28^th September

“As Jesus was starting out on His way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to Him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”… “What do you want Me to do for you? Jesus asked.”

Mark 10:17, 51

Jesus always looks at our heart. In today’s key verses we see a clear contrast between Jesus’ attitude and man’s attitude. Yesterday we read about the story of blind Bartimaeus, who humbled himself before Jesus, cried out, disregarding the shame, and asked Jesus for mercy. Jesus, seeing his faith, was moved with compassion and stretched out His hand to heal him.

In today’s verse, we read of someone, who seemingly humbly comes before Jesus. In a complete contrast to the Bartimaeus story, instead of asking for mercy and grace from Jesus, he instead wants to earn or even pay his way into God’s Kingdom. He was obsessed with the ‘doing’, obeying God’s laws etc. Yet his issue was about his heart condition, and his love for money. He couldn’t give everything up for Jesus, and rather felt like he could earn a place in Heaven, by asking Jesus, what ‘he should do’ to get into Heaven.

Yet when mankind says, ‘what must I do’, Jesus, still has mercy on us and says, ‘my child, I have already done, WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU?’. Jesus has already ‘done’ so we don’t have to. He flips the question on us, and says what can I do for you!!