What is Your Holy Disturbance?

 “What do you want Me to do for you?” Matthew 20:32b (NLT)

Imagine Jesus asking you the question, “What do you want Me to do for you?”  How would you answer?  What would you say?  Does an immediate and pressing need come to mind?  A holy disturbance that you cannot seem to do anything about.  It’s the thing that disturbs you daily. And if the truth were told, it has made you a disturbance to those around you.  This was the case for two blind men that the Gospel writer Matthew tells us about.  The story is in Matthew 20:29-34. Mark and Luke also mention the account but only include one blind man who was most likely was the more vocal of the two. 

The blind men were sitting by the road when they heard Jesus was coming by and they began shouting, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” (Vs. 30)  The crowd around them scolded them for making such a disturbance and told them to be quiet!  But Matthew says, “… they only shouted louder, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us?’” (Vs. 32)

A couple of things jump off the page at me about this encounter:

1.    The blind men called Jesus “Lord” and “Son of David”, both prophetic terms that acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah!  How ironic that these blind men could see what the religious leaders who witnessed Jesus’ miracles were blind to – His identity as the Son of God!  They refused to open their eyes to the truth of who Jesus was.  The blind men could see with their heart and experienced the miracle of life change! 

2.    The men persisted despite the rebuke of those around them to be silent.  In his classic work, My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers says, “Persist in the disturbance until you get face to face with the Lord Himself….” 

What is your holy disturbance?  What is it that disturbs you enough to become a disturbance until you get face to face with Jesus?  Don’t stop until you do. The very disturbance within your soul may be the driving force behind hearing Jesus say to you, “What do you want Me to do for you?”  Like these blind men, you could be on the threshold of a breakthrough that will change your life forever!  When Jesus asked these men that question there was no hesitation: 

“‘Lord,’ they said, ‘we want to see!’ Jesus felt sorry for them and touched their eyes. Instantly they could see! Then they followed Him.”  (Vs. 33-34)