“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see” (Mark 10:51, NIV).

Don’t you think the blind man’s answer to Jesus is kind of obvious? I mean, if I was blind and Jesus asked me if I wanted to see, I think my immediate response would be, “Are you kidding me? Yes, PLEASE!”

However, the blind man’s answer may not have come so quickly as yours or mine. In that culture, someone who had been blind since birth had learned to make a living by begging for money, food, and necessities. Because without eyesight they couldn’t very well set up shop as a carpenter, a shepherd, or really much of anything.

Begging for a living was all this man had ever known. They didn’t have special schools for the blind. They didn’t have industries for the blind. There was no such thing as braille. So, here’s his dilemma: if he remained blind, life would go forward as he had always known it to be. Would that be so bad?

BUT, if he chose to be able to see, he would no longer be allowed to be a beggar. At a mature age, he would have to learn a new trade from scratch – start life all over again. He would have new responsibilities and new accountabilities.

We can see why his response to Jesus may not have been so obvious to us today. To remain blind would have been the easier path – he was used to it, and he got by.

But here is the CORE of his dilemma: do I want to remain as I am, in my comfort zone of brokenness? Or, do I want this Jesus to make me WHOLE? Do I want this Jesus to knit my body and soul into a completeness that I have never known? If that is the case, then am I willing to pay the price to be healed? The blind man chose a new life in Christ and literally, and spiritually, gained his sight.

Jesus wasn’t merely asking the blind man if he wanted to see. Jesus was asking the blind man if he wanted his life completely TRANSFORMED!

What emotional toll do you live with? Do you live with a crushed spirit and a crippled heart? Have you become complacent with mediocre self-worth, forgetting who it is that Christ has made you to be? For whatever may be your stumbling block, what is in the depths of your core that prevents you from embracing the healing touch of Jesus Christ?

None of us need to live where the world has placed us. Jesus asks that we follow Him, and in doing so, He is the balm that “soothes the sin-sick soul,” yet it requires that we be willing to be transformed by Him. I can use that cure; how about you?

David McCall

Executive Pastor