Bible Passage – Mark 10:48-49 (ESV)
“And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”

“Yeye (that is grandpa in a Chinese dialect) please fix my toy. Yeye please carry me. Yeye come play with me.”

I have never felt so needed until the grandkids came along. One of the great joys of being a grandparent is to be needed.

The added beauty is that young children express their needs so honestly without social inhibition.

Sadly, our normal pathway from childhood to adulthood, shames us to stop asking for help because our great goal is to be as independent as we can be, as young as we possibly can.

Independence. Self reliance. Self sufficiency. These are the marks of strength in our fallen world.

Asking for help would be a sign of weakness. Humility is despised as a great vice. Strength is tauted as a supreme virtue.

So it was then in the Roman world of the 1st century. So it is today.

1. Jesus pronounces the blessing of poverty

Jesus, on the hand, comes along and declares boldly: “Blessed are those who are poor in spirit.”

What does Jesus mean by spiritual poverty?

It does not mean being poor is morally superior to being rich. Neither does it mean that God favors the poor over the rich. Nor does God rejoice sadistically in making us grovel before him helplessly.

Our spiritual poverty is the remedy to our spiritual blindness of not seeing our true condition of our utter sinfulness before the complete holiness of God.

Mark‬ ‭10‬:‭48‬-‭49‬ records the account of a helpless blind Bartimaeus desperately and unashamedly crying out to Jesus to heal him.

Many rebuked him telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” Then proceeded to heal him and give him sight immediately.

2. Do you see your spiritual poverty?

Everything about Jesus is radical, counter cultural, out of this world. And rightly so.

Jesus is the Son of God sent to establish the kingdom of God over all the manmade empires of this world.

Jesus acutely diagnosed that it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick.

He kept welcoming and commending all – tax collectors, prostitutes, sinners and social outcasts – who saw their spiritual poverty by asking for help.

Conversely, he condemned the proud who were too spiritually blind to ask God for our greatest need to be saved.

In Luke 18, he contrasted the proud Pharisee to the tax collector.

The Pharisee prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’

“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

Jesus radical verdict: “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.”

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.””

‭‭(Luke‬ ‭18‬:‭10‬-‭14‬)

3. Turning poverty into prosperity

Today as millions gather to celebrate the start of the Lunar New Year, we gather for Reunion Dinners to celebrate the goodness of family.

There is nothing like the unconditional love and diminished support of family through the test of time.

God designed family as the ultimate safe harbour for the high calling of raising children, loving siblings and honoring parents – oftentime through the fiercest storms that life throws at us.

We all know that in our fallen world of Satan and sin, family may ironically implode to be the cause of our deepest brokenness, searing pain and debilitating trauma.

This new year, why not turn to and trust in Jesus to save ourselves and our families.

Why not take on the childlike beauty of children – like my grandkids – who express their need for help so honestly without any social inhibition.

Ask God for help: Say sorry before it’s too late. Forgive one another before God. Embrace one another like never before.

Why not turn our spiritual poverty into true prosperity and peace of redeemed families filled with God’s love, joy and peace?

Prayer & Action:

“O God, be merciful to me, a sinner! I don’t know how to be a faithful spouse, a loving parent, or obedient child.

Lord Jesus, thank you for dying and rising for me that I may be adopted into God’s family. Teach and empower me to glorify God by always calling out for divine Help to glorify you as a spouse, parent or child.”