Hunkered Down Devotion

Luke 18:35-43 (Voice)
35 Picture this: Jesus is nearing the city of Jericho. A blind man is sitting there, begging by the roadside. 36 He can hear the sounds of the crowd accompanying Jesus, and he asks what’s going on.  |
Crowd: 37 Jesus of Nazareth is passing this way.  
38 Then the man starts shouting.  
Blind Man: Jesus, Son of King David, show mercy to me!  
39 The people in the front of the crowd reprimand him and tell him to be quiet, but he just shouts louder.  
Blind Man: Son of King David, show mercy to me!  
40 Jesus stops and tells the people to bring the man over to Him. The man stands in front of Jesus.  
Jesus: 41 What do you want Me to do for you?  
Blind Man: Lord, let me receive my sight.  
Jesus: 42 Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.  
43 At that very instant, the man is able to see. He begins following Jesus, shouting praises to God; and everyone in the crowd, when they see what has happened, starts praising God too.

It isn’t exactly my go-to style of song, but the wisdom in this passage of scripture might be summed up in the classic Motown song by The Temptations, ‘Ain’t too Proud too Beg’.  What do I mean by that?  We know that Jesus went out of his way to help those in need around him, and often didn’t need to be asked to do so.  But the blind man in our story doesn’t want to leave any of this to chance – he brings his requests to God – he asks God for what he needs, asking for mercy and healing.  

This idea connects to something that many of us associate with this time of year – football. Thanksgiving and football go hand and hand for many of us.  We watch football on Thanksgiving Day and then often we would play football on the day after Thanksgiving.  One year, when I was in the second or third grade, I went to the open field behind our condo complex as some kids had gathered and were playing football.

I desperately wanted to play with the kids, but (believe it or not) I was a little shy.  So, I decided the best course of action, would be to sit on the sideline and watch the game as intently as I could.  I hoped that by watching so closely I would make it very obvious that I really wanted to play, and that, eventually they would ask me to play with them on their own.  

I thought my plan was fairly fool proof as there were un-even numbers on the two teams, so they needed me (or so I thought!).   After I had been sitting there for what was probably about fifteen minutes, but what felt like forever, my neighbor Alex (name changed to protect the guilty) showed up.  Alex was a year older than me and not very well liked, in fact most people found him annoying.  

But Alex walked right up to the football game, cleared his throat and said, ‘hey guys, can I play?’   Everyone that had been playing looked at each other, kind od shrugged their shoulders and said, ‘sure’.  And I spent the next hour watching two, now even teams, playing football, instead of getting to play with them all because I was too shy or proud or embarrassed to ask for what I wanted.

This passage in the gospel of Luke reminds us to never be too proud or too shy or to hesitant to ask for what we want or what we need from our God.  Because when we ask for mercy and grace from God, he will be quick to bless us with it.

Sharing God’s Love,
Chip  

Prayer: Lord, help us to be bold in asking you for exactly what it is we need.  Amen.