"What Do You Want?", Matthew 20:20-34

Hear the word of the Lord, then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons and kneeling before him, she asked him for something.

And he said to her, what do you want? And she said to him, say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your kingdom.

Jesus answered, you do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?

They said to him, we are able. He said to them, you will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and on my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my father.

And when the ten heard of it, the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers, but Jesus called them to him and said, you know that the rulers of the

Gentiles lorded over them and their great ones exercised authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first among you must be your slave.

Even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him and behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out,

Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more,

Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. And stopping, Jesus called them and said, what do you want me to do for you?

And they said to him, Lord, let our eyes be opened. And Jesus in pity, touched their eyes and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.

And the Lord has blessings to the reading of his holy word. Well, if you could ask for anything, what would it be?

Your wish will be granted. So make it count. What is it going to be?

Maybe a lot of money. You'd be the richest person in the world. So with all that money, then you could get all the other kinds of things you might want.

Vacation homes by the beach and the mountains, nice cars, a mansion to live in without ever having to work again, a staff meeting your every need, butlers and maids, all that kind of stuff.

Or you could ask for power. You know, with enough power, you really don't need money because you can just take whatever you want.

Or maybe you're not so materialistic. What you care about are relationships. You want to have that one perfect, loving relationship and then be friends and friendly and popular with everyone else.

And then you really don't need a lot of money either or power because you'll be so popular, everyone will just give you things.

More practical people will say, yeah, just give me the money. If I'm rich enough, everyone will be my friend or at least act like they are.

A fantasy, right? It's inspired a kind of fantasy fiction based on an

Arab myth about the genie in the bottle. You know, if you rub the bottle, out pops the genie and you get three wishes.

So some people think, you know, if I could ask for three things, if I get the bottle and the genie comes out, what am

I going to ask? What am I going to ask him? Here's what some people said. A man named Uzair from Pakistan wrote, one, world peace, two, unlimited wealth and power for himself,

I guess, and three, to stay young forever. He wants to be God, basically.

Mary L. liked that so much that her three wishes were, allow me to savor the moment, two, healthy family and friends, and three, travel to Pakistan to meet

Uzair. A man named Manish Kumar wrote, one, a simple ideal life of a teacher, guru, of personal development, two, a boundaries -free global family.

He's really idealistic, isn't he? And three, the art of communication. Now another man named

Yasir, he's more normal or at least more honest kind of guy, and he wrote, one, a wife without a mother -in -law, two, a truly motivated team, and three, a

Bugatti Veyron sports car. Now I had to look up what a Bugatti Veyron sports car is.

It is the fastest street legal car in the world with a top speed of 267 miles an hour and cost a base price of $2 ,250 ,000.

That's not including the CD player. Now here's Charles with an odd combination of sort of the idealistic and the mundane.

He said, one over one, the ability to motivate and influence the actions of others for the greater good. He's idealistic, isn't he?

To live a life so that people would miss me long after I'm gone. And three, an open account at Starbucks because at $3 .56

a cup, cents a cup of coffee every morning it is getting really expensive. Of course a lot of clever people said that one of their three wishes would be to have more wishes.

Ah, but I checked the official genie rules and they don't allow that wish. So you're stuck with just three, only get three wishes.

Now if you could ask someone with power to grant you anything you wanted, what would it be?

What would you ask for? What do you want? Well, we have that just here. We have two requests made of the

Lord Jesus and two wishes that are asked for by people who believe that he had the power to grant them.

And here we see what people ask for and what they really need. What would you ask for?

Well, the first question asked is from the mother of James and John and she approaches the Lord Jesus with the greatest respect, you know, kneeling on the ground before him.

First asking if she can ask him something, you know, may I ask you something? And he responds, what do you want?

What do you want? Well, they want to be somebody,

James and John do. That's what a lot of people are seeking to be. They want to be somebody, somebody with all the power in the world, you know, to be a guru, a leader, somebody so important that Starbucks will just give you unlimited credit, drink as much coffee as you want.

That's why James and John asked for it, to be somebody, the number two and the number three in your kingdom, power and glory.

And then when you have that, all the things that money and relationships can give you, well, they're just yours for the taking, right?

Or maybe you're really sincere and you really will use that power to serve others.

Maybe James and John had no intention of being selfish about it, they just reason like many people do.

