Blog of Gregorio Magdaleno
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September 22, 2015
Jesus asked the blind man what they wanted Him to do. What do you want Jesus to do for you?

Matthew 20:29-34 

 

Two Blind Men Receive Sight

 

As they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. Behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, "Lord, have mercy on us, You son of David!" The multitude rebuked them, telling them that they should be quiet, but they cried out even more, "Lord, have mercy on us, You son of David!" 

 

Jesus stood still, and called them, and asked, "What do you want Me to do for you"" 

They told Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened." 

 

Jesus, being moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received their sight, and they followed Him. 

 

Jesus asked the blind man what they wanted Him to do. What do you want Jesus to do for you"

 

Relentless Faith and Great Compassion - Matthew 20:29-34

 

Text Comment

 

v.29: This next episode plays a strategic role in the Gospel history.  For the traveler to Jerusalem, coming from the Trans-Jordan, Jericho is the last city before Jerusalem.  The capital was only some 15 miles from Jericho on a main road.  You will notice that the next paragraph in Matthew’s Gospel concerns the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Imagine the scene.  Jesus is not alone with His disciples on this road through Jericho.  It is crowded with pilgrims heading to Jerusalem for Passover.  We know from the other Gospels that popular excitement over the possibility that Jesus was the Messiah, fueled by His miracles and by His teaching, was now reaching a fever pitch. Passover was, in any case, the most patriotic time of year for the Jews.  So there is nothing surprising in the fact that a crowd of people would have attached themselves to Jesus to walk with Him toward Jerusalem. This dramatic miracle, witnessed by so many people, would only have inflamed people’s expectations the more.  News of it would have reached Jerusalem only a few hours later.  In Matthew’s account the pre-Jerusalem ministry concludes with this miracle.  We know from the other Gospels that, in fact, some days were to elapse before Palm Sunday.  But take note, it was to be the crowds’ disappointment … Jesus, His failure to meet their expectations that would secure His execution some days later. They were looking for a political deliver not a Redeemer.

 

v.30: Mark names one of these blind men:  Bartimaeus.  The fact that his name was known probably is an indication that he was known among the believers as a disciple of Jesus.  The fact that he is named only in Mark, which is, as you remember, Peter’s Gospel, may indicate that he was a personal acquaintance or friend of the Apostle Peter.

 

When the blind men call Jesus “Son of David,” they are calling Him Messiah, for that is what the title meant.  Even beggars on the street knew of the remarkable ministry of Jesus of Nazareth and were caught up in the excitement generated by the growing belief that the Messiah had appeared.  They knew of the miracles of healing that Jesus had performed and they hoped for something for themselves.

v.31: It is entirely typical that the demonstration of Jesus’ Messiah ship should have been provided in a work of compassion and kindness that the crowd thought was beneath His dignity. How little they understood of what was to come.

 

How often in the NT is true and living faith in Christ described as a conviction of Christ’s willingness and ability to help, as no one else can, that it refuses to take “no” for an answer. These are men who believed in Christ’s power to save them.

 

v.32: By stopping and attending to these blind beggars Jesus is once more overturning and repudiating the popular understanding of what the Messiah would be and would do.

 

v.33: If you were blind is this not what you would ask for" There is no account of the giving of sight to the blind in the OT, no such miracle performed by Moses or Elijah or Elisha.  Nor is there any such miracle reported in the NT as having been performed by the apostles after Pentecost.  But there are more miracles of this type, giving sight to the blind, reported among the healing miracles of the Lord than of any other type of healing miracle.  Perhaps that is because in the Old Testament, giving sight to the blind was not only something that God alone could do, but further, something that the Messiah would do!

 

“Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.”  [Isa. 35:5]

 

“Here is My servant, whom I uphold, My chosen one in whom I delight…I will keep You and will make You to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind and to free captives from prison…  [Isa. 42:7]

 

To open the eyes of the blind is supremely a revelation of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Messiah. 

 

But, as we have also often noticed, the Lord’s miracles were important not only for the proof they provided of the Lord’s credentials as the Messiah, they were also pictures of the salvation that Jesus had come into the world to provide.  The dead being raised, the demon possessed being restored to sound mind, the leper cleansed, and the blind given his sight are not only astonishing works of divine power, works that no one could perform but someone who had been given power from on high, but all are ways in which the Bible describes the nature of salvation.  We are dead in sins and in Christ we are made alive.  We are slaves of the Devil but Christ sets us free.  We are impure, as the leper, but Christ makes us clean.  And we are blind, we cannot see the truth about God, about the world, about ourselves, about the way of salvation, and Christ opens our eyes to see the truth that sets men free.

 

In the case of the man born blind, whose healing John records in the 9th chapter of his Gospel, this point is made explicitly:  the granting sight to the blind in the physical sense, miracle that it was, was a picture of the giving of spiritual sight to the spiritually blind.  There Jesus said,

 

“For this I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”  [v. 39]

 

The Lord was speaking to the intransigent Pharisees and telling them that no matter how good their physical vision, they were blind spiritually, and the proof was that the Son of God was standing in front of them and they couldn’t see Him for what He was, no matter the miracles, no matter the truth that was on His lips, no matter the perfect goodness of His life.  He said that if they thought they were seeing, as they did, they would remain blind.

 

Think of, John Rug, the missionary to Chile, who also was born blind, was born blind in both senses, but later as a young man was given sight by the Lord Jesus Christ.  For some years yet he will not be able to see in the physical sense, but he has for many years been able to see in the more important sense.  Indeed, those who know John will say of him that he has very acute vision when it comes to seeing the truth and the light that is in Jesus Christ.  And, in the same way, we know many people who have very good eyesight, but who are blind as bats when it comes to seeing what is truly and eternally important.

 

This point is made here also in Matthew.  We have noticed the last two words of our text:  these two men whom Jesus had healed of their blindness followed Him.  Those are potent words in Matthew.  These men became Christ’s followers right then and there.  We might have expected them to go to the city and seek out their relatives and see their homes for the first time, but they followed Jesus.  They became followers of Jesus and, in so doing, they proved that they saw more clearly who Jesus was and what He had come into the world to do than did the multitudes on the road that day who had never been blind but who couldn’t see the truth when it was standing before them and being demonstrated in the most spectacular ways.  They followed Jesus.  They knew that their lives must from this point on be bound up with Him.  They knew that physical sight was, by no means, the only thing; it was not even the most important thing they would receive from Him.

 

In this marvelous event, we have the entire message of the gospel summed up.  Christ Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah sent into the world to bring salvation to human beings who all are in desperate need of salvation and who cannot save themselves.  What all men are summoned to do is to acknowledge that Jesus Christ and He alone has eternal life in His hands, He and He alone brings the truth which sets men and women free, and then to seek that life and that truth from hand and set out to living according to it.  There are many human beings who would rather starve than come to any feast that is set by the Son of God, who would rather remain in darkness if the price of seeing the light is to confess that one is as needy and has been as bad as Christ says.  But, there are those who, by God’s grace, see themselves blind and hungry and sick and see Christ offering sight, a feast, and eternal health, and they take it from their hands and the rest of their lives they are found telling others, “I was blind, but now I see.”

 

Imagine what it must have been for those men as they stood up able to see for the first time, no doubt able to see with perfectly sharp vision. Imagine what it must have been for them to see everything for the first time, see what everything looked like that they had only had described to them before; saw colors, saw faces, saw the city of Jericho, saw their parents, their siblings, and their homes.  All that day long and for some days after, they would have closed their eyes to imagine themselves back in their blindness and then open them to exult in their being able at last to see"  Perhaps they fellows wore people out over the next weeks talking endlessly about how everything appeared to them that they had never been able to see before.  How different the appearance of things must have to what they had imagined during the years, never having been able to see, never known what anything looked like!  There were two happy men!

 

It is not hard to see how similar it must be for a man who has been spiritually blind, but, through faith in Christ, now sees things as they truly are with the clearest vision, whose eyes the Lord Christ has opened by His Holy Spirit.  How many Christians, through the ages, have thought of their salvation in just these terms:  “I was blind, but now I see.”

 

Thomas Halliburton, one of the great figures of Scottish Christianity in the 18th century, in his magnificent autobiography, describes his coming to faith in Christ as a young man in just this way.  Indeed, here is the way he begins his account:

 

“I cannot be very positive about the day or hour of this deliverance, nor can I satisfy many other questions about the way and manner of it.  But this is of no consequence, if the work is in substance sound, for ‘the wind bloweth where it listeth; and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” (John iii. 8)  Many things about the way and manner we may be ignorant of, while we are sufficiently sure of the effects.  As to these things, I must say with the blind man, ‘I know not: one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.”

 

Through the reading of the Word of God and praying for light, the Lord came to him and opened his eyes near the end of January in 1698.  And that is how he puts it and how he thought about his conversion.  It was an opening of his blind eyes.  Indeed words like “see” and “sight” are found all through the account.  And true Puritan that he was, he proceeded to describe in nine particulars.  He says it was 1) a heavenly light, it shone above me, it opened heaven to me, and led me up, as it were, to heaven; 2) a true light, exposing the falsehoods about himself and the world and God that he had so long entertained; 3) a pleasant light; 4) a distinct and clear light; 5) a satisfying light; 6) a refreshing and healing light, it warmed him and his life; 7) a great light; 8) a powerful light, dissipating the thick darkness that had overspread his mind; and 9) a composing light; not like lightning that appears in a moment and disappears leaving terror behind, but composed and quieted his soul that had been troubled about so many things.  Then he concludes, “…I know that no words can express the notion that the weakest Christian, who has his eyes opened, really has of [the glory of this light.]  …  No words can convey a true notion of light to the blind; and he that has eyes…will need no words to describe it.”  [Memoirs, 99-104]

 

Perhaps the blind men to whom the Lord gave sight would have described their experience in very similar terms"  And, finally, they exulted far more in the spiritual sight that they had been given, the knowledge of Christ and salvation, than the sight of his eyes. More than once in the remaining years of those men’s lives they assuredly told people that they would rather have remained blind all their days if in their physical blindness they had been given to see Christ and the way to heaven than to be given their eyesight but never the sight of Christ or heaven.

 

Is it not extraordinary that we in our modern world, so different in many ways from the world of Jericho in the first century, should understand immediately what happened to those two men, should find their experience immediately relevant to our own.  How little the world has really changed, because the human heart has not changed.  How perfectly the Bible describes the universal experience of man in sin and man in salvation!

 

Let’s hope we are all touched by the wonder of this miracle and the glorious effect it had upon these two men.  That we see afresh and anew the wonder of God’s graces that has given us sight when otherwise we would have remained blind.  The world is full of blind people with 20/20 eyesight.  They walk through this world utterly oblivious to the spiritual world all around them, to God their Creator, to the looming Day of Judgment, to heaven or hell that awaits every person at the end.  How wonderful when a man or a woman is given to see!  To see God and Christ and the way that leads to the world of everlasting joy!  We’ve seen people get their sight and there is nothing more wonderful in the entire world!

 

But there is something more here that deserves our careful attention.  Matthew makes a point of saying that Jesus healed these blind men because He had compassion on them.  This great deliverance, the physical one and the far greater eternal and spiritual one that it symbolized, came to these two benighted men living in darkness because Jesus had compassion on them.

 

This is not the only place in the Gospel where a great healing was performed because Jesus had compassion on the sufferer.  In 9:36 we are told that Christ’s preaching of the good news to the crowds was motivated by His compassion for them in their lostness.  In 14:14 we read that Christ healed the sick that were brought to Him in large numbers because He had compassion on them.  In 15:32 we read that He provided food for the 4000 because He had compassion on that Gentile company.

 

The word that is translated “had compassion on” in the NIV is connected with the noun for the entrails, the viscera, the inner organs which, in that culture were regarded as the seat of the emotions.  One scholar of the language of the New Testament writes that, in distinction from the word “heart,” this is “a more blunt, forceful and unequivocal term.”  It is interesting, by the way, that Greeks thought of strong emotion ordinarily in terms of anger; Christians, on the other hand, thought of compassion.  This word, “has compassion” is always connected with Jesus in the New Testament.  What we have here is not mere human pity, but divine compassion for troubled people filling a human heart.  We have the heart of the Son of God going out to those in great need. We have here not only the record of one of the breathtaking miracles that Jesus performed but a picture of salvation coming to lost men, then this compassion is part of that beautiful picture.

 

How does the life-giving power of God in Christ come to men and women in our day"

 

“We are fooling ourselves if we [think] that we can ever make the authentic gospel popular … It’s too simple in an age of rationalism; too narrow in an age of pluralism; too humiliating in an age of self-confidence; too demanding in an age of permissiveness….  What are we going to share with our friends" [Dudley Smith, John Stott, ii, 267]

 

We can share the light, the sight that Christ gave to these blind men with the blind men around us.  We cannot give physical sight to the blind, but we can shed the light on the spiritual blindness of those around us.  But what will make them pay attention to us and receive our words"  If we speak for the same reason that Jesus did so.  Love breaks into blindness like nothing else.  Love can make a self-confident man realize his terrible need, a man who thinks he sees suddenly realize that he has lived his whole life in darkness. 

 

The world around us is full of the blind. They are not crying out on purpose, in many cases, as these blind men did near Jericho, but their circumstances are evidence of their darkness.  Their condition is obvious enough to us.  We can see that they cannot see.  We can often see the misery that must be endured by the blind.  Surely, we who have received Christ’s love should have compassion for those who are as we were and who must remain so unless someone should bring the light to them.  Does the love of Christ constrain us"

 

How shall we become compassionate as He was"  How shall we have the power to cut through the darkness in which so many live" 

 

Nothing is more likely to make it a power in our lives, this compassion for others, than simply to stare long and hard at those two happy men who got up from the side of the road where they had spent so many long, miserable days, got up to follow Jesus, every now and then kicking up their heels unable to believe that they could really see!  And not only see, but live and live forever.  Surely any Christian must want to see many others as happy as that!

Matthew 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43

Matthew 20:29-34

Mark 10:46-52

Luke 18:35-43

29. And while they were departing from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. 30. And, lo, two blind men sitting near the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried aloud, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 31. And the multitude rebuked them, that they might be silent; but they cried out the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 32. And Jesus stood, and called them, and said, What do you wish that I should do to you" 33. They say to Him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. 34. And Jesus, moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.

 

46. And they come to Jericho: and while they was departing from the city Jericho, and His disciples, and a great multitude, Bartimeus, son of Timeus, a blind man, was sitting hear the road begging. 47. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry aloud, and to say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. 48. And many rebuked him, that he might be silent: but he cried out so much the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. 49. And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying to him, Be of good courage, rise; he calleth thee.50. And he, throwing away his mantle, arose, and came to Jesus. 51. And Jesus answering, saith to him, What dost thou wish that I should do to thee" And the blind man said to Him, Master, 668668     “Rabboni;” — “Maistre.” that I may receive sight. 52 And Jesus said to him, Go away; thy faith hath cured thee. And immediately he received sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

 

35. And it happened that, while He was approaching Jericho, a certain blind man was sitting near the road begging: 36. And when he heard a multitude passing by, he asked what it was. 37. And they said to him, that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. 38. And he cried out, saying, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. 39. And they that were going before rebuked him, that he might be silent: but he cried out so much the more, Son of David, have mercy on me.40. And Jesus, standing still, commanded him to be brought to him: and while He was approaching, He asked him, 41. Saying, What dost thou wish that I should do to thee" And he said, Lord, that I may receive sight. 42. Then Jesus said to him, Receive sight: thy faith hath cred thee. 43. And immediately he received sight, and followed Him, glorifying God: and all the people when they saw it, gave praise to God.

 

Matthew 20:29: And while they were departing from Jericho. Osiander has resolved to display his ingenuity by making four blind men out of one. But nothing can be more frivolous than this supposition. Having observed that the Evangelists differ in a few expressions, he imagined that one blind man received sight when they were entering into the city, and that the second, and other two, received sight when Christ was departing from it. But all the circumstances agree so completely, that no person of sound judgment will believe them to be different narratives. Not to mention other matters, when Christ’s followers had endeavored to put the first to silence, and saw him cured contrary to their expectation, would they immediately have made the same attempt with the other three" But it is unnecessary to go into particulars, from which any man may easily infer that it is one and the same event which is related.

But there is a puzzling contradiction in this respect, that Matthew and Mark say that the miracle was performed on one or on two blind men, when Christ had already departed from the city; while Luke relates that it was done before He came to the city. Besides, Mark and Luke speak of not more than one blind man, while Matthew mentions two. But as we know that it frequently occurs in the Evangelists, that in the same narrative one passes by what is mentioned by the others, and, on the other hand, states more clearly what they have omitted, it ought not to be looked upon as strange or unusual in the present passage.

The conjecture is, that, while Christ was approaching to the city, the blind man cried out, but that, as he was not heard on account of the noise, he placed himself in the way, as they were departing from the city, “Mais pource qu’il ne peut estre ouy a cause du bruit du peuple, qu’il s’en alla, l’autre porte de la ville par laquelle Christ devoit sortir, pour l’attendre la au chemin;” “but, because he could not be heard on account of the noise of the people, that he went away to the other gate by which Christ was to go out, to wait for Him there on the road.” and then was at length called by Christ. And so Luke, commencing with what was true, does not follow out the whole narrative, but passes over Christ’s stay in the city; while the other Evangelists attend only to the time which was nearer to the miracle. There is probability in the conjecture that, as Christ frequently, when He wished to try the faith of men, delayed for a short time to relieve them, so He subjected this blind man to the same scrutiny.

The second difficulty may be speedily removed; for we have seen, on a former occasion, that Mark and Luke speak of one demoniac as having been cured, while Matthew, as in the present instance, mentions two, (Matthew 8:28; Mark 5:2; Luke 8:27) And yet this involves no contradiction between them; but it may rather be conjectured with probability, that at first one blind man implored the favor of Christ, and that another was excited by his example, and that in this way two persons received sight Mark and Luke speak of one only, either because he was better known, or because in him the demonstration of been on account of his having been extensively known that he was selected by Mark, who gives both his own name and that of his father: Bartimeus, son of Timeus By doing so, he does not claim for him either illustrious descent or wealth; for he was a beggar of the lowest class. Hence it appears that the miracle was more remarkable in his person, because his calamity had been generally known. This appears to be the reason why Mark and Luke mention him only, and say nothing about the other, who was a sort of inferior appendage. But Matthew, who was an eye-witness, “Qui avoit este present au miracle;” “who had been present at the miracle.” did not choose to pass by even this person, though less known.

30. Have mercy on me, O Lord. There was at first but one who cried out, but the other was induced by a similar necessity to join him. They confer on Christ no ordinary honor, when they request Him to have mercy, and relieve them; for they must have been convinced that He had in his power the assistance or remedy which they needed. But their faith is still more clearly exhibited by their acknowledgment of Him as Messiah, to whom we know that the Jews gave this designation, Son of David They therefore apply to Christ, not only as some Prophet, but as that person whom God had promised to be the only Author of salvation. The cry proved the ardor of the desire; for, though they knew that what they said exposed them to the hatred of many, who were highly displeased with the honor done to Christ, their fear was overcome by the ardor of desire, so that they did not refrain, on this account, from raising their voice aloud.

31. And the multitude reproved them. It is surprising that the disciples of Christ, who follow Him through a sense of duty and of respect, should wish to drive wretched men from the favor of Christ, and, so far as lies in them, to prevent the exercise of His power. But it frequently happens that the greater part of those who profess the name of Christ, instead of inviting us to Him, rather hinder or delay our approach. If Satan endeavored to throw obstacles in the way of two blind men, by means of pious and simple persons, who were induced by some sentiments of religion to follow Christ, how much more will he succeed in accomplishing it by means of hypocrites and traitors, if we be not strictly on our guard. Perseverance is therefore necessary to overcome every difficulty, and the more numerous the obstacles are which Satan throws in the way, the more powerfully ought we to be excited to earnestness in prayer, as we see that the blind men redoubled their cry

32. What do you wish that I should do to you" He gently and kindly asks what they desire; for He had determined to grant their requests. There is no reason to doubt that they prayed by a special movement of the Holy Spirit; for, as the Lord does not intend to grant to all persons deliverance from bodily diseases, so neither does He permit them simply to pray for it. A rule has been prescribed for us what we ought to ask, and in what manner, and to what extent; and we are not at liberty to depart from that rule, unless the Lord, by a secret movement of the Spirit, suggest to us some special prayer, which rarely happens. Christ puts the question to them, not for their sake as individuals, but for the sake of all the people; for we know how the world swallows God’s benefits without perceiving them, unless they are stimulated and aroused. Christ, therefore, by His voice, awakens the assembled crowd to observe the miracle, as He awakens them shortly afterwards by a visible sign, when He opens their eyes by touching them.

34. And Jesus, moved with compassion, etc. Σπλαγχνισθείς, moved with compassion, is not the participle of the same verb which Matthew had just now employed in reference to the blind man, ἐλέησον,have mercy “Quand ils disoyent, Fils de David, aye misericorde de nous;” “when they said, Son of David, have mercy on us.” They implored the mercy of Christ, that He might relieve their wretchedness; but now the Evangelist expresses that Christ was induced to cure them, not only by undeserved goodness, but because He pitied their distress. For the metaphor is taken from thebowels, (σπλάγχνα,) in which dwells that kindness and mutual compassion which prompts us to assist our neighbors.

Mark 10:52. Thy faith hath saved thee By the word faith is meant not only a confident hope of recovering sight, but a loftier conviction, which was, that this blind man had acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah whom God had promised. Nor must we imagine that it was only some confused knowledge; for we have already seen that this confession was taken from the Law and the Prophets. For the blind man did not at random bestow on Christ the name of Son of David, but embraced Him as that person whose coming he had been taught by the divine predictions to expect. Now Christ attributes it to faith that the blind man received sight; for, though the power and grace of God sometimes extend even to unbelievers, yet no man enjoys His benefits in a right and profitable manner, unless he receive them by faith; nay, the use of the gifts of God is so far from being advantageous to unbelievers, that it is even hurtful. And therefore, when Christ says, thy faith hath saved thee, the word saved is not limited to an outward cure, but includes also the health and safety of the soul; as if Christ had said, that by faith the blind man obtained that God was gracious to him, and granted his wish. And if it was in regard to faith that God bestowed his favor on the blind man, it follows that he was justified by faith

Matthew 20:34. And followed Him. This was an expression of gratitude, “Ceci a este un signe de reconnaissance du bien receu de Christ;” “this was an expression of gratitude for the favor received from Christ.” when the blind men became followers of Christ; for, though it is uncertain how long they discharged this duty, yet it showed a grateful mind, that they presented themselves to many, in that journey, as mirrors of the grace of Christ. Luke adds, that the people gave praise to God, which tends to prove the certainty of the miracle.

New International Version: As Jesus and His disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.

New Living Translation: As Jesus and the disciples left the town of Jericho, a large crowd followed behind.

English Standard Version: And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed Him.

New American Standard Bible : As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.

King James Bible: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

Holman Christian Standard Bible: As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.

International Standard Version: As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Jesus.

NET Bible: As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed them.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English: And when Yeshua went out from Jericho, a great crowd was coming after Him.

 

GOD'S WORD® Translation: As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Jesus.

Jubilee Bible 2000: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

King James 2000 Bible: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

American King James Version: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

 

American Standard Version: And as they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

 

Douay-Rheims Bible: And when they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. 

Darby Bible Translation: And as they went out from Jericho a great crowd followed Him.

English Revised Version: And as they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

Webster's Bible Translation: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

 

Weymouth New Testament: As they were leaving Jericho, an immense crowd following Him,

World English Bible: As they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

 

Young's Literal Translation: And they going forth from Jericho, there followed Him a great multitude,

 

Parallel Commentaries Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

 

20:29-34 It is good for those under the same trial, or infirmity of body or mind, to join in prayer to God for relief, that they may quicken and encourage one another. There is mercy enough in Christ for all that ask. They were earnest in prayer. They cried out as men in earnest. Cold desires beg denials. They were humble in prayer, casting themselves upon, and referring themselves cheerfully to, the Mediator's mercy. They showed faith in prayer, by the title they gave to Christ. Surely it was by the Holy Ghost that they called Jesus, Lord. They persevered in prayer. When they were in pursuit of such mercy, it was no time for timidity or hesitation: they cried earnestly. Christ encouraged them. The wants and burdens of the body we are soon sensible of, and can readily relate. Oh that we did as feelingly complain of our spiritual maladies, especially our spiritual blindness! Many are spiritually blind, yet say they see. Jesus cured these blind men; and when they had received sight, they followed Him. None follow Christ blindly. He first by His grace opens men's eyes, and so draws their hearts after Him. These miracles are our call to Jesus; may we hear it, and make it our daily prayer to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

Pulpit Commentary:

 

Verses 29-34. - Healing of two blind men at Jericho. (Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43.) The miracle narrated in this passage is common to the three synopsis’s, but with some remarkable differences, not one of them agreeing altogether in details. St. Matthew speaks of two blind men, St. Luke and St. Mark of one only, and the latter mentions this one by name as Bartimaeus. St. Matthew and St. Mark make the miracle performed as Jesus quitted Jericho; St. Luke assigns it to the approach to the city. Thus the number of the cured and the locality of the miracle are alike variously stated. It is an easy solution to say, with St. Augustine, Lightfoot, and Greswell, that two, or perhaps three, distinct facts are here related; and it is not absolutely impossible. though altogether improbable, that in the same locality, under identical circumstances, like sufferers made the same request, and received the same relief in the same manner. But we are not driven to this extravagant hypothesis; and the unity of the narrative can be preserved without doing violence to the language of the writers. As to the number of the blind men, we have seen the same discrepancy in the case of the demoniacs at Gadara solved by supposing that one of the two was the more remarkable and better known than the other. Hence, in this incident, the tradition followed by some of the synopsis’s preserved the memory of this one alone, who may have become known in the Christian community as a devoted follower of Jesus, the other passing into obscurity and being heard of no more. Another hypothesis is that a single blind man first addressed Christ as He entered Jericho, but was not cured at that time. Jesus passed that night in the city at the house of Zacchreus (Luke 19:1-10); and on the morrow, when leaving Jericho, was again entreated by the blind man, who meantime had been joined by a companion, and healed them both. There are other solutions offered, e.g., that there were two Jericho’s, an old and a new town, and that one blind man was healed as they entered one city, and the other as they left the other; or that the term rendered "was come nigh" (Luke 18:35) might mean "was nigh," and might therefore apply to one who was leaving as well as to one entering the city.

 

But we weary ourselves in vain in seeking to harmonize every little detail in the Gospel narratives. No two, much less three, independent witnesses would give an identical account of an incident, especially one which reached some of them only by hearsay. Inspiration extends not to petty circumstances, and the credibility of the gospel depends not on the rectification of such minutiae.

 

Verse 29. - Jericho. The Lord was on His way to Jerusalem to meet the death which He was willing to undergo, and to win the victory which He was by this path to accomplish. His route lay through Jericho, as the march of His forerunner Joshua had led. Joshua had set forth to conquer the Promised Land; Jesus sets forth to win His promised inheritance by the sword of the Spirit. "The upland pastures of Peraea were now behind them, "and the road led down to the sunken channel of the Jordan, and the 'divine district' of Jericho. This small but rich plain was the most luxuriant spot in Palestine. Sloping gently upwards from the level of the Dead Sea, 1350 feet under the Mediterranean, to the stern background of the hills of Quarantana, it had the climate of Lower Egypt, and displayed the vegetation of the tropics. Its fig trees were pre-eminently famous; it was unique in its growth of palms of various kinds: its crops of dates were a proverb; the balsam plant, which grew principally here, furnished a costly perfume, and was in great repute for healing wounds; maize yielded a double harvest; wheat ripened a whole month earlier than in Galilee, and innumerable bees found a paradise in the many aromatic flowers and plants, not a few unknown elsewhere, which filled the air with odours and the landscape with beauty. Rising like an amphitheatre from amidst this luxuriant scene, lay Jericho, the chief place east of Jerusalem, at seven or eight miles distant from the Jordan, on swelling slopes, seven hundred feet above the bed of the river, from which its gardens and groves, thickly interspersed with mansions, and covering seventy furlongs from north to south, and twenty from east to west, were divided by a strip of wilderness.

 

The town had had an eventful history. Once the stronghold of the Canaanites, it was still, in the days of Christ, surrounded by towers and castles. A great stone aqueduct of eleven arches brought a copious supply of water to the city, and the Roman military road ran through it. The houses themselves, however, though showy, were not substantial, but were built mostly of sun-dried bricks, like those of Egypt; so that now, as in the similar case of Babylon, Nineveh, or Egypt, after long desolation, hardly a trace of them remains." A great multitude. A vast crowd of pilgrims, bound for Jerusalem to keep the Passover, accompanied Jesus and His disciples. The number of people that this great festival attracted to the central place of worship seems to us incredibly large. Josephus ('Bell. Jud.,' 6:09. 3) reckons them at three millions. Doubtless our Lord was followed by many of those whom He had benefited, and others whom He had won by His teaching; and these, at any rate, would witness the ensuing miracle. 

 

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

 

And as they departed from Jericho ... Which, was distant about ten parsas, or miles, from Jerusalem (i), through which Christ just passed, and had met with Zacchaeus, and called him, and delivered the parable concerning a nobleman's going into a far country. The Syriac and Persic versions render the words, "when Jesus departed from Jericho"; and the Arabic, "when He went out of Jericho"; not alone, but "with His disciples", as Mark says; and not with them only, for a great multitude followed Him out of the city; either to hear Him, or be healed by Him, or to see Him, or behold His miracles, or to accompany Him to Jerusalem; whither He was going to keep the feast of the Passover, and where they might be in some expectation He would set up His kingdom. The Ethiopic version reads it, "As they went out from Jerusalem", contrary to all copies and versions. 

 

Matthew 20:29-20:34 What Would You Have Me Do For You"  

 

It would appear that Jesus never asked this question of anyone else in the Gospels. Didn’t He know what these blind men needed"

 

He was seeking help, but in the process of seeking that help he got distracted. The light was on and it drew him away from the place where he might actually get help.

In Matthew 20, Jesus is entering the final week of His ministry. He’s on His way to Jerusalem and will soon be betrayed, arrested, and crucified… the crowds will clamor for His blood and cry "Crucify Him!" "Crucify Him!"

 

But as of now, the crowds still love Him. They line the streets and clamor for His attention. They’ve come to believe that this Jesus is: The hope of Israel. The Messiah. The Son of David. The promised King of Israel

 

Everyone is speculating that He will soon claim His crown, throw off the yoke of the hated Romans and restore Israel to its former glory. But amongst the crowd are 2 blind men. 
Everybody knows them. They’re always sitting by the roadside begging for alms. They cry out “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” (Matthew 20:30) And the crowd is irritated. This isn’t what they think Jesus is “all about”. Jesus is too important to be bothered by rabble like this.

 

But Jesus stops and asks these blind men “What do want me to do for you"”

Now this is an unusual question for two reasons: 1st This is the only time in the Gospels we find Jesus asking anyone what they need done. 2nd You would think it would be obvious what these men needed. They’re blind. Even if Jesus couldn’t have looked into their eyes and seen the cloudiness that is often there in the eyes of the blind, or watched them as they grope about in the ways blind men do…

 

This is Jesus. He doesn’t need anyone to tell Him what these men were blind. He’s God…  He knows these things. So why ask the question"

 

Well, it seems obvious to me that He didn’t ask the question for His own benefit (as if He didn’t know what they needed in their lives). Jesus asked the question for the benefit of the others who were there that day.

 

1st. Jesus asked this question for the benefit of the crowds. This crowd is obviously not into helping blind people. Blind people were a nuisance. They were a hindrance. They were a distraction to what Jesus’ real purpose ought to be.

 

And would that “real purpose” be" Meeting their needs, building their kingdom.

 

When it becomes obvious, a few days later, that this wasn’t what Jesus had in mind the crowds turned their backs on Him and cry out for His blood. And so it was intriguing that Jesus didn’t ask the crowds what He could do for them. He asked the blind men.

There are times when the Church forgets why it exists. There are times when Christians forget what Jesus saved them for. They begin to think church is all about them. They think their relationship with Jesus is totally focused on their needs and their agenda. They

 

"Matthew 20:29-34 says Jesus healed two blind men as He left Jericho. Mark 10:46-52 and Luke 18:35-43 say He healed one man as He entered Jericho. Is this a contradiction""

 

In spite of apparent discrepancies, these three passages do refer to the same incident. The Matthew account cites two men healed as Jesus left Jericho. Mark and Luke refer to only one blind man healed, but Luke says it happened as Jesus was entering Jericho while Mark records it happening as He left Jericho. There are legitimate explanations for the apparent discrepancies. Let’s look at them rather than deciding this is a contradiction and the Bible is in error.

 

That this is the same incident is seen in the similarity of the accounts, beginning with the two beggars sitting on the roadside. They call out to Jesus, referring to Him as “Son of David” (Matthew 20:30; Mark 10:48; Luke 18:38), and in all three accounts, they are rebuked by those nearby and told to be quiet but continue to shout out to Jesus (Matthew 20:31; Mark 10:48; Luke 18:39). The three accounts describe nearly identical conversations between Jesus and the beggars and the conclusions of the stories are also identical. The beggars receive their sight immediately and follow Jesus.

 

Only Mark and Luke chose to identify one of the beggars as Bartimeus, perhaps because he was the main character in the story and was therefore the sole focus of Mark’s and Luke’s accounts. Perhaps it was because Bartimeus was known to them as the son of Timeus, but the other man was a stranger to them. In any case, the fact that only one man of the two is recorded as speaking does not mean there was only one man. It simply means Mark and Luke identified only one man speaking, Bartimeus. Matthew refers to both of them calling out to Jesus, clearly indicating there were two men.

 

The other issue in question is whether Jesus was entering Jericho or leaving it. Bible commentators cite the fact that at that time there were two Jericho’s, one the mound of the ancient city (still existing today) and the other the inhabited city of Jericho. Therefore, Jesus could have healed the two men as He was leaving the ancient city of Jericho and entering the new city of Jericho.

 

In any case, to focus on these minor details to the exclusion of all else is to miss the point of the story, Jesus healed the blind men, proving that He was indeed the Son of God with powers beyond anything a mortal man could have. Unlike the Pharisees who refused to see what was before their eyes, our response to Jesus should be the same as that of the blind men, call on Him to give us eyes to see spiritual truth, recognize Him for who He is, and follow Him.

 

Transcripts

 

The exposition of the word of God is the exposition of Matthew chapter 20 verses 29 through verse 34, but is also built upon the parallel account in Mark chapter 10.  So let’s turn first to Matthew chapter 20, verses 29 through 34, and then we’ll turn to the Markan passage in chapter 10 of that Gospel.  Remember the context.  The Lord Jesus is now on His way to the city of Jerusalem where He will offer Himself as a sacrifice for sinners.  Matthew writes in verse 29 of chapter 20 and Mark chapter 10 and verse 46.  Luke in his account comments that he followed the Lord Jesus glorifying God, and that the people gave praise to God as a result of what had happened.  May the Lord bless this reading of His word.

 

We may have overlooked the fact in our study of the New Testament that the name of our Lord Jesus, Jesus is the same as the name for Joshua in the Old Testament.  The word Iesous in the Greek of the New Testament is the equivalent of Y’hoshua or Joshua, in the Old Testament.  So what we have in this account that we are looking at is an appearance of the second Joshua before Jericho, and so the title this morning for the message is “The Second Joshua Working Miracles at Jericho Again.”

 

The biblical critics have had a happy time studying this passage of Scripture which has to do with the healing of the blind men, as our Lord was at Jericho on His last visit to the city of Jerusalem while in the flesh.  And it contains problems that lend some credence to their view that the Bible is after all only an ordinary book.  Confidently, they intone in details and many important points, the gospels do not agree.

           

Then they go on to say, somewhat condescendingly, that the differences in these accounts do not really make a whole lot of difference, except insofar as they give instruction to those who believe that the Bible is true in all of its statements.  So they tell us that these differences in the accounts don’t mean anything, but they at least should instruct those simple-minded people, they mean us, who think that the words of holy Scripture are inerrant.  What are the difficulties which give the detractors of the Bible such relish in these accounts of the healing of the blind men"

           

There are two particularly.  In the first place, Matthew speaks of two men who are healed, while Mark and Luke speak only of one.  Now of course we should notice immediately if we have any facility for thinking logically, that when Matthew says that there are two, and Mark and Luke speak only of one, Mark and Luke do not say that there was only one blind man.  Now that is very important.  All that Luke and Mark say is that the Lord healed a blind man.  Mark gives his name as Bartimaeus.  They do not say He healed only one man.  So there is really no contradiction between the accounts in that respect.

 

But there is something else that is of probably of greater difficulty.  Mark and Matthew place the healing after the Lord Jesus leaves Jericho, while Luke appears to place the healing before the Lord Jesus enters Jericho.

 

Now that might be a serious problem for those who believe that the Bible is inerrant in the statements that it makes.  We must of course remember that so far as the Scriptures are concerned, we do not have all of the details surrounding the incidents of the Bible, and so we have to think in our own minds of situations in which the words of Scripture may find their significance and relevance.  But there have been a number of suggestions by individuals in attempts to harmonize this fact that Mark and Matthew place the healing after Jericho whereas Luke suggests that the healing occurred before the Lord entered Jericho.

           

One Bible teacher, who has been a very prominent Bible teacher, has taught that really we have two different healings.  Now of course we have already had the healing of two blind men in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 9 and since it was the Messianic office of the Lord Jesus to heal blind men, it’s certainly true that He did heal many blind men through the three years or so of His ministry.  And so it has been suggested that what we have in Luke is one account whereas what we have in Mark and Matthew is another account, and if that is so that would of course solve all of our difficulties.

 

Still others have said, for example Professor A. T. Robertson, the well known New Testament professor, that there were really two Jericho’s.  That is, an old or ancient city and a new modern Jericho, which was new and modern in our Lord’s day.  We know that this is generally true, and it is Professor Robertson’s contention that in one of the accounts, the author looks at it from the standpoint of the old city of Jericho and thus the healing was as He came out of the city of Jericho, and as He was to enter the new Jericho, and the other account is written from that standpoint.  So if there were two Jericho’s it would be very easy to harmonize these accounts.  The healing took place between the leaving of one and the entering of another.

           

Another ancient commentator, the Pietist commentator Albrecht Bengel, whose writings have been read by countless thousands of students of the Scripture, not only in the original Latin in the which he wrote them, but in other translations of them.  Bengel has made the suggestion that what happened really was that the blind men met the Lord Jesus as he was entering Jericho, and since Jericho was a relatively small city, they followed the great crowd seeking to get to Him as He made His way through Jericho, and then finally came into touch with Him as they were leaving the city and thus both of the accounts could be true:  one written from the standpoint of the entrance and the other written from the standpoint of the exit where the healing really took place.

           

There are some modern interpretations, too.  One of the modern interpreters has suggested that really what happened was something like this:  the two blind men were seated right near the outskirts of the city, but when they heard the crowd which preceded the Lord Jesus, and they heard word that Jesus was coming, they began to shout, and so they began to shout as the Lord Jesus entered the city, and Luke writes his account from that standpoint.  But finally as He came to leave the city, they came into contact with Him and were healed as He left the city.

           

Still another has suggested this explanation.  He has said that it’s shortly after this that the Lord Jesus sees Zacchaeus in the in the tree, and He calls down Zacchaeus, and remember, says that He was going to lodge with him that night.  Now since Zacchaeus lived in Jericho, and since he wanted to see the Lord Jesus, he had raced outside the city so he could catch a good view of Him and when the Lord Jesus saw him with the multitude looking at the little man up in the tree, He called out to Zacchaeus as He came out of the city and said Zacchaeus come down I must lodge with you tonight.  And the incident involving Zacchaeus took place, and then He went back into the city and spent the night with Zacchaeus.  And so one of the accounts is written from the standpoint of the leaving of the city whereas the other is written from the standpoint of our Lord entering back into the city, and as He entered, He met the blind men and healed them.

           

So there are a number of suggestions that have been offered.  The Gospels do not really give us anything necessarily contradictory.  We just don’t know the details.  One of the interesting things that we shall be engaged in at least for a little while when we get to heaven is the harmonization of many things with which we do not have enough information to harmonize ourselves.  So, there is not any serious problem in this at all.  It’s interesting.  We don’t know how it happened, and we’ll be looking forward to finding out how when we get there.  But when we get there these will be rather insignificant things.  And we’ll probably say, why did we waist eight or nine minutes talking about that" [Laughter]

           

There is a two-fold significance in this event that is more important, and the first thing is what we can call, for the sake of a better word, a dispensational significance.  Remember the Lord Jesus is coming to Jerusalem as the King of Israel.  When He enters, shortly in the next message we shall consider his untriumphal entry, He will come and the people shall shout out, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.”  And, since it was one of the duties of the Messianic king to heal the eyes of the blind, specifically, that it’s very appropriate that as He makes His plans for entering the city of Jerusalem, He should heal again some blind men making or bringing to the forefront again the fact that He is the Messianic king who performs the miracles that He is supposed to perform according to Old Testament prophesy.  That’s one of the important things.

           

But there is another thing that is even more important, and that is the reference that this particular incident has to the spiritual life of men and women.  It is again a beautiful illustration of the Lord’s power to illuminate the spiritually blind.  The word of God tells us the Apostle Paul, particularly, that the natural man, that is the man who does not have any relationship to the Lord Jesus that is vital and life-giving, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned.

           

In other words, the Apostle Paul says that the natural man cannot understand spiritual truth.  There must be a previous working of the Holy Spirit by which their minds are illuminated to understand divine truth.  Paul puts it in other ways.  He says that we are dead in trespasses and sin.  Some who do not have a vital saving relationship with Jesus Christ, and we rather wonder why it is that we are here.  Perhaps some friend has brought you.  Or perhaps out of what you thought was mere curiosity, and we wonder why it is that people come to hear an exposition of an ancient book written hundreds and hundreds of years ago.  We read it and we do not get anything out of it.  We find it, in the words of the Apostle Paul, foolishness.  We are actually fulfilling the words of Scripture in the fact that we do not understand it and rather think that it is stupid, that’s the meaning of Paul’s term really. Stupid.

 

Now the Bible tells us that those who do not have eternal life are spiritually blind. Over and over again, the apostle mentions that.  He says that we are blind in our hearts.  We are alienated from God and do not have the life of God within us.  And this incident is designed to illustrate the fact that it is the Lord Jesus who works in the hearts of blind men.  Men who are spiritually blind.

           

There are people who sit in an audience who do not understand anything more about spiritual things.  We are here and that’s all, and we wonder why. That’s true, because we attend church and many of us do not understand what in the world was going on.  We are blind as a bat spiritually.  Now God the Holy Spirit must work in the hearts of men for spiritual illumination to come, and this incident this miracle in the life of our Lord is another illustration of His power.  Let’s turn to it now, and first of all, let´s say a word about the historical situation against the background of which the Lord Jesus ministers.

           

We are in the part of Matthew in which we are going to have a great deal of stress upon the ministry of the Lord in the last days studying these last chapters of the Gospel of Matthew again, because the most fruitful parts of biblical study are the passages in the gospels that have to do with the passion of the Lord Jesus.  And we are fast approaching that part of the Gospel of Matthew in which the Lord Jesus in the last days of His life ministers there, preparatory to giving His life a ransom for many.

           

Now as He made His way down to Jerusalem on the last of His journeys to that city in the flesh, He was making His way with the apostles, and also with a company of friends.  Mark tells us in the 32nd verse of the 10th chapter, “And they were on the way going up to Jerusalem and Jesus went before them.”  And you can picture the little crowd the apostles gathered close to the Lord Jesus and then their friends and relatives who were a little back, and the Lord Jesus suddenly began to lengthen His steps, as He made His way toward Jerusalem.  Luke describes His countenance as an appearance as if He were going to Jerusalem.  And so as He lengthened His step and marched out with increasing speed before them the apostles noticed that that was not His customary action in their travels, and so the Scriptures say that they were amazed, they were astonished.

           

And then looking at the people who were following Mark continues and says, “As they followed they were afraid.”  So there was something about the occasion in which our Lord had this different look upon His face moved out in front of the company, there was something about it that caused the rest of the group that were with them to come under the influence of this sense of the luminous, and awe stricken they observed the Lord Jesus as He made His way toward Jerusalem.

           

Bengel, that same German commentator, asks the question, what was He doing", and then answers it by saying that He was dwelling in His passion.  He was thinking about what now was immediately before Him when He would finally go to that cross and cry out, “It is finished” after having said “My God my God why hast Thou forsaken Me"”  That is really a kind of theme verse of these final chapters of the gospel records.

           

So the Lord Jesus, having crossed the Jordan now comes to the little city of Jericho, and remembers His name was Joshua.  So a greater Joshua stands at Jericho with His word drawn to storm the stronghold of the Prince of Darkness, and He will win the battle by dying upon a Roman gibbet.  And this incident of the blind man is a kind of earnest of the victory the Lord Jesus will obtain when He shed his blood.

