Jitterbugging for Jesus

Jesus was and is The Truth — and Truth is straightforward.

Consider the story of Blind Bartimaeus in the Gospel of Mark — the first gospel ever written and the shortest and by far the most straightforward of the four gospels. (Mark is an outstanding journalist — he reports the facts and tells the story in a brisk, interesting way and doesn’t waste a word.)

Matthew and Luke took Mark’s quite brief little gospel and copied it pretty much word for word, with their unique additions tacked on to it in order to reach their distinctive communities of Christian readers (Luke was a Gentile, but Matthew was a Jew and his gospel is very Jewish-oriented, and John’s gospel is a whole other loaf of communion bread).

So Mark’s gospel is short and direct and right to the point — much like Jesus himself, who asked Bartimaeus the blind man:

“What do you want me to do for you?”

This pointed question naturally got a direct answer:

“Let me see again!”

Most of us in our confused, helter-skelter society have so many wants, we don’t know what we want.

But it’s not because of a shortage of others telling us what we want or what we need to do — politicians and media pundits (ever notice that most of them can’t run their own lives but presume to know what we need or want???) and advertisers and, closer to home, our own friends and relatives can be plenty willing to tell us what we need or need to do, which may very well be their own needs.

Jesus would say:

“What do you want?”

“What do you really, really want today?”

What do you really, really want in your life?

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Jesus might say:

“Come walk with me and talk to me and get all the stuff that keeps you in turmoil off your chest and let’s figure out what you want that is denying you peace of mind. I’ll give you the courage to change what you can change and have what you want and the peace to accept what you cannot change or cannot have, and the wisdom to see with clear-eyed vision the difference.”

Here is the short and sweet story of Blind Bartimaeus from the short and sweet gospel of Mark, 10: 46-52:

“They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’