STAY FIT: Strengthening Your Connection To JesusSample

It seems like a simple enough question. Yet when asked in two different contexts (both in the tenth chapter of Mark), it gets two very different responses, thus revealing its brilliance. For, at its heart, it’s a diagnostic question; one that gets right to what we truly believe. This question bypasses all of our defenses and facades and cuts right to the heart of the matter. What is it we truly believe will give us the life and the meaning we most deeply long for?

For James and John, it was honor. They wanted to sit at Jesus' right and left in his glory. They wanted the spots reserved for the most important people, which shouldn't really surprise us since they, along with all the other disciples, were constantly arguing about which one of them was the greatest. Position, evidently, was really important to them.

Bartimaeus is a different story altogether. He realized he was at the bottom of the ladder, so he simply begged for mercy. And when asked the same insightful question that Jesus asked James and John, he simply replied, "Lord, I want to see." What an incredible request. If only James and John could've been wise enough to ask for the same. The problem is they thought they could already see.

I think Mark put these two stories side by side so we couldn't help but see the contrast and so we couldn't help but ask ourselves, Who am I more like? What would my answer to that question be?

Ryan Gray
North Point Community Church