What do you want me to do for you?
Last week James and John asked Jesus, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask" and I doubt they weren't expecting the reply they got or the lesson they were taught.
This week we are still in the Gospel of Mark, and still in chapter 10. Last week the passage ended at verse 45 and this week the passage starts at verse 46. And, fresh from pushing back at James and John, fresh from confirming that they will drink from the same cup as him, fresh from upending their expectations about rulers and power, about servants and service, suddenly we are in Jericho and blind Bartimaeus is sitting by the roadside aware that something, someone special is passing by.
His cries are decried by the crowd who tell him to be quiet; but his persistence is rewarded and he is called forward to be with Jesus.
Last week James and John asked Jesus, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask" and this week Jesus asks Bartimaeus, "What do you want me to do for you?". Bartimaeus doesn't hesitate for a second, receives his sight and becomes a follower in the Way.
The arrangement of passages of scripture is not haphazard: we've made it look like that with the introduction of chapter numbers and verses; we've made it sound like that by having bite size chunks read out at services. But here, if ever there was one, is an example of the quality of story telling in Mark's gospel: one moment Jesus is telling his disciples what to do; the next he is showing them what to do. Another example, perhaps, that the 'new' understanding of different learning styles is not so much something we have recently learnt but something we have recently re-discovered.
The stark contrast between "We want you to do for us whatever we ask" and "What do you want me to do for you?" is almost as stark as the outcome for Boanerges and for Bartimaeus.