           

Well as He draws near to Jericho, a great multitude is following Him.  They are friends of His.  No doubt many relatives of His too.  They draw near to the city of Jericho and behold Matthew says in the 30th verse, two blind men sitting by the way side.  It’s not surprising that our Lord’s miracles include the healing of blind men because that was the Messianic work:  to open the eyes of the blind.  Isaiah says that when the Messiah comes He will do that.  He says that in chapter 29, about verse 17 or 18 of that chapter.  He also says that in chapter 35 and verse 5.  So this was a specific Messianic miracle.

           

So it’s not surprising then that in His miracles there should be the healing of many blind men.  And furthermore, it’s not surprising that there should be two of them.  It’s pathetic when you think about it, of course, but it was natural, because two blind men would naturally be anxious for sympathy and encouragement and help, and it is true that equal sorrows cause men to creep close for warmth and companionship.  We know that when we have other afflictions.  Those that have similar afflictions do tend to come together because they can mutually help one another.

           

Blindness was very, very common, unfortunately, in the eastern cities in the time of our Lord.  One of the reasons for this was that there were conditions of uncleanness that caused such diseases to abound.  And in addition the bright glare of the sun in those parts of our world was such, and since they didn’t have protection from the sun, that they became afflicted in their eyes.  A visitor in our modern day to Cairo, Egypt has said that it was his observation that out of one hundred people in Egypt; about fifty were affected with eye disease.  Twenty were blind, ten had lost one eye, and twenty had other eye diseases.  So we should not be surprised then that the Lord Jesus in His ministry should encompass the healing of many blind men.

           

The text says that when the Lord Jesus passed by, they heard that Jesus had passed by.  And incidentally in the words that are the outpouring of their heart, it’s evident that they had already heard of the Lord Jesus.  They knew something about Him.  It’s even possible that they had heard accounts of the healing ministry of this Jesus of Nazareth, and incidentally since they had no doubt studied the Scriptures themselves and paid because of their affliction particular attention to those prophesies of the Old Testament that spoke of the healing of blind men, and longing for that themselves, that they were naturally attracted to the stories concerning the Lord Jesus.

The Holy Scripture says, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  So the word concerning the Lord Jesus had been disseminated, and they had heard it and on the basis of what they had heard the Holy Spirit had wrought in their hearts. This incident, incidentally is the origin of Sankey’s hymn,

 

“What means this eager anxious throng which moves with busy haste along these wondrous gatherings day by day;  what means this strange commotion pray in accents hushed the throng reply Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.” 

 

When the word came to the blind men that the Lord Jesus might be near, they began to cry out.  Now Mark tells us they began to.  We would gather that from Matthew, because in the account here in Matthew, they cry out,  “Have mercy upon us,” and then when some seek to stop them they still cry out the more,  “O Lord, thou son of David, have mercy upon us.”

           

So they began to cry out, and notice what they say when they cry out to Him.  They do not say, O man of Nazareth, have mercy upon us.  They do not say, O Yankee or Northerner have mercy upon us.  They have some very definite information concerning Him.  They cry out, have mercy on us O Lord thou son of David. It is evident they have faith in His person as the Lord.  That is, they have some conception that He is a divine person and also they have a conception of Him as the Messiah, because son of David is a Messianic term.  So they know that He is the Son of God, and they know that He is the Messiah.

           

Now whether they understood all of the significance of it, or whether they would understand what that meant in the light of the Council of Calcedon later on, that’s another matter.  But at least they had come to the conviction He was the Lord and come to the conviction that He was the Messianic king.  And not only did they have faith in His person, but they had a great confidence in His power, because they said, have mercy upon us.  They knew that it was within the power of the Lord Jesus to heal them, and so they cried out have mercy upon us.

           

These men are a picture in the kind of attitude that men ought to have when they come into conviction for sin and desire to have deliverance.  They were earnest.  They cried.  They kept crying.  Even the tenses of the verbs in the other accounts stress the fact that this cry of theirs was a continual thing.  They were earnest.  We are earnest about everything but spiritual things.

           

First thing to note is, we are very earnest about our sports.  We are very earnest about our business.  We are very earnest about our studies.  We are very earnest about our calling in life about our friends our hobbies, about everything, but when it comes to spiritual things, our hearts are as the old commentators used to say, as cold as the arctic snows.        

 

These men were earnest.  Not only that they were persistent.  When actually people said, shut up, they said we’re going to not only keep it up but we’re going to shout loud enough in order to get over the heads of our hinderers, and so they cried out the text of Scripture says the more.  So the more they were told to shut up the louder they cried.  They were persistent.  They knew what they wanted.  And this is a very poignant fact when you think of blind men who could not see in the midst of a multitude.  They must have been crying out all along where is He"  Which way did He go"  What street did He turn down"  And all at the same time shouting out, O Lord, thou son of David have mercy upon us!  Which way did He go"  Lord have mercy upon us.  Did He turn that way"  Show me.  Take me to Him.  You can see this was something that was very important for them.  They knew what they wanted and incidentally they were humble.

           

These cries that they were making were confessions of their unworthiness.  O Lord, thou son of David have mercy upon me.  They did not talk of their merits.  They didn’t say, for example, O Lord have mercy upon us, we attend the synagogue regularly.  We listen to the Pharisees.  We study the Scriptures.  We do good works.  We don’t put a sign our face “blind” when we really can see.  They had no talk of merit whatsoever, because whenever we talk of merit before the Lord, the doors of heaven are shut.  O Lord, thou son of David have mercy upon us.  They really were beggar, literally, Mark tells us, and they were beggars spiritually seeking for help.  And they plead as criminals, have mercy upon us.

           

Now this illustrates of course the fact that according to the teaching of the word of God, our wills are obstinate in rebellion against the Lord.  The Scriptures so plainly teach about one of the most difficult things for men to grasp, the relationship of the will in our salvation. The Bible teaches that we have a will, that we do make decisions.  But the Bible teaches that the will is a secondary agent.  The will acts in accordance with our nature and our nature affected by the fall is wicked and rebellious against God.  Therefore, the decisions of the will which are a response to the inmost disposition of a man are always decisions contrary to the will of God.   This repeats over and over again, and we should say it again, because there are always some strangers in the midst.  We never make a decision of the will that is favorable to God unless God has previously “jiggled our willed.”

 

That is biblical teaching.  It’s hard for men to understand that.  But nevertheless it is true.  It is basic to the gospel of the Lord Jesus.  The responses that men make do not arise ultimately from the heart of men; ultimately they arise from God’s working.  That’s why salvation is of the Lord.  So when we read these men cry out, have mercy upon us, it’s obvious that God has already wrought in their will, and they are crying out now in response to what He has done.

 

Their wills naturally were obstinate.  They were rebellious.  Their understanding was darkened.  Their affections were depraved.  They were blind to the things that really counted.  That’s the way we are born.  We are born in our sin.  We know we can speak to someone about the wonders of this creation about us. We can talk to men about the beauties of and the wonders of His divine creation and men are able to understand with us.  We can speak of the wonders of creation ourselves, but when we turn to speak about the wonders of the New Covenant and of the blood that was shed by which we have everlasting life, by which we are brought into the family of God, by which we are justified, by which we become the children of God, then the beauties of the person of the Redeemer and the work of the Redeemer seem as nothing as foolishness to us.  We do not understand them at all.

           

So these men cry out humbly with confessions of their own unworthiness, and the message that they proclaim is that the Lord Jesus is the Lord and the Messiah.  It’s striking that these blind men, these poor bind men, give the glory to the Lord Jesus that the leaders the religious leaders in Jerusalem did not. They did not own Him as Lord.  They rebelled against the very idea and they did not accept Him as the son of David.  They rebelled against that idea.  So these two poor blind men who did not have the religious training, and no doubt the religious experiences that the Pharisees and the Sadducees did, had by the grace of God been enabled to understand things that religious leaders do not.  There is a great lesson in that.

           

The Lord’s reaction to this is remarkable.  A cry of need brings Him to a complete stop.  We read in verse 32, “And Jesus stood still.”  Isn’t that striking"  When Joshua was here in his historical ministry in the Old Testament recorded in the Book of Joshua, Joshua spoke to the sun and the sun and the moon stood still.  Remarkable miracle.  But here are two blind men who address the Son of Righteousness, for that is one our Lord’s titles, and the Son of Righteousness stops at their request.  It seems as if it is even a greater miracle than that performed by Joshua in the Old Testament.

           

Reminds us that the apostle says that he is rich unto all that call on him.  If you have never believed in the Lord Jesus, let’s assure you that if you call upon Him, He is rich unto those that call unto Him.  So he stopped.  And interestingly those people that were trying to keep these two men quiet, shut up, shut up, are told by the Lord Jesus to go get the blind men.  That’s kind of ironical.  These people who were attempting to shut the blind men are forced to do errands for the blind men.  And so they go off and get the blind men and they are brought into the presence of the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus said, what do you want me to do"

           

Isn’t it striking too the way Mark describes the way that Bartimaeus came to the Lord Jesus"  We can see the blind man with his coat.  It probably was the only coat that he had or ever hoped to have.  He knew that there were times when he needed that desperately, but Mark says he threw away his garment and came to the Lord Jesus.

           

If we were an artist, the most prolific source of artistry would be the Bible itself.  One of the most striking things in all of the New Testament is when the Lord Jesus stood up in the boat in the midst of the storm, preparatory to saying, stop, or be muzzled ,and there came a great calm.  And here, as Bartimaeus threw away his cloak, figurative of the fact that everything must go when we come to the Lord Jesus, as Paul said, “He suffered the loss of all things as he came to Christ.”  What a beautiful picture that is.  And he came to Jesus, Mark says.  There’s nothing more fundamental, nothing more significant, nothing more necessary in life than to come to the Lord Jesus.

           

One of the saddest things in the world is for a man to go through life shine in his school work, shine in his college work, graduate near the top of his class, become a successful businessman, be successful in business, come to the end of his days retired, and then to be placed in a grave like the rest of the people who have lived up to this time without the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  What a pitiful what a pitiful thing.   To come to the Lord Jesus is the fundamental thing.  To think of it.  To become the President of General Motors, but not know Christ.  To be the Chairman of the Board of Texas Instruments but not know Jesus Christ, what a failure.

           

So the Lord said, what do you want"  These men have just no doubt been acquainted with the words the Lord Jesus had said not long before this:  the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister.  And so they in effect challenged Him.  You said you come to minister, well, minister that we may see again that we may have our eyesight.  One of the manuscripts reading the Matthian account, they requested, Lord that our eyes may be opened, that we may see Thee.  That’s a very fitting addition.  That’s the way they thought, having called out, O Lord Thou son of David.  That’s what they were thinking.  But first of all that our eyes may be opened.

           

Then the healing is described in the last verse, and notice that there are outward means, inward means, and ultimate means.  The text of Scripture says, “So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes.”  Now that was the touch of sympathy.  Blind men no doubt needed the encouragement of the personal touch, and it’s a beautiful expression of the true humanity of Lord Jesus who understands all of our human needs.  He touched them.  But it also is an identification, for to touch, to lay hands upon was a sign of identification. And all He was saying, symbolically, was, as He touched them, yes I am sympathetic with your condition.  I identify with your sin, not that I’m a sinner, but it is for sin that I have come.  And the apostle puts it very succinctly; He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  And so He identified Himself with suffering sinning humanity for He shall die for sinners.

           

Mark says that He said to him your faith has made you whole.  Incidentally, it was faith not adulterated by sight.  They couldn’t be saved by sight; they had no sight.  Our churches give us the impression that our faith is really grounded in a great deal of sight, for as we draw up to church buildings we are impressed.  They are magnificent structures.  And usually there’s a cross sticking above them.  And then we enter, and we enter into the auditorium.

           

The auditorium should be very simple.  That’s the way we like it.  As a matter of fact that’s the way the earliest churches were constructed, and that’s the reason why the auditorium is simple.  But many of our churches and the churches in which we’ve grown up are very impressive, and the services are very impressive.  The men come in and they are dressed in different kinds of clothes.  They are either dressed in a robe, or they are dressed in clerical garb with the round clerical collar. 

           

And when they stand in the pulpit, they not only stand in the pulpit but they go through motions that are designed to impress our senses.  They twist.  They turn.  They genuflect.  They kneel.  They bow.  They frequently take things and do things with them.  They stand before the altar.  The whole impression seems to be, faith does come by sight, to some extent at least.  They impress us.

           

But the Lord Jesus said, your faith, not your humility, not your persistence, not your purposefulness, your faith has made you whole.  God has so worked that He has given you faith and that faith is the basis of your salvation.  The ultimate means is His compassion.  Jesus had compassion on them.  Paul says He speaks about God who was rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He had loved us.  And so out of compassion, the Lord Jesus responded to what He had produced in their hearts and gave them the pronouncement that they were now whole forgiven men.

           

And not only that, but their eyes were opened.  Men speak of merits.  Proud men get down upon their knees and offer prayers to God, thinking that their prayers are the means of God’s blessing.  But the wind sweeps the prayers away, for God does not hear that kind of prayer.  When the messenger of mercy the Lord Jesus came to this earth, He did not enter into the Hiltons and the Sheratons and the Holiday Inns and the Howard Johnson Inns, but He came to the inn of the broken heart and the contrite spirit, because God responds to those who acknowledge that they have nothing with which to commend themselves to the Lord.

           

Well the result of the healing is that they followed Him, and Luke tells us that they glorified God, which led to the praise of the Lord by the people.  What a beautiful thing that is, too.  There are several things that persist through our days of spiritual darkness, and one of them is the purpose for men being here.  Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  And when the Lord Jesus worked in the hearts of these two blind men, they were so happy over what God had done to them and they so praised God that they glorified God.  They had reached that ultimate goal for which we are here in this earth to glorify Him.

           

Now the Lord Jesus has changed His position.  He’s no longer here in our midst.  He’s at the right hand of the majesty on high, but it’s still true, that Jesus of Nazareth passes by.  He does not do it physically.  He does it through His word and through His spirit.  And we have listened as we have read the word of God to the exposition of the power Jesus Christ to heal.  And if someone under the influence of the Holy Spirit, has been brought to the conviction of his sin, He stands ready and waiting to deliver from the blindness of our heart, to bring you into the knowledge of the Lord Jesus which means everlasting life.

           

Remembering that later the Lord Jesus will die upon the cross at Calvary for sinners, making it possible for all of our sin and guilt and condemnation to be washed totally clean.  And if God has brought in our heart the desire He brought into the hearts of these blind men for healing, may God help us deep down within the recesses of our being to cry out, O Lord Thou son of David, have mercy upon us.  And this great miracle of healing will be accomplished spiritually again.  May God speak to our heart to that end.  Let’s pray for the benediction.

           

Prayer:

 

Father, we know that we have inadequately expressed the greatness of the healing ministry of the Lord Jesus, but we do know deep down within us, Lord, what Thou hast done for us and what Thou art able to do for men who come through the Spirit’s enablement to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel, the Savior of sinners.

           

And Lord, if there should be someone present in this auditorium, one little child, perhaps one young man, one young woman, one elderly man or woman in whom the Holy Spirit has worked, O God, by the Holy Spirit, bring to their inmost being that urgent request, O Lord Thou son of David have mercy upon me.

           

Accomplish, Lord the supernatural work of the new birth. May grace mercy and peace go with us. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

 

Chapter Contents

The parable of the laborers in the vineyard. (1-16) Jesus again foretells His sufferings. (17-19) The ambition of James and John. (20-28) Jesus gives sight to two blind men near Jericho. (29-34)

 

Commentary on Matthew 20:1-16

 

The direct object of this parable seems to be, to show that though the Jews were first called into the vineyard, at length the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles, and they should be admitted to equal privileges and advantages with the Jews. The parable may also be applied more generally, and shows,

 

1. That God is debtor to no man.

 

2. That many who begin last, and promise little in religion, sometimes, by the blessing of God, arrive at a great deal of knowledge, grace, and usefulness.

 

3. That the recompense of reward will be given to the saints, but not according to the time of their conversion. It describes the state of the visible church, and explains the declaration that the last shall be first, and the first last, in its various references.

               

Until we are hired into the service of God, we are standing all the day idle: a sinful state, though a state of drudgery to Satan, may be called a state of idleness. The market-place is the world, and from that we are called by the gospel. Come; come from this market-place. Work for God will not admit of trifling. A man may go idle to hell, but he that will go to heaven, must be diligent. The Roman penny was seven pence halfpenny in our money, wages then enough for the day's support. This does not prove that the reward of our obedience to God is of works, or of debt; when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants; but it signifies that there is a reward set before us, yet let none, upon this presumption, put off repentance till they are old. Some were sent into the vineyard at the eleventh hour; but nobody had hired them before. The Gentiles came in at the eleventh hour; the gospel had not been before preached to them. Those that have had gospel offers made them at the third or sixth hour, and have refused them, will not have to say at the eleventh hour, as these had, No man has hired us.

 

Therefore, not to discourage any, but to awaken all, be it remembered, that now is the accepted time. The riches of Divine grace are loudly murmured at, among proud Pharisees and nominal Christians. There is great proneness in us to think that we have too little, and others too much of the tokens of God's favor; and that we do too much, and others too little in the work of God. But if God gives grace to others, it is kindness to them, and no injustice to us.

 

Carnal worldliness agrees with God for their penny in this world; and chooses their portion in this life. Obedient believers agree with God for their penny in the other world, and must remember they have so agreed. Didst not thou agree to take up with heaven as thy portion, thy all; wilt thou seek for happiness in the creature" God punishes none more than they deserve, and recompenses every service done for Him; He therefore does no wrong to any, by showing extraordinary grace to some.

 

See here the nature of envy. It is an evil eye, which is displeased at the good of others, and desires their hurt. It is a grief to us, displeasing to God, and hurtful to our neighbors: it is a sin that has neither pleasure, profit, nor honor. Let us forego every proud claim, and seek for salvation as a free gift. Let us never envy or grudge, but rejoice and praise God for His mercy to others as well as to ourselves.

 

Commentary on Matthew 20:17-19

 

Christ is more particular here in foretelling His sufferings than before. And here, as before, He adds the mention of His resurrection and His glory, to that of His death and sufferings, to encourage His disciples, and comfort them. A believing view of our once crucified and now glorified Redeemer, is good to humble a proud, self-justifying disposition. When we consider the need of the humiliation and sufferings of the Son of God, in order to the salvation of perishing sinners, surely we must be aware of the freeness and richness of Divine grace in our salvation.

 

Commentary on Matthew 20:20-28

 

The sons of Zebedee abused what Christ said to comfort the disciples. Some cannot have comforts but they turn them to a wrong purpose. Pride is a sin that most easily besets us; it is sinful ambition to outdo others in pomp and grandeur. To put down the vanity and ambition of their request, Christ leads them to the thoughts of their sufferings. It is a bitter cup that is to be drunk of; a cup of trembling, but not the cup of the wicked. It is but a cup, it is but a draught, bitter perhaps, but soon emptied; it is a cup in the hand of a Father, John 18:11. Baptism is an ordinance by which we are joined to the Lord in covenant and communion; and so is suffering for Christ, Ezekiel 20:37; Isaiah 48:10. Baptism is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace; and so is suffering for Christ, for unto us it is given, Philippians 1:29. But they knew not what Christ's cup was, nor what His baptism. Those are commonly most confident, who are least acquainted with the cross. Nothing makes more mischief among brethren, than desire of greatness. And we never find Christ's disciples quarrelling, but something of this was at the bottom of it. That man who labors most diligently, and suffers most patiently, seeking to do good to his brethren, and to promote the salvation of souls, most resembles Christ, and will be most honored by Him to all eternity. Our Lord speaks of His death in the terms applied to the sacrifices of old. It is a sacrifice for the sins of men, and is that true and substantial sacrifice, which those of the law faintly and imperfectly represented. It was a ransom for many, enough for all, working upon many; and, if for many, then the poor trembling soul may say, Why not for me"

 

Commentary on Matthew 20:29-34

 

It is good for those under the same trial, or infirmity of body or mind, to join in prayer to God for relief, that they may quicken and encourage one another. There is mercy enough in Christ for all that ask. They were earnest in prayer. They cried out as men in earnest. Cold desires beg denials. They were humble in prayer, casting themselves upon, and referring themselves cheerfully to, the Mediator's mercy. They showed faith in prayer, by the title they gave to Christ. Surely it was by the Holy Ghost that they called Jesus, Lord. They persevered in prayer. When they were in pursuit of such mercy, it was no time for timidity or hesitation: they cried earnestly. Christ encouraged them. The wants and burdens of the body we are soon sensible of, and can readily relate. Oh that we did as feelingly complain of our spiritual maladies, especially our spiritual blindness! Many are spiritually blind, yet say they see. Jesus cured these blind men; and when they had received sight, they followed Him. None follow Christ blindly. He first by His grace opens men's eyes, and so draws their hearts after Him. These miracles are our call to Jesus; may we hear it, and make it our daily prayer to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

Alleged Contradictions and Inaccuracies

 

In Matthew's account two blind men are healed, whereas in the accounts of Mark and Luke only one blind man is mentioned: If two blind men were healed, then certainly one was healed. The Gospel writers did not include all that Jesus did and said. (cf. John 21:25).

 

Matthew and Mark place the healing when Jesus was departing from Jericho, whereas Luke places the healing when Jesus was coming to Jericho: It is perfectly possible that Jesus healed "a certain blind man" as He was come nigh to Jericho (Luke's account), and then healed two more blind men (one of whom was blind Bartimaeus, Mark's account) as He was leaving Jericho.

 

Matthew 20:29-34 “What Do You Want Jesus to Do For You"”

 

Translation

 

20:29 Now, as they were proceeding out from Jericho, a numerous crowd followed Him,

 

20:30 and, two blind men sitting beside the road heard that Jesus was coming along [and] cried out saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

 

20:31 But the crowd reprimanded them in order that they might hush, but as for them, they were crying out more, saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

20:32 Then Jesus stood [still] and whistled to them and said, “What are y’all wanting Me to do for you"”

 

20:33 They say to Him, “Lord, that our eyes might be opened!”

 

20:34 And Jesus, gut-wrenched, touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes saw again! Then they followed Him.

 

Introduction

 

Exploring about how to pray. In Matthew 20:21, we just saw James and John’s mom ask Jesus for something, and now again in v.29ff, we have someone else making a request of Jesus.

 

  • In both cases Jesus asks, “What do you want"”

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  • However, in the first case, Jesus is appalled at the presumptuousness and pride of the request.

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  • But in the second scenario before us, we see that Jesus is “moved with compassion,” and fulfills the request of the blind men.

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  • What made the difference" We need to explore the status we have as children of God which privileges us to ask God for things, and to look at what characterizes the sort of requests that Jesus honors so that we can become better at praying to God.

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  • As Jesus makes His way closer to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, He reaches the town of Jericho, the very city that Joshua captured when the walls fell down some thousand four hundred years before then, and here, the road which had been running South along the Jordan river turns up West into the hills toward Jerusalem. In about 15 miles it will ascend 3,300 feet to the gates of the holy city where He will be crucified.

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  • But for now, Jesus is just approaching Jericho, a lovely resort town where He will spend the night. He was apparently pretty famous by this time and had many out-of-town people follow­ing Him in, as well as people like Zaccheus who were from Jericho and wanted to see Him.

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  • It appears Jesus was getting a real Middle-Eastern welcome as He approached Jericho!

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  • This, by the way, was the same crowd that Zaccheus was trying to see through to get a glimpse of Jesus, and it was because of this throng that he climbed the tree. Matthew doesn’t tell us the story of Zaccheus, only Luke does, but the story of Zaccheus reminds us that Jesus was not merely concerned for the needs of the poor, blind beggars but also for the miserable, rich oppressors in the town of Jericho!

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    Exegesis

     

    20:29 Now, as they were proceeding out from Jericho, a numerous crowd followed Him,

    Και εκπορευομενων αυτων απο Ιεριχω ηκολουθησεν αυτῷ οχλος[3] πολυς.

     

    20:30 and, get this, two blind men sitting beside the road heard that Jesus was coming along [and] cried out saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

    και ιδου δυο τυφλοι καθημενοι παρα την ‘οδον ακουσαντες ‘οτι[4] Ιησους παραγει εκραξαν λεγοντες Ελεησον ‘ημας Κυριε[5] ‘Υιος Δαυιδ.[6]

     

  • This is remarkably like the account of the two blind men Jesus healed in Capernaum in Matt. 9:27ff.

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  • The blind men in Capernaum said the same thing, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.”

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  • Is it possible that these two blind men on the other side of the country in Jericho had heard about this and were modeling their request after their northern counterparts"

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  • Perhaps these blind men in Jericho hadn’t heard of the blind men healed in Caper­naum. Perhaps all they had to go on was the prophecy of Isaiah 35:4ff, “Be strong; do not be afraid. See your God come… He will save you! Then the eyes of blind men will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.”

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  • Later on in Matt. 22:41-42, when Jesus asks the Pharisees, “What do you think about the Christ/Anointed One/Messiah, whose son is He"’ They say to Him, ‘He is the son of David.’” So, the title “Son of David,” was the title of the Messiah, speaking of His being descended from the great king David and fulfilling the promise God made to David that a descendent of his would reign as a king forever.

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  • So these blind men cry out for the Messiah’s attention.

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  • Now, the gospel of Luke traces the story of only one of these two blind men, and in Mark’s gospel we find his name: Bar-timmaeus (Mk. 10:46) which can be interpreted, “Son of Filth.”

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  • There is no problem with the fact that Matthew mentions a second blind man with Bartimaeus. It doesn’t contradict Luke and Mark’s account that there was at least one blind man there. If there were two, then there was one… plus another.

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  • There does appear to be a discrepancy, however, between the gospel accounts in the timing of this incident.

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    ·         According to Matthew (20:29), the encounter with the blind beggars happened as Jesus was leaving Jericho,

     

    ·         But according to Luke (18:35), it happened as they were approaching Jericho,

     

    ·         And according to Mark (10:46), it happened as they were both coming to Jericho and as they were going out from Jericho! How can that be"

     

    ·         A.T. Robertson’s explanation seems the best, that there were two Jericho’s: the ancient city site and the township newly rebuilt by Herod, with only a short distance between.

     

    ·         A distinction between the old city and the new city is pretty common in ancient cities around the world. [You can see in the photo that the mound of the old city is still on the NW side of the modern town of Jericho.

     

    ·         So Jesus encountered these beggars on the road in-between the two sites. Thus Matthew, writing to a Jewish audience, says that they had just passed the historic site of old Jericho, where “Joshua fit the battle,” and Luke, writing to a Greek audience says that they were approaching the new Roman resort town], and Mark, writing to a Roman audience, locates them geographically between leaving the old city and entering the new city of Jericho. God’s word is amazingly accurate when you chase down its details!

     

    20:31 But the crowd reprimanded them in order that they might hush, 
    but as for them, they were crying out more, saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

    ‘Ο δε οχλος επετιμησεν αυτοις ‘ινα σιωπησωσιν ‘οι δε μειζον εκραζον[8] λεγοντες Ελεησον ‘ημας Κυριε Υιος Δαυιδ.

     

  • Have you ever wanted God to do something special, then shared it with somebody and got laughed at or even rebuked for it"

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  • The things we pray for should not be evaluated on the basis of whether other people think we should pray for it, but rather whether God wants you to pray for it. We know God wants us to pray for something if He has laid it on our heart and if it is consistent with what He has already revealed in the Bible.

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  • The majority of the people on the street that day in Jericho, however, thought that the best thing for these blind men was to be quiet, to hold their peace.

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  • So when the blind men kept their racket up, the crowd said to them, “We wish you were dumb as well as blind! If you don’t shut up, we’ll make you shut up!

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  • But the blind men had faith in Jesus:

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  • They openly confessed not only that Jesus is the Messiah, the promised Son of David,

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  • But that He is also the Lord.

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  • Furthermore they confess that Jesus is capable of extending the mercy of God to them by healing them.

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  • These are staggering statements to make about any man, Messianic King, God Almighty, and Mediator of God’s blessings. These two men seem to understand better than anyone else in that vast crowd who Jesus really is and what Jesus is capable of doing. Such faith arrests Jesus’ attention:

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  • Jesus interrupted His very important mission to Jerusalem and responded to these faith-filled men. Likewise, we Christians, who are supposed to be imitators of Christ, are we also willing to be interrupted in our work" Bible commentator Matthew Henry remarked on this point, “Why are we ever so much in haste about any business" … We should be willing to stand still to do good.”

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    20:32 Then Jesus stood [still] and whistled to them and said, “What are y’all want Me to do for you"”

    Και στας ‘ο Ιησους εφωνησεν αυτους και ειπεν Τί θελετε ποιησω ‘υμιν;

     

  • Seeing as all the other English translations render it “called the Greek word ephwnesen translates as “whistled,”.” However, the word literally means to “make a sound” which seems to be distinct from actually speaking words, and the only other time Matthew uses this word is to describe a rooster crowing (26:34, 74, and 75).

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  • It is curious that Jesus does not go over to them. Instead He stands where He is and calls them over to Him.

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  • According to Luke’s account (18:40), Jesus commands the very people who have been insulting the blind men to now escort the blind men for a personal audience with Him!

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  • Mark (10:49) has the same people that had been shushing the blind men now saying, “Cheer up; get up; He’s calling for you!” If it weren’t so hypocritical, it would be funny.

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  • It is as though, when Jesus heard Himself referred to as the “Lord” and Messianic King, “Son of David,” He obliged these men by playing the part of a great king.

    •  

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  • Great kings don’t come to you; you come to them.

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  • Great kings have courtiers that bring you to the king.

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  • And great kings ask for formal proposals,

    •  

  •  
  • So Jesus transforms the dusty street into a king’s palace for these two beggars who have recognized, more than anyone else, how great a king stands before them, perhaps due, in part, to the fact that they had no eyes to see how humble a form the Lord of the universe had taken upon Himself!

    •  

  •  
  • When you close your eyes to pray, do you realize how great the God is that you are addressing"

    •  

  • Now, at that moment, before Jesus on the street, the blind men could have asked for anything.

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    What would you have asked for, if it were you, and Jesus offered to make one wish come true"

     

  •  
  • All their life they had asked for “mercy” as beggars, soliciting passers-by for coins. Would they ask for money" They could ask for enough to live on for the rest of their lives, and never have to beg again!

    •  

  •  
  • Mark’s gospel gives us one clue before either beggar says a word: in Mark 10:50, it says that the blind man “threw off his cloak” when he went to Jesus. He decided to leave his beggar’s garb behind because he anticipated a miraculous answer to the audacious request he was about to make.

    •  

  •  
  • If this was truly the Messiah, and if Isaiah prophesied truly, then blind men would see. The blind men’s reasoning appears to be as simple as that.

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  • No doctor in the world could have healed them, and apparently not even God had healed a blind person in the history of the world until the time of Christ.

    •  

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  • This would be the ultimate proof that Jesus was the Messiah. If He couldn’t give them sight, then Jesus was a sham and God was a liar.

    •  

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  • Maybe they also longed, like Simeon that their own eyes might see God’s salvation, he prophesied Son of David, and the Messiah finally comes"

    •  

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  • These two blind men were going to go for broke and ask to see!

    •  

    20:33 They say to Him, “Lord, that our eyes might be opened!”

    Λεγουσιν αυτῷ Κυριε ‘ινα ανοιχθωσιν[10] ‘ημων ‘οι οφθαλμοι.

     

  • Now think about what the blind men chose to ask for.

    •  

  • All their lives they have made their living by sitting in public places begging for money. It was considered a community service for them to do so. It gave the community an opportunity to give to the poor and win favor with God (and man) with their generosity, and such beggars provided a very desirable service by praying for God to bless those who gave to them. (“God bless” is still a common parting word from panhandlers in our country today.)

    •  

  • All this, of course, hinged on the beggar’s inability to work at gainful employment. Blindness was such an obvious handicap that their status as beggars worked well. But if they were to receive their sight, all that would change. They would no longer be able to continue the life they had once led as beggars. Suddenly they would have to learn to read, learn a trade, and take up new and different responsibilities, start up a business, maybe get married and have children.

    •  

  • Considered from that perspective, it is remarkable that they were willing to embrace a whole new world of responsibilities and ask to see.

    •  

  • Likewise, there are responsibilities that naturally come along with being a recipient of God’s free grace. Are you willing to accept the responsibilities that come along with whatever it is you are asking God for"

    •  

    20:34 And Jesus, gut-wrenched, touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes saw again! Then they followed Him.

    Σπλαγχνισθεις δε ‘ο Ιησους ‘ηψατο των οφθαλμων[11] αυτων και ευθεως ανεβλεψαν [αυτων ‘οι οφθαλμοι[12]] και ηκολουθησαν αυτῷ.

     

  • Jesus’ response was first of all to be moved with compassion/pity. Literally, He was “gut-wrenched.” Do you realize what an awesome thing it is to have as God One who can be moved with compassion" Who sympathizes with us! When we are torn up inside, when we cry, the Ruler of the Universe enters into those feelings with us. Brothers and sisters, let us pray from our heart when we pray to Him!

    •  

  • The crux of the story, of course, is that, with a mere touch, Jesus physically healed two blind men.

    •  

  •  
  • In Mat 8:3, after the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus touched a man with a skin disease, and the leprosy was immediately cured,

    •  

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  • In Mat 8:15 Jesus touched Peter’s mother-in-law, and she was relieved of a fever,

    •  

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  • Others touched Jesus and were cured (9:20; 14:36)

    •  

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  • In Mar. 7:33, Jesus touched a deaf man who was immediately healed, and later with a touch, Jesus restored a servant who had gotten his ear chopped off (Luke 22:51)!

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  • In Luke 7:14, we read of Jesus touching a coffin, and, sure enough, the young man inside came alive!

    •  

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  • In Mat 9:29, Jesus touched the eyes of two blind men and they were healed,

    •  

  •  
  • And now, at a touch, four more eyes that were not able to physically function suddenly regain/ recover/ receive the marvel of sight.

    •  

  •  
  • The touch of Jesus has no limit to its power to bring physical healing.

    •  

  • Luke’s account mentions an additional statement from Jesus, “Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.” This reveals another staggering miracle. Jesus not only just fixed their eyes, He saved their souls from hell!

    •  

  •  
  • But wait, we may say, “The Bible reads, ‘your faith saved you.’”

    •  

  •  
  • Yes, but what was the content of their faith" It was that God had sent Jesus to be the Messiah, the savior of the world. Their faith did not make Jesus the savior-Messiah, it merely acknowledged and acted upon the truth that Jesus is the savior of the world. It is God’s grace that sent Jesus to die for our sins and save us from eternal damnation, and it is God’s grace that plants faith in human hearts to believe that. As we exercise that faith, we are saved, but our faith is a response, not the cause of our salvation.

    •  

  • But the story doesn’t end there; Jesus goes on to provide employment for these men who just lost their jobs as beggars due to His healing them. Unlike many of the people He healed whom He would not allow to follow Him, Jesus let these men become His followers, providing a context for them to learn a new life as men with seeing eyes.

    •  

  • Luke’s account says that the formerly-blind men then followed Jesus, “glorifying God,” and that when all the people saw this, they praised God as well!

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  • They were some of the ones shouting “Hosanna” the loudest, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, and that they

    •  

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  • Followed Him to hear Him teach in Bethany, and maybe even saw Him crucified.
  • They were among the 500 people who saw Jesus after His resurrection

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  • And among the 120 people in the upper room upon whom the Holy Spirit fell.

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  • The genuineness of their faith in Jesus was demonstrated to the world by the fact that they continued to follow Jesus after they were healed.

    •  

    Conclusion: Six Principles of Effective Prayer Drawn From Two Blind Beggars

     

    1. Punctuality

     

  • The Holy Spirit works in our minds in real time throughout the day. If we feel like we need something or if we are impressed to pray for a certain person, don’t wait until our bedtime prayers to speak to God about it. Go for it right away. We can pray for it later, too.

    •  

  • Matthew Henry commented, “When they heard that Jesus passed by, they asked no further questions, who were with him, or whether he was in haste, but immediately cried out. Note, It is good to improve the present opportunity, to make the best of the price now in the hand, because, if once let slip, it may never return; these blind men did so, and did wisely; for we do not find that Christ ever came to Jericho again. Now is the accepted time.”

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    2. Humility

     

  • These men did not say, “Jesus, we really ought to be healed. You know, we’re really poor, but we have given a large percentage of our income to the Lord, and we have been such good people, and our parents were such good people, and we have suffered so much from our blindness that you owe it to us.” No, they came humbly, simply asking for mercy. That is a good example for us. “Sovereign Lord, please have mercy.”

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  • “It is the will of God that we should in everything make our requests known to Him by prayer and supplication; not to inform or move Him, but to qualify ourselves for the mercy. The waterman in the boat, who with his hook takes hold of the shore, does not thereby pull the shore to the boat, but the boat to the shore. So in prayer we do not draw the mercy to ourselves, but ourselves to the mercy.” Lord, have mercy on us.

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    3. Faith

     

  • The two blind beggars were convinced that Jesus is the Lord, that He is the Messiah, and that He could give them God’s mercy, and they said that out loud.

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  • That got Jesus’ attention, and we can learn a lesson from that. We must know the truth about who Jesus is and place our faith in Him, even confess it out loud, if we want to grow in our prayer life.

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  • And we must believe that Jesus will do whatever we’re asking Him to do before we can pray for Him to do it. If you have some doubt, go back to the Bible to find out if it’s the kind of thing He would do and if He has the power to do it! Then pray with faith in Him!

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  • “It is of excellent use in prayer to eye Christ in the grace and glory of His Messiah ship; to remember that He is the Son of David, whose office it is to help and save, and to plead it with Him.”

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    4. Community

     

  • Peer pressure can be a good thing. Sometimes when we pray with somebody else, we experience a holy uprising of faith that emboldens us to pray for what we might never have had the faith to believe God could do if we had been praying alone.

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  • Often we step into prayer meetings without much of a passion to pray for anything. Then someone starts praying maybe for God to transform the lives of families in his church, and that seems to spark the faith of someone else, and he’ll pray maybe for transformation in the lives of the children in all the schools, and that gets somebody else praying for all the lost in our town, and pretty soon we’re ready to pray for revival for the whole nation!

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  • Matthew Henry noted something about corporate prayer in his commentary, “These joint-sufferers were joint-suitors; being companions in the same tribulation, they were partners in the same supplication. Note, it is good for those that are laboring under the same calamity, or infirmity of body or mind, to join together in the same prayer to God for relief, that they may quicken one another's fervency, and encourage one another's faith. There is mercy enough in Christ for all the petitioners.”

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    5. Persistence

     

  • Remember the Syro-Phonecian woman who would not take “No” for an answer until Jesus healed her daughter" And the widow in Jesus’ parable who wore out the unjust judge" Even in Jesus’ question, “What is your will"” He acknowledges that in these two blind men there has been, for a sustained period of time, an exercise of their will, trained by the Holy Spirit to press for the fulfillment of a particular goal. There is something to persisting in prayer with a determined will over time.

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  • “There is need of constancy to transcend all hindrances, and the more barriers that Satan erects, the more must we be kindled to prayer, just as we see the blind men redoubling their cries.” John Calvin

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  • “Hence learn, O beloved, that though we be very vile and outcast, but yet approach God with earnestness, even by ourselves we shall be able to effect whatsoever we ask. See, for instance, these men, how, having none of the apostles to plead with them, but rather many to stop their mouths, they were able to pass over the hindrances, and to come unto Jesus Himself… These then let us also emulate. Though God defer the gift, though there be many withdrawing us, let us not desist from asking. For in this way most of all shall we win God to us… although it be mercy and grace, it seeks for the worthy.” John Chrysostom

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  • “In following Christ with our prayers, we must expect to meet with hindrances and manifold discouragements from within and from without… Men ought always to pray and not to faint; to pray with all perseverance (Luke 18:1); to continue in prayer with resolution and not yield to opposition… This wrestling with God in prayer… makes us the fitter to receive mercy; for the more it is striven for, the more it will be prized and thankfully acknowledged.”

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    6. Follow-through

     

  • When your prayer is answered, don’t forget to thank God afterward!

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  • After your prayer is answered, continue to walk with Christ, and pray about other things. Even remind yourself from time to time so that you never forget God’s mercy in your life!

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  • And when prayers are answered, tell other people about it! Show your gratitude by being, as John Calvin put it, “a spectacle of Christ’s grace to many on this journey.”

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    So, what is it that God would have you pray for"

     

    Matthew 20:29-34

     

    I. Matthew 20:29: And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed Him.

     

    We know that in Matthew 19:1 Jesus was in the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. In verse seventeen of chapter twenty we saw that Jesus was still continuing His journey to Jerusalem, but there was no way of knowing exactly where He was, somewhere between Jerusalem on the west side of the Jordan River and the region of Judea (Perea) on the east side of the Jordan River.

     

    But now, here in verse twenty-nine, we learn that Jesus has crossed the Jordan, and is already leaving Jericho. Jericho was about eight miles west of the Jordan River and only fifteen miles away from Jerusalem. For the crowds of pilgrims from Galilee, Jericho was the last city before the final three thousand foot climb to Jerusalem. Everyone coming to Jerusalem from the east would pass through Jericho. So it was here that the pilgrims would converge, and their numbers swell, and the excitement and electricity in the air would grow even greater.

     

    And now adding to the excitement of these crowds from Galilee was the fact that Jesus (their own “hero” from back home) was walking with them on the same road. So “as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed Him.”

     

    II. Matthew 20:30: And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

     

    Here, again, is that favorite word of Matthew’s, “behold.” Forty-four times Matthew uses this word compared to Luke’s thirty-six times and Mark’s 14 times. And here is one of those places where Matthew says “behold,” and Mark and Luke do not. We should be careful about reading too much into a favorite word, but Matthew is alerting us once again to the special importance and significance of what’s about to happen, in light of what just happened.

     

    We had James and John (via their mother) making a request of Jesus. James and John are among the inner circle of the inner circle of Jesus’ closest disciples. For anyone who believed Jesus, it would be natural to think that James and John would be treated with a little extra respect and deference. But now compare these two “important” disciples with the two blind men sitting by the roadside.

     

    Two blind men sitting by the side of the road are almost certainly begging for money, and Mark and Luke tell us that this is exactly what they were doing (Mark 10:46; Luke 18:35). Mark speaks of only one blind man (cf. Luke) and calls him a “blind beggar named Bartimaeus.” There couldn’t be much more of a contrast! Compared to important men like James and John, these two blind beggars would certainly be the “little ones,” or the “small ones” (Matthew 18), those who were insignificant and unimportant.

     

    And this becomes very obvious in verse thirty-one when we find the crowd rebuking them and telling them to be quiet. So there’s a pretty stark contrast between the “rank,” or station in life of the two specially privileged disciples and the two blind beggars. But this isn’t the only contrast, as we’re about to see. “When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, ‘Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!’” 

     

    For the significance of this miracle as a pointer to Jesus’ identity as Israel’s Messiah, see the message on Matthew 9:27-31. While in and of itself this miracle functions in exactly the same way as the earlier one, it seems that Matthew includes the miracle here as a fitting contrast with the preceding story of James and John (cf. Mark [10:35-52]; contra Luke [18:35-43]) and therefore as a fitting conclusion to all of Jesus’ teaching on humility and true “greatness” (beginning in chapter eighteen). The blind beggars (in contrast with James and John) remind us of the “small ones” who are the “greatest,” and the “last” who will be “first.” 

     

    III. Matthew 20:31: The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all

     the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

     

    It shouldn’t take much for us to imagine the desperation in the voices of these two blind beggars. They “cry out” not just so they can be heard over the crowd, but especially because of the intense longing in their hearts. Here is their chance for healing. It’s a chance they may never have again. And so they cry out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David.”

     

    It was common in Jesus’ day to assume that a physical defect like blindness was God’s judgment for some sin (cf. John 9:1-2). Now whether or not these two men believed that their blindness was a punishment for sin, they obviously didn’t believe that they had any rights to be healed.

     

    “Lord, have mercy on us.” This isn’t just desperation, it’s a humble desperation; a recognition that the very thing we need and long for so badly is also something to which we are not entitled. The blind beggars know that they have no claim on Jesus for His healing. All they can plead for is

    His mercy.

    When the crowd rebukes them, telling them to be silent, they only cry out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David.” They’re blind, they’re beggars, they’re shunned by society, they’re insignificant and unimportant, and yet they have faith. They believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah, and Son of David. They believe that He is able to restore their sight (cf. Mark 10:52). And so they cry out in humble desperation, and with only five simple words, “Lord, have mercy on us.”

     

    But actually, we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves, aren’t we" The two blind men have not specifically asked Jesus for healing. They’ve asked only for mercy. Now we’ve assumed that this means they want to be healed, but even though Jesus certainly knew exactly what they wanted, He makes no assumptions. Instead, we read in verse thirty-two:

     

    IV. Matthew 20:32: And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you"”

     

    Does this sound familiar" There are only two places in all of the Gospels where Jesus asks someone what they want Him to do. Here is one of those places. But do we know where the other place is" It’s in the story right before this one, the story of James and John and their request of Jesus (via their mother).