The more power we have, the more good we can do. Give us a high position, a lot of, you know, access to a lot of money or maybe a bigger church with thousands attending and a program on TV, on the radio.

Assistance then, we can afford assistance that can turn every sermon or sermons into books and to DVDs.

Now think of the influence that we can have for good. We'll give all the glory to Jesus, of course.

We just need to be somebody first, here and now, to do that good.

The position, the status is for good, they say. Here we see four things wrong with that, with James and John in particular.

They asked one for the wrong thing. They ask it of the wrong one, for the wrong place and with the wrong goal.

Now, first they ask the wrong thing, to be Jesus' right hand and left hand man, and Jesus responds to them, not to the mother.

He says, you, plural, good southern y 'all, don't know what you all are asking.

They're asking for the wrong thing. Of course, they're doing it out of ignorance. They don't know any better.

It's not as selfish as just asking, you know, for an ultra $2 million plus sports car or unlimited credit at Starbucks.

It's well -intentioned, they think, and it's kind of conventional, just kind of normal. It's normal to want power, especially normally in their day.

The Messiah, they believed, was all about getting and then using power.

He is going to Jerusalem now. He's actually on the way right there, as this incident occurs, to get all the power in Israel, they think.

And so, once he has that power, they want him to share some with them, which, you know, whichever candidate wins this coming election, there will be lots of people asking him for a share of power.

Give us something, secretary of some department or an ambassador somewhere nice.

To the winner go the spoils, and Jesus, they were sure, was going to win, and they wanted some of the spoils.

They just didn't know. They didn't understand what the son had already given up and what he was going to Jerusalem to give up, because they didn't understand that.

They didn't know what they were asking. I want to be somebody, right?

That's the yearning of so many people. That pushes some young people to strain themselves working out, desperately wanting to be somebody on the football field, so they can be recognized, get that big trophy, be the

MVP, or on the baseball field, or on the basketball court, or on the track, to go to the finish line, go up to the medal stand, gold medal draped around your neck, be somebody.

It pushes some to go into politics and some into religion, you know, to be somebody.

Maybe you can be a superstar pastor with a study Bible named after you, or a college with your name on it, a worldwide radio, or television broadcast, be the featured speaker at conferences.

So pastors would then, aspiring to that, pushing for that, treat their churches like rungs on a ladder, you know, going up from one to another, always bigger, always in a bigger city, trying to get more prominence, trying to be somebody.

And churches get used to that, that is being treated like steps in the career. And so they treat their pastors like it's, they're all about a career too, that if, you know, if he can't make us number one or number two in the kingdom, or at least in the

Danville area, well, then we'll find someone else who can. Please, we beg, make us somebody.

We don't know what we're asking. What do you want? Oddly enough, they were asking the wrong one.

Again, their assumptions are confusing them. They assume that Jesus, you know, he's the

Messiah, and they're right about that, that he will set up his kingdom, that he will be the king, like David, appointing his friends and supporters to key positions in the new government.

And when they ask for those top places, he not only says, you don't know what you're asking, but also to sit at my right hand and my left hand is not mine to grant.

Now, that is, Jesus is saying, I don't have the position to make those kinds of appointments.

And this has caused some people to question, then, is here, that's verse, what's that, verse 23?

Is he here suggesting that, that he is not fully

God? Does this go against the doctrine of the Trinity? Is that what's going on here?

You know, I don't have, I don't have, basically, I don't have the authority to make those appointments.

But people who use this passage for that purpose do not really understand either the doctrine of the Trinity or, and how this passage shows us how the

Father and the Son relate. They're pouring their assumptions into it. Well, here

Jesus shows us that the most prominent places in his kingdom, in verse 23, have been. Notice that.

They have been. These places James and John want, right hand, left hand.

Jesus says, first, I don't give them, they have been past completed action.

It's been those that have been reserved already and prepared by the Father, he says. That is,

God the Father knows who are going to have those positions of status, even before the people who will take them have lived.

And so here, at the beginning, really the beginning of the church, the right hand and left hand seats have already been reserved by the

Father. They have been, past tense, completed, prepared, it's done.

And so, you know, remember that first parable three weeks ago in this chapter, laborers in the vineyard? If that first parable in this chapter is a magnificent story, an illustration of what we call the sovereignty of God, that phrase,

God owns it all and is generous to whomever he pleases. Well, here we see, and Jesus is talking about these seats the

Father has already reserved. Here we see an example of what is called the fancy word, predestination.

