Derelict

"What do you want me to do for you?" Mark 10:51.

That's what Jesus asked this beggar. The panhandler had called out to Jesus from the roadside. People from the travelling crowd told the guy to shut up, but it just made him yell out all the more. He was blind, but he wasn't deaf, and he had heard that Jesus was passing by. He told him exactly what he wanted Jesus to do for him: Make him see again! So Jesus did. Turns out this derelict was actually a person, with a name - Bartimaeus (we'd call him Bart). Jericho, his home town. Yeah, belonged to somebody's family (old Timaeus' boy, we'd say). We know nothing more about him except what we need to know, that now he followed Jesus. On his way to the cross.

When we visit today with a brother or sister we remember that we, too, received Jesus' healing, that now we follow him. And, together, we give thanks to God that Jesus passed by our side of the road, too.