     

    James and John somewhat vaguely asked Jesus to grant them a request. Mark is less subtle. He says that “James and John… came up to [Jesus] and said to Him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you” (Mark 10:35). And Jesus replied: “What do you want"” Or as Mark has it, “What do you want Me to do for you"” (Mark 10:36) That’s what just happened in the last story.

     

    But now we have two blind beggars (what a contrast with James and John!) crying out: “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” (What a contrast with “please give me something,” or, “we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You”!) And just like He did with James and John, so now Jesus does with the two blind beggars. He asks them, “What do you want Me to do for you"”

     

    Once again, this is the second of only two times in all the Gospels that Jesus asks anyone

    what they want Him to do for them, and both of these times are right here, back to back, one right after the other. So in the question asked of these two blind beggars, we can’t help but be reminded of the same question that Jesus just asked James and John. “And stopping, Jesus called them and said, ‘What do you want Me to do for you"’”

     

    V. Matthew 20:33: They said to Him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.”

     

    The blind beggars just want to see. That’s all. They have no grand aspirations for “greatness” in the Messiah’s kingdom. Anyway, how could they" They’re just blind beggars. They plead only the mercy of Jesus, and no entitlement or rights of their own. The blind beggars just want to see. That’s it. That’s all. Nothing more.

     

    But James and John have moved on to “bigger” things. James and John have “graduated” to more lofty goals. James and John want to be granted the positions of highest honor at the right and left hand of Jesus when He comes in His kingdom.

     

    Blind beggars just want to see. “They said to [Jesus], ‘Lord, let our eyes be opened.’”

     

    VI. Matthew 20:34a: And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered

     their sight.

     

    James’ and John’s request did not flow from any understanding of their need for mercy or compassion. Obviously not! We don’t ask for the highest positions in the kingdom and then explain our request as a cry for mercy! On the other hand, we don’t cry out for mercy, and then immediately turn around and ask for the highest positions in the kingdom! As it turns out, these special positions, at least as the disciples understood them, did not even exist. And so in light of all these things, it was impossible that Jesus could respond to the disciples’ request with a compassionate “yes.”

     

    But the request of the two blind beggars is a very, very different story. Their desire to have their eyes opened was nothing more than a desperate and humble plea for mercy. So while the two specially privileged disciples were denied their request, it was the two blind beggars who got what they asked for. And they got what they asked for because of the “pity” of Jesus. One commentator translates like this: “Jesus’ heart went out to them” not to James and John, but to the two blind beggars who cried out for mercy.

     

    VII. Matthew 20:34: And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered

     their sight and followed Him.

     

    The two blind beggars received their sight. They were blind, but now they can see. And Matthew describes their response very simply: “They… followed Him.” We heard in verse twenty-nine that already “a great crowd followed Him.” But when the formerly blind beggars followed Jesus, this was obviously something very different. This is the kind of “following” that naturally flows, from the experience of God’s mercy. They followed Jesus because He gave them their sight. They followed Jesus because He showed them pity. It’s not complicated! It’s just that simple.

     

    Conclusion

     

    So who are we most like" Are we more like the two specially privileged disciples, or are we

    more like the two blind beggars" Have we moved on to bigger things" Have we graduated to more lofty goals" James and John have implied that part of the reason they’re following Jesus is because of certain extra benefits they hope to receive. But the two formerly blind beggars follow Jesus because of the undeserved mercy and pity that they have already received. James and John have become more “complicated.” The two formerly blind beggars are very “simple” and uncomplicated. They follow Jesus because He gave them their sight. They follow Jesus because showed them pity. At this point, how could they even think about extra benefits to be lobbied for in the future"

     

    Certainly, they wouldn’t be thinking of the seats at Jesus’ right and left hand! They’ve already received more than they had any right to expect, and so for them this is already more than enough. They are content now, and more than satisfied, just to set off on the road following Jesus. If only our own Christian lives could be so “simple.” If only our own Christian lives could be so “uncomplicated.” But they can be, right" In fact, they must be!

    We must come back to a devotion to Christ that is simple and pure (cf. 2 Cor. 11:3). Why are we followers of Christ" Is it because we asked for mercy and He gave it to us" Is it just that simple" Or have things become more complicated" Have we moved on to bigger things" Have we graduated to more lofty goals" How much of our following of Jesus is really just the complicated pursuit of extra “favors” from God"

     

    Or how much of our following of Jesus is simply and purely because He heard our pleas for mercy" We cried out in desperation for mercy. In His pity, Jesus has shown us mercy. And now, every day, we follow Him. Is that “it”" Is that enough" Do our lives really say that it’s just “that simple”" Can we say with the Psalmist:

     

    Psalm 131:1–3  O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor do I have a haughty look. I do not have great aspirations, or concern myself with things that are beyond me. Indeed I am composed and quiet, like a young child carried by its mother; I am content like the young child I carry. O Israel, hope in the Lord now and forevermore!

     

    Let's look at Matthew chapter 20, the last wonderful, wonderful section in this twentieth chapter...Matthew chapter 20, verses 29 through 34.

    A very simple story, very simple. Easy to understand and not even unusual in the life of Christ for stories like this could be repeated a thousand times a thousand. So much so perhaps that as John said, all the books of all the world couldn't even contain them. Why this story" Why is it here" As Jesus goes to Jerusalem to die, why stop in the progress of such a great event as the Passover where He is to be the lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, why stop to include a story of two blind men"

    Among many reasons, one sort of overpowering reason is indicated by the word "compassion" in verse 34. And if all other lessons were set aside, one great and profound truth would grab our minds and that is this, that Jesus had great compassion. People who were nothing but an irritation and a distraction to the crowd were a cause for deep pain to Him, the pain of sympathy, empathy and compassion.

    While the world wanted to silence these kinds of people, Jesus wanted to hear what they had to say. While the world wanted to make sure they didn't get in the way, Jesus wanted to be sure He stood with them. While the world wanted to be sure they didn't interrupt anything by articulating their need, Jesus wanted not only to know their need but to meet it. And so, at best this wonderful little story is a demonstration of the heart of God which is a heart of compassion.

    And that is to say, beloved, that God not only knows what pain we endure, He feels it. That's right. He not only knows it, it is not just cognition, it is not God in heaven saying, "O, I understand his suffering," it isn't just that. It's the feeling of that suffering. It is the pain of that which touches His own great heart. And therefore, when God allows you to suffer, He allows Himself to suffer as well and be sure then that if indeed your suffering is not alleviated, He continues to suffer with you and must therefore have some great purpose in mind for He Himself could eliminate His own suffering as well.

    And so does Jesus demonstrate compassion.

    We would imagine that He would have been preoccupied with the disciples, perhaps, which were to carry on the legacy after His death which will occur in a few days. We would imagine that He could have been distracted by the thought of dying itself and becoming the sacrificial lamb as He looked up the plateau to Jerusalem from the vantage point of Jericho far below. It would have been easy for us to understand that He really didn't have time in this particular moment in history to stop and take care of a couple of blind men of which there were many such and maybe many many such in Jericho for it was said of Jericho that there grew balsam bushes and balsam bushes could be made into a special kind of medicine which was good for the curing of the eyes. And yet He has time. And that is to say that God is compassionate. And Jesus Christ is not too busy redeeming the entire world to give sight to two insignificant blind men who have nothing to offer Him but their problem. And that may be a more profound lesson than we have thought.

    Blindness, in fact, is a matter of record in the Bible. It's quite common, physical blindness and spiritual blindness.

    Physical blindness occurred quite frequently in the ancient world. Poverty, lack of medical care, unsanitary conditions, brilliant sunlight, blowing sand, certain kinds of accidents, war, fighting, all of these things could cause blindness. But most commonly, blindness was caused basically because of gonorrheal diplococcus that would find their way from a woman's body into the conjunctiva of the eye of a child at birth and there they would form their disease and permanent blindness could occur. Sometimes blindness came by the infecting virus trichoma("). And today, much of these things are curable because of the drugs that we have available, but then they were not. So it was not uncommon to be blind, especially maybe not uncommon, in Jericho where they believed there was a certain bush that healed blindness.

    But even more common than physical blindness was spiritual blindness. And metaphorically the gospels and the epistles speak often of the blindness of the heart. In fact, it's summed up in the words of John 1 which simply says, "That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not.

    He came unto His own and His own received Him not." Or in the third chapter where it says that men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Or Romans 11:25 which says blindness in part has happened to Israel. Or 2 Corinthians 3:14, "Their minds were blinded." Or Jesus' words in Matthew 23, "Woe unto you blind guides, you blind Pharisee," He said. Blind to God. May be able to see physically, but blind to God.

    Now the case of these men is most interesting because while they are physically blind, they appear to have unusually clear spiritual sight. Physically they see nothing, spiritually they see very well. And they will see even better when the Lord Jesus is finished with them. And they will also see physically.

    Why are people spiritually blind" Sin, we're blinded by sin. In Matthew 6 it talks about the fact that when we're evil, our whole eye is darkened. Satan sort of adds a double blindness by blinding the minds of them that believe not, 2 Corinthians 4:4. And then God may add a triple blindness when His sovereignty makes the eye blind, as Isaiah 6 indicates, in a judicial punishment of unbelievers. And so we see then that men are blind by sin and doubly blinded by Satan and doubly or triply blinded by God. And it is into the darkness of man's spiritual blindness that Jesus comes. And we remember when He announced His arrival in Luke 4:18, He said He had come to give sight to the blind. And, He was not primarily speaking of physical blindness; He was primarily speaking of spiritual. He said in John 8, "I am the light that lights the world; whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness." He came to give spiritual light to blind eyes.

    And sometimes He gave physical sight to blind eyes. And He did that for three reasons. First of all, it was part of Messianic proof. He was demonstrating that He was the Messiah. Secondly, it was part of millennial preview. He was showing them what it was going to be like in His Kingdom when all of that kind of thing was turned over and there was glorious wholeness and healing in the Kingdom. And thirdly, it was a matter of symbol or picture. It was a marvelous picture.

    Every time He healed someone of physical blindness, He was in effect saying that's only a symbol of what I want to do to the soul. Every time He unstopped the ears so that someone could hear sound, He was in effect saying and that is exactly what I want to do to the heart so you can hear the Word of God. And every time He raised someone from the dead physically, He was saying I want to give life to the soul as I am able to give life to the body. And that is why Jesus found it no more difficult to forgive sins than to heal someone. And when posed with that question, that's what He said, "What's the difference" I am showing you by My absolute control over the physical world and the natural laws that I have control over the spiritual world and the supernatural laws."

    And so, in the case of these two blind men, we have Messianic proof. We have millennial preview. And we have a marvelous picture of what He's able to do to the heart. And then we have the reality. Before the story's over, these two blind men are saved, redeemed souls. And so they see physically, they see spiritually. And they demonstrate to us that no matter how involved our Lord is, His heart of compassion reaches out to those who cry for His help.

    Now let's look at the scene in verse 29. It's a very simple story and a simple scene. "As they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him." Jesus had finished His ministry in Galilee. He finished His ministry in Peraea. Peraea is the area east of the Jordan. Jesus had crossed the Jordan at some northern point near the Sea of Galilee and descended down the eastern side of the Jordan River in that area known as Peraea.

    He's finished His ministry of a few weeks there and now He's on His way to Jerusalem. So He has to cross again the Jordan River to the west.

    He probably crossed at a fairy spot, about five miles north of Jericho. Jericho's the first city we see when we cross the Jordan from the east. And as we fairy across the river, we walk across nowadays what is known as the Allenby (") Bridge, the first sight we see is Jericho. It isn't the Jericho of old; it's really the third Jericho. They keep moving south. But in Jesus' time, there was the Old Testament Jericho which was ruins. And then a little south of that, right against it really, was the New Testament Jericho that flourished at this time. And it was a beautiful place, still is. It has its own unique beauty.

    In those days, it was so exquisite a place that Herod built himself a wonderful fort and palace there. And that was his winter home. And they...Josephus used to say that when there was snow in Jerusalem, they were wearing linen because it was so warm in Jericho and it's only about 15 miles as the crow flies. But it's so far down into that desert that it stays warm. It's the Palm Springs of Palestine. It was known as the city of palms.

    And if we want to understand the geography of the land of Palestine, we'll be interested to note that it is almost an absolute identical copy of southern California, both in terms of geography and climate. For it has a seacoast, a beautiful gorgeous beach on the Mediterranean. And then there is a lovely valley known as the Sharon Valley. And then the mountains rise up, we know them as the Carmel Mountain Range. And at the southern end is this massive plateau of Jerusalem. And from there descends straight down to the desert. It's almost a parallel. The only difference would be that where as Los Angeles is in a basin, Jerusalem is on a plateau. But it's much like our area. From the seacoast it rises to the mountains and then descends to the desert.

    And Jericho was a lovely place in the winter, even in the spring. Because the crops all came in early in Jericho. Mark tells us it was not yet fig picking time in Jerusalem, but it would have been in Jericho because of the warmth. There were citrus trees everywhere because Jericho is endlessly fed by some beautiful springs, of lovely water, pure and clear and that water was channeled by irrigation all through that area around Jericho so that it flourished. And there were palm trees everywhere and citrus trees and then this balsam bush which had some multiple uses that was growing there. And so it would have been a very lovely place.

    It was also a place that must have literally exploded on the minds of Jesus...on the mind of Jesus with memory because He would no doubt remember a very special woman from that city by the name of Rahab who was a prostitute but who hid the spies, who came to spy out the land. And as a result in the grace of God she was given a place in Messianic genealogy and you find her listed as an ancestor of the Messiah Himself in Matthew chapter 1.

    And as He stood on the edge of the Jordan River, ready to go south about five miles maybe to the New Testament city of Jericho, He would have looked straight ahead to a cliff of mountains that rises straight up into the sky, chalky white, limestone-like parapet that cast its shadow in the late afternoon over the city of Jericho. And He would have remembered that that was very likely the place where He was tempted for 40 days and 40 nights by the devil. It's called by historians the devastation of bleak and desolate place.

    And so, His mind is literally filled with things. Around Him is pressing a huge crowd, moving now from crossing the river down to Jericho, passing through the ruins of Old Testament Jericho which ruins, by the way, are still there for a visitor to see...including the ancient wall which so accommodated the plan of God by falling over on cue. And as they came to the city, He could see the sights and smell the smells and hear the sounds and it would be such a fulfilling experience. And in the midst of all of this, the tremendous anticipation of His own death only days away. He's only; by the way, six hours walk maybe from Jerusalem, six miles north of the Dead Sea. And it's a fulfilling thing.

    Now as He comes into the city, naturally the mob presses Him on all sides. He can heal. Anybody today who even claims to heal can pack in a crowd. You can get 15,000 people into Madison Square Garden if you just tell them you're going to heal them. Even if you can't, they'll come just to find out if you can. And if you really can heal, they're there, believe it!

    In Jesus' time, they mobbed Him. That's why the Lord had to tell the disciples not to take any money because they could have made literally a fortune in a day selling healings. And so the people pile all around Jesus, His teaching, His preaching, the magnetism of His personality, His ability to raise the dead and heal people from any disease.

    And as He came into the city with the press of the crowd, there was one little guy that really wanted to see Him. You remember his name" Zacchaeus. And he was number-one public enemy, hated. He was a Jew who sold out to Rome for money. He became chief tax collector. He exacerbated tax out of Israel to the point of a fault. He defrauded them. He stole them blind. And he pocketed it all for himself and they hated him. Not only was he a traitor, but he was a crook. But he was fascinated by Jesus.

    Now how did he know about Him" Well, it hadn't been long before this that Jesus made a short trip to Bethany. And when He was there, He raised Lazarus from the dead. And the word went like wildfire. Bethany was the town between Jericho and Jerusalem, just up the hill. It's very likely that everybody would have known who the Mary, Martha, Joseph little family was...or Mary, Martha and Lazarus, rather. They would have known who they were. And, of course, the whole city was in an uproar when He raised him from the dead. And His enemies pursued Him that He had to go back on the other side of the Jordan for a while for safety's sake. At least He had to retreat away. And so they knew. He had practically banished disease from Palestine and so everybody knew who He was. They were all there. And Zacchaeus wanted a view of Him.

    Since he couldn't see like a little kid at a parade, he crawled up in a tree. And Jesus came along and He stopped and said, "Come down out of that tree, I'm coming to your house, I'm going to spend the night." Which wouldn't have done anything for the popularity of Jesus superficially because since this was the most hated man in town. But He had a wonderful evening with Zacchaeus and He transformed him. He redeemed him. The man was totally transformed. The reason we know that was he said to Jesus just before the dawning came and the thing was all completed, he said, "I'm going to give everything I give back to the poor, everything I've ever taken from anybody four-fold."

    And Jesus said, "Surely salvation has come to this house."

    That's the real thing! That's the real thing. He is the perfect opposite of the rich young ruler. True salvation, he wants to give it all away. You don't even have to tell him to do it, he wants to do it. Everything he's defrauded and more.

    And so, as the morning breaks and Zacchaeus is running around town settling his account and he's like some incredible Santa Claus giving everybody back four times what he took and saying it's all because of Jesus, the crowd perhaps even swelled greater. And the whole place is lined with people. Now you have to reach the other accounts to get that. We're not looking at that in verse 29.

    And so by now Jesus is ready to leave. He spent the night. He's going to Jerusalem. He must move to the Passover. And so we pick it up in verse 30. "And behold two blind men sitting by the wayside, when they heard that Jesus passed by cried out saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David."

    Now, it says in verse 29 "As they departed from Jericho" this happened. Mark says, in the comparative passage, "As they were leaving Jericho." But Luke says, "As He came near Jericho." Now people say, "How do you harmonize this" Isn't this a biblical error" Two have Him leaving, one has Him coming." And some say, "Well, if you remember that there was Old Testament Jericho and New Testament Jericho, it's possible that He was leaving Old Testament Jericho and entering into New Testament Jericho."

    But why would He stay overnight in the ruins" We don't know, maybe Zacchaeus lived over there. It's possible. We don't know the explanation, but we’re wonderfully content with the fact that there is an explanation... Beggars, from experience in studying the Bible, usually hung around the thoroughfares where the people were. And if we've ever been to Jerusalem, we know where they hang around. In fact, just outside the city gate. And that seems to be the rather traditional place for them.

    And so, perhaps one explanation of what might have happened is that, as Jesus is moving with this mob and they come to the gate and the crowd and the noise and all that's going on and they pass out the gate, then all of a sudden the cries of these blind men are brought to His attention at which point He turns to return into the city to confront them and meet them and find their need. Certainly a possible explanation. But it's really wonderful to note that each gospel writer is not intimidated by what the other says, therefore they're not copying some extraneous source. They are rather writing from their own heart under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And when you pull it all together, it makes wonderful and beautiful sense.

    And so, as Jesus moves along, perhaps going out the gate, moving directly west up that incredible incline to the plateau of Jerusalem, it is brought to His attention that these blind men are crying after Him.

    Now, verse 30 says, "Behold," and that is a term of exclamation. And the exclamation here is not because of the blind men, it isn't "Behold, two blind men," like that was some big deal. Probably the same two blind men that had been there a while. It wasn't that they were sitting, they always sat. And it wasn't they were along the road, they were always along the road. The reason they put a "behold" in there is because of what they said. They said, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David." And they call Him by His Messianic title. Two beggars, Mark says, who were begging, Luke says, sitting by the wayside, Matthew says, screaming out the Messianic title. Where did these guys come off as such consummate theologians" Where did they get their information and faith"

    That's the "behold." That's the exclamation. Not that they were blind or that they were there or that they were begging or that they were yelling, but it was what they were saying.

    At this point we find another wonderful thought. Luke only discusses one of the two, the more prominent one. But never says there was only one. And Mark goes a step further, he only discusses one of the two and he gives us his name. His name is Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus. Now we could wonder why he bothers to name him. Matthew just wants us to see the majesty of Christ. Luke emphasizes the same, but Mark touches the real human cord by naming this man. And perhaps is because he was well-known. Oh, not then but later. So that when Mark pens the gospel and the letters are written to the church to read about the account of the life of our Lord, when they can sit down and read this, they'll have there the story of the conversion of one who by now they greatly love. It's as if Mark is saying, "And you know who one of those guys was" It was none other than your friend, Bartimaeus." And so he picks up a little of history...of the history of one of the beloved brothers in the church by the time the gospel would be read by some.

    It's not unusual, by the way, for one gospel writer to mention two and the others to focus on one. You'll find the same thing in the maniac across the Sea of Galilee at Gerasa where some writers note two and some concentrate on the healing of one. That's the background.

    Now a brief outline and we'll run right through the simple story. Their sad plight, their sad plight, verse 30, it says, "When they heard Jesus pass by, they cried out saying, Have mercy on us." And then in verse 31 at the end, "They cried again saying the more, Have mercy on us." The word "cry" here is krazo, it means to scream. It's used in the New Testament of the screeching and screaming’s of demon possessed people, Mark 5. It's used of the screaming of insane people and epileptics. It's used of the cry, the loud anguish cry of a mother giving birth to a child.

    And the idea of the form of the text here is there was a constant screaming. They were yelling at the top of their voice, "Have mercy on us," a cry of anguish and a cry of desperation, cry of pain. They know that if Jesus gets out of the hearing of their voices, that they're doomed to blindness the rest of their life. They know this is the only one who can do this. And the desperation is powerful, the drama. You can imagine the shrieking and screaming of two men who know they've got one moment in time or the rest of their life they are to be blind stones. And they scream in almost a frenzy. And they say, "Have mercy on us."

    They didn't say, "Hey, God gave us a dirty deal, why don't You make it right." They recognized that they needed mercy. "Take pity on us. Look at our sad situation."

    There's a sense of humility in that that speaks of the mark of someone with true humility. They wail with an intense desire to be healed, but they make not demands and they make no claim to worthiness. And they are so persistent that they refused to be bludgeoned into silence by the indifferent crowd. Verse 31, "The multitude rebuked them that they should hold their peace and they screamed louder." The world always tries to keep people from getting to Jesus, don't they"

    It isn't anything really different. People get disgusted with beggars and if you've ever been in a part of the world where there are a lot of them, you really do kind of slough them off and they do get in the way and they're a little bit obtrusive.

    But, their heart was right. "Have mercy on us, take pity." They felt their deep need. They knew they deserved nothing. They cried for mercy. There's no merit in mercy. There’s no merit to be given to one who seeks mercy. They were quite different than the Pharisees who sought no mercy because they believed on the basis of merit; they possessed a right to everything. So we see their sad plight.

    And then their strong persistence. In verse 31, it says, "When the crowd tried to shut them up, they just kept screaming louder." And these people really wanted to get to Jesus, with spirit and their strong persistence.

    There's a third thing here to note...their sound perception. As blind as they were physically, they were equally able to see spiritually because of something they said. "O Lord, Son of David," verse 30, "O Lord, Son of David," verse 31, that's the Messianic title. They had come to the place where they believed that He was the Messiah. Now to what extent that faith extends" We don’t have an insight into the dimensions of their faith. But it was there to some extent or they wouldn't have been screaming as frantically as they were. There wasn't any doubt in their mind that this was their only chance. Maybe, we can say how sure they were, it was a chance or it was a real opportunity but they knew there wasn't any other and they put all they had into this one.

    And when they said, "O Lord," there must have been something in that. We don't know whether they assumed Him to be God, deity or whether they were giving Him a title of honor and respect which indicated that He was a sovereign of some kind, a lord of some kind. But when they said "Son of David," they were identifying Him as the Messiah. For it says in Matthew 1:1 in the beginning of the genealogies of Jesus that He is the Son of David, Son of Abraham. That is the most common Jewish term for the coming king because in 2 Samuel 7:12 and 13, when God gave the covenant and promised that there would come a greater king than David; it would be David's greater Son.

    And so, Son of David became the title by which Messiah was designated and Jesus was the Son of David, for Joseph, His father, had come in the Davidic line and Mary, His mother, had also come in the Davidic line. And He indeed was the Son of David. And when the birth of Jesus Christ occurred in Luke 1 verse 32, we read, "He shall be great and be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father, David, and He shall reign and the end of His Kingdom shall never come." And so they give Him a Messianic name.

    It's the same thing they called Him in chapter 21 when He came into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday in verse 9, "Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest." And verse 11 they said, "This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee." So they are saying, "Jesus of Nazareth from Galilee, a prophet, is none other than Son of David, the one who comes in the name of the highest." And so it is a double act of faith. They have faith in His power to heal; they have faith in His person as Messiah. Maybe it was due to the resurrection of Lazarus. Maybe it was due to the ministry of John the Baptist a few years before, for they would have been in the proximity of the Jordan River out there and they may well have known John the Baptist, they may well have known that he had called for repentance in preparation for the Messiah. We don't know. They may well even have known Isaiah 29:18 which said that when Messiah comes He will give sight to the blind.

    But whatever it was, they had enough faith to know that they were in need of mercy and to believe that this was the one who could do for them what they needed done and that He was Lord to some extent and that He was Messiah to the full extent. And we believe that when we have come to the point of all the faith that is possible, the Lord will meet us at that point of faith and take us all the way to redemption.

    And that's what He does with these two men. "The faith of the blind rose to the full height of divine possibility." And so, we see their simple plea...sad plight, strong persistence, sound perception, simple plea...verse 32, "And Jesus stood still and called them and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you"" He stood still. Stop the whole procession.

    Here was a great moment in which three things could occur generally, Messianic proof again, millennial preview, and a marvelous picture of what He would do for the heart. It was a time to demonstrate His credentials all over again, but it was more than that, it was a moment of tender compassion on behalf of two needy people. And He called them.

    How did He call them" Well, if we read Mark's account it seems as though He called them with a messenger. Someone ran back and that's another reason why they were out of the city and somebody ran back to these guys who were over there by the gate. And he ran back and in Mark 10:49 says, "Be of good comfort, rise, He calls you." He wants you. And in Mark 10:50 it says, "The blind rose up and threw off his garment and went to Jesus." Once he heard that Jesus had gotten the message, he just threw away his garment and took off. Maybe he figured he'd come back and be able to see enough to find it again.

    And Jesus says, "What will you that I should do to you""

    This is to evoke out of their hearts a greater expectation, this is to confirm in the crowd exactly what He was doing. And the response is a simple plea of verse 33, "They said unto Him, Lord, that our eyes may be open." You see, they're confessing they're blind. And that needs to be made very clear. They were blind.

    And that leads to their supernatural privilege...supernatural privilege, verse 34, "And Jesus had compassion on them, touched their eyes, immediately their eyes received sight." Now it says that Jesus had compassion. And that's the real message of this wonderful story. He felt their need. He felt their pain. He hurt for them. There is such tenderness in Him. He reached out and He touched their eyes.

    And Luke adds, "He said when He touched them, Receive your sight." And instantly all physical laws were set aside and just as God creates something out of nothing, Christ created seeing eyes.

    Interesting that the Greek verb here is anablepo, blepo, to see, ana, to see again which is to say that perhaps their blindness had occurred in life, not in birth. And so they were made to see again. Those who have lost their sight have a greater pain to bear than those who were born blind and do not know what they've missed. And so He restores to them their sight again out of compassion, touching and speaking.

    Oh, He used many methods. Sometimes He touched, sometimes He didn't. Sometimes they touched Him. Sometimes He spoke, sometimes He merely thought a thought and they were healed. Sometimes He put fingers in ears, sometimes He used clay, sometimes He used spittle. He healed many, many different ways. But always His healings were total, complete, instantaneous and defied any natural explanation.

    As a footnote. There are a lot of people around today who want us to believe that they can heal. And we'll turn on our television from time to time and we'll see those kinds of things, but have we ever noticed the absence of blind people" Have we ever noticed that" Oh, they pretend to be able to help people hear and lengthen legs and help people with aches and pains, but where are the people who have glass eyes and all of a sudden they have seeing eyes" This is a monumental miracle. A person who may be crippled and full of pain can be made in the euphoria of a moment and the hype of their own mind and the energy of a situation and in a strong act of confident faith in some healer to stand up and take a few steps, but none of that stuff is going to make a person without eyeballs see. So let the healers’ line up who claim they have the gift and heal the blind or raise the dead.

    Now this takes us to a final point. This takes us to a final point in verse 34, "their submissive pursuit." Sad plight, strong persistence, sound perception, simple plea, supernatural privilege, submissive pursuit, they pursue. The end of verse 34, "They followed Him." That's just a simple little statement but it's a beautiful statement.

    And what makes it especially beautiful is when they were healed, one of the other gospel writers, Mark, says, "Jesus said to them, Go your way...go your way." Well, what their way was" When He said go your way, what way did they go" Their way was His way from now on. This is just the kind of stuff that indicates real regeneration. And Mark 10:52 says, "Jesus said, Go your way, your faith has made you whole." Now listen carefully. The word there, "your faith has made you whole" is not iaomai, healed you, it's sozo, your faith has saved you. That is the classic New Testament word for "to be saved." Your faith has saved you. And inherent in what our Lord said there in Mark 10:52 to these blind men was this, "You're redeemed."

    Now listen carefully. We do not have to have faith in the New Testament record to be healed. There were plenty of people healed in the New Testament who didn't have faith. Dead people don't have faith. There were a lot of people healed in the New Testament that didn't have faith. We can look through all kinds of illustrations of that. But you can find all kinds of healings where there was no faith, but you'll never find salvation without faith. And so, whereas faith is not necessary for healing, faith is necessary for salvation. And when Jesus said, "Your faith hath saved you," that's exactly what He meant. Sure there was physical wholeness there and they did have faith in that, but it was more than that.

    In Luke 17, ten lepers came and Jesus said, "Go show yourself to the priest," and on the way all ten were cleansed, katharizo, a form of healing, they were all katharizoed, cleansed of leprosy. How many came back" One, to whom Jesus said, "Your faith has saved you." I believe there were ten healed, there was one...saved.

    And there's another reason to think they really had a transformed life. It says they followed Him. Somebody's going to say, "Oh, but they were just following Him to Jerusalem." Well, that's right. But it says in Luke, "They followed, glorifying God." Glorifying God. And it even tells us, interestingly enough, in Luke 18:43, that all the whole multitude started chanting praise to God. And this thing starts mounting. And by the time they get to Jerusalem, we know what broke loose on Palm Sunday, right" He touched that city from top to bottom. He hit the richest guy, Zacchaeus, and a couple of poor beggars, the most despised up and inner, and the most despised down and outers, He got them all. What a demonstration. And it was sort of a final Messianic display that swept the crowd into the hosannas of Palm Sunday.

    Let’s hope it's testimony that we've been touched by the compassion of Jesus because we've cried for Him and He's made us see. Let's pray.

    We can all say with the blind man in John 9 that once we were blind and now we see when we've been touched with the saving grace of Christ. We thank You for that, our Lord, for whereas we were blind, we do see. And we thank You that Jesus is compassionate, that He is never too busy in the matter of redeeming the universe to stop to hear the cry of those in need.

    And that His heart is touched deeply with compassion for that heart. We thank You that when we who are spiritually blind come and cry out, O that our eyes may be opened, that the same Lord of compassion is there to open our eyes as well and our faith can make us to be saved, to be whole in spirit.

    We thank You, also, Father, that Jesus Christ has the power to heal all disease and someday will do that in glory at the redemption of our bodies when all sickness and sorrow and pain and death is banished forever. We thank You and we wait for that display of power. In the meantime, because we know that sickness must endure as long as sin endures, we thank You that our Savior is compassionate and He understands our frailties, He feels the pain of our fallenness, He sympathizes with our sorrow and has even in the midst of them His holy purposes that we through those things might be made more like Jesus Christ who is indeed a sympathetic high priest.

    We thank You for this glimpse of our dear Savior. We pray that we might see Him with as clear eyes as those two blind men saw Him. The Lord, the Son of David, the rightful King, the one alone who can save those who come in faith and cry for mercy out of their sad distress.

    With your head bowed in a moment as we close. If you have never come to the light of Christ, we would invite you to do that this morning. Believe in your heart, confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and accept His work on the cross for you and you will come to see with the eyes of the soul. Amen

    Commentary on Matthew 20:17-34

     

    The Third Prediction of the Passion and Triumph. 20:17-19.

     

    I. The Prediction itself.

     

    A. Affinities with 16:21 and 17:22-23.

     

    Here, as in both earlier passages, Jesus predicts both His death and His resurrection. As in 16:21, He identifies His enemies as "the chief priests and the teachers of the law" (Sadducee and Pharisaic interests are combined against the common foe). As in 17:22-23 Jesus had spoken of being "handed over" (paradid©mi) to the Jews, here (using the verb twice) He speaks of being handed over to both Jews and (by their instrumentality) to the Gentiles.

     

    B. Distinctive Features of this Prediction.

     

    In 16:21 Jesus predicted that "He must...suffer many things at the hands of [the Jewish authorities]" before His death. Here He says, "They [the Jewish authorities] will turn Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified" (v. 19). Gentiles do the actual mocking and flogging, but it is the Jews' purpose they fulfill. In other words, according to 20:19 no less than 16:21, Jesus "suffers many things" at Jewish hands.

     

    Noting that Matthew uses three infinitives of purpose ("in order to be mocked, flogged, and crucified") in place of Mk's finite verbs (10:34), Gundry comments: "Thus the center of attention shifts from the action of the Gentiles to the malevolent purpose of the Jewish leaders in handing Jesus over to them" (401). Cf. 26:2; 27:31.

     

    II. The position of the Prediction.

     

    Placed at this juncture, this third prediction (1) provides a foil to the petty ambitions of the disciples, 20:20-24, (2) anticipates the great declaration of v. 28, and (3) reminds readers at what great personal cost God bestows His unmerited favor upon His people (cf. 20:14-15).

     

    The Test of Greatness. 20:20-28.

     

    I. Jesus and the Family of Zebedee. 20:20-23.

     

    A. The Family's Request. 20:20-21.

     

    1. The source of the request. According to Mt, it is the mother of James and John who asks a favor on their behalf; according to Mk (10:35), it is James and John themselves. These two accounts may easily be synthesized.

     

    2. The reason for the request. That such a request comes from this particular family, may be attributed in part to Jesus' choice of James and John to be numbered among the "inner three" (cf. 17:1). There may well be another reason: "The mother of Zebedee's sons probably bore the name Salome (cf. 27:56 with Mark 15:40) and perhaps had Mary the mother of Jesus for a sister (see John 19:25). Family relationship, then, may lie behind the request". This in turn would explain the involvement of both mother and sons (as noted under 1.).

     

    3. The nature of the request. The mother's request that her sons be permitted to sit "on Jesus' right and left" in His kingdom, pertains not to the Messianic banquet (as foreshadowed in the Last Supper) but to the thrones closest to that of Jesus (cf. 19:28; the above interpretation of 20:1-16; and Gundry, 402).

     

    B. Jesus' Response. 20:22-23.

     

    James and John (and their mother) are ignorant of two things.

     

    1. Suffering comes before glory.

     

    a. The cup of Jesus. Jesus asks James and John, "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink"" As applied to Jesus, the figure of "drinking the cup [potsrion]" signals His approaching experience of suffering and death (as just predicted, vv. 18-19). As He is the sin-bearer (1:21; 3:15), it also signals His personal experience of the wrath of God. It is chiefly the prospect of experiencing God's wrath, and the consequent separation from the Father, that causes Jesus to cry out in Gethsemane, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup [pots ion] be taken from Me" (26:39). Cf. ibid. 152-53.

     

    b. The disciples' expectation. That disciples could envisage glory without suffering, is clear from 16:21-17:13. Yet perhaps by this stage the sons of Zebedee are beginning to grasp that Jesus must enter into glory by way of suffering (for He has now thrice predicted His death and resurrection). And perhaps the words of v. 22b ("We can" drink your cup) are quite sincere. But if so, the words are as naive as they are sincere. For in the first place, even if the disciples are beginning to accept the inevitability of Jesus' death, they have as yet only the faintest understanding of the meaning of that death (cf. 20:28; 26:26-28). Had they perceived that Jesus would die as the sin-bearer and the object of the divine wrath, would they so quickly have affirmed their ability to drink His cup" And in the second place, the context suggests that the thrones closest to Jesus' own are reserved for those disciples whose suffering comes closest to approximating His own - i.e., whose suffering is marked by the greatest sacrifice and the greatest anguish (cf. v. 28). For James and John to make their present request intelligently, would require that they ask also for the grace needed to bear the suffering which leads to the glory (cf. 24:9; Rom 8:17; 2 Tim 2:12; Rev 3:21).

     

    c. The disciples' experience. In response to the disciples' boast (v. 22b), Jesus says, "You will drink My cup" (v. 23a, RSV). The words "My cup" show that it remains Jesus' cup even as the others drink it. NEB well renders, "You shall indeed share My cup." In fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy, James suffers martyrdom at the hands of Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:2); and John, while probably dying a natural death in old age, nonetheless suffers for Jesus' sake (Rev 1:9).

     

    2. The Father's will is decisive. "But to sit at My right or left is not for Me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by My Father" (v. 23b).

     

    a. The Father's prerogative. According to Jesus, the apostles will sit on twelve thrones alongside His own (19:28). Jesus Himself will be enthroned, because the Father has granted Him, the Son of Man, authority to execute final Judgment (see especially Jn 5:19-27). From this we might infer that the apostles' authority to judge (19:28) also comes from the Father. Mt 20:23 leaves us in no doubt that this is the case; that the Father chooses the occupants of these two thrones, indicates that He has chosen the occupants of all twelve. Jesus declares (19:28) what the Father has authorized (20:23).

     

    b. The Father's choice. The Father has prepared these two thrones for a given two apostles of His choice. The preparation presupposes the choice. Which two apostles are to occupy those thrones has not yet been disclosed. That would undermine the very reason for the choice.

     

    c. The Father's reason. Those two seats are reserved (it appears) for apostles who identify most closely with Jesus in His willingness to serve and to suffer (v. 28, and 1.b. above), and who therefore are the least self-conscious, the least calculating, and the least ambitious (cf. 25:37-39). Such persons will be astounded to learn that they have been assigned the thrones next to Jesus: they would willingly take those furthest removed from Him. Those most like Jesus shall be seated closest to Him. Cf. 1 Cor 4:9, "us apostles...at the end of the procession."

     

    II. Jesus and the Twelve. 20:24-28.

     

    A. The Reaction of the Ten. 20:24.

     

    The reason for their indignation toward James and John, has already been considered.

     

    B. Jesus' Response. 20:25-28.

     

    Having brought all twelve disciples together (v. 25a), Jesus addresses the competitive pride that infects all the disciples and threatens to tear their company asunder.

     

    1. The destructive use of power. "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them" (v. 25b). The way of the world, as typified here by Gentile rulers, is to exercise power by demanding submission and service. The rulers' power readily serves the purpose of pride, in that by asserting their power they can keep their subjects beneath them. Power is the means of continually reminding subjects just who is in charge. And since this is (by the standards of the Kingdom) a spurious power, ever more strenuous effort is needed to maintain it.

     

    2. The creative use of power. "Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant [diakonos], and whoever wants to be first must be your slave [doulos]" (20:26-27). The apostles are endowed with stupendous power and authority, that of Jesus Himself (10:1; cf. 28:18-20). Yet as those who are slaves (douloi) of Jesus and fully accountable to Him as Lord, they have no right to lord it over others or to wield power as a means of advancing themselves. On the contrary, their slavery to Jesus manifests itself as slavery to other people (vv. 26-27). As those who experience the security and freedom of the Kingdom, they have no need to lord it over others. As those who emulate Jesus, they discover that self-giving service is the very means by which God releases the true power. Accordingly, the disciples' greatness does not lie beyond the service but precisely in the service. Jesus thus drives home the lesson about true greatness in ch. 18 and the lesson about equality in 20:1-16.

     

    3. Jesus the Servant. Jesus provides the supreme example of selfless service: "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many" (v. 28).

     

    a. The power of service. If ever one possessed power and authority, it is Jesus the Son of Man. In coming to serve, he does not abandon power, He exercises power. Cf. Phil 2:6-8.

     

    b. The sacrificial death. He comes "to serve and to give",  or better, "to serve, i.e. to give" (the "and," kai, is epexegetical; following Gundry, 404). The singular focus of this verse is Jesus' service in death. The language is rooted in Isa 53:10-12.

     

    c. The ransom for many (lutron anti poll©n].

     

    (1) Jesus' death is redemptive. He liberates the "many" from the bondage and guilt of sin, at great cost to Himself.

     

    (2) In bearing the sins of His people (1:21), He simultaneously renders both the lowliest and the noblest service ever. Moreover, as the sin-bearer He dies in the place of the many, as their substitute (note the preposition anti).

    (3) The use of the word "many" is explained both by the presence of rabim, "many," in Isa 53:11, 12, and by Jesus' purpose to save a host of people from among both Jews and Gentiles. The term "many" embraces all of those, from whatever nation, for whom Jesus dies. The contrast is drawn between the many and the few (for some interpreters, "many" is equivalent to "all"). With respect to the Gentiles, observe how this saying relates to other passages: Before Jesus' death the proclamation of the Kingdom is confined almost entirely to Jews, both in Jesus' preaching (15:24) and in that of His disciples (10:6). Two things account for the shift from those sayings to the Great Commission of 28:18-20, namely Israel's rejection of their Messiah (21:18-22:14) and Messiah's death as "a ransom for many." Before the Gospel of liberation from sin may be taken to the Gentiles, the Savior must actually accomplish their liberation from sin. The work of salvation must precede the news of salvation.

     

    The Healing of Two Blind Men. 20:29-34.

     

    I. The Place. 20:29.

     

    The last stage of the ascent to Jerusalem (cf. 20:17) was "the road from Jericho, leading up the Wadi Qelt. On either side of the lower reaches of the wadi lay NT Jericho, a new foundation built by Herod the Great as his winter residence...about a mile south of OT Jericho". OT Jericho lay about 17 miles northeast of Jerusalem, NT Jericho about 16. In Mt and Mk (10:46) the episode occurs as Jesus is leaving Jericho, whereas in Lk (18:35) Jesus is entering the town. One of the suggestions for harmonizing the accounts that Mt and Mk speak of old Jericho, and Lk of new).

     

    II. Affinities with 9:27-31.

     

    In both passages, (1) Mt speaks of two men, not just one (cf. Mk 8:22-26; 10:46-52); (2) the men confess Jesus to be "Son of David" (once there, twice here), and cry for mercy; and (3) Jesus touches their eyes, whereupon their sight is restored.

     

    III. Distinctive features of 20:29-34.

     

    Here (1) the men acclaim Jesus "Lord" (kyrios) as well as "Son of David"; and (2) Jesus includes no command to silence (here Jesus heals in public, there in private, 9:28; also, as Jesus is now much closer to the cross, there is less need to protect against the spread of false Messianism). Most significantly, while the first story places much greater stress than this one upon the blind men's faith (see 9:28-29; in 20:30-33 faith is not expressly mentioned, though it clearly underlies the men's words), the present story, in keeping with the immediately preceding verses, is concerned to present Jesus as a compassionate Servant to the needy. The verb splagchnizomai ("to show compassion") is used here (v. 34) but not there. Jesus uses His great power to heal others, not to save Himself.

     

    Matthew 20:29-34

     

    Lives are changed when they come to Jesus a He commanded: 2Th 2:10 And with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 2Th 2:11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 2Th 2:12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe (obey) the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

     

    When the truth is presented to the church people today, we will either stop, think, or reason in their minds where they stand with God. We will think deeply about where we will spend eternity and go and seek the truth at all cost. But we refuse sound doctrine, and refuse to love anything besides our own misplaced conceived notions about Jesus Christ, why He came to earth as God, and died to set us free from the bondages of sin and the corrupt ways of the world.

     

    We love the lie, because it asks us to do nothing, to do nothing to prove our heart is real before God, not perfect, but in perfect submission to His will and word.
    But sad to say the strong delusion is everywhere today, and many of us who think are saved by some provision that was never made are still under this delusion, and refuse to examine ourselves to be sure we are in the faith, thus leading us down the wide road to destruction, loving the lie that declares us a poor, helpless sinner after we say the sinners prayer, and think we are right with God.

     

    We fall for every wind of doctrine, being led into a ditch by many well-meaning, and not so well meaning so called bible scholars who think we are safe, secure, and in the truth, when in reality we too are under the strong delusion, God promised to send to those who persist in the lie, making it virtually impossible for them to escape the snare of the father of lies!

     

    May we wake up, Come to love the truth, by counting the great cost of coming clean before God, loving His truth, and standing fast in it!

      Healing on the Way

    “They said to Him, ‘Lord, let our eyes be opened.’ And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed Him” (vv. 33–34).  