The places of honor, the rewards, have already been reserved. The trophies already have the names engraved on them.

Even before those who will take them live. Because the Father knows who they are, and he knows what they will do.

But back to our point, why does the Son, Jesus, not have the authority to give those seats of honor to whomever he wants?

Why? If he is truly God? Well, the logic of the skeptic goes, okay, if he's

God, like you say, if he's equal to the Father, then he should have equal authority, right?

If you're the same in value, the same in essence, in nature, they think, then you should be doing the same thing.

You should be the same in roles, same responsibilities. And we find this assumption all the time when it comes to discussing the different roles of male and female, men and women.

People will say, you know, hey, if men and women are equal, which is true, the

Bible teaches that, equal in value, both equally made in the image of God, according to Genesis 1, right off the bat in the

Bible, God made them male and female, in the image of God he made them, both of them. So if they're equal then, why shouldn't they be equal in roles, have the same roles, be able to do the same things?

That is, if women are equal to men, which they are, then they should be able to be the head of the family or the head of the church.

The assumption is that equality of nature means equality of roles.

And the assumption is wrong. One can be equal in nature and value and be called to be subordinate.

One can be equal, but still be called to submit.

Jesus is the supreme example of that fact. And Philippians 2, starting in verse 6 there in Philippians 2, it tells us of that brilliantly.

The son, it says, was in the form of God. That is, he was God in eternity past, but it says he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, a thing to be held onto.

He was somebody already. He was the ultimate somebody.

He was God. You don't get any more somebody than that, but Paul says he emptied himself by taking on the form, the outward resemblance, the form of a servant.

That is, he gave up what many people wish for. Many people wish to be somebody.

He gave it up. Somebody became a nobody. You know, in the words of a song I love, a beautiful letdown, he let himself down and he became humble, and he humbled himself, it says.

And therefore, Paul says, so he's humbled himself, he's let himself down, he's taken the form of a servant, therefore, because of that, the result of the son's humbling himself and becoming a servant, a nobody, you know, in a world that's striving to be somebody's.

Notice the other apostles here, they're angry at James and John for asking that, because they want to be somebody, too.

Everybody's trying to be somebody, and Jesus comes who was the somebody, he became a nobody. Therefore, Paul says,

God the Father most highly exalted him. The Father took the nobody and made him a somebody, so highly exalted that at the name of Jesus, everyone everywhere will kneel, just like James and John's mother did before Jesus, and everyone will confess

Jesus is Lord, Lord meaning he's God, he is the somebody to the glory of God the

Father. So the son humbles himself before the Father, before the world, making himself a servant, letting go of the rights of being

God, submitting to the Father's choice of even who will be honored at his side, and the

Father responds to that by exalting the son. So don't ask the somebody who became a nobody to make you into a somebody.

You're asking the wrong one. So who will those be, then, who were honored, in case, you know, you want to be one of those by his side?

Who will those be? I think we can safely guess that they are the people who, like Jesus, don't think being somebody is something to run after and to grasp for, who are willing to be nobodies, to be beautiful letdowns, painfully uncool, the church of the dropouts, the losers, the sinners, the failures, and the fools.

Oh, what a beautiful letdown. They're the ones the Father has reserved a place for at Jesus' side, the ones who help the poor and the powerless, who will make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for a hungry kid who can't do anything for you, will drive a bus or a van for them, who aren't angling to turn their religion into an excuse to be looked up to, but just want to follow

Jesus in a world where they don't belong, willing to be nobodies in a world fighting to be somebody.

That's who the Father will sit next to Jesus, nobodies who just want to sit next to Jesus.

The Son is God. He submitted Himself, trusting the Father. How much more, then, should we?

Well, they asked for the wrong thing, from the wrong one, for the wrong place, the place of glory, for the wrong goal, being somebody.

And Jesus said instead, be a servant. And the world is all about power and glory, it's about being somebody.

You know, Jesus says, don't be like them. That's the worldly way. Be like me,

Jesus says. Be like Him. He is the example of the servant. And so He says it, among you, among us, in verse 26 and 27, make the servants first.

Even as, verse 28 says, just like the Son of Man, who came not to be served, you know,

He didn't come to be a somebody with an expensive suit and a nice car, status symbols.

