The Lies They Taught Me About Jesus When I Was a Teenager

I remember attending a Pentecostal youth conference as an impressionable teenager. A preacher spoke of the blind man in the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+10%3A46-52&version=CEV" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Gospel of Mark</a> who sat by the side of the road and, upon hearing that Jesus had just passed by, began to shout at the top of his lungs, “Jesus! Son of David! Have mercy on me!” When the people around him tried to shut him up, he shouted all the more! “Jesus! Son of David! Have mercy on me!” Sure enough, Jesus returned to the blind man and restored his sight. I like to think that Jesus was moved by love and compassion for the hurting man, and that is what precipitated his action in that man’s life. However, the Pentecostal preacher had a different take on the story. Rather than focusing on the heart of Jesus, he zeroed in on the actions of the blind man. “Did you notice that Jesus passed by the blind man? But did he stop the first time? No! He kept on walking! What was it that made Jesus turn around and come back?” Yelled the preacher with great evangelistic fervor. He concluded that it was the blind man’s desperate yelling that made Jesus come back. Then he made us all close our eyes and imagine that Jesus had just walked past us and ignored us. “There he goes!” said the Preacher man as the music from the worship band swelled behind him, “Jesus is walking away from you! What are you going to do? Cry out to him now!” <a href="https://medium.com/backyard-theology/the-lies-they-taught-me-about-jesus-when-i-was-a-teenager-869e82a51d2e">Website</a>