     

    Matthew 20:29–34

     

    Christ began His final trip to Jerusalem after Peter’s great confession (Matt. 16:13–23). In all likelihood, He traveled mostly along the eastern bank of the Jordan River as He and His disciples moved southward from Caesarea Philippi. This was a common route for Galilean pilgrims in His day, and the crowds that we have read about during this trip are those Jews who, while traveling to Jerusalem for the Passover, have seen the deeds of Jesus and are hoping that He is the Messiah (17:14–18; 19:1–2). These men and women are among those who will hail our Savior’s triumphal entry into the Holy City (21:1–11).

     

    Today’s passage indicates that Jesus will soon arrive in Jerusalem to complete His messianic work, for He has been in Jericho, located fifteen miles or so from the Holy City, about a day’s journey in first-century Judea. Leaving Jericho, Christ and His followers begin the ascent 3,000 feet up to Jerusalem, but they do not get very far before meeting two desperate men in need. These blind men, one of whom is named Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46), beg Jesus to heal them, confessing Him as the “Son of David” (Matt. 20:30), a title loaded with messianic assumptions. Knowing that the Messiah is present gives them hope that He will fulfill His call to work miracles and give them sight (see Isa. 35).

     

    Yet the crowd is displeased with these blind men, rebuking them as they cry out to Jesus (Matt. 20:31). They probably feel the beggars are unworthy of the Messiah’s attention since many first-century Jews thought blindness was God’s punishment for sin (John 9:1–3). It is also likely that they do not want Jesus to “waste His time” on these blind men. Those who believe Jesus might be the Christ would be looking for Him to enter Jerusalem immediately so that He might overthrow the Romans and set Israel over the world.

     

    For Jesus, however, it is not a waste of time to pause and heal the blind men, so moved is He by compassion (Matt. 20:32–34). This healing is against the people’s idea of what the Messiah should do, and it portends stronger opposition to come. The crowd that now does not want Him to help a fellow Israelite will later call for Jesus’ head when He does not live up to their expectations (27:15–23).  

      Coram Deo   When we do the work of ministry it can be easy to get so caught up in the big plans and programs we have going that we miss the needs of certain individuals among us. As followers of Jesus, we must imitate His compassion and take the time to minister to hurting individuals even if it may sometimes get in the way of our own plans and purposes. What are we doing in our churches to make sure people are shown compassion and not forgotten"

    Lessons On Seeing From A Blind Man (Matthew 20 29-34)

     

    Jesus was now on His way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover with His disciples.  Infinitely more important than that, however, He was going there to suffer and die (20:18-19).  He would be celebrating the Passover for the last time and then giving Himself as the one, final, perfect Passover Lamb, sacrificed for the sins of the whole world (Heb. 7:27).

     

    His arrest, trial, and crucifixion were but a few weeks away.  Why, we may wonder, did He take time to minister to two blind beggars"  In light of the disciples’ slowness to learn and believe, why did He not spend the last few days alone with them, drilling into them what He so much wanted them to understand"

     

    The reason was His compassion (v. 34).  When better could Jesus have demonstrated the depth and breadth of divine compassion than while He was on the way to His crucifixion"  The Twelve would one day look back on the healing in Jericho and on all His other acts of mercy and realize that their Lord was never too preoccupied to be compassionate, never in too much of a hurry to heal the afflicted, never in too much agony Himself to be insensitive to the agony of others.  That realization itself would be one of the most important lessons they would learn from their Master.  In these few verses is found one of the most beautiful portrayals of the loving, compassionate heart of God.

    We also see demonstrated in the actions of these two blind men how each of us are to approach the Lord.

    1A.      The Men (20:29-30)

    1B.      The blind men and their condition (20:29-30a)

    The crowd that followed (20:29)

    ·         Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem His disciples and are great crowd of pilgrims followed Him.

    The condition they were in (20:30a)

    ·         They were blind

    ·         They were beggars (Mark 10:46)

    This is our condition without Christ

    Revelation 3:17-18  "Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing', and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked , 18 "I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

    2 Corinthians 4:3-4  3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,  4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

    John 3:19-20 19 "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  20 "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

    We must see our true condition before we will call on Jesus!

    2B.      The blind men and their conviction (20:30-31)

    Their plea (20:30)

    ·         They were desperate.

    Cried out, (krazo); literally to cry out in anguish; it is the same word to describe the cries of a woman during childbirth

    ·         They were broken.

    ·         They cried for mercy!

    21 times the Psalmist pleads with God for mercy.

    Luke 18:13-14  13 "And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!'  14 "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

    ·         They believed

    O Lord, Son of David, this was the popular Jewish designation for the Messiah.

    Their persistence (20:31)

    ·         They would not be denied.

    ·         They would not be discouraged.

    No one had to beg these men to come to Christ!

    Why"  Because they were convinced that Jesus was who He said He was and that He alone was their hope.

    2A.      The Master (20:32-34)

    1B.      His call (20:32)

    Jesus stops for them.

    Psalm 4:1  Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness!  You have relieved me in my distress; Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer

    Jesus stoops to them.

    Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.

    Psalm 4:3   3 But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly; The Lord will hear when I call to Him.

    2B.      His compassion (20:33-34a)

    The Lord’s motive

    ·         Not the crowd

    ·         Not the worthiness or usefulness of the men.

    ·         Not the faith of the men.

    ·         His sovereign choice, His compassion!

    2 Timothy 1:9   (God) who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,

    The Lord’s method

    ·         He touched them and they were healed.

    3B.      His converts (20:34b)

    They followed Him

    ·         Though many followed Jesus without true faith these men seem a bit different.

    They had faith in Him

    Mark 10:52 Then Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.

    They glorified Him

    Luke 18:43 And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God.  And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

    Application

    We recognize our lost condition.

    We are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked…”

    We must humble ourselves before the Lord.

    James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

    We must cry out to God for mercy.

    Psalm 119:145-146 145 I cry out with my whole heart; Hear me, O Lord! I will keep Your statutes.  146 I cry out to You; Save me, and I will keep Your testimonies.

    We must trust God to save us.

    Isaiah 12:2    Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid…"

    Commentaries:

     

    I want Jesus to "open my eyes" too so that I may be closer to Him with peace.  Blessings.

     

    I want Jesus to give me wisdom & I want him to make me a better man of God!

     

    I want Jesus to draw me closer to Him. As this blessing takes its course, I want my family to experience Him and come to know him as their personnel, Lord and Savior. And I would be truly happy.

    God Bless.

     

    I hope He'll provide what's best for me! Thy will be done in my life for I know it's going to be the best!

     

    I want Jesus to make me a strong Christian. I want to be the person He wants me to be. I want to know and do His will. I want my relationship with Jesus to grow. I want to know and love Him!!!

     

    I want Jesus to make me more firm and strong in my believe and take me to the highest faith always and guide me throughout my life. I want him to provide me a man of believe (Follower of Jesus) as my life partner

     

    I want the LORD Jesus to open my eyes so that I could see Him and to open my ears so I could hear Him and to have wisdom to spread the good news.

     

    I believe Jesus knows what I need or wants Him to do for me because my thoughts and my groaning are always before Him. But as the blind men did ,I will continue to place before Him my fate as a retired public worker in need of where and how to shelter my family let alone to give them three square meals a day..

     

    I want Jesus to save me from all troubles. I pray Jesus to solve all my problems and give me strength and peace.

     

    I want JESUS to give my mother perfect healing of breast cancer, electric brain, success in my posture exam that is coming up in few days from now, and finally financial brake true.

     

    Respectfully, I'd like for JESUS to continue to help me in many ways. Most importantly, growing closer to him and always tailoring my life and the way I conduct myself as JESUS did. Secondly, to continue to bless me with the HOLY SPIRIT so that I may always be led by the SPIRIT and not by human nature. Finally, I continue to thirst in many ways and would like to drink from the water that JESUS provides. The water that when consumed, you never thirst again. For this I pray is JESUS' name. AMEN.

     

    On this weekend of Pentecost I'd like to ask God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit to let the power of The Holy Spirit be at work in the Pope who is the head of the Catholic Church.

    That we can all ask Jesus to "OPEN OUR EYES" so we can all listen and give more attention to the Pope's teachings since he is guided by God's word. That before making choices we may all consider what Jesus would do. Especially in politics what would Jesus say about our choices (Keeping in mind God's 10 Commandments).That we all may find joy from reading and understanding the bible. Also for us to all ask the Holy Spirit to touch us and enter into our hearts. For us to all become instruments of Peace, Love and Joy. See God in even person we interact with and most of all keep Jesus Christ in everything we do and say. Amen.

     

    When we do not know which decision to make that we may Open the Bible and re-read the 10 Commandments and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us because he will :)

     

    I want Jesus to protect my three sons and to guide me in following Him so I will never fail in my belief in Him. Blessings.

     

    To love like he does.

     

    From today Jesus to inspire every move I make. I want to feel His presence

     

    I want Gods presence at all time to be filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom that I would make the right choose

     

    I want my Lord Jesus to open my eye spiritually and provide light to the path that I walk, so that I never stumble and fall into the pit of darkness. I want Him to be my shepherd so that I as His humble sheep, walk in His guidance and do not get lost in sin.

     

    Jesus know the blind man what he is going to ask Jesus but Jesus is testing his faith Jesus never leave me always I want to follow him I need His strength to do good things for others the Holy Spirit always guiding to me.

     

    I want Jesus that he should fill me afresh with the Holy Spirit and be with me now and forever.  Jesus should protect me and guide and guard me always.

     

    I think firstly I want to ask him for forgiveness and for him to completely purify me and make me clean once again. I also want him to open the eyes of my heart so that I may see more things through his eyes. I would also want him to give me wisdom and understanding to better serve him. I also want him to show me what he wants me to do for him and also to give me a bigger heart that loving and forgiving. I would also like to be filled with more of the Holy Spirit.

     

    To get rid of my evil things, open my eyes so I can see the truth and open my ears so I can hear the word of God and keep the word forever.

     

    I want Jesus to keep me in His sight, help me overcome my sins and follow Him always. I love you Jesus. Blessings.

     

    l want Jesus to increase my faith and help me to be a person who is helpful to the society and to have the fruits of the holy spirit which are love, joy, peace, humility, kindness, tolerance, a forgiving heart and to be the best mother for my kids and husband.

     

    I want Jesus to increase my faith in Him, and to trust in His love, and know that if I lean on Him, He will take care of my needs. To help me to be patient and tolerant of others. To give me a forgiving heart, that I may learn to forgive and forget; and to forgive me my sins, and help me to live a life that is pleasing to Him.

     

    I would like to first Thank Jesus for all of the blessings he has given to me.  I would like to ask and invite God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to purify me and come live in my heart, to speak with me and guide me.  

     

    I would like to ask Jesus to give me the wisdom to understand his teachings.  Just like the blind men, I would like to ask Jesus for a kind heart (to open my Heart and give me eyes to see his truth) so that I could see Jesus in everyone I encounter and that I may treat others as he commanded we should with love, respect and less judgment.

     

    I would like to ask Jesus for inner peace, courage and a strong, clear voice so that I may do his will and help others.   Amen

     

    Ps. I would like to ask God to teach the world how to choose Love every minute of today in everything we do. Choose to love instead of war, unkindness or greed. Choose Love with our families and always turn the other cheek. Choose to love even when driving in our cars, have patients in traffic. Let us all who claim to love Jesus be that example of Love :) every moment every day.

     


    By: Gregorio Magdaleno - September 22, 2015 - Public
    Category: Two Blind Men Receive Sight
    Comment Helpful? Favorite Violation
    September 22, 2015
    Why did Jesus clear the temple in such a dramatic manner? Why did not he try to accomplish the same thing more diplomatically?

    Matthew 21:12-17 

     

    Jesus at the Temple

     

    Jesus entered into the temple of God, and drove out all of those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers' tables and the seats of those who sold the doves.

     

    He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a den of robbers!" 

     

    The blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children who were crying in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant, and said to Him, "Do you hear what these are saying""

     

    Jesus said to them, "Yes. Did you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing babies you have perfected praise"'" 

     

    He left them, and went out of the city to Bethany, and lodged there. 

     

    Why did Jesus clear the temple in such a dramatic manner" Why did not he try to accomplish the same thing more diplomatically"

     

    Commentary on Matthew 21:12-17 - The Cleansing of the Temple.

     

    I. The Circumstances.

     

    A. The Time.

     

    Passover is yet nearer. The Cleansing occurs on Monday, the 11th of Nisan, just three days before the preparations for the Passover Meal. The Cleansing of Jn 2:13-22 also occurs at Passover; but this is a different event, early in Jesus' ministry

     

    B. The Crowds.

     

    Given the laws of Deut 16, Passover crowds were predictably huge. Jews streamed into

    Jerusalem from all over Palestine and from foreign lands as well (Acts 2:5-11 speaks of

    "Jews from every nation under heaven" gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost, another of

    the festivals required in Deut 16). Jeremiahs writes that "the influx of pilgrims at Passover

    time from all over the world was immense, and amounted to several times the population

    of Jerusalem"). He estimates that during a Passover in Jesus' day, there might be as many as 150,000 persons in Jerusalem, 25-30,000 of these being inhabitants of the city. Josephus speaks (in doubtless exaggerated terms) of a crowd numbering 2,700,000. This situation helps to explain the size of the crowds that accompanied Jesus from Galilee and into Jerusalem, Mt 19:1-2; 21:8.

     

    C. The Merchandising.

     

    Upon His entry into the temple, Jesus finds persons "buying and selling" (21:12). The

    scene is the Court of the Gentiles. The merchants in question first buy the requisites for sacrifice (animals, wine, oil, salt, etc.) and then sell them to the worshippers (most of whom, having travelled from afar, could not bring their offerings with them). Of the animals, Mt and Mk mention only doves, Jn "cattle, sheep and doves," and Lk none. Given the laws of Deut 16, the number of sacrificial victims for a Passover in Jesus' day "ran into many thousands" (Jeremias, Jerusalem, 57; see ibid., 48-49, 56-57).

     

    We can easily imagine how lucrative the business would be for those engaged in buying and selling the required merchandise. And there was doubtless the temptation, especially with many worshippers at the merchants' mercy, to charge exorbitant prices for the needed sacrifices.

     

    D. The Money-changing.

     

    Mt 21:12 speaks also of "the money-changers [kollybistai]." In the Palestine of Jesus'

    day the circulating currency consisted primarily of Roman money; but all money for the

    Jewish temple (notably the annual temple tax, 17:24) had to be paid in Tyrian coinage,

    "since the Tyrian shekel was the closest available equivalent to the old Hebrew shekel"

    (Lane, Mark, 405). The reason for this stipulation was therefore not that Roman coins

    bore "heathen embellishments," such as the emperor's image; for Tyrian coins bore

    heathen symbols too.

     

    The task of the kollybistai was to exchange Roman currency for Tyrian. The stipulated surcharge was minimal (1/24th of a shekel); but, or therefore, one might charge an exorbitant rate of exchange for foreign currency, or perhaps "short change" an unsuspecting foreigner. During Passover, money-changing might prove to be as lucrative as merchandising

     

    II. The Lord of the Temple.

     

    A. Jesus' Action.

     

    "Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves" (21:12).

     

    The significance of this story lies first in the very fact that Jesus so acts. He has no priestly credentials; He comes from the tribe of Judah, not Levi (1:1-17). Yet He comes boldly into the temple and takes this action without having first consulted or asked permission of the high priest!

     

    B. Jesus' Right.

     

    He is not required to ask permission of anyone. For He Himself is Lord of the Temple, "God with us" (1:23). In 11:10 Jesus quotes Mal 3:1a. Both in applying the verse to John the Baptist and in changing the pronouns (so that the prophecy now reads, "I [Yahweh the Father] will send My messenger ahead of You [Yahweh the Son], who will prepare Your way before You"), Jesus implicitly identifies Himself as "the Lord [who] will suddenly come to His temple" (Mal 3:1b).

     

    The thought becomes explicit in the debate of Mt 12:3-8, where Jesus demonstrates that He is Lord of the Sabbath by declaring that He is greater than the temple. Now, having entered the temple, He speaks of it as "My house" (21:13). (These words, included in the quotation from Isa 56:7, were originally spoken by Yahweh. Here it is most natural to read the statement as Jesus' own, especially given the way Matthew has portrayed Jesus throughout the Gospel. But cf. Jn 2:16, "My Father's house.") As the Lord who ordained the temple in the first place, and who has now "come to His temple," Jesus is perfectly free to do whatever He chooses. We must now seek to understand why He chooses to exercise His authority in this particular way.

     

    III. Jesus' Protest against Commercialism.

     

    A. His Protest against Corruption.

     

    1. The OT background.

     

    a. Malachi. The Lord was coming, said Malachi, to purify the Levitical priesthood, so that the priests might "bring offerings in righteousness...acceptable to the

    Lord" (Mal 3:3-4). Cf. the powerful denunciation of priestly corruption in Mal 1-2.

     

    b. Jeremiah. In Mt 21:13, explaining the action of v. 12, Jesus declares: "It is written, 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'" The last phrase is drawn from Jer 7:11, which reads "Has this house, which bears My Name, become a den of robbers to you" But I have been watching! declares the

    Lord."

     

    LXX translates "den of robbers" spslaion lsst©n, the very phrase used in Mt 21:13. Jer 7:11 comes amid the famous "Temple Sermon." Jeremiah likens the people of Judah to "robbers" because of their manifold sins against God and neighbor (vv. 5-6, 9).

     

    The temple, in turn, has become a "robber's cave", a hideout where bandits may find protection from the authorities. In other words, the people of Judah consider that, however numerous and grave their sins, the temple and its rituals provide them security from Yahweh's judgments and the safety needed for continuing their life of sin.

     

    2. Jesus' twofold attack. Jesus attacks the merchants themselves for their corrupt practices. That there were in fact such practices, has already been indicated. That Jesus directs His attack against them, is strongly indicated by His citing Jer 7. The use of the term "robbers" is most significant in this context, where both sets of people in question handle money. Note that among the sins cataloged in Jer 7 are "oppressing the alien" and "stealing" (vv. 6, 9). "The use of Jer 7:11 shows [Jesus] protesting exorbitant rates of exchange for foreign currency and high prices for sacrifices"

     

    Moreover, considering the significance of Malachi for interpreting this event, we can say

    that Jesus by implication attacks the priesthood that tolerates such corruption in God's

    House.

     

    B. His Protest against Commerce Itself.

     

    1. The OT background.

     

    a. Isaiah. "It is written, 'My house will be called a house of prayer'" (Mt 21:13a, quoting Isa 56:7. In the opening verses of Isa 56, Yahweh addresses words of comfort and hope to two sorts of people in particular, eunuchs and foreigners.

     

    Concerning the latter, Yahweh says: "Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, 'The Lord will surely exclude me from His people'" (v. 3a). "And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve Him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship Him..., these I will bring to My holy mountain [i.e. the temple] and give them joy in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations" (vv. 6-7). The worship of the temple is hereby opened to members of other races. "The acceptance of foreigners' sacrifices means that, properly speaking, they cease to be foreigners" (Isaiah 40-66).

     

    b. Zechariah. While Zech is not quoted here, it contributes to the background needed for understanding Jesus' action. The close of Zech reads: "And on that day [the Day of Yahweh] there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord Almighty" (14:21b, NIV). But in NIV mg. we find "merchant" in place of "Canaanite." The Hebrew is indeed kena'ani. But NIV mg. correctly represents the intended meaning. The term "Canaanite" in some contexts means not a race of people but a class of merchants ("because Canaanites, especially Phoenicians, were traders,"); cf. Baldwin, TOTC, 180, 208. The present instance of kena'ani is rendered "trader, merchant" in BDB.

     

    Another such instance is Prov 31:24, which NIV renders, "She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes." There is also a theological reason for questioning the translation "Canaanite" in Zech 14:21. For the coming Rule of Yahweh, as prophesied by Zechariah, embraces rather than excludes Gentiles (9:10)! (Alternatively, "Canaanite" may be regarded as an epithet for "pagan," like ethnikos in Mt 18:17.)

     

    2. Jesus' purpose. It is not merely the merchants' corruption that Jesus opposes; it is their very presence. This is evident from the juxtaposition of "house of prayer" and "den of robbers" in Mt 21:13. What was meant to be a place of worship has become a house of trade. Cf. Jn 2:16,

     

    "Get these out of here! How dare you turn My Father's house into a market!": "the objection is not to their dishonesty, but to their presence"

     

    The merchandising and money-changing take place in the Court of the Gentiles. The Gentiles had few privileges in the temple; this court was as far as they dared to venture. And even that little to which they were entitled was being usurped; merchants were crowding them out of their appointed place of worship.

     

    IV. Jesus' Protest against Exclusivist.

     

    A. Jesus' Saving Purpose.

     

    Entering Jerusalem in fulfillment of Zech 9, Jesus declares His intention to save Gentiles

    as well as Jews. This purpose is again visibly demonstrated when He cleanses the

    temple. The Jewish merchants are driven out in order to provide for the Gentiles what is

    rightfully theirs, a place to worship Israel's God.

     

    B. Jesus' Fulfillment of Prophecy.

     

    1. Jesus and Isa 56. Now that the Kingdom of God has been inaugurated, it is time for the full realization of this prophecy. By the saving work Jesus has come to accomplish, Gentiles are newly to be welcomed into the House of God and into the Household of Faith (Isa 56:3-7). There is one curious feature in Mt's quotation of Isa 56:7. Whereas the quotation in Mk 11:17 runs "My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations," Mt's version (which otherwise employs Mk for this episode) omits the last three words. Perhaps he does so to allow a starker contrast between "house of prayer" and "den of robbers".

     

    It might also be suggested that, given the strong emphasis on Gentile salvation elsewhere in the Gospel, Matthew considers it sufficient to leave it to be inferred in the present instance. The principal reason for this omission is perhaps, given the forthcoming judgment upon the Jewish nation, which entails the destruction of the temple itself (Mt 24:2), there will in fact be no place for Gentile worship (this reason is strengthened if we join in believing that Mt was written after 70 A.D.) Or at least this house of worship will no longer exist.

     

    Jesus' purpose for the Gentile nations will still be realized, not in the temple of Jerusalem

    but in the Church which He has come to establish. This great transformation concerning

    the very nature of the temple is already being revealed in Jn 2:19-21, and it is fully manifested in the NT epistles (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19; Eph 2:19-22; 1 Pet 2:4-9).

     

    2. Jesus and Zech 14. As in the Entry Jesus fulfilled Zech 9, here He fulfills Zech 14. The dawn of the Day of the Lord calls for the expulsion of merchants from the temple, Zech 14:21. While this verse is not included in any Evangelist's account of this event (but see Jn 2:16), it does help to explain Jesus' action in the temple: (1) the legitimacy of the rendering "merchant" at Zech 14:21, together with that whole chapter's focus on the coming of the Day of Yahweh; (2) the emphasis in Zech 14 (together with Zech 9) on Gentile salvation, a theme presented with special poignancy in this chapter in that the Gentiles whom Yahweh saves are survivors of the nations against whom He has fought! (for judgment against the Gentiles, see 14:2-15; for their salvation, v. 16); (3) the influence of Zech 9-14 as a whole upon Jesus' words and actions during Passion Week (beginning with the Entry); and therefore (4) the influence of these chapters on the Passion Narratives of the Gospels.

     

    V. Jesus' Protest against Favoritism. 21:14-16.

     

    The material of vv. 14-16 is almost all peculiar to Mt. Attention now shifts from merchants to the blind, the lame, and the children; and to some new OT passages.

     

    A. Jesus Heals the Blind and the Lame. 21:14.

     

    1. The OT background. To understand Jesus' encounter with "the blind and the lame" in the temple, we turn to 2 Sam 5. This chapter records David's conquest of Jerusalem, the Jebusite stronghold. Upon the arrival of David and his army, the Jebusites contemptuously boast, "You will not get in here; even the blind and the lame can ward you off" (v. 6). Then we read in v. 8: "On that day, David said, 'Anyone who conquers the Jebusites will have to use the water shaft to reach those 'lame and blind' who are David's enemies.' That is why they say, 'The "blind and lame" will not enter the palace.'"

     

    This (NIV's) rendering of bayit by "palace" should be corrected to "house" (RSV). The "house" in question is in all probability not the king's palace but the sanctuary, i.e. (in time) the temple.

     

    2. Jesus' purpose. Jesus' healing the blind and the lame demonstrates, yet again, that He is indeed "the One who was to come" (cf. 11:2-6, especially 5). His healing them on this occasion is especially appropriate. For He has just entered the capital as the Messiah, the Servant-King. And He is now in the temple. The present miracles demonstrate Jesus' reversal of 2 Sam 5:8, or, to be more precise, his eradication of the false application of that saying. "David was using 'the lame and the blind' as a figurative epithet for the Jebusites. By healing the blind and the lame right within the Temple, Jesus denies the Jews' false deduction from David's statement namely, that the blind and lame should be barred from the temple. Jesus again shows that He is the champion of the helpless and the oppressed, of "the least" and "the poor in spirit."

     

    B. Jesus Receives the Acclaim of Children.

     

    "But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things He did

    and the children shouting in the temple area, 'Hosanna to the Son of David,' they were

    indignant. 'Do you hear what the children are saying"' they asked Him. 'Yes,' replied

    Jesus, 'have you never read, "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained

    praise"'" (vv. 15-16)

     

    1. The children's exclamation. Their words, "Hosanna to the Son of David," echo, and are apparently to be understood in the same way as, the crowd's words in v. 9. On this showing, they are a genuine expression of acclaim but an inadequate confession of faith (cf. comments on v. 9). But a final decision about meaning, must await an examination of v. 16.

     

    2. The OT quotation. In responding to the protestors, Jesus quotes from Ps 8:2 (the Greek of 21:16b is identical to the LXX). Ps 8:1b-2 reads (in NIV), "You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger." For "praise," NIV mg. has "strength" in accord with the original Hebrew 'oz, "strength, might." Mt 21:16, following LXX, has ainon, "praise."

     

    The portion that Jesus quotes is meaningful for two reasons: (1) Children are among those most likely to appreciate the wonders of God's creation. "The child utterly and completely surrenders to the impression produced by things which are great and glorious, and does so in an unaffected and direct manner" (Psalms, 141). (2) God has ordained that very utterance of praise, as His chosen means of conquering His adversaries (note the cluster of terms in v. 2b, "enemies ...foe and avenger").

     

    Reverting to the original Hebrew ('oz), translates, "By the mouth of babes and infants thou hast founded a bulwark to defy thy adversaries". It is a case of God's choosing the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Cor 1:27), of perfecting His strength through weakness (2 Cor 12:9-10).

     

    3. Jesus' intention.

     

    a. Jesus and His enemies. Here in the temple, as in the Psalm, children's shouts of praise are offered in the presence of God's enemies, they being in this case the chief priests and teachers of the law. Moreover, as in the Psalm, the utterance of praise, "Hosanna to the Son of David", is the very means God has appointed for opposing the enemies. To be sure, the children's words fall short of being an adequate confession of faith in Jesus. But their words are nonetheless true, Matthew himself acclaims Jesus as Son of David!

     

    Furthermore, the children affirm something about Jesus which surpasses, which indeed diametrically opposes, what the chief priests and the teachers of the law believe about Him. The shouts of the children serve as a bulwark against, and an indictment of, the religious leaders' unbelief.

     

    b. Jesus and the children. As in 19:13-15, Jesus shows His tender regard for the young. The children in the temple are identified as paides, i.e. as children older than paidia (the term used in 19:13-14), and older also than the nspioi ("infants") and thslazontes ("sucklings") of Ps 8:2. That paides is used here is not surprising, for these children are old enough to visit the temple and shout their praises. Still the older children (paides) qualify, together with the blind and the lame, as those who might readily be overlooked or despised in the counsels of the mighty. Jesus respects those whom others neglect or ostracize.

     

    c. Jesus and God. The praise of Ps 8 was directed toward Yahweh: "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!" (vv. 1, 9, an inclusio). The praise offered by the children in the temple is likewise ordained by Yahweh. But now their praise is directed to Jesus. By implication, Jesus is identified with Yahweh. (That the children are unaware of what they are doing, does not lessen the reality of what is happening.)

     

    VI. The Conclusion. 21:17.

     

    A. Jesus' Departure.

     

    "And He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where He spent the night." The Greek verb behind "left" is kataleip©, "leave behind." The Markan parallel (11:19) uses ekporeuomai, "to go out"; cf. Lk 21:37, exerchomai, "go out." Moreover, Matthew's choice of verb allows him to use a direct object: "He left them behind." The immediate context makes it plain that the pronoun denotes "the chief priests and the teachers of the law" (v.15), the ones to whom Jesus addresses the question of v. 16. We conclude that the verb of v. 17 signals Jesus' abandonment of His antagonists.

     

    Significantly, kataleip© is the very verb used in 16:4; in both instances Jesus' departure is an act of judgment upon His adversaries, the Jewish religious leadership in Jerusalem.

     

    B. Jesus' Lodgings.

     

    Because of the crowded conditions in Jerusalem during the major festivals, especially

    Passover, many pilgrims had to find lodgings outside the city. Jesus' needs were met in

    Bethany, in the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha (Jn 12:1-2)

      21:12-17: A House Of Prayer

    Authored By Rev. Takao Kiyohiro, Tokyo, Japan

    1. This passage of scripture records the facts concerning Jesus' entrance into the capital city of Jerusalem. A great crowd accompanied the journey of Jesus as He ascended into Jerusalem. Then at last when Jerusalem was visible, the expectations of the people flared spontaneously and their fervor reached a peak point. ("The time has finally come! The time has come for Jerusalem to be set free from Gentile rule! The time has come for the land of Israel to be delivered from the hands of the Romans, for the Davidic dynasty to be restored, and for it to be rebuilt!). Some spread their clothes on the road, others cut down tree branches and spread them on the road, the people walking ahead and the people following from behind shouted, "Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed be the one who comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest," (verse nine).

     

    2. That's how it was when Jesus entered Jerusalem. Right after that, Christ displayed some astonishing behaviors in the temple. Actually if we go by Mark's Gospel, it would be the following day. Matthew deliberately depicts it right after the entry into Jerusalem. In brief, the very first thing those seeking deliverance while in Jerusalem had seen was the figure of Christ on the temple grounds turning over the money changers' tables and driving out the dealers.

     

    3. Den Of Robbers: Please look at verse twelve. The scripture contains the following words: "After that, Jesus entered the temple grounds, then He drove out all those who were buying and selling there, He knocked down the stands of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. Then He said, 'It is written. My house should be called a house of prayer. But instead, you have made it into a den of robbers.'," (verses twelve and thirteen).

     

    4. It's quite a very shocking scene. It's obviously an unusual behavior for anybody watching. Why did Jesus do such a rude thing as that" We must seek for an answer to that from Jesus' own words. At that moment, Jesus quoted from the words of Isaiah that "My house should be called a house of prayer." Looking at it from the Lord's perspective, it would mean the temple was no longer "a house of prayer." Worse still, it wasn't just that it wasn't a house of prayer, but the Lord went even further and said that "You have made it a den of robbers."

     

    5. Isn't the term "a den of robbers" a bit extreme" Even though Jesus used such language, He had a reason. There once was [someone else] in the temple at Jerusalem who had spoken those words in the same manner. It was the prophet Jeremiah. His words at that time were left behind in the Old Testament scripture. Please look at Jeremiah chapter seven beginning with verse three.

     

    6. "The God of Israel, the Lord of the armies says this. Straighten your ways and deeds. Then, I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in the vain words of the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. ... But, look, you will trust in these vain words, but they do not have saving power. While you rob, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow the heretical gods whom you do not know, will you come to this temple called by My name and stand before Me and say, 'We're saved"' Aren't you doing all manner of abominable things" Does this temple, which is called by My name, look to you like a hangout for robbers" It does. It looks that way to Me too, says the Lord," (Jeremiah 7:3-11).

     

    7. It was about the end of the seventh century B.C.E. when the prophet had spoken. It was the period when king Jehoiakim was ruling the land of Judah. Jehoiakim had been set up as king by the pharaoh of Egypt. As we see from that, it was a period when the Judean people were threatened by the power of the great land of Egypt. The worries of that society drove the people to the temple. At that time period, the worship in the temple was held with great fanfare. The phrase of "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord" which was repeated like some spell might be, shows how they made the temple of the Lord as the basis for their minds and hearts. The people sought for peace of mind, they sought for protection from Egypt and rushed to the temple.

     

    8. The temple was crowded with many many people. Wasn't that just wonderful" But, through Jeremiah, God threw them a truly severe message. He said even though they were trusting in that vain phrase [of theirs], it had no saving power. Why [not]" Because during the crisis in Judah, the only thing God required of them was sincere repentance and nothing but that. The Lord said, "Straighten out your ways and deeds." But, while they held elaborate worship services in the temple, they didn't have any sincere repentance or obedience unto the word of God. With their backs turned against God still, they were just a herd of people there seeking only for God's protection [but] in a superstitious way. To them the temple was only a refuge for them to turn to obtain peace [of mind]. It was hardly any different from a hideout in which thieves might hide themselves and feel free from worry after performing their evil deeds. Thus, God called it "a den of robbers."

     

    9. About six hundred and forty years later, Christ would stand like Jeremiah once did at the temple and speak using the same words. "Thus, it is written. 'My house should be called a house of prayer.' But, you have made it a den of robbers." When Jesus saw the temple, it wasn't "a house of prayer" there. It wasn't sincere and true worship there. They didn't have a living relationship with God there. Just as in the time of Jeremiah of old, the temple had been turned into a den of thieves for just protection and to get peace of mind. For that reason, As Christ entered Jerusalem, He headed for the temple first, and while there He showed rude and drastic behavior.

     

    10. We must remember that the first actions of the Christ who had come to Jerusalem to bring salvation for humanity to fulfillment was a strong protest against the way the temple was but ought to be. Back in the time of Jeremiah, the people of Jerusalem brought up the question of the threat from Egypt. They sought for deliverance from Egypt. But, Jeremiah brought up the question of what was happening in the relationship between God and each person. In the time of Jesus, the people brought up the question of the government of Rome over them. And they sought for deliverance from Rome. But, the Lord brought up the question of what was happening in the relationship between God and each person.

     

    What's going on between us [and the Lord]" When deliverance is spoken about, we always bring up the question of outside forces causing us suffering from the outside. We wish for first that our burdens would be taken away and we would be freed from suffering and pain. But, first things first, the savior brings up the question of our relationship with God. Christ proceeded to the temple first. Christ saw that prayer, worship, and one's fellowship with God was the most important matters in humanity's salvation.

                                       

    Bringing Back The House Of Prayer

     

    11. While the text thus records Christ's use of force loaded with His indignation and may be quite unusual, yet the figure of the people approaching Christ doing that is described in the text. "On the temple grounds, as the blind and the lame came up to Jesus, He healed them," (verse fourteen).

     

    12. The blind and the lame. They were only permitted to enter as far as the temple grounds. That was because the terminology of "The blind and the lame must not enter the temple" was a tradition going back to David, (Second Samuel 5:8). They were excluded from worship at the temple. But, their eyes and legs were healed by Christ. That meant more than just having their physical suffering removed. The main thing here is that they were restored back as worshippers. In that sense, the event taking place here is one along the same lines as when the Lord had called the tax collectors and the sinners. In one sense, worship in the temple was judged by Christ's words and purified, but then the people who had been excluded from worship services till then were restored back as worshippers and called into fellowship with God. Also, it is described as miracles of healing by Christ. In other words, it is recorded as a work by God's mercy that just only He could offer.

     

    13. Also along with the miracle of the healings, something about children is recorded. It says that on the same [temple] grounds taking place as one continuous event with the whole account, the children were shouting "Hosanna to the son of David" and were praising the Christ. The chief priests and the scribes of the law took issue with that. If going by the authorities of the temple, Jesus' actions were problematic in obviously contradicting their religious authority, and [his actions] were only blasphemous unto God. They could not tolerate one bit even these children speaking of this one who was acting [blasphemous] like that and giving forth praises of "Hosanna to the son of David" [to Him]. They said to Jesus, "Can you hear what the children are saying"" In effect, they were telling Him to put an end to this blasphemy immediately.

     

    14. However, quoting words from the Psalms, Jesus replied to them with this: "[They] will be heard. Haven't you yourselves ever read the words 'In the mouths of toddlers and babes, He would make them sing praises'"," (verse sixteen). In other words, what was happening here is but the fulfillment of what was actually sung in the Psalms. This is not saying that children seem more sincere or have sharper sensitivity and more power to understand than adults. The main thing here is that "God" would make them sing praises. God would instruct into the children's mouths His praises. In other words, just as what happened to the blind and the lame, as just a work of God, a new thing would happen even upon these children too by Christ's being there. While the people, who were under the impression that they themselves were worshippers, had ended up making the temple a den of thieves, the children, who were not even admitted into the numbers of worshippers, would be made into worshippers. In this manner then, what we see in this passage of scripture is not just the figure of Christ alone judging the reality of how the house of prayer became just a den of thieves. The figure of Christ is also described as bringing back the house of prayer there.

     

    15. Several days after this happened, Christ was crucified. Salvation did not materialize in the form the people had wished for. Rome still ruled over Israel. But, Christ had certainly entered into the capital city of Jerusalem for salvation, and that salvation did come into fulfillment because through means of Christ's cross and resurrection, the true house of prayer was rebuilt, whereby forgiveness of sin is given on this earth and a relationship of life with God is realized. The visible temple would end up destroyed in about forty years after this. But, the house of prayer known as the church, the body of Christ, will go on to exist unchanged to this day. We, too, are called to this house of prayer as true worshippers, that we might live in fellowship with God. Our salvation that we have lies right there in this eternal fellowship with God in Christ.

     

    Matthew chapter 21 is another wonderful and thrilling adventure with the Lord Jesus Christ in the week in which He was crucified. We have entered into the twenty-first chapter of Matthew and thus have come to the final week of our Lord's earthly life and ministry. On Friday He will die.

    But our text today is on Tuesday, the day after His inauguration, His coronation, His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Monday. He had entered into the city of Jerusalem to the cries of "Hosanna, to the Son of David, Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest," as tens of thousands of people hailed Him as the King, the Messiah, the deliverer, the Savior. It was a wonderful day in one sense because He was receiving praise that is due His name.

    The procession on Monday had really begun outside the eastern gate as Jesus coming from Bethany had already gathered a large group of people with Him and another large mass of people inside the city were coming to meet Him. So the two groups surged together outside the eastern gate. And then the procession began and it went through that gate into the city. And the "hosannas" rang out for how long a period, we don't know, but the procession finally ended at the temple. In Mark 11:11, Mark tells us that Jesus came in that procession to the temple. And the procession ended there. And He returned to Bethany, there to spend the night with Mary, Martha, Lazarus and the twelve disciples.

    It's now Tuesday morning. Another day has dawned. One day closer to Calvary. And on Tuesday, He goes right back to the same place He had left Monday night, back to the temple. And in verses 12 to 17, we find out what happened when He arrit ved there.

    Now before we look at the text, note that at this particular time of Passover, Jerusalem is literally teeming with people. It has swelled maybe three or four or five or more times its normal size. Pilgrims from all over that part of the world have pushed their way into the city to participate in the Passover. And the Passover tradition said that in order to celebrate the Passover, you had to be inside the city of Jerusalem. Now the only way that everybody could get into the city of Jerusalem was if they moved the boundaries because inside the wall the people could not be contained. So it was customary at Passover time to put out a little edict that extended the boundaries of Jerusalem to encompass at least the villages of Bethany and Bethphage and other surrounding areas.

    The city couldn't contain the pilgrims. The inns were all full. The open areas within the walled city were filled up with little tents and campfires where the people were settling in for the Passover season. They stayed with friends in Bethphage, Bethany and other surrounding villages. And so, Jesus, along with a lot of other folks, and His twelve disciples were staying in a home in Bethany, the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

    One of the places in the city that was most crowded with pilgrims was the temple. And although the Jewish law forbid that anyone should sleep in the temple, they were not allowed to do that, they would camp as close to it as they could. And so all around the temple precinct, the outer wall of the outer courtyard would be pilgrims and their tents and their little blankets sleeping out in the night. And some of them were sleeping in the buildings adjacent to the building that were owned by the temple proprietors. So the city is literally exploding with people. And the temple is the focal point of everything.

    All week long it is alive with pilgrims, coming to see it, coming there to pray, coming into the court of the women to put their offerings in the trumpet-shaped receptacles that hung on the walls, coming with sacrifices and offerings of all kinds to give to God to seek cleansing from their sin, to deal with other kinds of issues as well. Ceremonial cleansings, purification rites, oh, the temple was the center of everything. And it is to the temple that Jesus comes and introduces us to one of the most amazing and marvelous scenes of this last week of His life.

    Now as we approach verses 12 to 17, which is the temple encounter, look at it from a very special perspective. it is the presentation of Jesus' Messianic credentials. He give the populous of Jerusalem and most specifically the chief priests and scribes a very clear testimony as to the nature of His Kingliness and the nature of His Kingdom. He makes a statement here that could never be misunderstood.

    Remember that from the first demonstration that really ever happened around Jesus in Galilee, when He revealed His great power, His miracle ability. The people had tried to take Him and make Him a king by force so that He would overthrow Rome and provide all that they needed socially and economically and militarily and so forth. And all through His ministry, He had resisted those attempts. Whenever they tried to make Him a king, He resisted that. And on Monday, as we saw last time, in a great statement about the nature of His kingship, He had ridden into the city for His coronation on the foal of a donkey, sitting on a used robe thrown over that donkey by one of the disciples while people threw tree branches and old clothes in His path.

    He was weaponless and His retinue was a group of common nobodies. And He was saying, in effect, the nature of My Kingdom is not as the kingdoms of this world. We see no pomp and glory, we see no earthly majesty, we see no military might. But still in their hearts, they hoped that He would do that, that He would overthrow the Roman yoke, that He would break the bands of the Roman oppressor, that He would free them to the nobility they themselves believed as Jews that they should have, the nobility that comes only to free people.

    And just to be sure that they haven't missed His message, He enters into the temple and demonstrates to them again the nature of His kingliness and the nature of His Kingdom. And it is a far broader, a far greater demonstration even then was His lowly inauguration.

    Now, look at these verses and mark the kingly credentials of Christ. First of all, He showed He was on a divine mission. And that is simply pointed out in the first statement of verse 12, "And Jesus went into the temple of God."

    The temple of God is never used in the New Testament as a phrase anywhere but here, so it seems unlikely that some scribe would put it in, but if you understand what Jesus is about to do, it makes all the sense in the world that  Matthew would have affirmed that this was the temple of God when Jesus is about to describe the utter ungodliness of its activities."

    Jesus went into the temple of God on a divine mission. He went to the temple of God. That was where He wanted to be. The temple is the issue, not Rome. What is going on militarily, politically, socially, economically is not the major issue. And the Messiah did not come initially in His first coming to solve those problems, although He will in His Second Coming solve those problems, all of them. But before He comes as King of Kings and Lord of Lords to establish His own glorious and eternal Kingdom and to solve all problems that exist in the earth today, He first of all must come and be received by men in their own hearts. And so His first coming was as Savior before He could come as full and final glorious King in His Kingdom.

    His business is with worship, not with society, not with politics. The temple is not the issue, or the temple is the issue, not Rome. Our Lord is not concerned with the people's relation to Rome, He's concerned with the people's relation to God. That's His focus.

    And this ought to be abundantly clear to any student of the New Testament because when Jesus came the first time to Jerusalem, this is exactly where He went also. And if we go back to John chapter 2 and notice verses 13 to 17, we will find there how He began His ministry at a Passover. And the Jews' Passover was at hand. Jesus went to Jerusalem, found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting. And when He made a whip of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers money and overthrew the tables and said to them that sold doves, "Take these things from here, make not My Father's house a house of merchandise."

    So, when He started His ministry, He started it at the temple and when He ends it, He ends it at the temple. He's seen a lot of things in the years intervening. He has seen social injustice. He has seen economic inequities. He has seen oppression by the Romans. He has seen deprivation. He has seen the poor suffering abuse. He has seen lot of things. But His mission never changes. His whole ministry here is given very clear perspective. He was concerned with how people worshiped, with how people worshiped. He was concerned with their relationship to God, not their relationship to earthly kingdoms. It wasn't so important to Him how it was with men and men as it was with men and God.

    He is identifying for us clearly the turf, or the territory of His mission. Three years had not changed that purpose. He goes right back to the temple, even though He had passed and seen many things inconsistent with God's design and God's will, as it was between men and men, the priority thing was between men and God, for only when men are right with God can men be right with men. Many things needed a soldier, many things needed an army, many things needed a social reformer, but more than that, men needed God and they needed true worship and they needed to know God's standard and God's will, God's purpose for their relationship to Him.

    Peter picked it up from the Lord and said it this way in 1 Peter 4:17, "Judgment must begin at the house of God." It begins at the house of God. As long as things were wrong in the house of God, they would be wrong in the nation. You see, the measure of any society is the relation it has to God. Worship is the issue. Read Romans 1, worship is always the issue. The problem with society is not that it has bad laws, the problem with society is not that it has human inequities. The problem with society is that it has abandoned God. And some would accuse us of being indifferent to the national political issues, indifferent to the social issues and the social scene, that is not true. We are not indifferent to those things but we know what Jesus knew and what Peter reiterated, that judgment must begin at the house of God.

