What Do You Want Me to Do For You?

A couple of weeks ago I was leading a Bible study for the Saturday Lunch Ministry at my church. The group is studying Matthew and they'd made it to chapter 20. The next day the same passage was a part of the Sunday School lesson. Hmmm... I don't know about you, but whenever I "coincidentally" encounter the same biblical passage in a short amount of time, I pay attention.

Matthew 20 consists of a parable and two others "scenes" from the life of Jesus. The parable is about the workers hired at different points during the day to work in a vineyard. Jesus stuns his hearers by having the estate manager pay those who'd only worked one hour the same as those who had worked twelve hours. This is a story that doesn't offend in the theoretical, but if you were one of the workers, you'd probably feel outrage at the unfairness.

The next scene in the chapter involves James and John's mother asking Jesus to see to it that her sons sit - one on his right and the other on his left - in the Kingdom. Jesus uses the request to reorient the disciples on what leadership in the Kingdom of God looks like - servanthood.

Finally, the chapter closes with Jesus' encounter with two blind men. When they hear that Jesus is passing by they begin to shout out to him. Jesus asks the men what they want him to do for them. They wanted to see. Jesus has compassion on them, heals them, and they followed him.

The parable about the workers in the vineyard and the vignette where James and John's mother are seeking honor and power for her sons set up opportunities for Jesus to explain what Eugene Peterson likes to call "The Great Reversal". In the healing story, the blind men have their sight restored and follow Jesus. Could these physically blind men serve as a foil for the spiritual blindness that was depicted in the previous scenes in Matthew?

As the Lenten season begins it's good to ponder the ways that we may experience blindness. The Kingdom of God operates very differently from the kingdom of the world, where we often feel very much at home. Lent is a time to shed our false beliefs about what is fair, what we deserve, and what we should have and learn to follow the Savior, who is bound for the cross.