nazarene is passing by.”
38 The blind man shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, show me mercy.” 39 Those leading the procession scolded him, telling him to be quiet, but he shouted even louder, “Son of David, show me mercy.”
40 Jesus stopped and called for the man to be brought to him. When he was present Jesus asked, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?”
He said, “Lord, I want to see.”
42 Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight! Your faith has healed you.” 43 At once he was able to see, and he began to follow Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they praised God too.
19:1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through town. 2 A man there named Zacchaeus, a ruler among tax collectors, was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but, being a short man, he couldn’t because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to that spot, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down at once. I must stay in your home today.” 6 So Zacchaeus came down at once, happy to welcome Jesus.
7 Everyone who saw this grumbled, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I repay them four times as much.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this household because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 The Human One [or Son of Man] came to seek and save the lost.”
Daily Reflection & Prayer
Jericho was the last stop before Jesus reached Jerusalem. “The Jewish historian Josephus (A.D. 37–93) explained that the first-century [Jericho to Jerusalem] road was…about eighteen miles long.” * In the ancient city of Jericho, Jesus met two men, one physically blind and the other spiritually sightless. At Jesus’ touch on their lives, both men began to see in the way they most needed to.
- Jesus asked the blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?” (18:41). The man clearly stated the need he felt. If Jesus had asked wealthy, healthy Zacchaeus the same question as he sat in that sycamore tree, do you think he could have answered as clearly? Imagine Jesus asking you that question. What need(s) do you sense most clearly?
- Jesus’ mission was “to seek and save the lost.” Scholar William Barclay said, ” ‘Lost’ does not mean damned or doomed. It just means in the wrong place….A lost [person]…has wandered away from God; and is found when once again in the rightful place as an obedient child in the Father’s…family.” ** In what ways has God given you your rightful place in God’s family? When have you been able to help God “find” someone else?
Click here to incorporate music and worship from the COR Worship Collective into your daily practice and devotion.
Prayer
Loving Lord, when the grit and dust of this world blinds me to your kingdom values, please restore my inner vision. Let me see you and your purposes in my life more clearly. Amen.
GPS Insights
Donna Karlen
Do you tell Jesus what you want?
If you were sitting on the side of a road that Jesus was walking, would you call out to him, shrug off those who try to stop you and press on-–just hoping Jesus pauses, sees you, tells you to come to him and asks you what you want him to do for you?
Let’s pause a moment to look at this question Jesus asks of a blind beggar: What do you want me to do for you?
Jesus knew what the blind man wanted-–of course he did! The story doesn’t say how long the man had been blind, how many years he’d been forced to beg for food? clothing? shelter? medicine? kindness? Leviticus 19:14 forbade putting “a stumbling block before the blind,” but this man was a beggar, so he probably wasn’t running in high social circles.
So why did Jesus ask when he already knew the answer?
At the 2020 Inspired for Life Women’s Conference, keynote speaker Danielle Strickland talked about this story. She pointed out that Jesus asked this question as a way to restore the man’s dignity by letting him choose what he wanted, “choice” being what makes us human. Jesus was restoring not only the man’s sight, but also his humanity. (Ah, Jesus-–you are the light of the world!)
Do you tell Jesus what you want?
I don’t hesitate to ask Jesus for ________ when it comes to others in my life-–going to my knees, naming it in a prayer for my husband, my son, my daughter, another family member, a friend… But when it comes to something for me, I often feel guilty even asking. Come on, Donna, the little voice says, “you should just be grateful!” Or, “why do you deserve to ask Jesus for anything?”
Actually the little voice has got it right on both counts. I should be grateful! I make gratitude a part of my every prayer. Then rarely, almost as an “oh, by the way, if you have time,” I might ask for what I want for me. And it’s true that I really don’t deserve to ask Jesus for anything more than he already has done for me: taking my sins to the cross, suffering, dying, so I can know unearned grace upon grace upon grace.
And yet, Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?”
We can ask. We can name it. Maybe what we ask doesn’t happen as we want: healing doesn’t come, a marriage isn’t fixed, there’s no job offer. But we receive what we always most need, without even having to ask: Jesus walks with us.
© 2024 Resurrection: A United Methodist Church. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* From https://www.israelandyou.com/jericho-to-jerusalem/.
** William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of Luke (Revised Edition). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1975, page 257.