    Christ claim to cleanse the temple. "O Christ, cleanse the church...cleanse the church," because that and that alone is the hope of the country, the hope of the nation, the hope of the world.

    And what did He find when He came to the temple" He had cleansed it once and it had gone back and reverted to exactly what it was the first time He came. You say, "Then why bother"" Because He came to the temple to vindicate the holiness of God. The issue wasn't whether they reacted rightly, the issue was that they should see the holiness of God. It was the revelation of God's holy will and purpose. It demonstrated His vengeance against sin and desecration and blasphemy and false religion. When Jesus cleansed the temple, we realize there was no revival really, there was no real reform, there was no real renewal. They're right back three years later doing the very same thing when He came the first time, but that doesn't mean He shouldn't come, He should come because God must reveal how He feels about false religion. He must reveal how He feels about blasphemy. He must say very clearly and unforgettably how He feels about them who treat Him in a unholy way.

    And, this was something God must have been used to because He sent the prophets so many times to call the people of Israel back from idolatry and often they had a rather immediate reform which degenerated ultimately into an even worse idolatry. But God never stopped doing that because God always must speak the truth and reveal Himself as holy...and reveal His hatred against sin. And so, He comes to the temple again and His purpose is to show again how God feels about the evils of men.

    Now imagine the city of Jerusalem packed with people...chaos milling everywhere. And the temple is the focal point of all of it...masses of people there. And as Jesus comes to that place, this is what He faces...a great outer wall of colonnades and columns that surrounds the whole temple precinct, the temple area. That is known as the 'heron ("), the temple in the large sense.

    Through that main opening, He enters into the Court of the Gentiles. And it was called the Court of the Gentiles because anybody could come in there, even Gentiles. And once into the Court of the Gentiles, you would notice a gate. And that gate was called "The Gate Beautiful." You may remember a man begging at that gate in Acts 3. And inside that gate was the Court of the Women. And that was a place where the Jewish women could go and the Jewish men, but no Gentiles. In fact, there was a sign by the Gate Beautiful that said if a Gentile went in there, he lost his life.

    And so, into the Gate Beautiful, you'd go and you'd come into the Court of the Women with the trumpet-shaped receptacles for the receiving of the money that was to be given for certain reasons of cleansing and offering and so forth. And in the Court of the Women, the Jews would be gathered.

    There was a gate in the Court of the Women called "The Nicanor (") Gate. It was a gate made out of Corinthian bronze. It took 20 men to open and close...massive thing. And if you went through that gate, you came into what was known as the Court of the Israelites, the men could go in there. And the Court of the Israelites was where they would get ready to give their offerings. The men would take the sheep or the turtledove or the pigeon, whatever, or whether it was a grain offering or whatever kind and they would get it all prepared in the Court of the Israelites and they would take it to another gate which went into the Court of the Priests. And in the Court of the Priests was the offering...the burnt offering altar, the altar of incense and they could look through that opening as they handed the priests their sacrifice as he took it in and slaughtered it...or took it in and offered it.

    And so, they would stand in that Court of the Israelites and watch as their offering was being made. From the Court of the Priests there was another little door. It entered into a 600 square foot courtyard, at the back of which was what was called the nahos ("), the holy place. It was a small little building which included in it the holy place and the Holy of Holies where the ark of the covenant was, separated by a veil into which the high priest could enter only once a year on the Day of Atonement.

    The interesting thing about the temple was that it starts at a low point and all of this ascends until the nahos crowns Mount Moriah...so that there's a sequence of steps apparently going from court to court.

    Now Jesus walks in the outer wall and stands in the Court of the Gentiles. And since it was the Court of the Gentiles, the Jews felt if Gentiles could be there, so could anything else. And so they had filled it with just about everything else. It was known in those days as the bizarre of Annas...Annas being the high priest, a corrupt and vile man who saw the temple as a way to get power and wealth. He had a great idea. He and his priests sold concessions. In other words, you could buy space in the Court of the Gentiles. And there you could come and sell sheep, lambs, doves, pigeons, make money exchanges, sell oil, wine, salt and other requisites that go along with sacrifices.

    And you paid dearly for those concessions because here's how the system worked. Every offering had to be approved by the priests. When you finally got into the Court of the Israelites and you brought what you were going to give, it had to be approved. And maybe they had approving stations even before you got that far in. But the priests had to say your sacrifice was acceptable, and the odds were that if you bought it outside the temple, it was not going to be approved. If you had raised a lamb way out where you lived and brought that little lamb in to be offered, they'd say that lamb is not acceptable, you must have a lamb purchased in the Court of the Gentiles. And so you'd go to buy a lamb but only, according to Edersheim the great Jewish historian, you would pay ten times the value of that lamb. So you were extorted, you were fleeced to reverse the picture a little. You were taken by robbers.

    Poor people, according to Levitical law, didn't have to bring a lamb because they couldn't afford lamb, so they were allowed to have a dove or a pigeon in the place of a lamb. And most historians feel that in today's currency, a couple of birds might be worth a nickel or a dime. But you would have paid four or five dollars for them there. And if you wanted to exchange your money because you had to have exactly a half shekel so you had to have the right change, and if you came from a foreign country with foreign currency and it had to be changed, you would pay twenty-five percent fee just to make small change.

    And so, you can see that they would pay dearly for concessions inside the temple. Because they would work along with the priests to extort the people, to cheat the people. All this in the name of religion.

    Jesus walks in, His eyes, His ears and His nostrils are filled with the sights and sounds and smells, a stench of a stockyard, the wrangling and haggling and haranguing of people bargaining over the price of animals...the noise the animals make, all the chaos of the crying animals being slaughtered, blood, it is a scene that's unbelievable. But this is Jesus' turf because this is the house of God. And it has been turned into a cave for robbers. And so He comes and sees this horrifying but familiar scene. And it says to us something so important, it says that Christ came first of all to deal with men on a spiritual level. That's the point. He came to throw out corrupt worship and to bring in true worship. He is on a divine mission.

    Second point, He has divine authority. Now, the most powerful thing going on in that country was the temple. The high priest was a powerful man. And the man who was next to the high priest was equally powerful. And the one who was the head of the temple police was powerful. And then you had all the orders of priests and there were myriads of them. There was an organizational structure there that was very strong. And, if you walked passed the Gate Beautiful, for example, and a Gentile was there, the Romans had given them the right to kill him. They had plenty of power. They had great authority within the walls of that temple precinct area.

    But they were about to meet somebody over whom they had absolutely no power. It says in verse 12, "Jesus went into the temple of God...and follow...cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves." Now if we think Jesus is just always some meek and lowly gentle person, we ought to study this a little more deeply.

    Many thousands of people were in there, and those kinds of people, those kinds of extortionists, those kinds of money grubbing, money hungry people want to hang on to their money, to their prosperity, to hang on to their business there. We can imagine how much the priests didn't want to be shamed and showed up in the face of the whole population. How much they didn't want their power challenged. How they would have thought themselves...the last thing that could have happened to themselves would have been to be made shameful in the eyes of the population of the city by some Galilean would-be Messiah, but that's exactly what happened. Against all of what we would think would happen, it happened. It simply says, "He cast out all them that sold and bought," just threw them all out. Not only the sellers but the buyers, too. He just threw everybody out of there that was involved in that enterprise. And the leaders, they couldn't stop Him. There was no way.

    "How did He do it"" We don't know, it doesn't say. It does say He threw them out. That's rather vivid. You say, "Well, maybe it was just His word, out." That could do it. That got Lazarus out of the grave. That also spoke the worlds into existence when creation occurred. So He could have done it with His word, but there was more than that because it also says He overthrew the tables of the moneychangers. He went through the place and started flipping tables and kicking them over. He demonstrates not only His vocal authority, but His physical presence as well. You remember back in John 2, He made a whip and He threw them out by use of a whip. Maybe He made a whip again, or maybe He had the same whip.

    What authority. He overthrew the table of the moneychangers. The word "moneychangers" in Greek is interesting, "makers of small change." They were sitting at their little stools with their little stacks of coins and He just started flipping them. Can you imagine those people hustling to collect every coin" And then He threw over the seats of those who sold doves. Guys sitting on a seat with a crate full of birds and He just started kicking over crates and knocking over stools and flipping tables and throwing people out of there. He cleared the place.

    And then Mark adds a wonderful note. He says in Mark 11:16 that He wouldn't allow anybody to carry any vessel through the temple. And what was going on was probably pretty simply understood, the eastern gate of the city was where they would come in and just to the left of the eastern gate is the temple area. And if you were coming in the eastern gate, and wanted to go to Zion and you had something to deliver or something to bring through there, the easiest way was not to go all the way around the temple but just to go through one of the side entrances to the general courtyard and go right straight through and just use it like a street. And they apparently were using the temple area just like a thoroughfare, a street like any other public street and He just stopped that immediately. And nobody carried anything through there.

    It may also imply that nobody carried anything out of there. That they had to get thrown out and left all their debris there. Now if you can get all those people to split and run and leave their stuff behind, they're scared. Now this is the same Jesus riding on the colt, the foal of an ass, meek and lowly and humble.

    What is the difference" Well, He came meek and lowly. He came as one who was to die in humility. But at the same time, He also gave a glorious demonstration of the reason for which He came and that is to change men from false worshipers to true worshipers. And so He went to the temple. He never used the same power He had to overthrow Rome, the only thing He wanted to do was clean up their corrupt worship. What power. We just wish we could have been there to see it. He kicked over everything, created chaos and they fled.

    We may ask, "Why didn't they stop Him"" They couldn't. They were pressed, the chief priests. They were really pressed because the crowd was hailing Him as the Messiah, for one thing. Secondly, the people hated the bizarres of Annas. They themselves started an insurrection that put them out of business, even before 70 A.D. when the temple was destroyed. So the people were with Him. Plus, they couldn't handle Him. And for one moment, for one brief moment, the place was clean. No, It wouldn't be very tidy, animals all over the place, birds all over the place, crates, stools, tables, money. It wasn't tidy, it was clean.

    And later on in verse 23, the chief priest said, "By what authority doest Thou these things" And who gave Thee this authority"" Such a dumb question. As if He needed any other authority. They should have known by what authority, shouldn't they" So blind were they. And it makes us cry,

    "O God, send Christ again to cleanse the church. Send Christ again to cleanse the church because we have moneychangers in our temple." Luther had them. And the Reformation was born out of his terrible anxiety over the indulgences of the Roman Catholic Church.

    We have moneychangers today even in the Protestant church, hucksters, corrupters of the Word of God who are in it for the filthy lucre. And we cry out for Christ to cleanse today as He did then.

    There's a third credential that we see in verse 13. He not only showed He was on a divine mission and demonstrated divine authority, but He revealed a commitment to divine Scripture. He vindicates what He does by this in verse 13. "He said unto them, It is written." And then He quotes Isaiah 56:7, "My house shall be called the house of prayer." And Isaiah adds and Mark also includes, "Of all nations." Matthew leaves it out because his audience is primarily Jewish.

    But the Lord says I vindicate what I do because I am doing something consistent with the Word of God. Oh, that's so great. As Messiah He was always hooked to the Word of God. In John He says, "I never do anything that the Father doesn't show Me to do. I never do anything that the Father doesn't tell Me to do." Everything He ever did was consistent with the Word of God. He vindicates His anger by basing it on Scripture. He says, Isaiah said it, God said through Him, "My house shall be called the house of prayer." See, the temple was to be a place of prayer. It was to be a quiet place, a place of worship, a place of devotion, a place of meditation, a place of contemplation, a place of confession, a place of prayer, a place of praise, a place where people went to commune with God, to seek God, to open their hearts to God, not to be a business, not a stockyard, not a crooked bank, not a thoroughfare for people carrying on their worldly business.

    We’re reminded of 1 Samuel 1, Hannah, she went to the temple and Eli the priest sat on a seat by the post of the temple of the Lord. She went there to seek God. She was in bitterness of soul. She prayed to the Lord, she wept bitterly. She vowed a vow. Now that's what the temple was for. It was for a person to go and find some quiet, the court was where a Jew or a Gentile could go and seek God, a place of silence, a place of meditation, a place to vow a vow to God. And she was there and Eli saw her lips moving and she found there the face of God that she sought. God wonderfully heard her prayer and gave her a child.

    And you remember when the temple was dedicated in 1 Kings chapter 8 verses 29 and 30 and Solomon offered his prayer to God. And he said, "I pray to God that this place may be a place where Your people can come and confess and find forgiveness, a place of quiet, a place of confession." And we remind of the psalmist in Psalm 27 who identifies the usefulness of the temple with these words, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple." It's a place where we can see the beauty of the Lord and worship and where we can beseech Him, inquiring of Him there in His holy place. And they had turned it into a crooked bank, a stockyard, a thoroughfare...blasphemous.

    And He says to them in verse 13, "But you have made it a den of thieves," or a cave of robbers. And that's another Old Testament quote from Jeremiah 7:11. You have made it...and He borrows the phrase from Jeremiah...a cave of robbers, where robbers hole up. Instead of being a place for true worshipers, it's a place where people can rob and be protected in doing it. You have made it a cave of robbers. They can come here and they're safe. Robbers used to hide in the caves. Jeremiah alludes to that in chapter 7 verses 4 to 11 where the robbers were hiding in the caves. And they were safe there, out of the way, unfound, secure. And he says you've provided a cave for robbers to hide in the temple of God. And they can do their robbery right in the place they're hiding. Such protection of extortionist is blasphemous. Yahweh's house, God's house to be a temple to worship and pray and commune with Him, what a prostitution you've made of this.

    There's a fourth thing. He not only shows His divine mission, His divine authority, and His commitment to the divine Word, but we see Him as the Messiah because of His divine compassion. For a moment, the place was clean. And in that moment verse 14 comes to beautifully to us, "And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple and He healed them." He's still there. He's standing there in the midst of all the debris and it's clean for a moment. And here come the blind and the lame who always hung around the temple anyway because that's where God was and that's where the people were and they needed to beg from the people and they needed to beg from God so that was the best place to be. And they, no doubt, filled the Court of the Gentiles, begging God and men for help. And when Jesus did that, we would have thought that they would have also gotten out of there one way or another. If the fury of Jesus was enough to dispense all the able bodied people, If they ran for their lives under His authority, we would think that these people would be cowering in some dark corner...scared to death. But not so, because ever and always in Jesus Christ is the perfect exhibited balance of holy vengeance and compassion.

    And so, those who were guilty see His anger and those who are true seekers see His compassion. It's marvelous. And He stands in the temple and they come to Him. If we want to see the compassion of God in Christ, we see it in His healing ministry. That's where we see it. One of the reasons there are ill people and disabled people is so that God in His mercy can dispense to them His compassion and thus reveal that element of His person. If there were no ill people, if there were no crippled people, if there were no suffering people, we would not see a dimension of God's character which is revealed to us. And keep in mind, for those that love Christ, all those disabilities are very, very temporary. But they give God occasion to reveal to the world His compassion.

    Did the Pharisees care about those people" Whether they cared that they were blind and lame" If the poor people came and were overcharged hundreds of times for a couple of pigeons, can we think they cared about the poor" They were making money off the poor. They were making money if they could off of anybody that possibly could come within the grasp, they didn't care. They were like Israel of old in many ways. They abused the poor and despised those who were infirmed. But not Christ...Oh, what credentials. God is compassionate.

    In Matthew 11 when the disciple of John the Baptist comes and says to Jesus, "Are You the Messiah" John wants to know." Jesus says, "You go tell John that the blind see, the deaf hear and the lame walk, he'll know...he'll know." And the Lord didn't heal just to display His power. It did do that, but that wasn't the main reason. He could have displayed His power a lot of ways. The reason He healed was to display His compassion, that God is a God of great compassion.

    And what beautiful balance. We're not afraid of Christ. Jesus Christ some day is going to come to this world in great and devastating eternal judgment. Jesus Christ holds in His hand the keys to hell and death. Jesus Christ is the judge, given judgment by the Father. He is the one who controls the eternal destiny of every soul. He has the right to send men and women to hell forever. He can breathe out any judgment He wants any time on anybody, and yet we come to Him in absolute trust and confidence and love because we know that He loves us. Because in balance to that is His divine and merciful compassion.

    And so we see them come and in compassion He heals them. And that's the truest kind of worship. True worship is in the name of the Lord meeting the need of someone, that is a far greater worship than a sacrifice, is it not" Sacrifices, sacrifices by the millions, but where was the worship of love to one in need"

    And then another mark of divine credential. We see His divine mission, His divine authority, His commitment to the divine Word, divine compassion and also His divine power...and we can't ignore that. Verse 14 says that He healed them. That is a display of divine power. He just healed them all, the blind, the lame and they're probably only representative of the deaf and the dumb and whoever else was ill and begging. And He healed them in front of everybody that was left. And everybody else would have known very soon when they started running around town saying, "Hey, it's us, only now we see and hear and speak and walk." And even the chief priests in verse 15 saw the wonderful things that He did.

    Wonderful...what's that" Wonderful things, thaumasios, the marvels, the miracles, the astonishing, amazing wonders that only God could do. Only God can create eyes. Only God can create legs. Only God can create eardrums where none exist. Only God can do that. Powerful testimony. We see the compassion of God, the power of God in His healing. He healed them.

    There's another thing. And this maybe is the most important of all. Notice the end of verse 15, the chief priests it says at the beginning, and the scribes saw the wonderful things He did. And then at the end it says, "They were very displeased."

    How could they be displeased" First of all, they could care less about the crippled people and the blind. They didn't care about those people. They had no thought for them at all. Of course we know they had not thought for them, there was no compassion in them. And a compassionate person intimidates an uncompassionate person. And a powerful person intimidates an impotent person, we understand that. So they are so intimidated. They are so angry. They are so resentful. They are so jealous.

    The word used here "very displeased" is translated in chapter 20 verse 24 "indignation." It means fury. They were full of wrath. They were angry. They could have cared less about the healing of those people. The only thing they were mad about was Jesus Christ was putting Himself on display and they couldn't handle Him. They were such hard-hearted rejecters. If they would have just remembered Malachi, they would have remembered that He would suddenly come to His temple. But they wouldn't have Him as their Messiah.

    He didn't check in with them. He didn't ask their advice on anything. He came from Galilee to add to that. And He kept confronting their sin as if they were sinners. He wouldn't recognize their righteousness. He wouldn't recognize their self-styled holiness. He blasted them with the fact that they were sinners and in need of something they did not possess and couldn't earn on their own and they rejected that. They were so locked into their self- righteousness. And all they could come up with was being jealous. He didn't fit their picture. Later on they cried, "We'll not have this man to reign over us. We don't care what He can do." They were just angry.

    He gives Himself, demonstrates His kingliness, demonstrates the nature of His Kingdom and all they do is get mad. But there's one other thing that's so marvelous and this is the coup de grace, this is the high point. One other credential that we see in a positive sense, He accepted divine worship. Look at verse 15, right in the middle, "And the children"...and the word there is boys in the Greek, boys old enough to come to the Passover, the boys that were there. Maybe they were boys getting instructed in their first Passover, "Were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David." They got the message, right"

    The astute erudite leaders of Israel may not have known who He was but it was pretty clear to the kids. Have you ever met an atheist kid" Never. Very simple for them to believe. The evidence was overwhelming. They had just seen somebody who healed people. They had just seen somebody throw out all of the corrupt and evil people in the temple. It was pretty clear to them who this was. And Tousou (") the French painter has a magnificent painting of this in which he portrays all these boys with their arms locked like this, marching back and forth through the temple shouting in unison at the top of their voice, "Hosanna to the Son of David." Which just makes the chief priests livid. But that's true worship, see. All the garbage stops and some children worship the King.

    Well, they said to Him in verse 16, "Hearest Thou what these say"" Are You listening to those children" Are You hearing what they say" They wanted those children to stop, that's blasphemy. You can't worship this man in the temple of God. Can you believe that" You could settle cattle at an exorbitant price, cheat people out of their money, do all the rest of the stuff but you couldn't worship the Messiah there" That will show us where they were. Any true worship had to be stopped. The worship of the true God in the true form just could not occur in that place, and so they said, "Do You hear what they say"" And what they mean is, "Are You going to allow this""

    "And Jesus said unto them, Yes." I like that. "Yes, I hear it. Yes, I'm going to allow it. Yes." We imagine He smiled a little to think of the incongruity of this whole amazing event. You see, if the Lord can't get the praise out of the mature people, He gets it out of the immature.

    We say, "Well, how could these kids be so perceptive"" Oh, we don't know really how perceptive they were. But they were perceptive enough to see that He had healed people and that's pretty overwhelming. We say, "Well, where did they get the idea that He was the Son of David"" What had been going on all day the day before" And kids learn from their parents, they were just echoing what they heard the day before only it was no problem for them, it seemed really clear now. Mom and dad yesterday had been shouting hosanna to the Son of David, the one coming in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest. They had been praising Him as the King. And as far as these kids could see, it was pretty clear that that's who He was.

    And in Luke's account of the coronation day, the triumphal entry, the chief priests came and said, "You better tell these people to stop." And Jesus said to them, "If they don't sing My praises, or praise Me, the stone will cry out." Here He says the same thing. He quotes Psalm 8:2, they say to Him, "Do you hear this"" And Jesus says, "Have you heard this, Out of the mouth of babes and suckling’s," two Hebrew words used in Psalm 8:2 to refer to infants under the age of three because Hebrew mothers suckled their babies until they were about three, "Out of the mouths of babes and suckling, Thou has perfected praise."

    In other words, even little babies can simply and in an uncluttered way praise God. Now we don’t need to get into all the implications of that statement in its context in the Psalms. But for this text, what He's simply saying is this, He's using that Psalm as an illustration of what is going on. If God will not be praised out of the mouths of the mature, He will be praised out of the mouths of the immature. God is going to get His praise to His Son, even if the stones have to cry out, as Luke 19:40 said. Like the stones, Christ is to be praised. Like the children, Christ is to be praised. Like people, they are to praise Him as well. He will get the praise either from mature people or infants or rocks if need be. He just alludes to that Psalm as an illustration of what is happening. And that isn't to say that these were zero to three-year-old babies all chanting together, "Hosanna to the Son of David." But rather an allusion to that principle there.

    What a glorious event. And the fury of those leaders, simply because of their unbelief. All the evidence was in, even little children could see it.

    There's one other thing, He gives His credentials, divine mission, divine authority, divine Word, divine compassion, divine power and divine worship, and one other thing. One other thing that proves He was the Messiah, it's this, He was rejected. Verse 17, haunting words, "And He left them." In that simple physical act, there was a volume of truth. He left them, went out of the city to Bethany and He lodged there. He really left them. Because the next day in verse 23, they come and say, "By what authority do You do these things" And who gave You this authority"" And in verse 27 He gets around finally to saying, "Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things." He left them. He had nothing more to say.

    It's reminiscent of Genesis 6 where the Bible says God's Spirit will not always strive with man. There comes a time when He leaves. Let's bow in prayer.

    It may be that in our life Christ has revealed Himself, shown Himself to be a divine Savior on a divine and spiritual mission to clean our life and bring about true worship. It may have been that He comes with divine authority based on the Word of God, demonstrating compassion and power, all of these things we've seen. It may have been that He has revealed Himself to be worthy of worship. What's our verdict" Are we like the little children who in the wonderful simplicity of their youth, taking into their little hearts what they saw, could cry out "Hosanna, save now, O Son of David"" It was proof enough for them.

    Or are we like the hard-hearted religious leaders who are only angry because He's making such claims on our life, because He's calling us to accountability, because He's confronting our sin" It's either one or the other. No middle ground. "He that is not with Me, is against Me. He that gathers is not together scattered abroad." We either embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior or we refuse Him. You either stand with, as it were, in the symbolic sense the children singing His praises, or the religious leaders whom He leaves and to whom He has nothing more to say.

    And so, our prayer is that we might hear the voice of the Spirit of God calling us to see and know and understand and embrace the Savior and that we might respond. Open our heart to Him even now, who came to die for us, to rise again for our salvation.

    Matthew 21:12-17 - Jesus has come to clean house

     

    First, a word of prayer, ‘Thanks Lord for this time again to be able to seek you in your Word, and to study your Word.  Thank you for these verses, and just a reminder of your heart towards the house of God and towards worship, and our interaction with you.  And so Lord as we come to this time, we pray, we know we come from different places, different places even now, speak to each and every one of us through your Holy Spirit, and to all those who are listening in [or reading this], and we pray that your Holy Spirit would be upon all of us now as we go through your Word, in Jesus name we pray, amen.’

     

    A different side of Jesus revealed here

     

    This is one of those passages where we see Jesus in a certain state, mindset, disposition that maybe in some instances we’re not even comfortable with, or have a little bit of a challenge just digesting. And we all like to see Jesus as the loving shepherd who heals the sick, and prays for the children, we like that, we like the passionate teacher that we’ve seen in the hills of Galilee, instructing the multitudes.  Like the gentle Jesus that we saw, riding on the donkey into the city with the multitudes praising Him and worshipping Him.  And maybe, we like to see the little baby Jesus in the manger there, with Joseph and Mary in the nativity scene.  

     

    But then we come to passages like this, and we maybe have a tough time reconciling the way we see Jesus here and the way He’s acting and behaving.  Of course, it’s the same Jesus, same Messiah, same Son of God.  And though we may have to work through a little bit of His anger here and His activity here, yet, as we go through these verses, we’ll see that this is as much a statement of His love towards us and towards His Father as any other passage that we study, and that’s for sure.  Now, as we’re studying in Matthew, it seems we were watching Jesus as He came in on the donkey there, and the triumphal entry, and it would seem here, now as we pick up verse 12, that He goes right from the multitudes, right from the whole procession, right up to the temple, and goes right into the temple, and then begins to drive out people and overturn tables. And it seems that you go from one to the other.  

     

    But when we put the Gospels together again, in Mark chapter 11 we actually learn that between verse 11 and verse 12 of Matthew there is a break, there is a day’s break [quite similar to Ezra chapter 6 and 7, there is a large time-break, where the Book of Esther fits right in-between].  And that is, as He does come from the procession, He does go into the temple in Mark it tells us, and then He looks around, examines the state of the temple, and then it says that He goes to Bethany with His 12 disciples for the evening.  And now what we are reading in Matthew 21:12-17, it’s the next day.  And based on what He saw the previous day, He comes back to the temple with the purpose, clearly this purpose of cleansing out the temple, as we note here.  

     

    Now we should note, too, that it’s not the temple building, this does not go on within the temple building itself.  You know, the temple had its different areas, the holy place and the Most Holy Place, but this is in the area of the temple which is outside the temple building, it’s the area of the Court of the Gentiles, that area that surrounded the temple outside the temple.  It was this huge enclosure around the temple proper where this market had been established under the colonnades around the Court.  So it’s the Court of the Gentiles where this takes place in. 

     

    Why is Jesus reacting this way"

     

    Is it His behavior, or maybe some would question, is His behavior a bit extreme"  And some may even say it’s a bit fanatical, maybe some would say it goes a bit overboard, ‘He’s just angry, and He’s tossing over tables.’  Some may wonder that.  Of course His answer is ‘No, He isn’t going overboard, He’s not extreme in what He does, but what He does is really the right thing to do.  There’s a certain heart to what is going down here.  And that is because what is going down in the temple there is actually restricting the true worship of the Lord.  And that is a big deal to God, when true worship and access to Him is hindered in one way or another, that’s always consistently a big deal to God. We see that throughout the Bible.  He wants men and women to know Him, to walk with Him, and to be able to worship Him.  And He wants that, that’s what He desires.  And when things get in the way, when people get in the way, especially, He gets pretty upset about it.  In just a couple weeks, [when we’ll be] in Matthew chapter 23, we can just imagine the voice of the Lord as He says this to the religious leaders because of the way they’ve been leading people astray and away from Him.  He says this, “But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men.  For you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.”  He just rebukes them, He says, ‘You don’t even, you think you do, but you’re not even in the Kingdom of God, and then on top of that, Woe to you, because you actually hinder people, people who are seeking Me out, and you get in the way and lead them another way, and seek to prevent them from finding Me, ultimately from coming into the Kingdom of God.  And that’s a big part of what’s going down here, they are getting in the way, to a degree or not making it easier, allowing people to enter in, to enter into the presence of God. 

     

    Jesus came to restore true worship, to set His Temple in order, the way they’re supposed to be

     

    And so Jesus is now here as the Lord of the Temple, and as the Lord of the Temple, He’s coming to restore true worship, He’s seeking to set things in order the way that they’re supposed to be and intended to be, removing all the manmade obstacles, getting rid of all the stuff that’s making it difficult for seekers to enter in.  And as you see there, He’s just upset, upset because of what is going down in the house of God, the way it’s being administrated, the way it’s being run, is just getting in the way of people’s seeking the face of God.  That’s true even today, the way Jesus is here you can be sure, that to Jesus it’s the same way today, yesterday, and tomorrow, He’s the same. 

     

    When man gets in the way

     

    In the Church [Body of Christ], in the house of God, when it is such that things are difficult for people actually to see Jesus and to come near to Him and really worship Him, when things are set up in that way, so it’s difficult, we can be sure that God is upset with that, when man places religious practices in the way, so the focus is more the church than God, there’s no doubt God is upset with that.  When man develops programs where the attention is more on certain individuals and upon man than Him, that’s certainly something that is going to be upsetting to Him.  When man develops doctrines, doctrines which end up confusing the people or clouding their understanding of Christ and of God, getting them to focus on other things other than eternal things.  That’s something that God will judge.  Even Peter said that in his last Epistle, speaking of the heart of God, you sense the heart of God when it comes to people who get in the way, specifically with false teaching.  

     

    2nd Peter chapter 2, verses 1-3, “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.  And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.  By covetousness they will exploit you with their deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”  Peter says these people with this false teaching, just getting in the way of people’s seeking God and understanding God, their destruction is coming, and it’s not going to delay.  

     

    Well, the night before, Jesus inspected the Temple, what He saw He didn’t like.  So now He comes, next day, cleanses the Temple. It is interesting, maybe we’ve noted this as we’ve studied the Gospels, in John chapter 2, this is the 2nd time Jesus does this.  He did this three years earlier, it’s right around Passover time now, it was right around Passover time then, obviously going up for the Feast earlier in His ministry, beginning of His ministry, He goes in, and based on what’s going down, He cleans house then.  We may remember, that time He actually makes a whip out of cords, He makes a whip out of cords and He uses it to drive the people from the Temple.  Now that’s quite an image, Jesus with a whip of cords, just swinging it and slapping and driving people out of the Temple.  That’s a lot different than a little manger scene, with a whip.  And, who knows, maybe some of the same people that were there three years ago are there now, doing what they’re doing today, they were the same that were there, as they’re sitting at their tables doing what they’re doing, and look up and see Him again [Oh no!  Not again!]. Get a picture of their faces when they see Him again, and then doesn’t He go at it again, flipping tables, pouring out their money.  

     

    Then when He poured out their money and overturned their tables, He said this, “Take these things away! Do not make my Father’s house a house of merchandise.”  And then the disciples, as John notes, there in chapter 2 of John, they noted that this was a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy “The zeal for your house has eaten Me up.”  And that’s the heart here, He’s got zeal for the house of God, He’s got passion for God and people, and to see what people are doing here, it just eats Him up, and He begins to just clean it up. 

     

    The Temple, our churches, are meant to be “a house of prayer”

     

    The Temple is to be the place for worship, true worship.  The Temple is to be a place where men and women can sincerely seek the face of God.  And so as it says here, the second time where Jesus is cleaning the house, Jesus says it is written “My house shall be called a house of prayer”, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.”  And when we picture a house filled with prayer, we picture a Temple where it’s filled with prayer, it says there’s a God in heaven that wants to know man intimately.  When He says “My house shall be called a house of prayer” and there’s a house filled with prayer, that says there’s a God that wants to know us intimately, that’s what it says.

     

    If God weren’t interested in our prayers, He wouldn’t be interested in us.  He wants to know us, He wants to commune with us, He wants to hear from us. And He wants to speak to us.  So, Jesus the Lord of the Temple comes to set worship in order here, but He also clearly, the point is He desires intimacy, intimacy between God and man, and He’s zealous about it.  That between us, between God’s people and God the Father there would be indeed intimacy.  And this racket that’s going down in the Temple is completely getting in the way.  In an interesting way, when it says “My house shall be called a house of prayer”, He’s quoting from Isaiah chapter 56, verses 6 and 7,  where the prophet speaks of the Temple in the future.  

     

    He describes it in this way, as sons of foreigners, Gentiles, non-Jews, “who would join themselves to the Lord, wanting to serve Him, wanting to love Him”, God says there through the prophet, “He’ll bring these people to His holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer, for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”  For all nations, doesn’t matter where you’re from, doesn’t matter your ethnic group, doesn’t matter your background, God’s house is to be a house of prayer for all nations.  And, He says “I’ll bring them to My mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer.”  

     

    When His house is a house of prayer, when it’s in the state it’s supposed to be in, there is this sense of the blessing of God.  He says “I’ll make them joyful in My house of prayer”, they’ll be joyful in My house of prayer.  And that’s a statement of God’s people coming together, and being such in the house of the Lord that there’s this sense of blessing, there’s the sense of joy, the Spirit of God is working.  And what Jesus sees at this time, it’s certainly not that way.  It’s very carnal, man’s doing his deal, getting in the way.

    So God goes in, Jesus goes in and cleanses house.  Now we pray that it’s the way God intends it to be where we are: A place where God’s people gather and do pray, it is a house of prayer as well, in a very real sense; and if we are gathering in the right heart and attitude, there is a sense of the blessing of God.  We note that as we study through His Word.  And the blessing, He says, “I’ll bring them to My house, and they will have joy in My house of prayer, they’ll experience the joy of the Lord.  

     

    Now let’s put Isaiah 56 in proper context, although it still applies to the church nowadays.  Isaiah 56 is written about the time of the future, in the Millennial Kingdom of God, when there will be a Temple yet again, with Jesus in His glorified state inhabiting it.  If you read all of Isaiah 56, it is about the proper keeping of God’s 7th Day Sabbath.  Let’s read it. “Thus says the Lord:  ‘Keep justice, and do righteousness, for My salvation is about to come, and My righteousness to be revealed.  Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it; who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hands from doing any evil.  Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, ‘The Lord has utterly separated me from His people’; Nor let the eunuch say, ‘Here I am, a dry tree.’  For thus says the Lord: ‘To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, even to them I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than of the sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.  Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants---everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant---even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer.  Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices [which will yet again be offered in the Millennial Kingdom cf. Zechariah 14:16-19] will be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.  The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, ‘Yet I will gather to Him others besides those who are gathered to Him” (Isaiah 56:2-8).   

     

    That’s putting Isaiah 56:7 in proper context with the chapter that verse is contained in.  The principle applies now, but the key role of Sabbath keeping, along with the entire Law of God, is clearly expressed in verses 1-8.  These will be reinstituted at Jesus Christ’s return to earth as King of kings and Lord of lords.  Verses 9-12 of Isaiah chapter 56 aptly describe the people whom Jesus is driving from the Temple in this account in Matthew 21, as well as describing false shepherds, tares, within the Lord’s holy flock.  Be sure to read those verses.  That’s just a statement of the blessing of God, the Spirit of God working in our midst.  We pray, as we’re here, that we come with such a heart, that it’s like this house of prayer, it’s a house of prayer where God is blessing and where God is working.  

     

    Now maybe we go to church, and it’s not our experience, we have to be dragge there.  We either drag ourselves, because we just think we should go, or somebody else drags us, and we’ve gone just to appease them.  We’d be miserable if we didn’t go, miserable to be there, but we’d be more miserable if we didn’t go so there we are.  Or maybe we go, and when we’re there we struggle with just feelings of heaviness and emotional battles, and it’s just, it’ not a place of joy for us, for whatever reason we’re there.  If that be our case, consider “My house shall be called a house of prayer”, Try it, try praying a little bit before we get there, praying maybe Saturday night [or Friday night for Sabbath-keepers] that God would just work in our heart, try praying on our way there, maybe as a family praying.  And while we’re there, open our heart to the Lord, don’t just get through the service, don’t just put in our dues to make our spouse or our children or whoever happy.  Just open our heart to God.  If we’re going to be there, be there and experience the blessing of God.  Because there is blessing as God’s people come together, and it’s a thing of joy, the work of God in our hearts.  Take advantage of the opportunity. 

     

    When the church becomes “a den of thieves”

     

    Verse 13, “And He said to them, ‘It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”  Jesus is concerned.  Three years earlier He had come, three years earlier He had cleaned house, set it in order.  And as with the cycle of man, men quickly return to their old patterns, and they’ve gotten right back to it there.  Nehemiah had to deal with that, city of Jerusalem, he sets things up, gets the walls of the city rebuilt, and instructs the people to honor the Law of God, to honor the Sabbath, and he has to fight for it, it’s amazing, he has to even look over the walls and warn the people [that were bringing in things to sell on the Sabbath day], ‘they just want to come to do business, they want to just do their deal, and not honor the Lord. He has to fight for it.  Then later in the book of Nehemiah he comes back a number of years later and it’s right back to the way it was before.  He had worked so hard to set it straight.  Nehemiah, Ezra, Zerubbabel, they all had the indwelling Holy Spirit, while the general Jewish population didn’t.  That was the core problem, which we should not have in our churches, but yet we do at times.  

     

    Jesus three years earlier, cycle of men, right back to the old patterns.  The reform of the time didn’t last very long [probably lasted until Jesus got out of sight of the Temple on His way home again], and here we are again just a few years later, He saw things that were just of great concern.  He had a zeal and passion for His Father and for His Father’s house, so He just cleans up again.  And what He saw, rather than seeing the joy of the Spirit of God working there, the blessing of God, what He saw was a lot of frustrated people, just frustration and irritation and carnality.  He didn’t see the blessing and the joy of the Lord. 

     

    It’s more dangerous to be in the Temple than on the Road to Jericho

     

    And that’s why He said “It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves [Jeremiah 7:11]”  A den of thieves.  It is interesting, the road from Jericho to Jerusalem.  If you go to Israel, as we do on the Israel you note, it’s a lot of dirt and hills and a lot of caves.  And that’s true of Jericho to Jerusalem, along that road where they would travel, there would be a lot of dens and caves.  And historically we are told that it wasn’t uncommon for robbers to be hiding out along those areas.  So if you were traveling that road, you could potentially get robbed.  That’s possibly why Jesus in sharing the parable of the Good Samaritan, in that parable He mentions the Jericho Road, and mentions this person whose attacked by robbers and beaten, and so the Good Samaritan comes and tends to this person.  So it wasn’t uncommon.  It was common to travel in groups, not to travel alone on this road, because it was dangerous to go from Jericho to Jerusalem.  And that’s where Jesus has come from, with lots of those people.  They’ve come from Jericho up to Jerusalem.  But it’s interesting, He’s quoting from Jeremiah, and He’s actually saying, that it’s more dangerous to be in the Temple than probably to be on the Road of Jericho.  He says ‘You’ve made the Temple a den of thieves.’  ‘This is the house of God, a place where we go in and we get ministered to, where we have God work in our life, where we can go and experience love from other people and encouragement, and we have made it a den of thieves---a den of thieves, where thieves are hiding out in the very house of God.’  It’s safer to travel the road to Jericho alone than to come into the house of the Lord.  

    We see His heart towards that.  We often see this “den of thieves” mentality when we find churches of the hierarchal church government style, filled with ministers just in it for the paycheck and retirement benefits, just in it to secure their members’ tithes and offerings.  You also see it in the churches preaching the Health & Wealth gospel, where they want our tithes and offerings for themselves, but do little or nothing to put it toward the actual preaching of the Gospel of Salvation.  He’s pretty angry, pretty angry as we can see. 

     

    Interesting history of why this marketing system was set up in the Temple in the first place

     

    To a degree, the market that was going on, the market system that was set up, to a degree was there, initially for a good purpose, providing animals which were needed for sacrifice, the sacrifices of course, Passover and other times.  And there would be people who would travel from great distances, even from other nations.  And so to be able to come and to purchase a sacrifice at the Temple was a good thing.  It was set up for good, initially.  And then to have the money exchangers, the Roman government was just something that was seen as unclean, and so you wouldn’t want to use your Roman money in the Temple.  So they had their own Temple currency [Temple Shekel] and so the money exchangers, you could come and they would exchange your Roman currency into the Temple currency, the Temple Shekel.  And surely that was initially all for good, just to make it easier.  

     

    What’s happened over time is just the heart of man.  People began to take advantage of people, and while it was initially probably useful, but now it’s become abusive to the point that there’s people making a lot of money, especially the priesthood [and the high priest Caiaphas and his father-in-law Annas were the ones who really owned the “rights to buy and sell” at the temple, and were raking in a huge profit.  The Temple of God for them was merely a huge money-making business.  Jesus of Nazareth was threatening that business for them and the entire priesthood under them.  When Jesus drove out these moneychangers and those who sold cattle, sheep, and doves, He was forcing the high priest on this 10th day of Nisan, “to select the Lamb of God” for sacrifice.  That is what is especially most significant about Jesus’ timing of His purging of the Temple.  It all fit into the Passover. They’re making a big business off of it, so God’s concerned.  

     

    Back a couple centuries earlier, in Malachi God rebuked all the people of Israel [Judah] in general, because they had gotten to this state where they professed that God was Lord, Creator of the heavens and the earth, but for various reasons in their hearts, what they did is they would give God the left-over’s.  In Malachi chapter 3 God exhorts them.  ‘You call Me God, and yet you give Me left-over’s.’  You’re supposed to come and bring your first-fruits, you’re supposed to come and bring the sacrifices.  But what you do when you bring the lamb, you bring one that’s less valuable to you, one that’s got a defect, one that’s blind or your gifts to Me are the left-over’s.  And you call Me Lord, but you give Me left-over’s.’  And that’s why initially what’s going on in the Temple now was probably set up.  Because you couldn’t bring, at this point in time, a left-over into the Temple of the Lord, you could not sacrifice a lamb or a dove that was defective.  They guaranteed in this system that what was being sacrificed was of fine quality.  

     

    But now they’ve gone to the other extreme. They’ve gone from one to the other.  And doesn’t that happen, even today"  You know, in churches, we come and we sing the song “Lord of all the heaven, Lord of all the heaven, Creator of the heavens and the earth”, oh we just ‘Hallelujah, Praise the Lord!  Hosanna!’, on and on and on, and then for so many, we tell the Lord then to sit in the back of the bus.  We call him Lord of the heavens, Creator of the heavens and the earth, and then we tell Him, ‘You’re in the back of the bus, I’ll get to You when I can get to You.  I’ll give You whatever I have left.  If I have any time, I’ll give it to You, if there’s any resource left after we’ve squared away everything, it’ll be Yours.  And as far as my heart and my passions, You’re the God of all the Universe’, but when He looks at [the priorities of] our life, it’s really, He’s got the back seat on the bus, everything else, everything else lines up before Him, and He gets that last bit.  And so God rebuked the nation of Israel [Judah] for that [in Malachi 3], because that’s the way they were, and that’s often the way the heart of man is, we give Him the left-over’s.  It’s strange that we would honestly do that, give God the left-over’s, what we’ve got left, rather than the first fruit, rather than the greatest of our passions, the greatest of our time, the greatest of our resources, so that He would be number one. 

     

    From “left-over’s for God” mentality to legalism, one extreme to the other

     

    But then we go to the other extreme.  That happens often in church, then it’s the other extreme, churches that set up systems where they know whether or not we give our ten percent.  Right"  You’ve maybe attended churches like that.  And very sadly, they’re usually the legalistic Torah-observant Sabbatarian Churches of God, which have such a rich historic background, but for some reason or other have adopted a hierarchal form of church government, unlike that of their historic predecessors who came through the centuries.  And with their hierarchal form of church government, the ministers (not the poor sheep, it is never them) are hungry for the paycheck, want to guarantee the steady flow of tithes and offerings, and to devour widows houses, telling widows to sign over their houses or retirement savings, telling them “We’ll take care of you.  If they don’t change, God will change them, forcefully, as He may be doing with some of those groups right now.]  

     

    At the end of the year if you didn’t give your ten percent, you got a letter.  And if you promised, if they kind of knew, you used to get the letter, ‘You owe, you’re behind.  Based on your income, things are not lining up.’  We just couldn’t imagine getting a letter like that from a church.  So it goes from one extreme to the other, we go from ‘Back of the bus, Lord of the heaven, sit in the back’, to then, ‘Well, that’s not right, so we’ve got church leaders that have created this system, and then in a legalistic way, pull out of their members what is supposed to be just freely given, given with the heart of love to the Lord.  And that’s what’s happened here.  [And leaders like that are living high off the hog on those tithes, with good paychecks, and Caiaphas and Annas were at the top of the heap here in that respect.]  