But He came to be stripped down to His underwear, or worse, and nailed to a cross to serve, to do what we needed, and we needed a ransom.

Someone had to pay the debt that our sins deserve, that debt of death. Someone had to pay that debt.

And it would have to be somebody who owed no debt of his own. A sinner cannot pay a ransom for another sinner, because his sins deserve death too.

He owes a ransom for himself. And so someone had to pay the ransom who had himself never sinned.

And that was only Jesus. That's what we most needed. You know, others can give us other things that we might think we need.

Confucius could give us good advice if that's what we need. Others, like superstitious religions, feng shui, magic words, voodoo, can promise to give us power if that's what we need.

You know, Donald Trump could promise he could give us money if that's what we really needed.

But what we really need is someone to pay the ransom for the debt that our sins have racked up.

And Jesus was the only one who could do that. And so on the cross, he paid the debt for some people, what he calls the many.

Those many. And he exchanged his life for the many. Somebody became nobody on the cross.

The most humiliating, painful death. Reserved in the Roman law, crucifixion was reserved.

You couldn't be a Roman citizen, you couldn't be a nobility, it was reserved for the nobodies. The lowest of the low in society.

And he did that so that he could make many, somebodies.

Well, that's what he's going to Jerusalem to do. Now having crossed the Jordan River, he's heading west through the city of Jericho, he's leaving

Jericho, now he's only about 15 miles out of Jerusalem. It was close now. It's about, generally, about the same distance as Danville is from Yanceyville.

Some blogger on the internet said that he walked it from Jericho to Jerusalem in about eight hours, slowed down by the elevation increase of about 3 ,400 feet.

Jericho is the last major city on the way to Jerusalem. And this story, that last story, the two blind men healed, verses 29 to 34, this marks the end, in Matthew's gospel, of Jesus's traveling ministry.

He's been traveling, teaching, healing, this is the end of it. He is still followed by large crowds, still very popular.

After this, he'll take the plunge into Jerusalem. And in what will take us, now, for most of the next three months, until the end of December, to look at, everything that happens from chapter 21 to 25 will transpire in just a few days.

And then what he predicted happens. The son of man, God himself, in human form, bringing in the kingdom of God, will give his life as a ransom for many.

The son of man and the son of David going to Jerusalem, but with one last errand before he arrives.

Now we ask, if you could ask someone with power and wealth to grant you one, one thing that you wanted, what would you ask for?

One wish. Now the answer to that likely depends on what you think is your biggest need.

If you were drowning in debt, you'd probably ask for some money. If you were lonely, maybe you'd ask for a companion.

If you were sick or diseased, physically handicapped, you'd ask for healing.

Leaving Jericho, looking to Jerusalem, Jesus encounters two men begging by the roadside.

They are blind, and they likely don't know why. Suddenly, there's so many people on their usual begging route.

And then someone tells them, hey, Jesus is coming by. And they've heard about him. And they believe what they've heard.

And so they cry out desperately. Lord, have mercy on us, son of David.

Now if James and John had asked for the wrong thing of the wrong one, for the wrong place, with the wrong goal, these two men get it all right.

They're in the right place, begging the right one for the right thing.

And they get the right response. Now the disciples wanted to be somebody. These two men only wanted to see somebody.

Well they are nobody. Well, first, they're blind. They can't work to support themselves.

There's no disability payments coming their way in the mail every month. And apparently, they come from such a poor family that their families couldn't support them.

And so they had to go out and beg. It was either beg or starve, likely. When we lived in Ethiopia, beggars are a common sight.

Begging is the original welfare. If you're poor and can't work, you beg. The only alternative is to starve.

They are so common, places like Ethiopia, that people take coins when they go out with them to drop in the hands of beggars.

And you do it so routinely, as you're just walking by, without hardly a thought.

It's not as though you stop and talk to them. You just drop it in their hands and go by. They're the lowliest in society.

They're the nobodies. And so when they start to make themselves heard, crying out desperately for help, the people standing around them, you know, shush.

These people aren't worth taking the time and the attention of someone as important, as big a somebody, as Jesus.

You know, he's the son of David. But the great thing about being a nobody, there's an advantage to that.

When you know you're a nobody, there's no further that you can drop to.

You really have nothing else to lose. You're already at the bottom of society. You're not going to lose any status.

It's not as though you're going to lose some respect. You're already a letdown. So you might as well have let go of your foolish pride.

