Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2458
“What do you want Me to do for you?” Mark 10:51.
THAT was a very strange question to ask a blind man. Everybody could see that he was blind—they could tell by the way he struggled through the crowd, that he was blind. His very voice, which had long been used in begging, would show that he was a blind mendicant. There he stood before the Savior and Jesus knew what he wanted, yet He put to him this singular question, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The great Son of David knew that the man who cried to Him, “Have mercy on me,” really meant by that plea, “Lord, give me my sight.” Yet our blessed Lord never asked a foolish question and never spoke an idle word. There is a deep meaning, a gracious reason, in all that He says. It will be my business at this time to try to show you the reasons for this question. And while I do so, I want to speak, not so much to you people who are converted and who know the Savior, but I want to address any here who have not yet been brought to the feet of Jesus, but who are longing to be saved by Him. Oh, that God would help you to follow me in each thing as I say it, that what is said may be done as it is said, God the Holy Spirit working by the Word!
In speaking about this singular question, I am going to show you, first, what it did and, secondly, what it teaches.
I. First, let us think of WHAT THIS SINGULAR QUESTION DID—“What do you want Me to do for you?”
Well, first, it brought out the two personalities. Listen to the question: “What do you want Me to do for you?” All the people round can see these two people—there is the ever-blessed Christ—and there is the blind beggar. These make the center of the group and the Lord Jesus Christ, by His question, brings these two into prominence—“What do you want Me to do for you?” I wish that I could fetch out of this great throng the sinner and the Savior. Dear Friend, you are standing face to face with Him at this moment! Forget the crowd, never mind these thousands of people—you have nothing to do with them, but only with yourself and the Savior! Another day you may think of other blind men, but just now think only of one blind person—and that one yourself. Another day you may think of other good men, but now think only of that one truly good Man, Jesus Christ, the Lord from Heaven, the Son of God who became Man that He might bless men! The Son of Man stands before you! Isolate yourself from all else and let the two personalities stand out clearly before your eyes—yourself, a sinner, lost and ruined by your sin—and the Savior, who alone can help you and who stands prepared at once to bless you on the spot! That is what the question did, first—it brought out the two personalities.
Secondly, it displayed Christ’s boundless power. Do you see that in it? He says, “What do you want Me to do for you?” It is not, “What can I do?” Not, “What power have I to do this or that?” But, “What is it that you will? What is your desire? What is your request?” Christ speaks like One who is prepared to meet it, be it what it may. What, then, do you need, Sinner? The Lord Jesus Christ can meet your need though it were deep as Hell, though it were greedy as famine, though it were dire as death. You cannot be in such a state that He cannot meet you in that state. You cannot have a need which He cannot supply. You cannot be under a disease which He cannot heal. You cannot be in the power of a devil whom He cannot cast out of you. You stand in the Presence of an Almighty Savior, God Over All, even though He died upon the Cross. In weakness He bled. In Glory He reigns and He is “mighty to save.” Do you understand this great Truth of God? If there is any limit, it will be in your prayer, not in His power, and He puts the question to you, “What will you? What will you? What is it you really need?”
And, thirdly—and this seems very amazing to me—this question gave wondrous scope. What trustfulness the Lord Jesus had towards this blind man! Just before this miracle was worked, two young men, or their mother on their behalf, came to Jesus and asked Him to do for them whatever they should desire. They were two fine young men—two of His own chosen Apostles, James and John—highly honored men! And their mother was blessed among women to have such sons—she was the mother of Zebedee’s children—but when she came with the request that her sons should sit at His right and left hand in His Kingdom, the Savior said that what she asked was not His to give. He would not give cart blanche to the mother of James and John, or to her sons—but to the blind man He did, in effect, give cart blanche! He said, “What will you have? I will give you whatever you want, you have only to ask and have.” The Savior knew that the blind man’s ambition would go no further than to lead him to ask that his eyes might be opened. And when He comes to deal with you poor, troubled, guilty souls, He knows what you most want, so He says to you, “Ask what you like.”