     

    We can look down our noses and say “Oh those people at…, but never blame the sheep caught up in a hierarchal church system like that, it’s not their fault, it’s the fault of their leadership, but aren’t we like them so frequently today"  The deal is, as they set up this system, it was to prevent the broken-legged lamb from being offered, it was to prevent the Malachi deal, so they set up this system.  But then what happened is the heart of man took them to the other extreme.  When you went to the Temple in Jesus day, what they would do, maybe you’d have your own lamb, or you’d have your own dove, and it was a sincere sacrifice, it was a sincere offering, you were a true worshipper of God, you just wanted to bless God. You’ve come into the Temple, and you don’t have a whole lot of money, you’re a poorer person, but you’re giving your absolute best, you come into the Temple, and the priest would examine your offering, and the general rule was they would always find something, they were motivated to always find something wrong with what you were offering.  And they wouldn’t allow you to offer it.  The general rule is they would look at it, ‘Oh, this doesn’t cut it.  What you have to do then is you have to buy one of ours, these are certified.  We’ve reviewed these, they meet the level, they meet the test.  Sorry you can’t offer that lamb you brought.’  And the problem was, was what they offered to you then for you to offer was so expensive.  That’s what they did, they sort of jacked up the prices.  And to make it even worse, now you’ve got to buy this dove that’s way too expensive, you’re looking at it and saying, ‘That’s a lot of money for that, what’s wrong with mine"’.  You then go over to money-exchangers with your little bit of Roman currency and they would kill you on the exchange-rate, in order to get the Temple Shekel they would kill you on the exchange-rate.  So they were just taking advantage.  

     

    And Josephus, the first century historian, says ‘that the business that was going down was owned by the high priest and his family, it was run by him and his family, Annus being one of them, and they became very wealthy through this.’  So here you are, a sincere worshipper coming to seek out the Lord, you’ve maybe come from the Galilee, you’ve traveled a distance, you see the high priest and his family, they’re making a lot, living pretty well, and they’re making it hard for you, just to simply come and seek the face of God, and honor the Lord in worship and in sacrifice.  As a result, in many instances, people were being turned off.  You think back to the time, in 1st Samuel, the time of Eli and his sons.  His sons were really brutal, they were doing exactly that.  You’d bring the sacrifices in, and they would always take the best for themselves.  And it said there, because of what the two sons of Eli were doing, that the sacrifice of the Lord was a turn-off to the people.  The Tabernacle worship, the whole thing was becoming a turn-off to the people of Israel because of the priesthood and the way they were treating people.  People were getting turned off to the house of God and to religion, and even to the spiritual things in general.  

     

    So God was really angry, and you might remember 1st Samuel.  He really judged Eli’s sons [and the whole priestly household of Eli], they end up losing their lives and even Eli is judged for it, and the generations of his family that follow.  And maybe that’s been your experience too, here you are today, listening in or reading this online, maybe you haven’t been in the church for awhile, maybe you’ve been coming here just a little bit, and that’s been your deal, you’ve been turned off to church, you’ve been turned off to God, spiritual things.  And the reason why, is, years in the past you were curious, you were seeking, you were thirsty, hungry, you wanted to know.  And then you got into some ‘church’ experience where people were just messing with you, and making it hard, and turning you off by what they did, mistreating you, taking advantage of you, not being sincere, being hypocritical.  And you watched it for a season, and as a result, you got just ‘I’m turned off to the Church thing, turned off to all that’, and it’s been a long time maybe for some of you, to be even in church or considering the things of the Lord. 

     

    Jesus was upset about it.  That’s really upsetting to God when that happens, when people are getting in the way.  When you’re trying to seek the Lord, and people are getting in the way, that just ticks God off.  That’s just upsetting to Him. 

     

    When your church is “a house of prayer”

     

    And let’s pray by the grace of God that maybe this morning, maybe in a few weeks attending church, that our experience would be such that we’d see that there’s blessing in being with God’s people.  There’s blessing in just being part of corporate worship and seeking the face of God, there’s blessing in it, because God has given us the Body [of Christ] and the Body-life, and we need one another by design.  [cf. Matthew 18:19-20, “Again I say to you that if two or three of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.  For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.”  

     

    The goal is not to bring people out of other churches, but to reach the lost. Maybe we are using the website as a resource in our “home-church” just to spiritually survive.  But if we are doing that, we are missing out on something essential by not coming together with other believers in the corporate worship setting of a church.  Another thing is that tiny Bible studies, if properly fed with the Word of God, don’t remain small for very long.  Maybe our house-church has the potential to grow into a real church that’s doing something really special for the entire Body of Christ.  

     

    This isn’t for all.  Like the Marine Corps says, “We’re looking for a few good men (and women).”]  But maybe we’re here, and that’s what’s happened to us, and that’s what’s going on in the Temple.  Jesus is upset, this is not the way it’s supposed to be, God is being misrepresented, He knows His Father, He knows the love of His Father, He knows the compassion of His Father, He knows the power of His Father, and this is supposed to be where people come and meet with God, and that’s not what’s going down here, because of men. 

     

    “Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple”

     

    Well He cleans house, and He says “My house shall be called a house of prayer, you’ve made it a den of thieves”, and He just starts flipping things over, and He cleans house, and gets it right.  But look what happens when He cleans house.  Verse 14, “Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.”  It’s like right after.  That is a powerful picture especially considering what David said back in 2nd Samuel chapter 5, verse 8. It seems that historically the lame and the blind were not allowed into the Temple.  And so they haven’t been there.  And He cleans up the place, and now because of who He is, they know who He is, they sense something about Him, they actually do something that wasn’t allowed to be done, they go into the Temple, and He heals them.  

     

    And imagine, the blind man suddenly seeing, as you probably have before, the lame man suddenly walking. That’s now going on in the Temple. There is this powerful setting, there’s just an energy, it is radical what’s going on in the Temple right now, it’s beautiful.  Before it was frustrated people, people bickering, people arguing, there was no life.  And He just goes to town and cleans house, and now it’s like life, it’s beautiful, healing, lives being touched.  

     

    But that is when the priesthood and high priest decide that Jesus must die, that is when they select the Lamb of God, on this 10th day of Nisan, as the sacrifice for sin for mankind, unknowingly, of course.  And that is indeed what the Body life, the Church, the house of God, that’s what’s supposed to be there.  When God’s house is a house of prayer, when there are people who are sincerely coming to worship the Lord, and they can freely, and they can seek His face, in prayer and in the Word, when that’s going on, you can be sure lives are going to be touched, lives are going to be healed, and families are going to be restored, and on and on and on.  

     

    We’ve seen it happen many times, we’ve heard lots of stories, and many of us are testimonies of lives being healed and lives being restored.  Christianity isn’t just a religious deal, Christianity is real, it is radical.  What begins to happen then, is that lives begin to change.  We know Christ, and our life’s change.  Over the next few months we seek out people of our family to just reconcile with them, going to them, asking for forgiveness, and one by one God begins to restore the relationships with the family members. But, radical.  We go into the house of God, house of prayer, and we’re like one of the lame, like one of the blind, God gives us sight back, God heals our lives.  That’s what should be happening in the church.  

    And we pray all, ‘Oh God in Your grace, we pray we come in a sincere heart, we pray that this is a house of prayer, so we can take note that there’s something going on there.  My kid is going there, he’s changed, my spouse is going there, there’s something very different about them.’  Lives being touched, lives being healed, it’s a house of prayer, it’s a house of intimacy. Jesus, the Lord of the Temple comes to set the worship in order, but He also comes because He desires intimacy.  God desires intimacy with man. 

     

    A New Time, A New Era Is About to Dawn

     

    Verses 15-17, “But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ they were indignant and said to Him, ‘Do you hear what these are saying"’  And Jesus said to them, ‘Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise.’"  Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.”  

     

    Jesus, standing in the Temple, having purified the Temple, and now healing lives, there’s also a statement, a radical statement that things are changing, it’s a new era.  Of course, it’s the beginning of the Church Age, which is about to burst forth.  It is a new time. There’s a sense the old is leaving and the new is coming, the old rituals and all the barriers that were part of the old Law, we couldn’t just come into the house of the Lord, we couldn’t go into the Temple unless we were a priest.  We didn’t have that access into the Holy of Holies, not even the ordinary priests had that access, only the high priest, and that was only on the Day of Atonement.  But things are changing.  And we know that in just a few days from this point in Jesus’ life, it’s less than a week, Jesus will die on the cross, and at that point when He dies on the cross the Temple veil is torn in two, and there’s that whole sense there’s a new time, no more the priesthood, no more the sacrifices, the Lamb of God has come, He’s died as the final sacrifice, He’s the ultimate sacrifice.  

     

    And now there’s this access to God, there’s this special relationship and intimacy and walk with God that we can have. It’s a new era, and that’s what’s happened here, the Messiah standing in the Temple, the blind and the lame are being healed, it’s a new time, depicted, new era, Jesus has come to bring a new era, to bring that Age of the Church, to bring what we have now, where lives are powerfully touched, the blind, the lame are being healed.  

     

    We see in verses 15 and 16, that there’s this another picture.  There’re these young kids, and it seems the Greek is in the masculine, so they are little boys.  And they’re watching things go down, and they’re crying out “Hosanna to the Son of David!” just like they were the day before in the whole processional with the donkey, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ this Messianic cry, they’re crying out ‘Messiah, Messiah!’  [Hebrew: ‘Meshiach’].  They’re watching blind people get healed, ‘Messiah, Messiah!’.  Of course the chief priests don’t really like at all.  [Neither do legalistic ministers of toxic churches who have their people under bondage in a hierarchal form of church government that is merely hungry for the tithes of the people, just like today.]  That’s just the whole statement of their ugly hearts.  

     

    It says they see the wonderful things going on.  And there’s something wrong in your heart when you see something wonderful, and you’re bent out of shape about it.  But they see wonderful things, and they see the kids crying ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’, and they were indignant, they were really ticked off. They said to Him, ‘Do you see what these are saying!"  Do you hear it!"  And He says, ‘Haven’t you ever read’…and every time He said that, because He says it over and over, they probably got upset about that, because they were the experts, they knew the Law, they read through the Law all the time, they were the teachers of the Law, and He repeatedly says, ‘Haven’t you ever read"’.  He just quotes from the Old Testament, ‘Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants, you have perfected praise.’  And that’s pretty wild when He says that, He quotes from Psalm chapter 8.  And they may not connect with it, or may not completely realize it here, but it’s a new deal, and He’s saying something special about Himself.  Because in Psalm chapter 8, what He quotes about the worship, ‘out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise’, means they are going to worship, they are going to praise.  If you look at Psalm 8, the whole audience of that praise, the whole focal point of that praise is none other than God, it is not a man that’s being praised in that Psalm.  Clearly the whole context, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, what that you are mindful of Him, He goes on, ‘And out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants,’ David says, ‘you have perfected praise.’  

     

    The point is, the praise is directed toward God and God alone.  And Jesus quotes that in this context.  And they’re obviously speaking of Him.  And so He’s actually saying it’s a fulfillment of what was in Psalm 8, and of course meaning that, ‘I’m not just a man,’ this is the Son of God standing before you.  [cf. Jesus, John 8:58-59; Exodus 3:13-14, is none other than Yahweh, I Am, the God of the Old Testament, who has become the Son of God.  God the Father was never revealed to the Jews in the Old Testament, except briefly, in the Creation account of Genesis 1 and 2, as Elohim.]  He’s the Lord of the Temple, wants to get worship in order, desiring an intimacy with men and women, and it’s marking the beginning of a new era, a new time, the Messiah has come.  Well, unmistakably, we studied verses 1 to 11, and said this is the day of visitation, this is the day of promise, where the Messiah would come to Israel [Judah, as the representative tribe of all Israel]. We went through the Zechariah prophecy, we went through Daniel chapter 9, to the day of visitation, we saw the people of Judah missed their day, this incredible day where Jesus came and allowed Himself to be worshipped, and He would come and be presenting Himself as King Messiah.  

     

    The interesting thing is, verses 1 to 11, that’s the whole setting.  But, verses 12 to 17 here, are the same thing.  Unmistakably, as we understand the Old Testament, He is saying “I am the Messiah, I am the Lord of the Temple.  This is your hour.”  Unfortunately they missed their hour, but you take Malachi 3, verse 1, speaking about this messenger that would go before the Messiah, of course John the Baptist. Jesus referred to that and in Matthew chapter 11, he would go and prepare the way of the Lord, but it says He would go then to the Temple.  And in Zechariah 14, verse 21, Zechariah 6, verses 12 through 13, Ezekiel 40, verse 48, clearly speak of the Messiah coming and cleaning up the Temple, as setting the worship in order, the way it’s supposed to be.  And so here He is.  

     

    The Temple had really been desecrated historically.  Back in 167BC Antiochus Epiphanes had defiled it horribly [but Judas Maccabee and his brothers had driven Antiochus’ armies out, and cleaned up, rebuilt the altar out of new stones, and rededicated the Temple. Then in 63BC Pompei had also done the same.  And then you have all the false worship that’s even been going on by God’s people.  But here comes the Messiah, just as the prophecies of old had said He would, He comes to the Temple, and He’s going to come again to the Temple. And there’s going to be another Temple soon.  He comes and He sets things in order, and just with this sense of a new life, where the blind, lame, the power of God’s being there, the love of God.  He is demonstrating that He has authority of God.  If we went into the Temple and tried to do this, and turned over a table, we’d be beaten, we’d be dragged out, we’d be in jail, nobody could get away with this.  But there’s something about Jesus. Matthew’s showing us there’s never been anybody like Him, in power and love and authority. He is the Son of God, He walked into this place, He flips over tables, it gets crazy there for a moment.  And then lives start to get healed.  And it’s because He’s the Son of God.  Of course, there’s a lot of people that have been praising Him too, so the religious leaders are nervous about that. 

     

    Our homes can be houses of prayer

     

    Verse 17, “Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and he lodged there.”  In verse 17, He leaves and goes the city of Bethany.  Bethany means, literally, house of depression or misery, and He lodges there. Obviously it’s just the name, but for Him it wasn’t that sort of place.  He is in a heavy week.  We noticed on His way to Jerusalem just the heaviness that He had, so much so that it even freaked out the other disciples.  He knows where He’s heading. But we also know in Bethany is the house of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.  And that was just like a little temple, a little house of worship there, these peopled loved God.  And so He’d go there, and it’d be a place of blessing for Him, a place of solace, a place of comfort with the days that He knew were ahead, and they just took care of Him greatly there.  And you’ve got the Temple out of order, He put it in order.  But this little house in Bethany was in order.  And we come to church on Sunday mornings, this is to be a house of prayer.  But it’s true, our homes can be houses of prayer too. It’s radical as Christians, we’re told that we are where the temple of the living God, we have the Holy Spirit in us [cf. John 14, read it].  And everywhere I go is like a little temple.  And when you get a couple believers together, you’ve got some special happening, where two or three are gathered together in My name, Jesus says, I’m there in their midst [cf. Matthew 18:19-20], and so we come corporately as the Body of Christ, and there is blessing as we come together.  

     

    But our homes can be radical too.  Let’s pray for our homes to be like that, that there is the joy of the Lord, and it is a house of prayer.  We pray that our kids see the power of God in our house.  We pray that our homes aren’t places where for our kids there’s all sorts of obstacles and hindrances for the kids.  But that our homes are places where they can honestly see and worship God.  May our homes be places where it’s like that house in Bethany, may it be just a beautiful place.  May the Spirit of God reside in our homes in a special way.  And then may we come on Sundays [or Saturdays], Wednesdays, whatever, just hungry, hungry to seek the Lord. Let’s close in prayer…

      Cleansing the Courtyard - Matthew 21:12-17   The evangelical landscapes are big business today.  Walk into most churches today and we’ll be greeted with a whole host of merchandise, much of it completely unrelated to the Gospel.  Mega-churches have entire storefronts, even mini-malls in the narthex, all designed to accommodate and comfort the sinner who is supposedly about to enter a holy place.  There is a an old cliche about the more things change that applies very much to us today.  There is a need for a whip-like burst of zealousness from those who are resolved to thoroughly, though lovingly, gently and patiently, cleanse the temple courtyards of our church sanctuaries.  

    When Jesus cleared the temple courtyard and drove the merchants away, He was illustrating a profound statement about Himself.  Our places of worship, whether it be Herod’s magnificent, massive temple or the secret closet Jesus commanded us to go pray in, needs to be approached with reverence and humility.  Even more specifically, Jesus needs to be approached with reverence and humility in our hearts.  The Temple was a holy place filled with meticulously crafted things in order to illustrate the otherness of God.

    When the merchants were selling their merchandise and animals for sacrifice in the courtyard, they were bringing inside what was common outside.  It was a scene no different than that of any common street in Jerusalem.  But when the Messiah drove out the merchants, cleansed the courtyard and began to administer justice and mercy to sick and lame, and when He heard the songs of the little children offering Him praise it was then that the sense of the holy had been restored.  It was then that sinful, hardened hearts could enter the courts and see those things that would melt them as they continued on to the holy place to seek atonement for their sins.

    Faith in Jesus requires no less.  We cannot bring Him the common things of our heart and expect to please Him.  The common things of the human heart are excessively evil.  We can only ask that the common things we come with are cleared and cleansed from us, that our sin is purged and that the hope of Jesus reigns there driving us to love our neighbor for the sake of His Name and to show mercy to the weak and poor.

    Matthew 21:12-17 – Don’t Rob God!

    Introduction

    ·         On the first day of the holy week (Sunday), we had the triumphal entry. The Gospel of Mark says that after the people hailed Jesus and said, “‘Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David; Hosanna in the highest!’ Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple; and after looking around at everything, He left for Bethany with the twelve, since it was already late. On the next day, when they had left Bethany… He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple…” (Mark 11:10-15, NASB)

    ·         So we will be looking now at the second day, Monday, and we see two things that made Jesus mad. We want to learn from these episodes the things that we should avoid doing, so that He does not become upset with us too!

    ·         In both episodes: The disruption of the market in the temple, and the reproving of the chief priests and scribes who didn’t want kids praising Jesus, (and also in the cursing of the fruitless fig tree afterwards), we see instances where God is not given what He deserves.

    ·         It reminds of the prophecy of Malachi 3 “…the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts. “But who can endure the day of His coming" And who can stand when He appears" For He is like a refiner's fire… and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness… Will a man rob God" Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, 'How have we robbed You"' In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows… ” (NASB)

    ·         In Malachi’s day it was tithes and offerings, which are a part of worship, but in Jesus day it was praise and prayer from the sick, the foreigners, and the children. Let us look in Matthew 21 at these ways God was robbed, starting with verse…

    Exegesis

    21:12 Then Jesus entered into the temple of God and threw out all who were selling and buying in the temple and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the chairs of the ones who sell doves.

    Και εισηλθεν ο[2] Ιησους εις το ιερον [του θεου] και εξεβαλεν παντας τους πωλουντας και αγοραζοντας εν τω ‘ιερω και τας τραπεζας των κολλυβιστων κατεστρεψεν και τας καθεδρας των πωλουντων τας περιστερας

    Mark’s gospel (11:16) adds that “He would not allow anyone to even carry an item through the temple!” (NAW) Whoah! What’s gone wrong"

    This event in the Gospels is the only place in the Greek Bible that this word for “money­changers” appears. There were people from all over the world who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover holiday, and they were carrying money from lots of different countries. Moneychangers made their services available, for a fee, to exchange the foreign coins for Israelite coins so that people could buy stuff locally and pay their temple tax

    In Deut. 14:22-26, the Mosaic law reads, “You shall surely tithe all the produce from what you sow, which comes out of the field every year… your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. If the distance is so great for you that you are not able to bring [it]… then you shall exchange it for money, and bind the money in your hand and go to the place which the Lord Your God chooses. You may spend the money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or whatever your heart desires; and there you shall eat in the presence of the Lord Your God and rejoice, you and your household.” (NASB)

    So, in they come from all over the world to Passover with money in hand, as God instructed, and they buy a lamb, or if they are too poor, they can buy pigeons or doves as an alternative to sacrifice to the Lord.  God was not against buying and selling sheep and birds per se. He was upset about How and Where it was being done.

    There was a problem with How the Jews were selling the sheep and doves: the salesmen were charging unfair prices because there was nowhere else that these foreigners could buy sacrificial animals.

    A. Edersheim, in his book, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, explained that the merchants in the temple paid the priests for their concessions, and then the priests would automatically approve the animals purchased from the temple market.

    But if a worshipper brought an animal from home, the priest might disapprove of the animal, forcing the worshipper to buy an animal from the temple market after all. People likely had to pay twice what the lamb was worth or risk not having a Passover lamb for the feast.

    Jesus uses the term “robbers” to refer to the merchants, and that was obviously part of what made Him mad.

    But there is another reason Jesus was mad, and that was Where the marketplace was located: in the temple courtyard.

    A couple of Passovers ago when Jesus took a whip and cleared the vendors out of the temple in a similar way, He gave an important command: “make not My Father’s house a house of merchandise.” (John 2:17, ATR) The place of worship was not to be filled up with business transactions, even if they were buying and selling items for use in worship!

    However, they did not reform their ways after that first prophetic rebuke, so Jesus is now giving them a second chance. Note that Jesus did not throw out everyone, just the ones who were buying and selling in the temple. Buying and selling was not wrong, but doing it on the temple grounds was what incensed Jesus.

    How did He get away with clearing away the market like that" He was a popular figure, and also the people hated being scalped in the temple market themselves, so the crowds were supporting Jesus, and the priests were afraid to start a riot by doing anything to Him.

    The first time Jesus cleared out the temple, He had stated negatively that the temple was not for buying and selling; this second time, Jesus states positively what the place of worship Is for, and that is to be a house of prayer!

     

    21:13 and He says to them, “It was written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but y’all – y’all have made it a den of robbers.

    και λεγει αυτοις Γεγραπται ‘Ο ‘οικος μου ‘οικος προσευχης κληθησεται ‘υμεις δε αυτον εποιησατε[8] σπηλαιον[9] ληστων

    Back in 2 Chronicles 6, King Solomon had dedicated his newly-built temple with a prayer which stated specifically that the temple was to be a focal point for prayer to God.

    When Jesus drove the buyers and sellers out of the temple, He quoted from Isaiah 56:7; here’s the larger context: “Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, To minister to Him, and to love the name of the Lord, To be His servants, everyone who keeps from profaning the Sabbath And holds fast My covenant; Even those I will bring to My holy mountain And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.” The Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares, “Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered.” (Isa. 56:6-8, NASB)

    The phrase “for all the nations” is not included in Matthew’s account, but Mark indicates that Jesus did include it in His quote (11:17). Possibly Matthew is trying to go easy on his Jewish audience and not unnecessarily confront their ethnocentricity with a truth that was not his main point here.

    To be ‘called a house of prayer’ means that prayer is the main thing. Prayer should be the first thing that jumps to mind when you think of the temple. And “prayer” here stands for the whole worship of God.

    Where is the temple now" Ezra and Nehemiah’s temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., and a Muslim mosque stands in its place.

    However, God’s word says that your body is now His temple: 1 Cor. 6:19 “… your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you…”

    Is the way you talk with God the first thing that jumps to mind when other people think of you" Are you a “house of prayer,” or does something else characterize you"

    When people thought of the temple on Passover lamb selection day (Ex. 12:3), a mall is what came to mind, with all the excitement of a wheeling’ dealing’ flea market! It was hardly a house of prayer anymore.

    Furthermore, the temple had become a place where people who lived like the devil all week came on Sabbath to find cheap forgiveness, where the grace of God’s forgiveness was being dishonored by people who didn’t care about God’s righteousness, but just wanted easy absolution for disobeying God when they weren’t at church.

    The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, 'We are delivered!'--that you may do all these abominations" Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight" Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” declares the Lord. “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.” (Jer 7:9-12, NASB)

    Jesus pulls His “den of robbers” phrase from Jeremiah’s prophecy, both reprimanding the Jews of His day for their rebellion that dishonored God’s grace, and warning the Jews of His day that just as God had exiled and wiped out Israel in the past for their unfaithfulness to Him, He would do it again if they did not repent.

    Most of the Jews of Jesus’ day did not repent. In fact, Mark (11:18) and Luke (19:47) tell us that “the chief priests and scribes began seeking how they might destroy Him.” So God made good on His threat, and Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman army in 70 A.D.

    A den is a hiding place. (We get the word “spelunking”, caving from this Greek word.) Caves were where people hid out and kept secrets, and where the dead were buried. the total opposite of what God wanted for His temple.

    God’s house should be a place where the truth is revealed, where evil is exposed, and where life is on display.

    You want to make God mad" Then turn church into a place where sin is covered up, where the truth is not proclaimed, and where spiritual deadness prevails. That will turn a church into a den of robbers, and who wants to attend church with a bunch of cheats and hypocrites"

    The word for “thieves/robbers” suggests not just a petty thief who had stolen an apple from the market, but a gang of bandits, crooks, and thugs who made their living off of plundering hapless victims. Matthew uses this same word to describe what the two other men crucified with Jesus had done to deserve such a terrible execution (Mt. 27:38 & 44).

    How was this robbing" It was robbing God of glory by turning away people who might otherwise worship Him. Notice that once the marketplace is dismantled, a new set of people begins to come to Jesus.

    Matthew mentions lame and blind men, but John also mentions that gentile Greeks came to hear Jesus too! The outer enclosure of the temple that He had cleared out was called the “Court of the Gentiles” because it was the only part of the temple that non-Jews could enter. Jesus’ actions cleared the way for the Gentiles to come and hear Him teach, and, according to the gospel of John, when the Gentiles came to hear Jesus, that’s when Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified!” 

    21:14 Then lame men and blind men approached Him in the temple, and He healed them!

    Και προσηλθον αυτω χωλοι και τυφλοι εν τω ιερω και εθεραπευσεν αυτους

    The Levitical law prohibited blind and lame priests from officiating over the sacrificial ceremonies (Lev 21:16-18), but it’s possible that the custom of the day extended this principle to also prevent laymen who were blind or lame from offering sacrifices. In that case, the marketplace which had been erected in the temple’s outer court would have prevented not only Gentiles but also these handicapped people from being able to worship God at the temple!

    Jesus was heavy handed with those who would profane His temple and He expelled them, but, at the same time, He was very gracious with those who humbly seek Him, and He answered the prayers of the handicapped people by healing them.

    Such public miracles also furnished undeniable proof that Jesus is the Messiah. Nobody was left with the excuse that they didn’t know He had the power of God to heal.

    As usual, Jesus combined His deeds of healing with the ministry of His word. Luke (19:47-48) mentions that “He was teaching in the temple each day” that week, and “the people all hung upon Him, listening.” The Gospel of John explains further that the results were mixed, most of “the people did not believe on Him… however, many, even of the ruling class did believe on Him” (12:37 & 42). John even records some of the things Jesus taught that week in the temple, such as, “If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto Myself” (12:32), and “While you have the light, believe on the light, that you may become sons of light” (12:36).

    Now we know what made Jesus mad. Next we see what made the Jewish leaders “sore displeased” (to use King James language), and that was miracles in the temple and children proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah and asking Jesus to save them! (Horror!)

    21:15 But after seeing the marvels which He did and the children crying out in the temple saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” the chief priests and the scribes became indignant,

    Ιδοντες δε ‘οι αρχιερεις και ‘οι γραμματεις τα θαυμασια ἃ εποιησεν και τους παιδας τους[12] κραζοντας εν τω ‘ιερω και λεγοντας ‘Ωσαννα τω ‘υιω Δαυιδ ηγανακτησαν

    Now, it’s O.K. to be indignant, greatly grieved over sin, but these religions leaders were confused as to what was right and what was wrong, and they were getting upset about the wrong thing. We all need to be careful about not getting hot under the collar until we are sure our sense of outrage is calibrated properly to God’s word.

    It is interesting that the only time in the Bible when it says that Jesus was “indignant” is when Jesus saw the disciples sending away the people who wanted Jesus to bless their children. Mark 10:14 says that He became indignant and said, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Seeing children worship Jesus made the false religionists indignant, but seeing children prevented from worshipping Him is what made Jesus indignant – same Greek word.

    21:16 and they said to Him, “Are you listening" What are these guys saying"” 
    And Jesus says to them, “Yes. So haven’t you ever read that, ‘out of the mouth of babies and breast-feeding [children] you have fixed up praise for yourself"    ’”

    και ειπον[13] αυτω Ακουεις τί οὗτοι λεγουσιν ‘ο δε Ιησους λεγει αυτοις Ναι, ουδεποτε ανεγνωτε ‘οτι[14] Εκ στοματος νηπιων και θηλαζοντων κατηρτισω αινον;

    The very spiritual leaders who had turned the temple into a den of robbers and who were looking for a way to kill Jesus are now accusing the children of dishonoring God! Funny how often people accuse others of the very thing that they themselves are guilty of.

    Jesus shows a bit of good humor here. Instead of answering the implied question, “How can you allow these children to say such blasphemy"” He answers the literal question, “Why, yes, I hear the children; my hearing is fine.”

    And after this tongue-in-cheek answer, He follows up with a question just as insulting to them as the one they were asking of him, “By the way, you haven’t happened to have exegeted Psalm 8, have you"” And the grammar He uses in this retort (ou + indicative verb) assumes that they have read Psalm 8 and that they should know better than to get their knickers in a knot over this.

    Psalm 8 starts out, “O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is thy name in all the earth! for thy magnificence is exalted above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou perfected praise, because of thine enemies; that thou mightest put down the enemy and avenger.”

    “Some think [this verse originally] refers to the children’s joining in the acclamations of the people, and the women’s songs with which David was honored when he returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, and therefore is very fitly applied here to the Hosannas with which the Son of David was saluted.”

    Verse 15 of Matthew 21 uses the word paidas to describe the children. Then Jesus quotes Psalm 8:2 in Greek, which uses the words nepiwn (babies/infants, that’s newborns) and thelazontwn (suckling’s/nursing children, babies less than two years old who are still breast-feeding). Jesus used nepiwn once before in Matthew 11, when He said to His heavenly Father concerning the significance of His miracles and the faith-filled response to the call of the Gospel, “11:25b “You hid these things from wise and smart men and revealed these things to babies.” We might be tempted to say that the word “babies” was merely figurative there in chapter 11, but here in chapter 21, we can’t say that. The people who got it right and were praising Jesus were little kids, and there were adults present who were missing it!

    The Greek word for “praise” here was used as a title in the Septuagint for the Psalms of “Praise” (Psalms 91, 93, and 95), and it brings to mind another occasion in the book of Chronicles when people were in the temple “praising” King Joash, who was going to restore the line of David, and then the usurper queen Athaliah objected because she wanted to stay in power! We wonder if the chief priests caught that comparison between themselves and wicked Athaliah"

    We also wonder if the priests caught the parallel between themselves and the next phrase of Psalm 8 that Jesus didn’t quote, “praise to silence the foe and the vengeful man.”

    The Greek verb explaining what the children’s praise was purposed to do is intriguing. It is kateresw, “fixed up” also translated perfected, prepared, ordained. When we look at how this word is used in scripture,

    About a third of its occurrences are in the book of Ezra, referring to the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem and the temple after the Persians had destroyed it. (Ezra 4:12 let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us at Jerusalem; they are rebuilding the rebellious and evil city and are finishing the walls and repairing the foundations. + 7 other citations in Ezra)

    The next thirty percent are found in the Psalms, either speaking of God’s creation of things in nature which He upholds, like:

    Psalm 29:9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer to calve And strips the forests bare; And in His temple everything says, "Glory!"

    Psalm 74:16 Yours is the day, Yours also is the night; You have prepared the light and the sun.

    Psalm 89:37 It shall be established forever like the moon, And the witness in the sky is faithful.

    Cf. Heb. 11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

    And Heb. 10:5 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for Me”

    Or speaking of spiritual revival:

    Ps. 11:3 If the foundations [or those things which were repaired] are destroyed, What can the righteous do""

    Ps. 17:5 My steps have held fast [or repaired] to Your paths. My feet have not slipped.

    Ps. 18:33 He makes my feet like hinds' feet, And sets me upon my high places.

    Ps. 40:6 Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; My ears You have opened; Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.

    Ps. 68:9 You shed abroad a plentiful rain, O God; You confirmed Your inheritance when it was parched.

    Ps. 80:15 Even the shoot which Your right hand has planted, And on the son whom You have strengthened for Yourself.

    And the last third is found in the New Testament, referring to:

    Fishermen mending their nets in Matt. 4:21 Going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. (cf. Mark 1:19)

    And of Spiritual leaders (even God Himself) correcting ignorance, restoring sinners, and conducting training:

    Luke 6:40 A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.

    1Cor. 1:10 Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. (cf. 2Cor. 13:11)

    Gal. 6:1 Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.

    Or 1Thess. 3:10, where Paul expresses his desire to get back to Thessalonica and teach the church there: “as we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face, and may complete what is lacking in your faith”

    Heb. 13:21 equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

    1Pet. 5:10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

    And even of God setting up the wicked for destruction:

    Rom. 9:22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction"

    So here’s a question: In what way can little children fix up, repair, or complete God’s praise"

    In one sense, children help complete the picture of all the categories of people who should praise God.

    Psalm 148 says, “rulers and judges, both young men and maidens, old men and children, let them praise the Lord.” The command of Psalm 148 to praise the Lord is not fulfilled until the youth and children join in the praise.

    “[I]t has a peculiar tendency to the honor and glory of God for little children to join in His praises; the praise would be accounted defective and imperfect, if they had not their share in it…”  And typically, the faith of a child follows after some adult has told them the gospel, so the praise of children could, in a sense, be the capstone of praise, indicating that both old and young have responded in faith. So here we have children in the temple shouting the words they heard their parents say the day before: “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

    In another sense, children have an ability to believe which can inspire those of us who are older to a renewal of our faith and increase our resolve to praise God.

    We may be having a frustrating day, and then we walk by our little daughter who is playing in a corner in her own little world singing “Jesus Loves Me,” and it restores perspective for me. “Yes! Jesus loves me!” Sometimes kids pray for things, not knowing, like who are older and wiser in the ways of the world than they, how utterly impossible it would be for such a thing to happen, and then when we hear them pray for such things, we are stricken at our lack of faith in God and we say, “Yes. O.K. we believe God can do that after all!” When the adults aren’t up to it, God often raises up children!

    And there were certainly adults in the leadership of the temple that day who needed to be taught a lesson of faith in Jesus by these children! 

    21:17 And after taking His leave of them, He exited out of the city into Bethany and camped out there.

    Και καταλιπων αυτους εξηλθεν εξω της πολεως εις Βηθανιαν και ηυλισθη εκει

    What made Jesus leave" The pride of the religious leaders, the fickleness of the followers, and their complicity in excluding from the worship of God those who were weak and small. Why would Jesus want to stick around a church like that"

    Application:

    In what ways do we fall into the same error that the Jews in the temple market did"

    How can we be the kind of church where Jesus would want to stick around"

    1.    Before we launch a crusade against church bookstores, consider this: If our body is now the temple of God’s Spirit, any busy-ness we have which crowds out prayer and God’s word from our lives is the same thing as what those merchants in the temple were doing. They were robbing and crowding out true worship. Let us not rob God of the glory of the nations by cluttering up our lives with busyness and sin.

    When Jesus encountered this problem in Mary’s life during one of those evenings in Bethany outside Jerusalem, He attacked it as well, “Martha, you are busy with so many things, but one thing is lacking, which Mary has found” (Paraphrase), and that was sitting at Jesus’ feet. Let us be faithful to do only what we really must do, and keep our lives uncluttered so that we are available to God!

    This will take vigilance and periodic re-evaluation. Just as Jesus cleared out the temple vendors on two different occasions, and even that didn’t put a permanent end to the temple marketplace, so we need to regularly take inventory of our lives and get rid of the junk that is distracting us from honoring God. As Matthew Henry put it, “Lawful things, ill timed and ill placed, may become sinful things… [They] will return and nestle there again, if there be not a continual care and oversight to prevent it, and if the blow be not followed and often repeated.”

    2.     In place of the clutter, let us occupy ourselves with prayer.

    Prayer, of course doesn’t have to be done with your eyes closed and your hands folded; prayer can flow all day long from a mind that is

    §  aware of God’s continual presence,

    §  aware of our continual need for Him,

    §  and alert to speak with God and make requests concerning all that is going on around us.

    Let each one of us grow to be characterized as a “house of prayer” a people who pray!

    3.     Let us not rob God of praise coming from children

    Adults, bring children in on worship times, both in our home and at church: “It is good to bring children betimes to the house of prayer, for of such is the kingdom of heaven…”

    Also, you adult people, set an example of prayer and praise that the younger ones would do well to follow.

    “Little children say and do as they hear others say and… do… and therefore great care must be taken to set them good examples and not bad ones…. Children will learn of those that are with them, either to curse and swear, or to pray and praise.”

    Mom, Dad, big sister, big brother, what are they learning from you"

    And all you little children, do you see from this Bible story that Jesus likes to hear we praise Him" When we recite our creeds and sing our songs and read the Bible and pray in church and in family devotions, join in with the big people and let God hear your voice too! Your voices fix up the worship to make it complete!

    Matthew 21:12-17 - What is so offensive and tragic about what was happening in the temple"

     

    The temple was to be a place of worship and prayer where God is acknowledged and honored.  It should have been a place where people come to meet God, a place where they confess their sins in prayer and receive cleansing for their sins.  Yet, the temple was turned into a market, a place for personal gain.  What is so offensive and tragic is that the temple became just like any place in the world where transactions are made for personal profit even at the expense of robbing someone".  

     

    In this passage, God is robbed of His rightful position to be worshiped, and the people are robbed of the priceless opportunity to come and worship God and get right before God. The temple lost its purpose for existence.  And if the temple loses its purpose, its calling, there is nothing else in this world that can replace it.  Thus, the very provision that God made for sinners to get right with God is violated.

     

    How does Jesus’ healing of the blind and lame contrast with what was happening in the temple" 

     

    We need to pause here a little bit and savor what is going on.  “The blind and the lame” came to Jesus at the temple, and Jesus healed them!  Clearly God is at work.  Yet, Jesus is performing this miracle in the midst of chaos and most awful corruption.

     

    Consider the fact that what Jesus found fundamentally offensive, the temple authorities found perfectly okay.  Who has the authority to establish the definition of what is appropriate in our life" 

     

    It is quite mind-boggling how the temple authorities found the turning of the temple into a marketplace, a place of robbery, perfectly okay or acceptable while being indignant at Jesus for healing the blind and the lame.  Such discrepancy took place because these temple authorities adhered to their standards and practices as the final authority to establish the definition of what is appropriate or not.  They had failed to realize how much they had digressed from God’s purpose for a temple.  It degenerated to the point that there was no difference between God’s temple and a world’s marketplace.

     

    Are there ways in which we have failed to take into consideration God’s standards in allowing worldly values and practices be the norm in our life"  

     

    Today’s temple is our heart, the dwelling place of God.  It ought to be a place where the “indwelling Christ controls all” as our Lord and Savior.  God’s standards, values, and practices are always holy, radically different from this world.  There is zero tolerance for sin.  And it always demands self-denial, because it is always based on love–love for God and love for others.   Worldly values and practices always place the self at the center and demands God and others to fit around what is convenient for us and what our self-centered desires want.  

     

    Everywhere around us flaunts such ideal, especially the media.  It brainwashes us to think that this is the “norm” when in truth it is a grotesque distortion of God’s standards and design for His creations. Although we might not embody values of the mass media, that doesn’t mean that we are always embodying God’s standards and values.  

     

    We need to realize that these wrong standards and values have seeped into our heart and our value system, and that each day as a Christian we must be on guard and purposely live our life according to what God says in the Scripture rather than what others are doing and what others are calling the “norm” and “appropriate.” especially through fashion magazines and the entertainment industry.  This gets most difficult when professing Christians calls a secular standard or value a “norm” even though it goes against God’s principles.

     

    In what ways can the church today turn into a marketplace" 

     

    The church today can turn into a marketplace when seeking a relationship with God is usurped by seeking of personal profit.  The seeking of personal profit  comes in all shapes and forms, sometimes  subtly and sometimes blatantly:

     

    o   A place to find my future spouse

    o   A place to get friends to alleviate loneliness.

    o   A place to network for business/career opportunities

    o   A place for my social needs to be met

    o   A place for my family to be serviced, a place where my kids are properly taken care of and my marriage will be taken care of

    o   A place to be a “somebody”; we can give up the arena from the world but replace the worldly arena in the church arena, in the spiritual arena.

    o   A place to climb up the ranks to get people’s respect and approval; our worldly ambition can be disguised under spiritual ambition.

    How God’s heart must ache to see confessing Christians turn His house of prayers into a den of robbers by turning away from the original design and intent of the temple and demanding our wants to be serviced.  If the church becomes a place where people’s wants and demands are serviced, we lose our calling to reach the lost.

    And if believers treat other believers with the worldly standard of “I’ll give you that only if you give this in return,” then we become no different than a marketplace where transactions are done for the purpose of personal profit.  God’s calling for each believer as a temple of God is demonstrated in the life of Jesus in 1 Peter 2:21, 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps.”  Each believer is called to live a life of suffering for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of others getting right with God without demanding.

    “What’s in it for me"”  As soon as I seek “What’s in it for me,” I’m on the pathway of turning God’s church into a marketplace.

    Matthew 21:1-11

     

    “The crowds shout out ‘Hosanna,’ which is the transliteration of the Hebrew expression that means ‘O save’ (cf. 2 Sam. 14:4; 2 Kings 6:26)… They further cry out to Jesus as ‘Son of David’ (21:9).  Linked with Hosanna, the title ‘Son of David’ is unmistakably messianic.  The crowd acknowledges what Jesus has already stated in His fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9: He is the Davidic Messiah…on whom they call to save them out of their oppression.”

     

    ·         Reflect on the ways in which “Hosanna” captures the deepest cry of the human heart.  To whom can this cry be directed"

     

    ·         What do I wish God to save me from"  How does what I wish God to save me from compare to the message of the Gospel"

     

    Matthew 21:23-27

     

    “ ‘John’s baptism’ (v. 25) is a way of referring to the Baptist’s entire ministry …Jesus asks whether that ministry was from heaven or from men. … ”

    “They cannot alienate the people by saying that John’s highly popular prophetic ministry was not from God. They fear that the people may turn against them and cause an uprising (21:26), which would jeopardize the Roman support of their leadership. But neither can they endorse the very prophet who had condemned them for not repenting (cf.3: 7-10)…These religious leaders recognize the dilemma Jesus has put them in, so they refuse to answer. That refusal shows their dishonesty, and they must accept their culpability.”

     

    ·         Notice that the priests and elders confidently came to challenge Jesus, only to be confronted with a question that invites them to take a stance on the truth, which would have far-reaching consequences in their lives. 

     

    Think of a time when we felt similarly confronted with a truth or a question that presented a “fork in the road.”  How did we respond"

     

    ·         What pragmatic considerations do the priests and elders consider before giving their answer to Jesus"  What does this show about their view and attitude toward truth"

     

    ·         What fears, and other pragmatic considerations, are we allowing to intrude upon our consideration and response to who Jesus is, and what authority He will have in our life"

     

    ·         In what ways are we similar to the priests and elders who replied, “I don’t know,” in order to avoid the concrete demands made by the truth"

     

    Matthew 21:33-42

     

    “Many absentee landowners were notorious for their harsh treatment of their tenants. Here, the scene is reversed, and the landowner’s servants are abused when they come to collect a portion of the harvest. The landowner continues to send servants to collect what is rightfully His, but each is treated the same way (22:36). The treatment of these ‘servants’ calls to mind the same fate that befell God’s prophets throughout Old Testament history (e.g., 1 Kings 18:4; Jer. 20:1 – 2). Jesus will soon hold the teachers of the law and Pharisees culpable for the ill fate of the prophets and wise men sent to Israel (cf. Matt. 23:34).” 

     

    ·         Reflect on the description of what the landowner did in preparing the vineyard before renting it out to the tenant farmers.  In what way is this true of our life"

     

    ·         What is absurd about the tenants’ response to the landowner’s request" What basic truths did the tenants disregard in pursuing their course"

     

    ·         In what ways have we been like the tenants in challenging God’s rightful authority over our life"

     

    Additional Questions: Matthew 21:1-6

     

    “The term ‘Lord’ (kyrios) can designee one’s master or one’s deity.  It is used to refer to the master of the slave in 10:24, but also to God as Lord of the harvest (9:38), Lord of the vineyard (20:8), Lord of heaven and earth (11:20, 25), and often of Jesus as the Messiah (Acts 10:36).  It is difficult to say what either the disciples or anyone else would have understood kyrios to meet in this context, but Jesus plainly intends it to refer to Himself has the one who sovereignty superintends these events.  At this climatic time of His earthly ministry, Jesus reveals Himself with increasing clarity.”