You might as well just shout. And so when they're shushed like annoying nobodies, they just cry out the louder,

Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. Well, they're in the right place at the right time in shouting distance of the son of David.

As Jesus hears them, he stops, he calls for them to come to him. They come.

There's probably all kinds of large crowd huddled around seeing what's going to happen. They come to the son of David.

And they've gotten the right one. He is what's called the son of David, what they call him.

God made a covenant with David, King David, in 2 Samuel chapter 7, an unconditional covenant just like he made with Abraham.

So you know it's going to be fulfilled. It's based on God's promise, not on anyone's performance. To David, God had promised that someone from him, one of his descendants, will always rule in God's kingdom.

And so they were waiting for that. The Jews were at this time. They're waiting for that promise to be fulfilled for the son of David, the

Messiah, to set up God's kingdom. And these two blind men believed that Jesus was that son of David.

And so they shouted out to him, persisting, even when these people around them tried to silence them.

They were in the right place at the right time, asking the right one. And they were asking him for the right thing.

Notice what they asked for twice. Have mercy on us.

You couldn't ask for a better thing to ask for. That's the request that Jesus loves to grant.

And so they come, and Jesus asked them specifically, you know, what do you want me to do for you?

And this is now the second time in this passage that he has asked that question. What do you want?

But the first time, he had to, you know, kind of reorient the whole question. You don't understand what you're asking.

He told James and John, mine is an upside -down kingdom from what you expect. Seek to be a servant.

Don't seek to be a somebody, but be a nobody like me, the son of man. Well, but now, though, when these two nobodies, they cry out to Jesus, he asks them again.

They're blind. They're poor. They're probably dressed in rags, probably unkempt, hair wild, you know, desperate.

What exactly do you want, Jesus asked them. And James and John had asked that, you know, they had asked that their value be recognized, right, that they be given positions in keeping with their worth, and that's really what's behind seeking status, isn't it?

Isn't it pride? You know, you want that power position, it's pride, so that people will know how important or how good you are if you had that powerful position.

Well, these two blind men aren't asking for anything about them to be rewarded or recognized. They're nobodies.

They know they have nothing. They know that the only way that they can get something is by mercy.

Nobodies know that their greatest need is for mercy.

What do you want? A lot of people want healing. People often ask for prayer, for healing from physical problems.

So much so, sometimes there's a problem with prayer meetings where they become totally consumed with just listing and praying for various sicknesses.

Health care is expensive and is such an issue in our country because naturally people want to be well.

In economic terms, there is a high demand for it, and it always will be. So much so that faith healers still draw big crowds, you know, the promise of healing is so great that people will pay a lot of money, all that they can get a hold of if they're really desperate to go to some meeting to be prayed for by a somebody that they believe or they hope is anointed so that they can be well.

Now, I guarantee you, if we could get here, we could get a reputation, one of you could go out and claim you're healed, and we get a reputation as a place where people come and get physically healed, and we'd fill up this gym pretty quick.

We'd have to start building a big auditorium out there. We'd get quality construction, a big contract, building us a huge auditorium.

We'd fill it up. People seeking healing. You know, exposition of the word of God gets about this many people.

Healing would get that many people. Now, people want healing, and just here, you might expect to hear that, you know, that impulse, that's carnal, that's unspiritual, that we should be content with just spiritual graces, not to have, you know, you don't have to have your physical needs met, that's immature.

And yes, something is wrong with the person who gets easily bored with the word of God and isn't interested in what it means for Jesus to be their ransom, that he won't work or give to support the ministry of the word.

If he's like that, and then when he gets sick, if he's the one with cancer, and he's given only a couple months to live, and then suddenly, oh, he's motivated, he'll cross the globe, he'll put aside his reason, he'll put up with an overly dressed man in long jackets and slick hair pushing people over and talking about money all the time.

He'll put up with all that to hopefully get some healing. Such a person is, at best, really immature, and sad, and desperate, and immature.

He's being taken advantage of because he's desperate and immature, and that's sad.

But if you think, then, well, we're just supposed to be so spiritual that we don't really care about the body.

Oh, you got diagnosed with cancer? Well, praise the Lord, and let's go out and buy your tombstone now.

Well, you get a discount. As though we're not supposed to care. We have the attitude that, well, that's physical, and we don't care about that.

