What Do You Want?

Luke 18: 31-43
Today is the final Sunday of the month, and so we will be partaking in the bread and the cup together, remembering the Lord Jesus and His sacrifice for us. We have been going through Luke line by line, and the passage we come to day is quite appropriate, as we shall see.

Before we look at today’s passage, however, I want to go back a bit to two previous situations described in Luke. Because we have already seen them in Luke, and because Mark’s gospel gives a bit more detail in each case, we will look at these passages in Mark. Here is the first passage:


He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" He said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." – Mark 8:31-33 (Also in Luke 9:20-22)

And here is the second passage:

He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and after three days He will rise." But they did not understand what He meant and were afraid to ask Him about it. – Mark 9:31-32 (Also in Luke 9:43-45)

And now we come to today’s passage, beginning at Luke 18:31:

Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him, insult Him, spit on Him, flog Him and kill Him. On the third day He will rise again." The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what He was talking about. – Luke 18:31-34 (Also in Mark 10:33-34)

Taken together, several things really strike me about these three passages. First, three times Jesus told His disciples the same message about future events that would happen to Him. Three times He described Himself as the Son of Man, a strongly messianic phrase (see Daniel 7:13, Acts 7:56, Rev. 1:13, Rev. 14:14). Three times He talked about how He would be rejected and betrayed. Three times He told them that He would be killed, and three times He told them that He would rise again in three days.

What is the significance of the fact that He told them three times? Well, there was a symbolic thing here that when something was repeated three times, it meant that it was critically important. Of course, we know this was important without being told – after all, Jesus was predicting the most important and central events that ever happened in the history of the world (except perhaps for Creation) – the events that would mean the redemption of mankind. If these things did not happen, then we would all still be hopelessly separated from God, cut off from Him because of our sin.

But not only was it critically important that He tell them these things; I believe it was also critically important that He tell them these things in advance. Why was this so important? I can think of two reasons; you may think of more. One is that it makes Jesus unique in all of history; there were other people resurrected (Lazarus, for example), but none “called the shot,” so to speak. In the game of pool, sometimes a beginner player makes an amazing shot, perhaps one that bounces of three sides before landing in the hole, but only an expert can say in advance what he will do in a trick shot and then pull it off. Jesus, by stating the timing and nature of his death and resurrection in advance, and then for us seeing that these things happened just as He said, validates everything He ever said, including the nature of salvation and the claims of His deity. Another reason I think it is so important that He tell the disciples in advance is that He said this to comfort and prepare the disciples. Now it may not seem comforting to say that the person they look up to and love is about to be killed a horrible death, but it was comforting to hear that He would soon be raised back to life and would be with them again.

In addition to telling them three times about His death and resurrection, these passages have something else important in common: in every case the disciples were clueless about what He was talking about. In the first case, Peter actually rebuked Jesus for suggesting such a thing, and Jesus’ response was to really rebuke Peter, even calling him Satan. By the way, for those who are skeptical of Christianity, who think that this is all made up, you have to ask why the people who made this all up would put in embarrassing episodes like this, in particular a case where the future “rock” of the church is dressed down and called just about the most insulting thing it is possible to call someone.

In the second case it says that they did not understand what He meant and were afraid to ask Him about it. Well, yeah! You would be afraid to talk about it too, if the last time Jesus called you Satan! Hopefully you now see this connection.

And in today’s passage from Luke: The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what He was talking about. Maybe it’s just me, but it looks like Luke is saying essentially the same thing three times! Maybe he is worried that we will be clueless about this, so he just wants to make absolutely sure that we understand it: The disciples were clueless. They didn’t have a clue. A clue? The disciples? No.

Now it is easy to gang up on the disciples and ridicule them for not getting it. “Come on, guys, He told you three times! Don’t you get it!” But I don’t think this is really fair, and I don’t think this is why Luke and the other gospel writers record this. They record it because it is what really happened, and they are not going to try to sugar coat anything. We have the benefit of hindsight – some of us have heard the basic story of Jesus’ death and resurrection since we were so young that all possible shock value is lost. But not me; I probably didn’t even hear the basic elements of the story until I was a teenager, and I can tell you that it made absolutely no sense to me. I thought that Christians believed there were three Gods, and one of them was killed (doesn’t sound like much of a god to me, I thought) and supposedly came back to life? What for? Was that a mistake? Unless you understand that Jesus chose to allow Himself to die, and unless you understand the purpose for it, that He underwent the horrors of His beatings and ridicule and unimaginably painful crucifixion because He loved us and did it to reconcile us with God, so that by simply having faith – believing in Him and what He has done for us – we could have eternal life and a fully restored relationship with God, unless you know all of this, it makes no sense at all. I am sure that disciples tried to understand it, but they just couldn’t get it to compute.

In a few minutes we will each individually remember the Lord and what He has done for us, but I would first challenge you with the remainder of this passage:

As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." He called out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to Him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, "What do you want Me to do for you?" "Lord, I want to see," he replied. Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God. – Luke 18:35-43

As we take communion, we don’t just remember what He has done; we also commune with Him. I would challenge you to think about this question – and perhaps we can discuss it further during our sharing time – but how would you answer Jesus’ question? Jesus is always only a prayer away, but right now, how would you answer Him if He asked you, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

There is no sign that the blind man hesitated. I picture this man saying this with all the emotion built up from years or decades of living with blindness: Lord, I want to see! What about you? Are there areas of sin in your life that you have lived with, that you have settled with in a sort of uneasy truce, that you let go on in your life provided they don’t get any worse? Are you in bondage to a sinful behavior, or wrong thinking, or a lukewarm relationship with God? Look at the cross in the picture. As you think about the Lord’s question, “What do you want Me to do for you?” consider if your answer might be, in some way, “Lord, I want to be free!” One of the reasons He died on the cross was to free the captives. The first step to freedom is to tell Him that you want it. And if you pray, I fully believe He will show you the next steps.

Before you pray, and before you take the bread and the cup, however, today I want you first to just spend some time thinking about the Lord, quieting your soul, listening for His “still small” voice. In a moment I will put on a song recording that I think will help you to do this. As you listen, think about the areas of “blindness” in your life, and think about Jesus asking you, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

When the song ends, I will come up and play some quiet, reflective music. Spend time in prayer to God, answering His question. Let it not be said of any of us, “You do not have, because you do not ask God.” (James 4). You have freedom in this time – if you would like to kneel, kneel; to bow down, bow down. And when you are ready, come up and take the bread and cup to your seat, and spend time remembering the Lord, thanking Him for being true to His word, for enduring betrayal, torture and death for us, for allowing His body to be broken and His blood to be spilled, for us, so that we could have eternal freedom from bondage, eternal freedom from blindness, eternal freedom with Him.