Reading for Friday, Oct 19: Mark 10

This is a chapter full of questions. The Pharisees ask, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” The rich young man asks “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” The disciples ask Jesus, “Then who can be saved?” Twice Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” But in response to the selfish requests of James and John, Jesus asks, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” But to blind Bartimaeus, Jesus says, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.”

We come to God with our questions: theological questions, practical questions, self-centered questions, altruistic questions. And it seems that God has a few questions in return sometimes. But Mark also holds up Jesus as the answer — the faith response to each of our bewilderments. As we noted in the last chapter, faith and doubt sometimes make strange bedfellows. But this intersection between faith and doubt is where Jesus stands as the ultimate answer to what ails us. “What do you want me to do for you?” This is the question calling to us from heaven. In faith, we respond by asking Him to do that which we cannot do for ourselves. In so doing, we find redemption.