We're truly spiritual. Well, that's mistaken. That's wrong. That is not what is spiritual in the

Bible. Jesus asked these two men what, specifically, do they want, and in what way do they want mercy from Him?

How? Well, they've asked for the right thing, generally, mercy, and now they ask for the right thing, specifically.

They ask, Lord, let our eyes be opened. Now, Jesus does not say, you know, you should just be content with the knowledge of my mercy, the feeling of it in your heart, experiencing my grace.

Hearing my teaching. That's all. He doesn't say what he said to James and John. You do not know what you're asking.

He doesn't respond like that, does he? You're asking for something physical. You should only ask for spiritual things.

He doesn't say that, no. They are, they ask for the right thing, not to be somebody, but to see somebody, and Jesus grants it.

He gives them the right response, because God is the God of our bodies, too.

He created our bodies, and we were made to live in them, whole and healthy.

Salvation in the end, when it's all finished, is not only life for our spirits, you know, living in perfect spiritual communion with God, which it is, not only that, it's not only the ransom being paid for our guilt, but it is also the resurrection of our bodies.

Healing, eventually, perfectly, in the resurrection. We are ransomed from physical death, too.

The ransom that the son of David paid was also to buy our bodies back from the grave.

Now does that mean that we're promised healing now from every sickness? Just as with many of the promises in the

Bible, some are now, and some are not yet.

Now, every person who truly believes in Jesus will eventually be healed. Some are healed now.

Some are healed not yet. Some are healed of some of the things that afflict them now, even, maybe, perhaps here, like blindness, kidney disease, cancer, but even if they are not, the true believer will be healed in the not yet, in the resurrection, when he or she is raised up in a perfectly whole, healthy body.

Christ paid the ransom for our healing, too. Maybe for some now, but for all

His people, not yet. The only thing, the one thing they ask for is healing, and Jesus grants it.

He heals them now, in this age, before the resurrection, and this is the last act of His traveling ministry, proving that He really is what they called

Him, the son of David. We may not see a miracle like this. I would love, and we should all want, to see physical healing ministries, not just because it would pack in the crowds, although that would be a plus, but just because many today are charlatans, who advertise and major on that,

I mean, most of them are fakes, taking advantage of desperate people, and maybe some of the fakes actually believe their own fakery, okay, maybe they just deceive themselves first, but, you know, whatever.

Many of them are taking advantage of desperate people, but just because there is so much of that, we should not be so artificially spiritual that we don't care about people's physical needs, that we even think that asking for healing is carnal or immature, that it's ignorant or naive.

It isn't. It's natural and human, because God created us to be healthy in a body, and so we should want to see those who are weak and sick and hurting healed.

We should care, like Jesus does here, but for now, physical healing is not the most important thing.

It's not our greatest need. Jesus said earlier in this very gospel that we're better off maiming our own body.

We're better off, he said, making ourselves blind by gouging out our own eyes, if that's what it takes to keep us out of hell.

Our greatest need is not eyesight. It's a new heart that sees the

Lord and loves him, that seeks first the kingdom of God, that would be willing to be blind or crippled, but alive with Jesus, then whole and seen and thrown into hell.

We need a heart that wants to follow Jesus, like these two men did.

Notice that? They're healed. They get up and follow. C .H. Spurgeon said, faith healing is grand, but faith enduring is grander.

The true believer's faith will endure, and they will be raised up healed, even if they have to suffer here, being content for a while before the resurrection, when

God, being content now with God's grace being sufficient for them.

Sometimes our faith may have to endure the weight of healing, of a healing that we know will come, but we know is not yet.

But here, in this passage, the last act of Jesus's traveling ministry is to give an example of the perfect healing still to come.

And notice how he did it. In verse 34, he touched their eyes, physical contact, personal, concerned, it says he touched them in pity, or it could be translated with tenderness.

The word means a compassion that is coming out of one's guts. They asked the right person, the son of David, for the right thing, mercy, in the right way, desperately, in faith, and got the right answer, a compassionate touch of their eyes that healed them.

And then they respond in the right way. They followed him. So on the way to the cross, to Jerusalem, the somebody who became a nobody tries to teach his followers, who long to be somebodies, that he's come to be a nobody for many.

And now he is joined by two more nobodies, formerly blind beggars, who just wouldn't be quiet, but cried out to the right one for the right thing, mercy.

you had only one wish, that's what it should be, mercy.