“Pedrina”

photograph

“I thought I would be dead before we received water in our village. I have had to walk four kilometers for water all my life. Seven years ago we began to dream about getting water. Now we have it and I thank God. I am also proud of what our village has accomplished working together.”
Pedrina, from San Bartolo, Honduras.

David Husby
Director of Covenant World Relief

In Mark 10, Jesus twice asks the question, “What do you want me to do for you?” The first time, he addresses it to James and John who tell Jesus the want him to give them places of honor, places of power.

In the second instance, he asks the question of Bartimaeus, who cried out to have his sight restored. Bartimaeus didn’t want a handout. He wanted to see. In a world where people such as him were shunned, he wanted to have the opportunity that others had.

The two stories are part of a section in which Jesus tells that he will be crucified. The section begins with people trying to keep children from coming to Jesus just as they tried to keep Bartimaeus away. The rich young man went away sorrowful because he didn’t understand that it was only the people who depended on Jesus that would experience salvation. It is a lesson James and John would later learn.