Pray Specifically Series

HoHum:

Read Mark 10:46-52

Bob Hostetler encourages us to think of it this way: Bartimaeus heard the sounds of the crowd approaching from his spot on the roadside near Jericho. He couldn’t see them, however. He was blind. He was a familiar sight to others on their way in and out of Jericho, though there were no familiar sights to him. Nonetheless he knew his post by the number of steps he counted from his hovel nearby and the cool shade of the palm tree under which he would sit while he begged for alms from all who passed. Though his eyes were dark, his hearing and sense of smell were sharp; he could distinguish- with great accuracy- a child from an adult, a man from a woman, a Jew from a Gentile, and even a priest from a tax collector. So as he heard the crowd approaching that day, he saw nothing but discerned much. He knew that Yeshua, the healer from Galilee, had come to the bustling oasis town near the river Jordan. He heard people excitedly mentioning him as they passed Bartimaeus on the road. So the approach of the crowd- the smell of dust kicked up by many feet and the murmurs of many people talking and traveling in a cluster- told him all he needed to know. He sat quietly until he judged the group to be just the right distance away. Then he banged his walking stick on the underside of his begging bowl. “Yeshua! Son of David! Have mercy on me!” He paused. Listened. The shuffle of the crowd stopped and nearby voices cursed him and told him to be quiet. He ignored them. He banged the bowl again, “Son of David! Have mercy on me!” He lifted his face skyward and listened. He heard several voices, but one spoke with a different quality, “Call him over,” he said. Someone stepped closer to him. He heard several people telling him to get up. A strong hand took him by the arm, and a man spoke: “He’s calling you.” He shrugged off his dirty cloak and scrambled to his feet. He leet himself be led away from his palm tree, still clutching his stick and bowl. He could tell by the sounds around him- shuffling and muttering- that he was being guided into the center of the crowd. His guides stopped, so he stopped, too. The crowd fell silent. He waited. A single voice, then. A man’s voice. “What do you want me to do for you?” It was the voice of the healer, Yeshua. The man some said was the Messiah, the Sun of Righteousness. Bartimaeus suddenly realized that he stood before YEshua, his walking stick in one hand and his bowl, as always, upturned in the other. He lowered the hand with the bowl and placed it behind his back. Then he answered, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” Yeshua said. “Your faith has healed you.” Immediately the darkness fled. And the first thing he saw was his healer’s smiling face.

WBTU:

Jesus asked Bartimaeus, “What do you want me to do for you?” Strange question. Isn’t it obvious? After all, the man was blind. What else could he want? Of course, maybe Jesus saw the man’s begging bowl. It is possible that other beggars had previously asked the healer for money or food rather than healing. I think there is more to Jesus’ question. When Jesus taught his followers to pray, He could have told us to pray something generic like, “Bless us.” He could have used the words, “Provide our needs whatever those may be.” He could have said, “Oh Father, take care of us.” But he wants us to be more specific. Last time looked at Luke 11:3: Give us each day our daily bread.” With that word- bread…

Thesis: Jesus urges us to be specific in prayer

For instances:

A. Present our specific needs

Jesus tells us to pray for bread. Now last week talked about this being literal. To his disciples in the 1st century this was central to life. Bread was a staple, a necessity. Like Otto, need bread.

N.T. Wright put it this way: “This clause reminds us that God intends us to pray for specific needs. It may seem more ‘spiritual’ to pray for the conversion of the world than for a parking space near to the meeting for which I am about to be late. Now of course we would trivialize Christian prayer if we thought it was only about praying for parking spaces, for our team to win the game, or for great weather for the church picnic. But, once we put the prayer for daily bread within the whole kingdom prayer where it belongs, to turn then to the specific things we honestly need right now I not trivial. It is precisely what children do when they love and trust the one they call ‘Father.’” Father, I need bread, I need something to eat.