The Holy One of Israel came to this earth not to be served but to serve and to give his life for others. He came to seek and save what was lost. He took the very form of a servant. Our Lord never did anything for himself. He lived and died to meet the needs of others.

At the end of Luke 18, Jesus is purposefully walking to his death. He’s almost to Jerusalem and the cross. And he comes upon a blind man sitting by the roadside begging. Jesus looks at him and says, “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus — full of the Holy Spirit, empowered by Almighty God, living in perfect harmony with God’s original promise and God’s perfect plan — says, “What do you want me to do for you?”

Just a few verses earlier, Jesus had been surrounded by a bunch of little kids. “Let them come to me,” he says, “in all their sticky handed and runny nosed glory! Do not hinder them! Let them come!” And they’re climbing all over him as he touches them and hugs them, engages them and blesses them.

One chapter earlier, Jesus engages and heals and blesses ten Samaritan lepers. In Luke 14 Jesus interrupts his own dinner in the home of a popular Pharisee to heal another man of a terrible disease. One chapter before that he lays his hands on a crippled woman and sets her free.

We get it, right? We’re not surprised when, after all this serving and healing and blessing, Jesus gets to the end of the road and asks one more time, “What can I do for you?”

This world is broken. It’s messed up. You are broken. You are. You know you are. I am messed up. I am. I know I am. We are all broken. And we see in Jesus our God’s faithful promise to deliver justice to the marginalized and oppressed, to bring healing to the sick and dying, to restore community to the lonely and isolated, and to bless those separated from God with true joy and connection. And belonging. And peace.

Peace,

Allan