Mercy Needed, Sometimes Requested, Never Demanded
35 As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36 And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” 38 And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 39 And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 40 And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” 42 And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” 43 And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
Luke 18:35–43 ESV
Jesus tells a lot of parables in the upper teens of the Gospel of Luke. At the same time, a lot of real things happen that also act like parables while helping people in real life. In the parable of the tax collector begging for mercy, Jesus tells the crowd that it’s not the righteous that are justified by God, but the people that hopelessly depend on God for that justification.
He then moves on to a bunch of kids, which were not respected or honored in His day. Kids weren’t expendable, but they weren’t coddled and given leadership preferences like we experience in our culture. Independence came at a young age, but until then you could be bossed around by anybody.
Next, along comes a rich young man that is doing all he can to be righteous but still knows he is lacking something. Instead of asking for mercy, he goes away sad, because he doesn’t want to do what God requires of him. He wasn’t looking for a way to show God was more powerful than himself. He was looking for a way to show that he had the God thing all figured out and taken care of. That is possible on God’s terms, but not on man’s.
Finally Jesus comes to Jericho and there is a blind man sitting by the road. He is so helpless he doesn’t even know what the commotion is going on around him. When he hears that it is Jesus of Nazareth, he needs no explanation. Surely he has heard of other people being healed and the power of Jesus shown in other towns. Maybe some unthinking person said to him, “You know what you’re problem is, you haven’t found Jesus of Nazareth. Yep, up in Galilee every blind person got healed. Too bad you can’t get to Bethany. I hear tell He raised somebody from the dead there. But hear you are stuck in Jericho, that’s your problem. Have a good day.” (We’ve all met that guy.)
All he knows to do is to shout out for mercy. The others around him tell him to be quiet and he shouts louder. “Son of David, have mercy on me!” In the midst of the people, with all of the ruckus and chaos of a middle-eastern crowd, Jesus hears this guy. No conditions, no agreements, no deals, just mercy. Jesus allows him to recover his sight and everyone rejoices.
Jesus loves to show mercy and really wants to have mercy on you in a lot of ways today. Ask Him. Ask Him over and over. Ask Him to have mercy on your friends and co-workers. He loves it and He will show it.