     

    ·         What is the significance of the fact that Jesus gave such specific instructions to the disciples in fulfillment of the prophecy"

     

    ·         How might the disciples have felt as they obeyed Jesus’ seemingly strange instructions and then found everything as Jesus had said"

     

    ·         What perspective do these verses give us on the seemingly “illogical” or counter-intuitive commands of God that we are called to obey"

     

    ·         Have there been times when God’s commands to us seemed to not make sense"  What has been our response to them"

     

    Matthew 21:12-17

     

    ·         What is so offensive and tragic about what was happening in the temple"

     

    ·         How does Jesus’ healing of the blind and lame contrast with what was happening in the temple"

    ·         Consider the fact that what Jesus found fundamentally offensive, the temple authorities found perfectly okay.  Who has the authority to establish the definition of what is appropriate in our life"

     

    ·         Are there ways in which we have failed to take into consideration God’s standards in allowing worldly values and practices be the norm in our life"

     

    ·         In what ways can the church today turn into a marketplace"

     

    Matthew 21:18-19

     

    “This cursing of the barren fig-tree represents the state of hypocrites in general; and so it teaches us that the fruit of fig-trees may justly be expected from those that have the leaves. Christ looks for the power of religion from those that make profession of it; …

    A false and hypocritical profession commonly withers in this world, and it is the effect of Christ’s curse; the fig-tree that had no fruit, soon lost its leaves. Hypocrites may look plausible for a time, but, having no principle, no root in themselves, their profession will soon come to nothing.”

     

    ·         Meditate on the description, “nothing on it except leaves.”  What kind of church and what kind of Christian would be aptly described as having “nothing on it except leaves”"

     

    ·         What does fruit represent"

     

    ·         How fruitful am I"

     

    Matthew 21:28-32

     

    “The shock value of Jesus’ statement can only be appreciated when the low esteem in which tax collectors (see on 5:46) were held, not to mention prostitutes, is taken into account… But Jesus is saying that the scum of society, though it says no to God, repents, performs the Father’s will, and enters the kingdom, whereas the religious authorities loudly say yes to God but never do what He says, and therefore they fail to enter.”

    “The key to the correct understanding of this parable is that it is not really praising anyone. It is setting before us a picture of two very imperfect sets of people, of whom one set were none the less better than the other. Neither son in the story was the kind of son to bring full joy to His father. Both were unsatisfactory; but the one who in the end obeyed was incalculably better than the other…this parable teaches us that promises can never take the place of performance, and fine words are never a substitute for fine deeds.”

     

    ·         Reflect on what this parable says about obedience; actual, physical carrying out of God’s commands.

     

    ·         In what areas of our life, have we been like the first son; making empty promises, but not following through in obedience"

     

    ·         What dire warning is here for us regarding the consequences of developing such a separation between our words and obedience, given whom this parable is directed at"

     

    Matthew 21:43-46

     

    ·         Reflect on the words in v. 43: “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

    ”

    ·         What is so tragic and fearful about the response of the chief priests and the Pharisees"

     

    Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

     

    Chapter Contents

     

    Christ enters Jerusalem. (1-11) He drives out those who profaned the temple. (12-17) The barren fig-tree cursed. (18-22) Jesus' discourse in the temple. (23-27) The parable of the two sons. (28-32) The parable of the wicked husbandmen. (33-46)

     

    Commentary on Matthew 21:1-11

     

    This coming of Christ was described by the prophet Zechariah 9:9. When Christ would appear in His glory, it is in His meekness, not in His majesty, in mercy to work salvation.

     

    As meekness and outward poverty were fully seen in Zion's King, and marked His triumphal entrance to Jerusalem, how wrong covetousness, ambition, and the pride of life must be in Zion's citizens!

     

    They brought the ass, but Jesus did not use it without the owner's consent. The trappings were such as came to hand. We must not think the clothes on our backs too dear to part with for the service of Christ. The chief priests and the elders afterwards joined with the multitude that abused Him upon the cross; but none of them joined the multitude that did Him honor. Those that take Christ for their King, must lay their all under His feet.

     

    Hosanna signifies, Save now, we beseech thee! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord! But of how little value is the applause of the people! The changing multitude join the cry of the day, whether it be Hosanna, or Crucify Him. Multitudes often seem to approve the gospel, but few become consistent disciples. When Jesus was come into Jerusalem all the city was moved; some perhaps were moved with joy, who waited for the Consolation of Israel; others, of the Pharisees, were moved with envy. So various are the motions in the minds of men upon the approach of Christ's kingdom.

     

    Commentary on Matthew 21:12-17

     

    Christ found some of the courts of the temple turned into a market for cattle and things used in the sacrifices, and partly occupied by the money-changers. Our Lord drove them from the place, as He had done at His entering upon His ministry, John 2:13-17. His works testified of Him more than the hosannas; and His healing in the temple was the fulfilling the promise, that the glory of the latter house should be greater than the glory of the former. If Christ came now into many parts of His visible church, how many secret evils He would discover and cleanse! And how many things daily practiced under the cloak of religion, would He show to be more suitable to a den of thieves than to a house of prayer!

     

    Commentary on Matthew 21:18-22

     

    This cursing of the barren fig-tree represents the state of hypocrites in general, and so teaches us that Christ looks for the power of religion in those who profess it, and the savor of it from those that have the show of it. His just expectations from flourishing professors are often disappointed; He comes to many, seeking fruit, and finds leaves only. A false profession commonly withers in this world, and it is the effect of Christ's curse. The fig-tree that had no fruit, soon lost its leaves. This represents the state of the nation and people of the Jews in particular. Our Lord Jesus found among them nothing but leaves. And after they rejected Christ, blindness and hardness grew upon them, till they were undone, and their place and nation rooted up. The Lord was righteous in it. Let us greatly fear the doom denounced on the barren fig-tree.

     

    Commentary on Matthew 21:23-27

     

    As our Lord now openly appeared as the Messiah, the chief priests and scribes were much offended, especially because He exposed and removed the abuses they encouraged. Our Lord asked what they thought of John's ministry and baptism. Many are more afraid of the shame of lying than of the sin, and therefore scruple not to speak what they know to be false, as to their own thoughts, affections, and intentions, or their remembering and forgetting. Our Lord refused to answer their inquiry. It is best to shun needless disputes with wicked opposers.

     

    Commentary on Matthew 21:28-32

     

    Parables which give reproof, speak plainly to the offenders, and judge them out of their own mouths. The parable of the two sons sent to work in the vineyard, is to show that those who knew not John's baptism to be of God, were shamed by those who knew it, and owned it. The whole human race are like children whom the Lord has brought up, but they have rebelled against Him, only some are more plausible in their disobedience than others. And it often happens, that the daring rebel is brought to repentance and becomes the Lord's servant, while the formalist grows hardened in pride and enmity.

     

    Commentary on Matthew 21:33-46

     

    This parable plainly sets forth the sin and ruin of the Jewish nation; and what is spoken to convict them, is spoken to caution all that enjoy the privileges of the outward church. As men treat God's people, they would treat Christ Himself, if He were with them. How can we, if faithful to His cause, expect a favorable reception from a wicked world, or from ungodly professors of Christianity!

     

    And let us ask ourselves, whether we who have the vineyard and all its advantages, render fruits in due season, as a people, as a family, or as separate persons. Our Savior, in His question, declares that the Lord of the vineyard will come, and when He comes He will surely destroy the wicked. The chief priests and the elders were the builders, and they would not admit His doctrine or laws; they threw Him aside as a despised stone.

     

    But He who was rejected by the Jews, was embraced by the Gentiles. Christ knows who will bring forth gospel fruits in the use of gospel means. The unbelief of sinners will be their ruin. But God has many ways of restraining the remainders of wrath, as He has of making that which breaks out redound to His praise. May Christ become more and more precious to our souls, as the firm Foundation and Cornerstone of His church. May we be willing to follow Him, though despised and hated for His sake.

     

    Commentaries:

     

    He was upset to see how they were using the temple.  He wanted them to know that he did not approve of the way they were using the temple for themselves instead of for prayer

     

    How many times must He show them" How much longer should He bear Our Burdens" (God´s Temple that is and was to be "Used to Worship God" was being converted into a place where prostitution could have very well been lurking in the background") Jesus is God! He was also Human. He had human qualities as well as Godly ones. He chose to get this message through their 'Blinded' eyes to make the point He did! God’s Temple/House is NOT meant for anything but Worshipping God, Singing Praises to Him as we will in Heaven, and Sharing His Love with one another. These people like the scribes charging up to 40% more for something the people didn't need to buy in the 1st Place. Were selling their goods and misrepresenting God’s Mercy and Using the Temples made to 'Glorify Him'; for their own selfish greed/gain.

     

    The show of strength made them aware that He indeed had the courage and ability to influence the people's thinking.  He was there for them and his display of strength gave His followers the courage to stay with Him.  He is the road to eternal salvation.  

     

    Jesus cleared the temple in the manner He did because he was very upset that God's temple...a place of worship...would be used as a market place.

     

    I suspect it was done in this manner for two reasons although there could be more. The first, was symbolic of a new order that would be led by JESUS and his ministry. The second, in order for the scriptures to be fulfilled, this action was necessary in order for the chain of events to occur which would ultimately lead to JESUS' death on the cross.

     

    He did that to change that bad practice that had gained roots right in the house of God.The manner with which He accomplished that feat also helped to establish himself as coming from God the Father.

     

    The high priest and his people did not believe in Jesus; they allowed the wrong thinks in the Temple. Jesus did that that they can see that they are wrong. 

     

    Jesus was upset because people were using God's house for their own greed, not to worship the Lord as it was meant to be. Blessings.

     

    Given that those who were using the Temple knew exactly what the Temple was,they kept on desecrating it.That is why Jesus became so angry .For Jesus,He saw it as a mockery to His Father in Heaven whom He Loved so much.That is why He was so stain and did not want to treat the issue diplomatically.

     

    Jesus was angry and disgusted the way they treated the Lord's house.They knew the scriptures and still they disobey it. They enriched themselves by robbing the poor by charging them temple taxes and high exchange fees

     

    Because He was very angry to see the misuse of the holy place where all were needed to pray...He didn’t do same thing more diplomatically because He wants to make all of them very clear in a straight forward manner that what they were doing at holy temple was against the Lord.

     

    A Temple is a place which we must respect because is a place that God  and the angels are all time and is where we meet God if we are inside we should change the behavior and be quiet. Is a good place for calling God. It is not  a market

     

    A church is strictly meant as a place of worship. It is a place where we meet God in prayer. The place where we meet God should be sacred and preserved with full respect. It shows that we give respect to God above everything. Any other thing that we give more importance becomes our idol. This violates God's commandment, "Love God above all things".

     

    Jesus was very angry on seeing what was going on in the temple and cleared it in such a dramatic manner.  Jesus told them that this was a HOUSE OF PRAYER which they had made it den of robbers and drove them all out.

     

    Jesus was angry because the house of His Father was being misused by the people for business purposes and for other anti people activities. Jesus wanted to crush such activities by strict measures.

     

    They angered Jesus in what they were doing, that He used the only method that would get their attention. They defiled the temple of the Lord in the way they were conducting business in the house of prayer and worship. Jesus Himself said to them: "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a den of robbers!"

     

    The money changers' and those who sold the doves, were offending God using the temple very inappropriately. The temple is a place of worship and prayer; a place to praise God and confess and repent from sins, a place of peace and holiness. Very justifiably, Jesus was indignant and displeased; and wanted to lay down a firm preceding that people would digest and not forget.

     

    He was very upset that they were using the Temple of the Lord for sin.. He did it in that manner so that they could fully understand that He did not accept what they were doing and that those actions should not be allowed.

     

    The temple is known as a place of worship and prayer. As a holy place, buying and selling may bring in corruption which might defile the sanity of the temple. It was for that reason, I believe Jesus decided to clear them in such a way in other to maintain the holiness in the temple

     

    Jesus was angry with people who pretend to be genuine yet they are hypocrites. He wanted them to know the House of God is a holy place.

     

    Satan is not to be respected or argued with, Jesus commands and shows His power over all who fail to respect and love His father’s house!

     

    Because the situation needed a forceful way. It is also needed to christians to be hard when it comes to making some decisions which are like disrespecting the temple of God..

     

    Jesus was very upset that the temple was being used for purposes other than a house of prayer and felt that God was being disrespected. Jesus probably felt that this was the best way to show everyone how He felt and even if He wasn't being nice about it, He was still showing His kindness and compassion for others. Peace be with you.


    By: Gregorio Magdaleno - September 22, 2015 - Public
    Category: Jesus at the Temple
    Comment Helpful? Favorite Violation
    September 22, 2015
    Jesus asked the blind man what they wanted Him to do. What do you want Jesus to do for you?

    Matthew 20:29-34 

     

    Two Blind Men Receive Sight

     

    As they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. Behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, "Lord, have mercy on us, You son of David!" The multitude rebuked them, telling them that they should be quiet, but they cried out even more, "Lord, have mercy on us, You son of David!" 

     

    Jesus stood still, and called them, and asked, "What do you want Me to do for you"" 

    They told Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened." 

     

    Jesus, being moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received their sight, and they followed Him. 

     

    Jesus asked the blind man what they wanted Him to do. What do you want Jesus to do for you"

     

    Relentless Faith and Great Compassion - Matthew 20:29-34

     

    Text Comment

     

    v.29: This next episode plays a strategic role in the Gospel history.  For the traveler to Jerusalem, coming from the Trans-Jordan, Jericho is the last city before Jerusalem.  The capital was only some 15 miles from Jericho on a main road.  You will notice that the next paragraph in Matthew’s Gospel concerns the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Imagine the scene.  Jesus is not alone with His disciples on this road through Jericho.  It is crowded with pilgrims heading to Jerusalem for Passover.  We know from the other Gospels that popular excitement over the possibility that Jesus was the Messiah, fueled by His miracles and by His teaching, was now reaching a fever pitch. Passover was, in any case, the most patriotic time of year for the Jews.  So there is nothing surprising in the fact that a crowd of people would have attached themselves to Jesus to walk with Him toward Jerusalem. This dramatic miracle, witnessed by so many people, would only have inflamed people’s expectations the more.  News of it would have reached Jerusalem only a few hours later.  In Matthew’s account the pre-Jerusalem ministry concludes with this miracle.  We know from the other Gospels that, in fact, some days were to elapse before Palm Sunday.  But take note, it was to be the crowds’ disappointment … Jesus, His failure to meet their expectations that would secure His execution some days later. They were looking for a political deliver not a Redeemer.

     

    v.30: Mark names one of these blind men:  Bartimaeus.  The fact that his name was known probably is an indication that he was known among the believers as a disciple of Jesus.  The fact that he is named only in Mark, which is, as you remember, Peter’s Gospel, may indicate that he was a personal acquaintance or friend of the Apostle Peter.

     

    When the blind men call Jesus “Son of David,” they are calling Him Messiah, for that is what the title meant.  Even beggars on the street knew of the remarkable ministry of Jesus of Nazareth and were caught up in the excitement generated by the growing belief that the Messiah had appeared.  They knew of the miracles of healing that Jesus had performed and they hoped for something for themselves.

    v.31: It is entirely typical that the demonstration of Jesus’ Messiah ship should have been provided in a work of compassion and kindness that the crowd thought was beneath His dignity. How little they understood of what was to come.

     

    How often in the NT is true and living faith in Christ described as a conviction of Christ’s willingness and ability to help, as no one else can, that it refuses to take “no” for an answer. These are men who believed in Christ’s power to save them.

     

    v.32: By stopping and attending to these blind beggars Jesus is once more overturning and repudiating the popular understanding of what the Messiah would be and would do.

     

    v.33: If you were blind is this not what you would ask for" There is no account of the giving of sight to the blind in the OT, no such miracle performed by Moses or Elijah or Elisha.  Nor is there any such miracle reported in the NT as having been performed by the apostles after Pentecost.  But there are more miracles of this type, giving sight to the blind, reported among the healing miracles of the Lord than of any other type of healing miracle.  Perhaps that is because in the Old Testament, giving sight to the blind was not only something that God alone could do, but further, something that the Messiah would do!

     

    “Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.”  [Isa. 35:5]

     

    “Here is My servant, whom I uphold, My chosen one in whom I delight…I will keep You and will make You to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind and to free captives from prison…  [Isa. 42:7]

     

    To open the eyes of the blind is supremely a revelation of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Messiah. 

     

    But, as we have also often noticed, the Lord’s miracles were important not only for the proof they provided of the Lord’s credentials as the Messiah, they were also pictures of the salvation that Jesus had come into the world to provide.  The dead being raised, the demon possessed being restored to sound mind, the leper cleansed, and the blind given his sight are not only astonishing works of divine power, works that no one could perform but someone who had been given power from on high, but all are ways in which the Bible describes the nature of salvation.  We are dead in sins and in Christ we are made alive.  We are slaves of the Devil but Christ sets us free.  We are impure, as the leper, but Christ makes us clean.  And we are blind, we cannot see the truth about God, about the world, about ourselves, about the way of salvation, and Christ opens our eyes to see the truth that sets men free.

     

    In the case of the man born blind, whose healing John records in the 9th chapter of his Gospel, this point is made explicitly:  the granting sight to the blind in the physical sense, miracle that it was, was a picture of the giving of spiritual sight to the spiritually blind.  There Jesus said,

     

    “For this I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”  [v. 39]

     

    The Lord was speaking to the intransigent Pharisees and telling them that no matter how good their physical vision, they were blind spiritually, and the proof was that the Son of God was standing in front of them and they couldn’t see Him for what He was, no matter the miracles, no matter the truth that was on His lips, no matter the perfect goodness of His life.  He said that if they thought they were seeing, as they did, they would remain blind.

     

    Think of, John Rug, the missionary to Chile, who also was born blind, was born blind in both senses, but later as a young man was given sight by the Lord Jesus Christ.  For some years yet he will not be able to see in the physical sense, but he has for many years been able to see in the more important sense.  Indeed, those who know John will say of him that he has very acute vision when it comes to seeing the truth and the light that is in Jesus Christ.  And, in the same way, we know many people who have very good eyesight, but who are blind as bats when it comes to seeing what is truly and eternally important.

     

    This point is made here also in Matthew.  We have noticed the last two words of our text:  these two men whom Jesus had healed of their blindness followed Him.  Those are potent words in Matthew.  These men became Christ’s followers right then and there.  We might have expected them to go to the city and seek out their relatives and see their homes for the first time, but they followed Jesus.  They became followers of Jesus and, in so doing, they proved that they saw more clearly who Jesus was and what He had come into the world to do than did the multitudes on the road that day who had never been blind but who couldn’t see the truth when it was standing before them and being demonstrated in the most spectacular ways.  They followed Jesus.  They knew that their lives must from this point on be bound up with Him.  They knew that physical sight was, by no means, the only thing; it was not even the most important thing they would receive from Him.

     

    In this marvelous event, we have the entire message of the gospel summed up.  Christ Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah sent into the world to bring salvation to human beings who all are in desperate need of salvation and who cannot save themselves.  What all men are summoned to do is to acknowledge that Jesus Christ and He alone has eternal life in His hands, He and He alone brings the truth which sets men and women free, and then to seek that life and that truth from hand and set out to living according to it.  There are many human beings who would rather starve than come to any feast that is set by the Son of God, who would rather remain in darkness if the price of seeing the light is to confess that one is as needy and has been as bad as Christ says.  But, there are those who, by God’s grace, see themselves blind and hungry and sick and see Christ offering sight, a feast, and eternal health, and they take it from their hands and the rest of their lives they are found telling others, “I was blind, but now I see.”

     

    Imagine what it must have been for those men as they stood up able to see for the first time, no doubt able to see with perfectly sharp vision. Imagine what it must have been for them to see everything for the first time, see what everything looked like that they had only had described to them before; saw colors, saw faces, saw the city of Jericho, saw their parents, their siblings, and their homes.  All that day long and for some days after, they would have closed their eyes to imagine themselves back in their blindness and then open them to exult in their being able at last to see"  Perhaps they fellows wore people out over the next weeks talking endlessly about how everything appeared to them that they had never been able to see before.  How different the appearance of things must have to what they had imagined during the years, never having been able to see, never known what anything looked like!  There were two happy men!

     

    It is not hard to see how similar it must be for a man who has been spiritually blind, but, through faith in Christ, now sees things as they truly are with the clearest vision, whose eyes the Lord Christ has opened by His Holy Spirit.  How many Christians, through the ages, have thought of their salvation in just these terms:  “I was blind, but now I see.”

     

    Thomas Halliburton, one of the great figures of Scottish Christianity in the 18th century, in his magnificent autobiography, describes his coming to faith in Christ as a young man in just this way.  Indeed, here is the way he begins his account:

     

    “I cannot be very positive about the day or hour of this deliverance, nor can I satisfy many other questions about the way and manner of it.  But this is of no consequence, if the work is in substance sound, for ‘the wind bloweth where it listeth; and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” (John iii. 8)  Many things about the way and manner we may be ignorant of, while we are sufficiently sure of the effects.  As to these things, I must say with the blind man, ‘I know not: one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.”

     

    Through the reading of the Word of God and praying for light, the Lord came to him and opened his eyes near the end of January in 1698.  And that is how he puts it and how he thought about his conversion.  It was an opening of his blind eyes.  Indeed words like “see” and “sight” are found all through the account.  And true Puritan that he was, he proceeded to describe in nine particulars.  He says it was 1) a heavenly light, it shone above me, it opened heaven to me, and led me up, as it were, to heaven; 2) a true light, exposing the falsehoods about himself and the world and God that he had so long entertained; 3) a pleasant light; 4) a distinct and clear light; 5) a satisfying light; 6) a refreshing and healing light, it warmed him and his life; 7) a great light; 8) a powerful light, dissipating the thick darkness that had overspread his mind; and 9) a composing light; not like lightning that appears in a moment and disappears leaving terror behind, but composed and quieted his soul that had been troubled about so many things.  Then he concludes, “…I know that no words can express the notion that the weakest Christian, who has his eyes opened, really has of [the glory of this light.]  …  No words can convey a true notion of light to the blind; and he that has eyes…will need no words to describe it.”  [Memoirs, 99-104]

     

    Perhaps the blind men to whom the Lord gave sight would have described their experience in very similar terms"  And, finally, they exulted far more in the spiritual sight that they had been given, the knowledge of Christ and salvation, than the sight of his eyes. More than once in the remaining years of those men’s lives they assuredly told people that they would rather have remained blind all their days if in their physical blindness they had been given to see Christ and the way to heaven than to be given their eyesight but never the sight of Christ or heaven.

     

    Is it not extraordinary that we in our modern world, so different in many ways from the world of Jericho in the first century, should understand immediately what happened to those two men, should find their experience immediately relevant to our own.  How little the world has really changed, because the human heart has not changed.  How perfectly the Bible describes the universal experience of man in sin and man in salvation!

     

    Let’s hope we are all touched by the wonder of this miracle and the glorious effect it had upon these two men.  That we see afresh and anew the wonder of God’s graces that has given us sight when otherwise we would have remained blind.  The world is full of blind people with 20/20 eyesight.  They walk through this world utterly oblivious to the spiritual world all around them, to God their Creator, to the looming Day of Judgment, to heaven or hell that awaits every person at the end.  How wonderful when a man or a woman is given to see!  To see God and Christ and the way that leads to the world of everlasting joy!  We’ve seen people get their sight and there is nothing more wonderful in the entire world!

     

    But there is something more here that deserves our careful attention.  Matthew makes a point of saying that Jesus healed these blind men because He had compassion on them.  This great deliverance, the physical one and the far greater eternal and spiritual one that it symbolized, came to these two benighted men living in darkness because Jesus had compassion on them.

     

    This is not the only place in the Gospel where a great healing was performed because Jesus had compassion on the sufferer.  In 9:36 we are told that Christ’s preaching of the good news to the crowds was motivated by His compassion for them in their lostness.  In 14:14 we read that Christ healed the sick that were brought to Him in large numbers because He had compassion on them.  In 15:32 we read that He provided food for the 4000 because He had compassion on that Gentile company.

     

    The word that is translated “had compassion on” in the NIV is connected with the noun for the entrails, the viscera, the inner organs which, in that culture were regarded as the seat of the emotions.  One scholar of the language of the New Testament writes that, in distinction from the word “heart,” this is “a more blunt, forceful and unequivocal term.”  It is interesting, by the way, that Greeks thought of strong emotion ordinarily in terms of anger; Christians, on the other hand, thought of compassion.  This word, “has compassion” is always connected with Jesus in the New Testament.  What we have here is not mere human pity, but divine compassion for troubled people filling a human heart.  We have the heart of the Son of God going out to those in great need. We have here not only the record of one of the breathtaking miracles that Jesus performed but a picture of salvation coming to lost men, then this compassion is part of that beautiful picture.

     

    How does the life-giving power of God in Christ come to men and women in our day"

     

    “We are fooling ourselves if we [think] that we can ever make the authentic gospel popular … It’s too simple in an age of rationalism; too narrow in an age of pluralism; too humiliating in an age of self-confidence; too demanding in an age of permissiveness….  What are we going to share with our friends" [Dudley Smith, John Stott, ii, 267]

     

    We can share the light, the sight that Christ gave to these blind men with the blind men around us.  We cannot give physical sight to the blind, but we can shed the light on the spiritual blindness of those around us.  But what will make them pay attention to us and receive our words"  If we speak for the same reason that Jesus did so.  Love breaks into blindness like nothing else.  Love can make a self-confident man realize his terrible need, a man who thinks he sees suddenly realize that he has lived his whole life in darkness. 

     

    The world around us is full of the blind. They are not crying out on purpose, in many cases, as these blind men did near Jericho, but their circumstances are evidence of their darkness.  Their condition is obvious enough to us.  We can see that they cannot see.  We can often see the misery that must be endured by the blind.  Surely, we who have received Christ’s love should have compassion for those who are as we were and who must remain so unless someone should bring the light to them.  Does the love of Christ constrain us"

     

    How shall we become compassionate as He was"  How shall we have the power to cut through the darkness in which so many live" 

     

    Nothing is more likely to make it a power in our lives, this compassion for others, than simply to stare long and hard at those two happy men who got up from the side of the road where they had spent so many long, miserable days, got up to follow Jesus, every now and then kicking up their heels unable to believe that they could really see!  And not only see, but live and live forever.  Surely any Christian must want to see many others as happy as that!

    Matthew 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43

    Matthew 20:29-34

    Mark 10:46-52

    Luke 18:35-43

    29. And while they were departing from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. 30. And, lo, two blind men sitting near the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried aloud, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 31. And the multitude rebuked them, that they might be silent; but they cried out the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 32. And Jesus stood, and called them, and said, What do you wish that I should do to you" 33. They say to Him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. 34. And Jesus, moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.

     

    46. And they come to Jericho: and while they was departing from the city Jericho, and His disciples, and a great multitude, Bartimeus, son of Timeus, a blind man, was sitting hear the road begging. 47. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry aloud, and to say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. 48. And many rebuked him, that he might be silent: but he cried out so much the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. 49. And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying to him, Be of good courage, rise; he calleth thee.50. And he, throwing away his mantle, arose, and came to Jesus. 51. And Jesus answering, saith to him, What dost thou wish that I should do to thee" And the blind man said to Him, Master, 668668     “Rabboni;” — “Maistre.” that I may receive sight. 52 And Jesus said to him, Go away; thy faith hath cured thee. And immediately he received sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

     

    35. And it happened that, while He was approaching Jericho, a certain blind man was sitting near the road begging: 36. And when he heard a multitude passing by, he asked what it was. 37. And they said to him, that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. 38. And he cried out, saying, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. 39. And they that were going before rebuked him, that he might be silent: but he cried out so much the more, Son of David, have mercy on me.40. And Jesus, standing still, commanded him to be brought to him: and while He was approaching, He asked him, 41. Saying, What dost thou wish that I should do to thee" And he said, Lord, that I may receive sight. 42. Then Jesus said to him, Receive sight: thy faith hath cred thee. 43. And immediately he received sight, and followed Him, glorifying God: and all the people when they saw it, gave praise to God.

     

    Matthew 20:29: And while they were departing from Jericho. Osiander has resolved to display his ingenuity by making four blind men out of one. But nothing can be more frivolous than this supposition. Having observed that the Evangelists differ in a few expressions, he imagined that one blind man received sight when they were entering into the city, and that the second, and other two, received sight when Christ was departing from it. But all the circumstances agree so completely, that no person of sound judgment will believe them to be different narratives. Not to mention other matters, when Christ’s followers had endeavored to put the first to silence, and saw him cured contrary to their expectation, would they immediately have made the same attempt with the other three" But it is unnecessary to go into particulars, from which any man may easily infer that it is one and the same event which is related.

    But there is a puzzling contradiction in this respect, that Matthew and Mark say that the miracle was performed on one or on two blind men, when Christ had already departed from the city; while Luke relates that it was done before He came to the city. Besides, Mark and Luke speak of not more than one blind man, while Matthew mentions two. But as we know that it frequently occurs in the Evangelists, that in the same narrative one passes by what is mentioned by the others, and, on the other hand, states more clearly what they have omitted, it ought not to be looked upon as strange or unusual in the present passage.

    The conjecture is, that, while Christ was approaching to the city, the blind man cried out, but that, as he was not heard on account of the noise, he placed himself in the way, as they were departing from the city, “Mais pource qu’il ne peut estre ouy a cause du bruit du peuple, qu’il s’en alla, l’autre porte de la ville par laquelle Christ devoit sortir, pour l’attendre la au chemin;” “but, because he could not be heard on account of the noise of the people, that he went away to the other gate by which Christ was to go out, to wait for Him there on the road.” and then was at length called by Christ. And so Luke, commencing with what was true, does not follow out the whole narrative, but passes over Christ’s stay in the city; while the other Evangelists attend only to the time which was nearer to the miracle. There is probability in the conjecture that, as Christ frequently, when He wished to try the faith of men, delayed for a short time to relieve them, so He subjected this blind man to the same scrutiny.

    The second difficulty may be speedily removed; for we have seen, on a former occasion, that Mark and Luke speak of one demoniac as having been cured, while Matthew, as in the present instance, mentions two, (Matthew 8:28; Mark 5:2; Luke 8:27) And yet this involves no contradiction between them; but it may rather be conjectured with probability, that at first one blind man implored the favor of Christ, and that another was excited by his example, and that in this way two persons received sight Mark and Luke speak of one only, either because he was better known, or because in him the demonstration of been on account of his having been extensively known that he was selected by Mark, who gives both his own name and that of his father: Bartimeus, son of Timeus By doing so, he does not claim for him either illustrious descent or wealth; for he was a beggar of the lowest class. Hence it appears that the miracle was more remarkable in his person, because his calamity had been generally known. This appears to be the reason why Mark and Luke mention him only, and say nothing about the other, who was a sort of inferior appendage. But Matthew, who was an eye-witness, “Qui avoit este present au miracle;” “who had been present at the miracle.” did not choose to pass by even this person, though less known.

    30. Have mercy on me, O Lord. There was at first but one who cried out, but the other was induced by a similar necessity to join him. They confer on Christ no ordinary honor, when they request Him to have mercy, and relieve them; for they must have been convinced that He had in his power the assistance or remedy which they needed. But their faith is still more clearly exhibited by their acknowledgment of Him as Messiah, to whom we know that the Jews gave this designation, Son of David They therefore apply to Christ, not only as some Prophet, but as that person whom God had promised to be the only Author of salvation. The cry proved the ardor of the desire; for, though they knew that what they said exposed them to the hatred of many, who were highly displeased with the honor done to Christ, their fear was overcome by the ardor of desire, so that they did not refrain, on this account, from raising their voice aloud.

    31. And the multitude reproved them. It is surprising that the disciples of Christ, who follow Him through a sense of duty and of respect, should wish to drive wretched men from the favor of Christ, and, so far as lies in them, to prevent the exercise of His power. But it frequently happens that the greater part of those who profess the name of Christ, instead of inviting us to Him, rather hinder or delay our approach. If Satan endeavored to throw obstacles in the way of two blind men, by means of pious and simple persons, who were induced by some sentiments of religion to follow Christ, how much more will he succeed in accomplishing it by means of hypocrites and traitors, if we be not strictly on our guard. Perseverance is therefore necessary to overcome every difficulty, and the more numerous the obstacles are which Satan throws in the way, the more powerfully ought we to be excited to earnestness in prayer, as we see that the blind men redoubled their cry

    32. What do you wish that I should do to you" He gently and kindly asks what they desire; for He had determined to grant their requests. There is no reason to doubt that they prayed by a special movement of the Holy Spirit; for, as the Lord does not intend to grant to all persons deliverance from bodily diseases, so neither does He permit them simply to pray for it. A rule has been prescribed for us what we ought to ask, and in what manner, and to what extent; and we are not at liberty to depart from that rule, unless the Lord, by a secret movement of the Spirit, suggest to us some special prayer, which rarely happens. Christ puts the question to them, not for their sake as individuals, but for the sake of all the people; for we know how the world swallows God’s benefits without perceiving them, unless they are stimulated and aroused. Christ, therefore, by His voice, awakens the assembled crowd to observe the miracle, as He awakens them shortly afterwards by a visible sign, when He opens their eyes by touching them.

    34. And Jesus, moved with compassion, etc. Σπλαγχνισθείς, moved with compassion, is not the participle of the same verb which Matthew had just now employed in reference to the blind man, ἐλέησον,have mercy “Quand ils disoyent, Fils de David, aye misericorde de nous;” “when they said, Son of David, have mercy on us.” They implored the mercy of Christ, that He might relieve their wretchedness; but now the Evangelist expresses that Christ was induced to cure them, not only by undeserved goodness, but because He pitied their distress. For the metaphor is taken from thebowels, (σπλάγχνα,) in which dwells that kindness and mutual compassion which prompts us to assist our neighbors.

    Mark 10:52. Thy faith hath saved thee By the word faith is meant not only a confident hope of recovering sight, but a loftier conviction, which was, that this blind man had acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah whom God had promised. Nor must we imagine that it was only some confused knowledge; for we have already seen that this confession was taken from the Law and the Prophets. For the blind man did not at random bestow on Christ the name of Son of David, but embraced Him as that person whose coming he had been taught by the divine predictions to expect. Now Christ attributes it to faith that the blind man received sight; for, though the power and grace of God sometimes extend even to unbelievers, yet no man enjoys His benefits in a right and profitable manner, unless he receive them by faith; nay, the use of the gifts of God is so far from being advantageous to unbelievers, that it is even hurtful. And therefore, when Christ says, thy faith hath saved thee, the word saved is not limited to an outward cure, but includes also the health and safety of the soul; as if Christ had said, that by faith the blind man obtained that God was gracious to him, and granted his wish. And if it was in regard to faith that God bestowed his favor on the blind man, it follows that he was justified by faith

    Matthew 20:34. And followed Him. This was an expression of gratitude, “Ceci a este un signe de reconnaissance du bien receu de Christ;” “this was an expression of gratitude for the favor received from Christ.” when the blind men became followers of Christ; for, though it is uncertain how long they discharged this duty, yet it showed a grateful mind, that they presented themselves to many, in that journey, as mirrors of the grace of Christ. Luke adds, that the people gave praise to God, which tends to prove the certainty of the miracle.

    New International Version: As Jesus and His disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.

    New Living Translation: As Jesus and the disciples left the town of Jericho, a large crowd followed behind.

    English Standard Version: And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed Him.

    New American Standard Bible : As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.

    King James Bible: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

    Holman Christian Standard Bible: As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.

    International Standard Version: As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Jesus.

    NET Bible: As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed them.

    Aramaic Bible in Plain English: And when Yeshua went out from Jericho, a great crowd was coming after Him.

     

    GOD'S WORD® Translation: As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Jesus.

    Jubilee Bible 2000: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

    King James 2000 Bible: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

    American King James Version: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

     

    American Standard Version: And as they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

     

    Douay-Rheims Bible: And when they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. 

    Darby Bible Translation: And as they went out from Jericho a great crowd followed Him.

    English Revised Version: And as they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

    Webster's Bible Translation: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

     

    Weymouth New Testament: As they were leaving Jericho, an immense crowd following Him,

    World English Bible: As they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

     

    Young's Literal Translation: And they going forth from Jericho, there followed Him a great multitude,

     

    Parallel Commentaries Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

     

    20:29-34 It is good for those under the same trial, or infirmity of body or mind, to join in prayer to God for relief, that they may quicken and encourage one another. There is mercy enough in Christ for all that ask. They were earnest in prayer. They cried out as men in earnest. Cold desires beg denials. They were humble in prayer, casting themselves upon, and referring themselves cheerfully to, the Mediator's mercy. They showed faith in prayer, by the title they gave to Christ. Surely it was by the Holy Ghost that they called Jesus, Lord. They persevered in prayer. When they were in pursuit of such mercy, it was no time for timidity or hesitation: they cried earnestly. Christ encouraged them. The wants and burdens of the body we are soon sensible of, and can readily relate. Oh that we did as feelingly complain of our spiritual maladies, especially our spiritual blindness! Many are spiritually blind, yet say they see. Jesus cured these blind men; and when they had received sight, they followed Him. None follow Christ blindly. He first by His grace opens men's eyes, and so draws their hearts after Him. These miracles are our call to Jesus; may we hear it, and make it our daily prayer to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

     

    Pulpit Commentary:

     

    Verses 29-34. - Healing of two blind men at Jericho. (Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43.) The miracle narrated in this passage is common to the three synopsis’s, but with some remarkable differences, not one of them agreeing altogether in details. St. Matthew speaks of two blind men, St. Luke and St. Mark of one only, and the latter mentions this one by name as Bartimaeus. St. Matthew and St. Mark make the miracle performed as Jesus quitted Jericho; St. Luke assigns it to the approach to the city. Thus the number of the cured and the locality of the miracle are alike variously stated. It is an easy solution to say, with St. Augustine, Lightfoot, and Greswell, that two, or perhaps three, distinct facts are here related; and it is not absolutely impossible. though altogether improbable, that in the same locality, under identical circumstances, like sufferers made the same request, and received the same relief in the same manner. But we are not driven to this extravagant hypothesis; and the unity of the narrative can be preserved without doing violence to the language of the writers. As to the number of the blind men, we have seen the same discrepancy in the case of the demoniacs at Gadara solved by supposing that one of the two was the more remarkable and better known than the other. Hence, in this incident, the tradition followed by some of the synopsis’s preserved the memory of this one alone, who may have become known in the Christian community as a devoted follower of Jesus, the other passing into obscurity and being heard of no more. Another hypothesis is that a single blind man first addressed Christ as He entered Jericho, but was not cured at that time. Jesus passed that night in the city at the house of Zacchreus (Luke 19:1-10); and on the morrow, when leaving Jericho, was again entreated by the blind man, who meantime had been joined by a companion, and healed them both. There are other solutions offered, e.g., that there were two Jericho’s, an old and a new town, and that one blind man was healed as they entered one city, and the other as they left the other; or that the term rendered "was come nigh" (Luke 18:35) might mean "was nigh," and might therefore apply to one who was leaving as well as to one entering the city.

     

    But we weary ourselves in vain in seeking to harmonize every little detail in the Gospel narratives. No two, much less three, independent witnesses would give an identical account of an incident, especially one which reached some of them only by hearsay. Inspiration extends not to petty circumstances, and the credibility of the gospel depends not on the rectification of such minutiae.

     

    Verse 29. - Jericho. The Lord was on His way to Jerusalem to meet the death which He was willing to undergo, and to win the victory which He was by this path to accomplish. His route lay through Jericho, as the march of His forerunner Joshua had led. Joshua had set forth to conquer the Promised Land; Jesus sets forth to win His promised inheritance by the sword of the Spirit. "The upland pastures of Peraea were now behind them, "and the road led down to the sunken channel of the Jordan, and the 'divine district' of Jericho. This small but rich plain was the most luxuriant spot in Palestine. Sloping gently upwards from the level of the Dead Sea, 1350 feet under the Mediterranean, to the stern background of the hills of Quarantana, it had the climate of Lower Egypt, and displayed the vegetation of the tropics. Its fig trees were pre-eminently famous; it was unique in its growth of palms of various kinds: its crops of dates were a proverb; the balsam plant, which grew principally here, furnished a costly perfume, and was in great repute for healing wounds; maize yielded a double harvest; wheat ripened a whole month earlier than in Galilee, and innumerable bees found a paradise in the many aromatic flowers and plants, not a few unknown elsewhere, which filled the air with odours and the landscape with beauty. Rising like an amphitheatre from amidst this luxuriant scene, lay Jericho, the chief place east of Jerusalem, at seven or eight miles distant from the Jordan, on swelling slopes, seven hundred feet above the bed of the river, from which its gardens and groves, thickly interspersed with mansions, and covering seventy furlongs from north to south, and twenty from east to west, were divided by a strip of wilderness.

     

    The town had had an eventful history. Once the stronghold of the Canaanites, it was still, in the days of Christ, surrounded by towers and castles. A great stone aqueduct of eleven arches brought a copious supply of water to the city, and the Roman military road ran through it. The houses themselves, however, though showy, were not substantial, but were built mostly of sun-dried bricks, like those of Egypt; so that now, as in the similar case of Babylon, Nineveh, or Egypt, after long desolation, hardly a trace of them remains." A great multitude. A vast crowd of pilgrims, bound for Jerusalem to keep the Passover, accompanied Jesus and His disciples. The number of people that this great festival attracted to the central place of worship seems to us incredibly large. Josephus ('Bell. Jud.,' 6:09. 3) reckons them at three millions. Doubtless our Lord was followed by many of those whom He had benefited, and others whom He had won by His teaching; and these, at any rate, would witness the ensuing miracle. 

     

    Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

     

    And as they departed from Jericho ... Which, was distant about ten parsas, or miles, from Jerusalem (i), through which Christ just passed, and had met with Zacchaeus, and called him, and delivered the parable concerning a nobleman's going into a far country. The Syriac and Persic versions render the words, "when Jesus departed from Jericho"; and the Arabic, "when He went out of Jericho"; not alone, but "with His disciples", as Mark says; and not with them only, for a great multitude followed Him out of the city; either to hear Him, or be healed by Him, or to see Him, or behold His miracles, or to accompany Him to Jerusalem; whither He was going to keep the feast of the Passover, and where they might be in some expectation He would set up His kingdom. The Ethiopic version reads it, "As they went out from Jerusalem", contrary to all copies and versions. 

     

    Matthew 20:29-20:34 What Would You Have Me Do For You"  

     

    It would appear that Jesus never asked this question of anyone else in the Gospels. Didn’t He know what these blind men needed"

     

    He was seeking help, but in the process of seeking that help he got distracted. The light was on and it drew him away from the place where he might actually get help.

    In Matthew 20, Jesus is entering the final week of His ministry. He’s on His way to Jerusalem and will soon be betrayed, arrested, and crucified… the crowds will clamor for His blood and cry "Crucify Him!" "Crucify Him!"

     

    But as of now, the crowds still love Him. They line the streets and clamor for His attention. They’ve come to believe that this Jesus is: The hope of Israel. The Messiah. The Son of David. The promised King of Israel

     

    Everyone is speculating that He will soon claim His crown, throw off the yoke of the hated Romans and restore Israel to its former glory. But amongst the crowd are 2 blind men. 
    Everybody knows them. They’re always sitting by the roadside begging for alms. They cry out “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” (Matthew 20:30) And the crowd is irritated. This isn’t what they think Jesus is “all about”. Jesus is too important to be bothered by rabble like this.

     

    But Jesus stops and asks these blind men “What do want me to do for you"”

    Now this is an unusual question for two reasons: 1st This is the only time in the Gospels we find Jesus asking anyone what they need done. 2nd You would think it would be obvious what these men needed. They’re blind. Even if Jesus couldn’t have looked into their eyes and seen the cloudiness that is often there in the eyes of the blind, or watched them as they grope about in the ways blind men do…

     

    This is Jesus. He doesn’t need anyone to tell Him what these men were blind. He’s God…  He knows these things. So why ask the question"

     

    Well, it seems obvious to me that He didn’t ask the question for His own benefit (as if He didn’t know what they needed in their lives). Jesus asked the question for the benefit of the others who were there that day.

     

    1st. Jesus asked this question for the benefit of the crowds. This crowd is obviously not into helping blind people. Blind people were a nuisance. They were a hindrance. They were a distraction to what Jesus’ real purpose ought to be.

     

    And would that “real purpose” be" Meeting their needs, building their kingdom.

     

    When it becomes obvious, a few days later, that this wasn’t what Jesus had in mind the crowds turned their backs on Him and cry out for His blood. And so it was intriguing that Jesus didn’t ask the crowds what He could do for them. He asked the blind men.

    There are times when the Church forgets why it exists. There are times when Christians forget what Jesus saved them for. They begin to think church is all about them. They think their relationship with Jesus is totally focused on their needs and their agenda. They

     

    "Matthew 20:29-34 says Jesus healed two blind men as He left Jericho. Mark 10:46-52 and Luke 18:35-43 say He healed one man as He entered Jericho. Is this a contradiction""

     

    In spite of apparent discrepancies, these three passages do refer to the same incident. The Matthew account cites two men healed as Jesus left Jericho. Mark and Luke refer to only one blind man healed, but Luke says it happened as Jesus was entering Jericho while Mark records it happening as He left Jericho. There are legitimate explanations for the apparent discrepancies. Let’s look at them rather than deciding this is a contradiction and the Bible is in error.

