“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” Mark 10:51
“The Gospels show that Jesus quickly established intimacy with the people He met. Whether talking with a woman at a well, a religious leader in a garden, or a fisherman by a lake, He cut instantly to the heart of the matter, and after a few brief lines of conversation these people revealed to Jesus their innermost secrets. People of His day tended to keep rabbis and “holy men” at a respectful distance, but Jesus drew out something else, a hunger so deep that people crowded around Him just
to touch His clothes.”
Philip Yancey (b. 1949) in The Jesus I Never Knew: Revealing What 2,000 Years of History Have Covered Up (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996) 89.
I did not realize that in turning my attention to Colorado authors while stateside this month how much I would come face to face with the generosity of Jesus. I thank God, Richard Foster, and Philip Yancey for this.
Today I see Jesus “quickly established intimacy” and “cut instantly to the heart of the matter” in His interactions with people. What can we learn from this? Many things.
It seems that related to generosity, Jesus always had the person right in front of Him and their needs and well-being His highest priority. He reveals this with statements like, “What do you want me to do for you?”
He came to serve. He did it with love. And as I look closely, He did it with multiple people a day that we might describe as interruptions. They did not have a proverbial appointment with Him. They called out for help.
They pressed through a crowd to find them. It teaches me to be accessible to people and attentive to their needs, and it drives me to be intentional in conversations and to move toward and not away from people. God help me. God help us.