Iron & Altar

Bartimaeus threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man replied to him, "Master, I want to see." Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has saved you." Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way. - Mark 10:50-52

Bartimaeus throws off his cloak. His cloak. The one possession a beggar would protect above everything. He throws it aside before Jesus has done anything - before the healing is confirmed, before he can see what he is doing - because the call is worth more than the covering.

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Peter names the identity before the conduct: you have been called out of darkness into wonderful light. Once you were no people; now you are God's people. The conduct that follows - maintaining good works among those who watch - is the evidence of an identity already given, not the earning of an identity not yet secure.

What do you want me to do for you? Jesus asks Bartimaeus the same question he asked James and John. Different answer entirely. Master, I want to see. The man who knows he cannot see asks for the one thing that changes everything. The man who can see but wants the best seat asks for rank. Only one of them follows on the way.

What do you want me to do for you? Answer this week specifically - not the polished spiritual answer, the actual one. What do you want? And throw off the cloak - the one thing you are protecting that is keeping you on the roadside. Name it. And carry [name] into it: Lord, stop for him. Let him cry out all the more when they tell him to be quiet.

Lord, stop for me. What do I want? I want to see - to see clearly what you are doing, where you are going, what I am meant to follow. I throw off the cloak. I leap up. Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in you. Amen.