     

    That this is the same incident is seen in the similarity of the accounts, beginning with the two beggars sitting on the roadside. They call out to Jesus, referring to Him as “Son of David” (Matthew 20:30; Mark 10:48; Luke 18:38), and in all three accounts, they are rebuked by those nearby and told to be quiet but continue to shout out to Jesus (Matthew 20:31; Mark 10:48; Luke 18:39). The three accounts describe nearly identical conversations between Jesus and the beggars and the conclusions of the stories are also identical. The beggars receive their sight immediately and follow Jesus.

     

    Only Mark and Luke chose to identify one of the beggars as Bartimeus, perhaps because he was the main character in the story and was therefore the sole focus of Mark’s and Luke’s accounts. Perhaps it was because Bartimeus was known to them as the son of Timeus, but the other man was a stranger to them. In any case, the fact that only one man of the two is recorded as speaking does not mean there was only one man. It simply means Mark and Luke identified only one man speaking, Bartimeus. Matthew refers to both of them calling out to Jesus, clearly indicating there were two men.

     

    The other issue in question is whether Jesus was entering Jericho or leaving it. Bible commentators cite the fact that at that time there were two Jericho’s, one the mound of the ancient city (still existing today) and the other the inhabited city of Jericho. Therefore, Jesus could have healed the two men as He was leaving the ancient city of Jericho and entering the new city of Jericho.

     

    In any case, to focus on these minor details to the exclusion of all else is to miss the point of the story, Jesus healed the blind men, proving that He was indeed the Son of God with powers beyond anything a mortal man could have. Unlike the Pharisees who refused to see what was before their eyes, our response to Jesus should be the same as that of the blind men, call on Him to give us eyes to see spiritual truth, recognize Him for who He is, and follow Him.

     

    Transcripts

     

    The exposition of the word of God is the exposition of Matthew chapter 20 verses 29 through verse 34, but is also built upon the parallel account in Mark chapter 10.  So let’s turn first to Matthew chapter 20, verses 29 through 34, and then we’ll turn to the Markan passage in chapter 10 of that Gospel.  Remember the context.  The Lord Jesus is now on His way to the city of Jerusalem where He will offer Himself as a sacrifice for sinners.  Matthew writes in verse 29 of chapter 20 and Mark chapter 10 and verse 46.  Luke in his account comments that he followed the Lord Jesus glorifying God, and that the people gave praise to God as a result of what had happened.  May the Lord bless this reading of His word.

     

    We may have overlooked the fact in our study of the New Testament that the name of our Lord Jesus, Jesus is the same as the name for Joshua in the Old Testament.  The word Iesous in the Greek of the New Testament is the equivalent of Y’hoshua or Joshua, in the Old Testament.  So what we have in this account that we are looking at is an appearance of the second Joshua before Jericho, and so the title this morning for the message is “The Second Joshua Working Miracles at Jericho Again.”

     

    The biblical critics have had a happy time studying this passage of Scripture which has to do with the healing of the blind men, as our Lord was at Jericho on His last visit to the city of Jerusalem while in the flesh.  And it contains problems that lend some credence to their view that the Bible is after all only an ordinary book.  Confidently, they intone in details and many important points, the gospels do not agree.

               

    Then they go on to say, somewhat condescendingly, that the differences in these accounts do not really make a whole lot of difference, except insofar as they give instruction to those who believe that the Bible is true in all of its statements.  So they tell us that these differences in the accounts don’t mean anything, but they at least should instruct those simple-minded people, they mean us, who think that the words of holy Scripture are inerrant.  What are the difficulties which give the detractors of the Bible such relish in these accounts of the healing of the blind men"

               

    There are two particularly.  In the first place, Matthew speaks of two men who are healed, while Mark and Luke speak only of one.  Now of course we should notice immediately if we have any facility for thinking logically, that when Matthew says that there are two, and Mark and Luke speak only of one, Mark and Luke do not say that there was only one blind man.  Now that is very important.  All that Luke and Mark say is that the Lord healed a blind man.  Mark gives his name as Bartimaeus.  They do not say He healed only one man.  So there is really no contradiction between the accounts in that respect.

     

    But there is something else that is of probably of greater difficulty.  Mark and Matthew place the healing after the Lord Jesus leaves Jericho, while Luke appears to place the healing before the Lord Jesus enters Jericho.

     

    Now that might be a serious problem for those who believe that the Bible is inerrant in the statements that it makes.  We must of course remember that so far as the Scriptures are concerned, we do not have all of the details surrounding the incidents of the Bible, and so we have to think in our own minds of situations in which the words of Scripture may find their significance and relevance.  But there have been a number of suggestions by individuals in attempts to harmonize this fact that Mark and Matthew place the healing after Jericho whereas Luke suggests that the healing occurred before the Lord entered Jericho.

               

    One Bible teacher, who has been a very prominent Bible teacher, has taught that really we have two different healings.  Now of course we have already had the healing of two blind men in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 9 and since it was the Messianic office of the Lord Jesus to heal blind men, it’s certainly true that He did heal many blind men through the three years or so of His ministry.  And so it has been suggested that what we have in Luke is one account whereas what we have in Mark and Matthew is another account, and if that is so that would of course solve all of our difficulties.

     

    Still others have said, for example Professor A. T. Robertson, the well known New Testament professor, that there were really two Jericho’s.  That is, an old or ancient city and a new modern Jericho, which was new and modern in our Lord’s day.  We know that this is generally true, and it is Professor Robertson’s contention that in one of the accounts, the author looks at it from the standpoint of the old city of Jericho and thus the healing was as He came out of the city of Jericho, and as He was to enter the new Jericho, and the other account is written from that standpoint.  So if there were two Jericho’s it would be very easy to harmonize these accounts.  The healing took place between the leaving of one and the entering of another.

               

    Another ancient commentator, the Pietist commentator Albrecht Bengel, whose writings have been read by countless thousands of students of the Scripture, not only in the original Latin in the which he wrote them, but in other translations of them.  Bengel has made the suggestion that what happened really was that the blind men met the Lord Jesus as he was entering Jericho, and since Jericho was a relatively small city, they followed the great crowd seeking to get to Him as He made His way through Jericho, and then finally came into touch with Him as they were leaving the city and thus both of the accounts could be true:  one written from the standpoint of the entrance and the other written from the standpoint of the exit where the healing really took place.

               

    There are some modern interpretations, too.  One of the modern interpreters has suggested that really what happened was something like this:  the two blind men were seated right near the outskirts of the city, but when they heard the crowd which preceded the Lord Jesus, and they heard word that Jesus was coming, they began to shout, and so they began to shout as the Lord Jesus entered the city, and Luke writes his account from that standpoint.  But finally as He came to leave the city, they came into contact with Him and were healed as He left the city.

               

    Still another has suggested this explanation.  He has said that it’s shortly after this that the Lord Jesus sees Zacchaeus in the in the tree, and He calls down Zacchaeus, and remember, says that He was going to lodge with him that night.  Now since Zacchaeus lived in Jericho, and since he wanted to see the Lord Jesus, he had raced outside the city so he could catch a good view of Him and when the Lord Jesus saw him with the multitude looking at the little man up in the tree, He called out to Zacchaeus as He came out of the city and said Zacchaeus come down I must lodge with you tonight.  And the incident involving Zacchaeus took place, and then He went back into the city and spent the night with Zacchaeus.  And so one of the accounts is written from the standpoint of the leaving of the city whereas the other is written from the standpoint of our Lord entering back into the city, and as He entered, He met the blind men and healed them.

               

    So there are a number of suggestions that have been offered.  The Gospels do not really give us anything necessarily contradictory.  We just don’t know the details.  One of the interesting things that we shall be engaged in at least for a little while when we get to heaven is the harmonization of many things with which we do not have enough information to harmonize ourselves.  So, there is not any serious problem in this at all.  It’s interesting.  We don’t know how it happened, and we’ll be looking forward to finding out how when we get there.  But when we get there these will be rather insignificant things.  And we’ll probably say, why did we waist eight or nine minutes talking about that" [Laughter]

               

    There is a two-fold significance in this event that is more important, and the first thing is what we can call, for the sake of a better word, a dispensational significance.  Remember the Lord Jesus is coming to Jerusalem as the King of Israel.  When He enters, shortly in the next message we shall consider his untriumphal entry, He will come and the people shall shout out, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.”  And, since it was one of the duties of the Messianic king to heal the eyes of the blind, specifically, that it’s very appropriate that as He makes His plans for entering the city of Jerusalem, He should heal again some blind men making or bringing to the forefront again the fact that He is the Messianic king who performs the miracles that He is supposed to perform according to Old Testament prophesy.  That’s one of the important things.

               

    But there is another thing that is even more important, and that is the reference that this particular incident has to the spiritual life of men and women.  It is again a beautiful illustration of the Lord’s power to illuminate the spiritually blind.  The word of God tells us the Apostle Paul, particularly, that the natural man, that is the man who does not have any relationship to the Lord Jesus that is vital and life-giving, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned.

               

    In other words, the Apostle Paul says that the natural man cannot understand spiritual truth.  There must be a previous working of the Holy Spirit by which their minds are illuminated to understand divine truth.  Paul puts it in other ways.  He says that we are dead in trespasses and sin.  Some who do not have a vital saving relationship with Jesus Christ, and we rather wonder why it is that we are here.  Perhaps some friend has brought you.  Or perhaps out of what you thought was mere curiosity, and we wonder why it is that people come to hear an exposition of an ancient book written hundreds and hundreds of years ago.  We read it and we do not get anything out of it.  We find it, in the words of the Apostle Paul, foolishness.  We are actually fulfilling the words of Scripture in the fact that we do not understand it and rather think that it is stupid, that’s the meaning of Paul’s term really. Stupid.

     

    Now the Bible tells us that those who do not have eternal life are spiritually blind. Over and over again, the apostle mentions that.  He says that we are blind in our hearts.  We are alienated from God and do not have the life of God within us.  And this incident is designed to illustrate the fact that it is the Lord Jesus who works in the hearts of blind men.  Men who are spiritually blind.

               

    There are people who sit in an audience who do not understand anything more about spiritual things.  We are here and that’s all, and we wonder why. That’s true, because we attend church and many of us do not understand what in the world was going on.  We are blind as a bat spiritually.  Now God the Holy Spirit must work in the hearts of men for spiritual illumination to come, and this incident this miracle in the life of our Lord is another illustration of His power.  Let’s turn to it now, and first of all, let´s say a word about the historical situation against the background of which the Lord Jesus ministers.

               

    We are in the part of Matthew in which we are going to have a great deal of stress upon the ministry of the Lord in the last days studying these last chapters of the Gospel of Matthew again, because the most fruitful parts of biblical study are the passages in the gospels that have to do with the passion of the Lord Jesus.  And we are fast approaching that part of the Gospel of Matthew in which the Lord Jesus in the last days of His life ministers there, preparatory to giving His life a ransom for many.

               

    Now as He made His way down to Jerusalem on the last of His journeys to that city in the flesh, He was making His way with the apostles, and also with a company of friends.  Mark tells us in the 32nd verse of the 10th chapter, “And they were on the way going up to Jerusalem and Jesus went before them.”  And you can picture the little crowd the apostles gathered close to the Lord Jesus and then their friends and relatives who were a little back, and the Lord Jesus suddenly began to lengthen His steps, as He made His way toward Jerusalem.  Luke describes His countenance as an appearance as if He were going to Jerusalem.  And so as He lengthened His step and marched out with increasing speed before them the apostles noticed that that was not His customary action in their travels, and so the Scriptures say that they were amazed, they were astonished.

               

    And then looking at the people who were following Mark continues and says, “As they followed they were afraid.”  So there was something about the occasion in which our Lord had this different look upon His face moved out in front of the company, there was something about it that caused the rest of the group that were with them to come under the influence of this sense of the luminous, and awe stricken they observed the Lord Jesus as He made His way toward Jerusalem.

               

    Bengel, that same German commentator, asks the question, what was He doing", and then answers it by saying that He was dwelling in His passion.  He was thinking about what now was immediately before Him when He would finally go to that cross and cry out, “It is finished” after having said “My God my God why hast Thou forsaken Me"”  That is really a kind of theme verse of these final chapters of the gospel records.

               

    So the Lord Jesus, having crossed the Jordan now comes to the little city of Jericho, and remembers His name was Joshua.  So a greater Joshua stands at Jericho with His word drawn to storm the stronghold of the Prince of Darkness, and He will win the battle by dying upon a Roman gibbet.  And this incident of the blind man is a kind of earnest of the victory the Lord Jesus will obtain when He shed his blood.

               

    Well as He draws near to Jericho, a great multitude is following Him.  They are friends of His.  No doubt many relatives of His too.  They draw near to the city of Jericho and behold Matthew says in the 30th verse, two blind men sitting by the way side.  It’s not surprising that our Lord’s miracles include the healing of blind men because that was the Messianic work:  to open the eyes of the blind.  Isaiah says that when the Messiah comes He will do that.  He says that in chapter 29, about verse 17 or 18 of that chapter.  He also says that in chapter 35 and verse 5.  So this was a specific Messianic miracle.

               

    So it’s not surprising then that in His miracles there should be the healing of many blind men.  And furthermore, it’s not surprising that there should be two of them.  It’s pathetic when you think about it, of course, but it was natural, because two blind men would naturally be anxious for sympathy and encouragement and help, and it is true that equal sorrows cause men to creep close for warmth and companionship.  We know that when we have other afflictions.  Those that have similar afflictions do tend to come together because they can mutually help one another.

               

    Blindness was very, very common, unfortunately, in the eastern cities in the time of our Lord.  One of the reasons for this was that there were conditions of uncleanness that caused such diseases to abound.  And in addition the bright glare of the sun in those parts of our world was such, and since they didn’t have protection from the sun, that they became afflicted in their eyes.  A visitor in our modern day to Cairo, Egypt has said that it was his observation that out of one hundred people in Egypt; about fifty were affected with eye disease.  Twenty were blind, ten had lost one eye, and twenty had other eye diseases.  So we should not be surprised then that the Lord Jesus in His ministry should encompass the healing of many blind men.

               

    The text says that when the Lord Jesus passed by, they heard that Jesus had passed by.  And incidentally in the words that are the outpouring of their heart, it’s evident that they had already heard of the Lord Jesus.  They knew something about Him.  It’s even possible that they had heard accounts of the healing ministry of this Jesus of Nazareth, and incidentally since they had no doubt studied the Scriptures themselves and paid because of their affliction particular attention to those prophesies of the Old Testament that spoke of the healing of blind men, and longing for that themselves, that they were naturally attracted to the stories concerning the Lord Jesus.

    The Holy Scripture says, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  So the word concerning the Lord Jesus had been disseminated, and they had heard it and on the basis of what they had heard the Holy Spirit had wrought in their hearts. This incident, incidentally is the origin of Sankey’s hymn,

     

    “What means this eager anxious throng which moves with busy haste along these wondrous gatherings day by day;  what means this strange commotion pray in accents hushed the throng reply Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.” 

     

    When the word came to the blind men that the Lord Jesus might be near, they began to cry out.  Now Mark tells us they began to.  We would gather that from Matthew, because in the account here in Matthew, they cry out,  “Have mercy upon us,” and then when some seek to stop them they still cry out the more,  “O Lord, thou son of David, have mercy upon us.”

               

    So they began to cry out, and notice what they say when they cry out to Him.  They do not say, O man of Nazareth, have mercy upon us.  They do not say, O Yankee or Northerner have mercy upon us.  They have some very definite information concerning Him.  They cry out, have mercy on us O Lord thou son of David. It is evident they have faith in His person as the Lord.  That is, they have some conception that He is a divine person and also they have a conception of Him as the Messiah, because son of David is a Messianic term.  So they know that He is the Son of God, and they know that He is the Messiah.

               

    Now whether they understood all of the significance of it, or whether they would understand what that meant in the light of the Council of Calcedon later on, that’s another matter.  But at least they had come to the conviction He was the Lord and come to the conviction that He was the Messianic king.  And not only did they have faith in His person, but they had a great confidence in His power, because they said, have mercy upon us.  They knew that it was within the power of the Lord Jesus to heal them, and so they cried out have mercy upon us.

               

    These men are a picture in the kind of attitude that men ought to have when they come into conviction for sin and desire to have deliverance.  They were earnest.  They cried.  They kept crying.  Even the tenses of the verbs in the other accounts stress the fact that this cry of theirs was a continual thing.  They were earnest.  We are earnest about everything but spiritual things.

               

    First thing to note is, we are very earnest about our sports.  We are very earnest about our business.  We are very earnest about our studies.  We are very earnest about our calling in life about our friends our hobbies, about everything, but when it comes to spiritual things, our hearts are as the old commentators used to say, as cold as the arctic snows.        

     

    These men were earnest.  Not only that they were persistent.  When actually people said, shut up, they said we’re going to not only keep it up but we’re going to shout loud enough in order to get over the heads of our hinderers, and so they cried out the text of Scripture says the more.  So the more they were told to shut up the louder they cried.  They were persistent.  They knew what they wanted.  And this is a very poignant fact when you think of blind men who could not see in the midst of a multitude.  They must have been crying out all along where is He"  Which way did He go"  What street did He turn down"  And all at the same time shouting out, O Lord, thou son of David have mercy upon us!  Which way did He go"  Lord have mercy upon us.  Did He turn that way"  Show me.  Take me to Him.  You can see this was something that was very important for them.  They knew what they wanted and incidentally they were humble.

               

    These cries that they were making were confessions of their unworthiness.  O Lord, thou son of David have mercy upon me.  They did not talk of their merits.  They didn’t say, for example, O Lord have mercy upon us, we attend the synagogue regularly.  We listen to the Pharisees.  We study the Scriptures.  We do good works.  We don’t put a sign our face “blind” when we really can see.  They had no talk of merit whatsoever, because whenever we talk of merit before the Lord, the doors of heaven are shut.  O Lord, thou son of David have mercy upon us.  They really were beggar, literally, Mark tells us, and they were beggars spiritually seeking for help.  And they plead as criminals, have mercy upon us.

               

    Now this illustrates of course the fact that according to the teaching of the word of God, our wills are obstinate in rebellion against the Lord.  The Scriptures so plainly teach about one of the most difficult things for men to grasp, the relationship of the will in our salvation. The Bible teaches that we have a will, that we do make decisions.  But the Bible teaches that the will is a secondary agent.  The will acts in accordance with our nature and our nature affected by the fall is wicked and rebellious against God.  Therefore, the decisions of the will which are a response to the inmost disposition of a man are always decisions contrary to the will of God.   This repeats over and over again, and we should say it again, because there are always some strangers in the midst.  We never make a decision of the will that is favorable to God unless God has previously “jiggled our willed.”

     

    That is biblical teaching.  It’s hard for men to understand that.  But nevertheless it is true.  It is basic to the gospel of the Lord Jesus.  The responses that men make do not arise ultimately from the heart of men; ultimately they arise from God’s working.  That’s why salvation is of the Lord.  So when we read these men cry out, have mercy upon us, it’s obvious that God has already wrought in their will, and they are crying out now in response to what He has done.

     

    Their wills naturally were obstinate.  They were rebellious.  Their understanding was darkened.  Their affections were depraved.  They were blind to the things that really counted.  That’s the way we are born.  We are born in our sin.  We know we can speak to someone about the wonders of this creation about us. We can talk to men about the beauties of and the wonders of His divine creation and men are able to understand with us.  We can speak of the wonders of creation ourselves, but when we turn to speak about the wonders of the New Covenant and of the blood that was shed by which we have everlasting life, by which we are brought into the family of God, by which we are justified, by which we become the children of God, then the beauties of the person of the Redeemer and the work of the Redeemer seem as nothing as foolishness to us.  We do not understand them at all.

               

    So these men cry out humbly with confessions of their own unworthiness, and the message that they proclaim is that the Lord Jesus is the Lord and the Messiah.  It’s striking that these blind men, these poor bind men, give the glory to the Lord Jesus that the leaders the religious leaders in Jerusalem did not. They did not own Him as Lord.  They rebelled against the very idea and they did not accept Him as the son of David.  They rebelled against that idea.  So these two poor blind men who did not have the religious training, and no doubt the religious experiences that the Pharisees and the Sadducees did, had by the grace of God been enabled to understand things that religious leaders do not.  There is a great lesson in that.

               

    The Lord’s reaction to this is remarkable.  A cry of need brings Him to a complete stop.  We read in verse 32, “And Jesus stood still.”  Isn’t that striking"  When Joshua was here in his historical ministry in the Old Testament recorded in the Book of Joshua, Joshua spoke to the sun and the sun and the moon stood still.  Remarkable miracle.  But here are two blind men who address the Son of Righteousness, for that is one our Lord’s titles, and the Son of Righteousness stops at their request.  It seems as if it is even a greater miracle than that performed by Joshua in the Old Testament.

               

    Reminds us that the apostle says that he is rich unto all that call on him.  If you have never believed in the Lord Jesus, let’s assure you that if you call upon Him, He is rich unto those that call unto Him.  So he stopped.  And interestingly those people that were trying to keep these two men quiet, shut up, shut up, are told by the Lord Jesus to go get the blind men.  That’s kind of ironical.  These people who were attempting to shut the blind men are forced to do errands for the blind men.  And so they go off and get the blind men and they are brought into the presence of the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus said, what do you want me to do"

               

    Isn’t it striking too the way Mark describes the way that Bartimaeus came to the Lord Jesus"  We can see the blind man with his coat.  It probably was the only coat that he had or ever hoped to have.  He knew that there were times when he needed that desperately, but Mark says he threw away his garment and came to the Lord Jesus.

               

    If we were an artist, the most prolific source of artistry would be the Bible itself.  One of the most striking things in all of the New Testament is when the Lord Jesus stood up in the boat in the midst of the storm, preparatory to saying, stop, or be muzzled ,and there came a great calm.  And here, as Bartimaeus threw away his cloak, figurative of the fact that everything must go when we come to the Lord Jesus, as Paul said, “He suffered the loss of all things as he came to Christ.”  What a beautiful picture that is.  And he came to Jesus, Mark says.  There’s nothing more fundamental, nothing more significant, nothing more necessary in life than to come to the Lord Jesus.

               

    One of the saddest things in the world is for a man to go through life shine in his school work, shine in his college work, graduate near the top of his class, become a successful businessman, be successful in business, come to the end of his days retired, and then to be placed in a grave like the rest of the people who have lived up to this time without the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  What a pitiful what a pitiful thing.   To come to the Lord Jesus is the fundamental thing.  To think of it.  To become the President of General Motors, but not know Christ.  To be the Chairman of the Board of Texas Instruments but not know Jesus Christ, what a failure.

               

    So the Lord said, what do you want"  These men have just no doubt been acquainted with the words the Lord Jesus had said not long before this:  the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister.  And so they in effect challenged Him.  You said you come to minister, well, minister that we may see again that we may have our eyesight.  One of the manuscripts reading the Matthian account, they requested, Lord that our eyes may be opened, that we may see Thee.  That’s a very fitting addition.  That’s the way they thought, having called out, O Lord Thou son of David.  That’s what they were thinking.  But first of all that our eyes may be opened.

               

    Then the healing is described in the last verse, and notice that there are outward means, inward means, and ultimate means.  The text of Scripture says, “So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes.”  Now that was the touch of sympathy.  Blind men no doubt needed the encouragement of the personal touch, and it’s a beautiful expression of the true humanity of Lord Jesus who understands all of our human needs.  He touched them.  But it also is an identification, for to touch, to lay hands upon was a sign of identification. And all He was saying, symbolically, was, as He touched them, yes I am sympathetic with your condition.  I identify with your sin, not that I’m a sinner, but it is for sin that I have come.  And the apostle puts it very succinctly; He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  And so He identified Himself with suffering sinning humanity for He shall die for sinners.

               

    Mark says that He said to him your faith has made you whole.  Incidentally, it was faith not adulterated by sight.  They couldn’t be saved by sight; they had no sight.  Our churches give us the impression that our faith is really grounded in a great deal of sight, for as we draw up to church buildings we are impressed.  They are magnificent structures.  And usually there’s a cross sticking above them.  And then we enter, and we enter into the auditorium.

               

    The auditorium should be very simple.  That’s the way we like it.  As a matter of fact that’s the way the earliest churches were constructed, and that’s the reason why the auditorium is simple.  But many of our churches and the churches in which we’ve grown up are very impressive, and the services are very impressive.  The men come in and they are dressed in different kinds of clothes.  They are either dressed in a robe, or they are dressed in clerical garb with the round clerical collar. 

               

    And when they stand in the pulpit, they not only stand in the pulpit but they go through motions that are designed to impress our senses.  They twist.  They turn.  They genuflect.  They kneel.  They bow.  They frequently take things and do things with them.  They stand before the altar.  The whole impression seems to be, faith does come by sight, to some extent at least.  They impress us.

               

    But the Lord Jesus said, your faith, not your humility, not your persistence, not your purposefulness, your faith has made you whole.  God has so worked that He has given you faith and that faith is the basis of your salvation.  The ultimate means is His compassion.  Jesus had compassion on them.  Paul says He speaks about God who was rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He had loved us.  And so out of compassion, the Lord Jesus responded to what He had produced in their hearts and gave them the pronouncement that they were now whole forgiven men.

               

    And not only that, but their eyes were opened.  Men speak of merits.  Proud men get down upon their knees and offer prayers to God, thinking that their prayers are the means of God’s blessing.  But the wind sweeps the prayers away, for God does not hear that kind of prayer.  When the messenger of mercy the Lord Jesus came to this earth, He did not enter into the Hiltons and the Sheratons and the Holiday Inns and the Howard Johnson Inns, but He came to the inn of the broken heart and the contrite spirit, because God responds to those who acknowledge that they have nothing with which to commend themselves to the Lord.

               

    Well the result of the healing is that they followed Him, and Luke tells us that they glorified God, which led to the praise of the Lord by the people.  What a beautiful thing that is, too.  There are several things that persist through our days of spiritual darkness, and one of them is the purpose for men being here.  Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  And when the Lord Jesus worked in the hearts of these two blind men, they were so happy over what God had done to them and they so praised God that they glorified God.  They had reached that ultimate goal for which we are here in this earth to glorify Him.

               

    Now the Lord Jesus has changed His position.  He’s no longer here in our midst.  He’s at the right hand of the majesty on high, but it’s still true, that Jesus of Nazareth passes by.  He does not do it physically.  He does it through His word and through His spirit.  And we have listened as we have read the word of God to the exposition of the power Jesus Christ to heal.  And if someone under the influence of the Holy Spirit, has been brought to the conviction of his sin, He stands ready and waiting to deliver from the blindness of our heart, to bring you into the knowledge of the Lord Jesus which means everlasting life.

               

    Remembering that later the Lord Jesus will die upon the cross at Calvary for sinners, making it possible for all of our sin and guilt and condemnation to be washed totally clean.  And if God has brought in our heart the desire He brought into the hearts of these blind men for healing, may God help us deep down within the recesses of our being to cry out, O Lord Thou son of David, have mercy upon us.  And this great miracle of healing will be accomplished spiritually again.  May God speak to our heart to that end.  Let’s pray for the benediction.

               

    Prayer:

     

    Father, we know that we have inadequately expressed the greatness of the healing ministry of the Lord Jesus, but we do know deep down within us, Lord, what Thou hast done for us and what Thou art able to do for men who come through the Spirit’s enablement to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel, the Savior of sinners.

               

    And Lord, if there should be someone present in this auditorium, one little child, perhaps one young man, one young woman, one elderly man or woman in whom the Holy Spirit has worked, O God, by the Holy Spirit, bring to their inmost being that urgent request, O Lord Thou son of David have mercy upon me.

               

    Accomplish, Lord the supernatural work of the new birth. May grace mercy and peace go with us. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

     

    Chapter Contents

    The parable of the laborers in the vineyard. (1-16) Jesus again foretells His sufferings. (17-19) The ambition of James and John. (20-28) Jesus gives sight to two blind men near Jericho. (29-34)

     

    Commentary on Matthew 20:1-16

     

    The direct object of this parable seems to be, to show that though the Jews were first called into the vineyard, at length the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles, and they should be admitted to equal privileges and advantages with the Jews. The parable may also be applied more generally, and shows,

     

    1. That God is debtor to no man.

     

    2. That many who begin last, and promise little in religion, sometimes, by the blessing of God, arrive at a great deal of knowledge, grace, and usefulness.

     

    3. That the recompense of reward will be given to the saints, but not according to the time of their conversion. It describes the state of the visible church, and explains the declaration that the last shall be first, and the first last, in its various references.

                   

    Until we are hired into the service of God, we are standing all the day idle: a sinful state, though a state of drudgery to Satan, may be called a state of idleness. The market-place is the world, and from that we are called by the gospel. Come; come from this market-place. Work for God will not admit of trifling. A man may go idle to hell, but he that will go to heaven, must be diligent. The Roman penny was seven pence halfpenny in our money, wages then enough for the day's support. This does not prove that the reward of our obedience to God is of works, or of debt; when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants; but it signifies that there is a reward set before us, yet let none, upon this presumption, put off repentance till they are old. Some were sent into the vineyard at the eleventh hour; but nobody had hired them before. The Gentiles came in at the eleventh hour; the gospel had not been before preached to them. Those that have had gospel offers made them at the third or sixth hour, and have refused them, will not have to say at the eleventh hour, as these had, No man has hired us.

     

    Therefore, not to discourage any, but to awaken all, be it remembered, that now is the accepted time. The riches of Divine grace are loudly murmured at, among proud Pharisees and nominal Christians. There is great proneness in us to think that we have too little, and others too much of the tokens of God's favor; and that we do too much, and others too little in the work of God. But if God gives grace to others, it is kindness to them, and no injustice to us.

     

    Carnal worldliness agrees with God for their penny in this world; and chooses their portion in this life. Obedient believers agree with God for their penny in the other world, and must remember they have so agreed. Didst not thou agree to take up with heaven as thy portion, thy all; wilt thou seek for happiness in the creature" God punishes none more than they deserve, and recompenses every service done for Him; He therefore does no wrong to any, by showing extraordinary grace to some.

     

    See here the nature of envy. It is an evil eye, which is displeased at the good of others, and desires their hurt. It is a grief to us, displeasing to God, and hurtful to our neighbors: it is a sin that has neither pleasure, profit, nor honor. Let us forego every proud claim, and seek for salvation as a free gift. Let us never envy or grudge, but rejoice and praise God for His mercy to others as well as to ourselves.

     

    Commentary on Matthew 20:17-19

     

    Christ is more particular here in foretelling His sufferings than before. And here, as before, He adds the mention of His resurrection and His glory, to that of His death and sufferings, to encourage His disciples, and comfort them. A believing view of our once crucified and now glorified Redeemer, is good to humble a proud, self-justifying disposition. When we consider the need of the humiliation and sufferings of the Son of God, in order to the salvation of perishing sinners, surely we must be aware of the freeness and richness of Divine grace in our salvation.

     

    Commentary on Matthew 20:20-28

     

    The sons of Zebedee abused what Christ said to comfort the disciples. Some cannot have comforts but they turn them to a wrong purpose. Pride is a sin that most easily besets us; it is sinful ambition to outdo others in pomp and grandeur. To put down the vanity and ambition of their request, Christ leads them to the thoughts of their sufferings. It is a bitter cup that is to be drunk of; a cup of trembling, but not the cup of the wicked. It is but a cup, it is but a draught, bitter perhaps, but soon emptied; it is a cup in the hand of a Father, John 18:11. Baptism is an ordinance by which we are joined to the Lord in covenant and communion; and so is suffering for Christ, Ezekiel 20:37; Isaiah 48:10. Baptism is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace; and so is suffering for Christ, for unto us it is given, Philippians 1:29. But they knew not what Christ's cup was, nor what His baptism. Those are commonly most confident, who are least acquainted with the cross. Nothing makes more mischief among brethren, than desire of greatness. And we never find Christ's disciples quarrelling, but something of this was at the bottom of it. That man who labors most diligently, and suffers most patiently, seeking to do good to his brethren, and to promote the salvation of souls, most resembles Christ, and will be most honored by Him to all eternity. Our Lord speaks of His death in the terms applied to the sacrifices of old. It is a sacrifice for the sins of men, and is that true and substantial sacrifice, which those of the law faintly and imperfectly represented. It was a ransom for many, enough for all, working upon many; and, if for many, then the poor trembling soul may say, Why not for me"

     

    Commentary on Matthew 20:29-34

     

    It is good for those under the same trial, or infirmity of body or mind, to join in prayer to God for relief, that they may quicken and encourage one another. There is mercy enough in Christ for all that ask. They were earnest in prayer. They cried out as men in earnest. Cold desires beg denials. They were humble in prayer, casting themselves upon, and referring themselves cheerfully to, the Mediator's mercy. They showed faith in prayer, by the title they gave to Christ. Surely it was by the Holy Ghost that they called Jesus, Lord. They persevered in prayer. When they were in pursuit of such mercy, it was no time for timidity or hesitation: they cried earnestly. Christ encouraged them. The wants and burdens of the body we are soon sensible of, and can readily relate. Oh that we did as feelingly complain of our spiritual maladies, especially our spiritual blindness! Many are spiritually blind, yet say they see. Jesus cured these blind men; and when they had received sight, they followed Him. None follow Christ blindly. He first by His grace opens men's eyes, and so draws their hearts after Him. These miracles are our call to Jesus; may we hear it, and make it our daily prayer to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

     

    Alleged Contradictions and Inaccuracies

     

    In Matthew's account two blind men are healed, whereas in the accounts of Mark and Luke only one blind man is mentioned: If two blind men were healed, then certainly one was healed. The Gospel writers did not include all that Jesus did and said. (cf. John 21:25).

     

    Matthew and Mark place the healing when Jesus was departing from Jericho, whereas Luke places the healing when Jesus was coming to Jericho: It is perfectly possible that Jesus healed "a certain blind man" as He was come nigh to Jericho (Luke's account), and then healed two more blind men (one of whom was blind Bartimaeus, Mark's account) as He was leaving Jericho.

     

    Matthew 20:29-34 “What Do You Want Jesus to Do For You"”

     

    Translation

     

    20:29 Now, as they were proceeding out from Jericho, a numerous crowd followed Him,

     

    20:30 and, two blind men sitting beside the road heard that Jesus was coming along [and] cried out saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

     

    20:31 But the crowd reprimanded them in order that they might hush, but as for them, they were crying out more, saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

    20:32 Then Jesus stood [still] and whistled to them and said, “What are y’all wanting Me to do for you"”

     

    20:33 They say to Him, “Lord, that our eyes might be opened!”

     

    20:34 And Jesus, gut-wrenched, touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes saw again! Then they followed Him.

     

    Introduction

     

    Exploring about how to pray. In Matthew 20:21, we just saw James and John’s mom ask Jesus for something, and now again in v.29ff, we have someone else making a request of Jesus.

     

  • In both cases Jesus asks, “What do you want"”

    •  

  • However, in the first case, Jesus is appalled at the presumptuousness and pride of the request.

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  • But in the second scenario before us, we see that Jesus is “moved with compassion,” and fulfills the request of the blind men.

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  • What made the difference" We need to explore the status we have as children of God which privileges us to ask God for things, and to look at what characterizes the sort of requests that Jesus honors so that we can become better at praying to God.

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  • As Jesus makes His way closer to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, He reaches the town of Jericho, the very city that Joshua captured when the walls fell down some thousand four hundred years before then, and here, the road which had been running South along the Jordan river turns up West into the hills toward Jerusalem. In about 15 miles it will ascend 3,300 feet to the gates of the holy city where He will be crucified.

    •  

  • But for now, Jesus is just approaching Jericho, a lovely resort town where He will spend the night. He was apparently pretty famous by this time and had many out-of-town people follow­ing Him in, as well as people like Zaccheus who were from Jericho and wanted to see Him.

    •  

  • It appears Jesus was getting a real Middle-Eastern welcome as He approached Jericho!

    •  

  • This, by the way, was the same crowd that Zaccheus was trying to see through to get a glimpse of Jesus, and it was because of this throng that he climbed the tree. Matthew doesn’t tell us the story of Zaccheus, only Luke does, but the story of Zaccheus reminds us that Jesus was not merely concerned for the needs of the poor, blind beggars but also for the miserable, rich oppressors in the town of Jericho!

    •  

    Exegesis

     

    20:29 Now, as they were proceeding out from Jericho, a numerous crowd followed Him,

    Και εκπορευομενων αυτων απο Ιεριχω ηκολουθησεν αυτῷ οχλος[3] πολυς.

     

    20:30 and, get this, two blind men sitting beside the road heard that Jesus was coming along [and] cried out saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

    και ιδου δυο τυφλοι καθημενοι παρα την ‘οδον ακουσαντες ‘οτι[4] Ιησους παραγει εκραξαν λεγοντες Ελεησον ‘ημας Κυριε[5] ‘Υιος Δαυιδ.[6]

     

  • This is remarkably like the account of the two blind men Jesus healed in Capernaum in Matt. 9:27ff.

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  •  
  • The blind men in Capernaum said the same thing, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.”

    •  

  •  
  • Is it possible that these two blind men on the other side of the country in Jericho had heard about this and were modeling their request after their northern counterparts"

    •  

  •  
  • Perhaps these blind men in Jericho hadn’t heard of the blind men healed in Caper­naum. Perhaps all they had to go on was the prophecy of Isaiah 35:4ff, “Be strong; do not be afraid. See your God come… He will save you! Then the eyes of blind men will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.”

    •  

  •  
  • Later on in Matt. 22:41-42, when Jesus asks the Pharisees, “What do you think about the Christ/Anointed One/Messiah, whose son is He"’ They say to Him, ‘He is the son of David.’” So, the title “Son of David,” was the title of the Messiah, speaking of His being descended from the great king David and fulfilling the promise God made to David that a descendent of his would reign as a king forever.

    •  

  •  
  • So these blind men cry out for the Messiah’s attention.

    •  

  • Now, the gospel of Luke traces the story of only one of these two blind men, and in Mark’s gospel we find his name: Bar-timmaeus (Mk. 10:46) which can be interpreted, “Son of Filth.”

    •  

  •  
  • There is no problem with the fact that Matthew mentions a second blind man with Bartimaeus. It doesn’t contradict Luke and Mark’s account that there was at least one blind man there. If there were two, then there was one… plus another.

    •  

  • There does appear to be a discrepancy, however, between the gospel accounts in the timing of this incident.

    •  

    ·         According to Matthew (20:29), the encounter with the blind beggars happened as Jesus was leaving Jericho,

     

    ·         But according to Luke (18:35), it happened as they were approaching Jericho,

     

    ·         And according to Mark (10:46), it happened as they were both coming to Jericho and as they were going out from Jericho! How can that be"

     

    ·         A.T. Robertson’s explanation seems the best, that there were two Jericho’s: the ancient city site and the township newly rebuilt by Herod, with only a short distance between.

     

    ·         A distinction between the old city and the new city is pretty common in ancient cities around the world. [You can see in the photo that the mound of the old city is still on the NW side of the modern town of Jericho.

     

    ·         So Jesus encountered these beggars on the road in-between the two sites. Thus Matthew, writing to a Jewish audience, says that they had just passed the historic site of old Jericho, where “Joshua fit the battle,” and Luke, writing to a Greek audience says that they were approaching the new Roman resort town], and Mark, writing to a Roman audience, locates them geographically between leaving the old city and entering the new city of Jericho. God’s word is amazingly accurate when you chase down its details!

     

    20:31 But the crowd reprimanded them in order that they might hush, 
    but as for them, they were crying out more, saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

    ‘Ο δε οχλος επετιμησεν αυτοις ‘ινα σιωπησωσιν ‘οι δε μειζον εκραζον[8] λεγοντες Ελεησον ‘ημας Κυριε Υιος Δαυιδ.

     

  • Have you ever wanted God to do something special, then shared it with somebody and got laughed at or even rebuked for it"

    •  

  • The things we pray for should not be evaluated on the basis of whether other people think we should pray for it, but rather whether God wants you to pray for it. We know God wants us to pray for something if He has laid it on our heart and if it is consistent with what He has already revealed in the Bible.

    •  

  • The majority of the people on the street that day in Jericho, however, thought that the best thing for these blind men was to be quiet, to hold their peace.

    •  

  • So when the blind men kept their racket up, the crowd said to them, “We wish you were dumb as well as blind! If you don’t shut up, we’ll make you shut up!

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  • But the blind men had faith in Jesus:

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  •  
  • They openly confessed not only that Jesus is the Messiah, the promised Son of David,

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  •  
  • But that He is also the Lord.

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  • Furthermore they confess that Jesus is capable of extending the mercy of God to them by healing them.

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  •  
  • These are staggering statements to make about any man, Messianic King, God Almighty, and Mediator of God’s blessings. These two men seem to understand better than anyone else in that vast crowd who Jesus really is and what Jesus is capable of doing. Such faith arrests Jesus’ attention:

    •  

  • Jesus interrupted His very important mission to Jerusalem and responded to these faith-filled men. Likewise, we Christians, who are supposed to be imitators of Christ, are we also willing to be interrupted in our work" Bible commentator Matthew Henry remarked on this point, “Why are we ever so much in haste about any business" … We should be willing to stand still to do good.”

    •  

    20:32 Then Jesus stood [still] and whistled to them and said, “What are y’all want Me to do for you"”

    Και στας ‘ο Ιησους εφωνησεν αυτους και ειπεν Τί θελετε ποιησω ‘υμιν;

     

  • Seeing as all the other English translations render it “called the Greek word ephwnesen translates as “whistled,”.” However, the word literally means to “make a sound” which seems to be distinct from actually speaking words, and the only other time Matthew uses this word is to describe a rooster crowing (26:34, 74, and 75).

    •  

  • It is curious that Jesus does not go over to them. Instead He stands where He is and calls them over to Him.

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  •  
  • According to Luke’s account (18:40), Jesus commands the very people who have been insulting the blind men to now escort the blind men for a personal audience with Him!

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  •  
  • Mark (10:49) has the same people that had been shushing the blind men now saying, “Cheer up; get up; He’s calling for you!” If it weren’t so hypocritical, it would be funny.

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  • It is as though, when Jesus heard Himself referred to as the “Lord” and Messianic King, “Son of David,” He obliged these men by playing the part of a great king.

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  • Great kings don’t come to you; you come to them.

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  • Great kings have courtiers that bring you to the king.

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  •  
  • And great kings ask for formal proposals,

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  •  
  • So Jesus transforms the dusty street into a king’s palace for these two beggars who have recognized, more than anyone else, how great a king stands before them, perhaps due, in part, to the fact that they had no eyes to see how humble a form the Lord of the universe had taken upon Himself!

    •  

  •  
  • When you close your eyes to pray, do you realize how great the God is that you are addressing"

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  • Now, at that moment, before Jesus on the street, the blind men could have asked for anything.

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    What would you have asked for, if it were you, and Jesus offered to make one wish come true"

     

  •  
  • All their life they had asked for “mercy” as beggars, soliciting passers-by for coins. Would they ask for money" They could ask for enough to live on for the rest of their lives, and never have to beg again!

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  •  
  • Mark’s gospel gives us one clue before either beggar says a word: in Mark 10:50, it says that the blind man “threw off his cloak” when he went to Jesus. He decided to leave his beggar’s garb behind because he anticipated a miraculous answer to the audacious request he was about to make.

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  •  
  • If this was truly the Messiah, and if Isaiah prophesied truly, then blind men would see. The blind men’s reasoning appears to be as simple as that.

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  • No doctor in the world could have healed them, and apparently not even God had healed a blind person in the history of the world until the time of Christ.

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  • This would be the ultimate proof that Jesus was the Messiah. If He couldn’t give them sight, then Jesus was a sham and God was a liar.

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  • Maybe they also longed, like Simeon that their own eyes might see God’s salvation, he prophesied Son of David, and the Messiah finally comes"

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  •  
  • These two blind men were going to go for broke and ask to see!

    •  

    20:33 They say to Him, “Lord, that our eyes might be opened!”

    Λεγουσιν αυτῷ Κυριε ‘ινα ανοιχθωσιν[10] ‘ημων ‘οι οφθαλμοι.

     

  • Now think about what the blind men chose to ask for.

    •  

  • All their lives they have made their living by sitting in public places begging for money. It was considered a community service for them to do so. It gave the community an opportunity to give to the poor and win favor with God (and man) with their generosity, and such beggars provided a very desirable service by praying for God to bless those who gave to them. (“God bless” is still a common parting word from panhandlers in our country today.)

    •  

  • All this, of course, hinged on the beggar’s inability to work at gainful employment. Blindness was such an obvious handicap that their status as beggars worked well. But if they were to receive their sight, all that would change. They would no longer be able to continue the life they had once led as beggars. Suddenly they would have to learn to read, learn a trade, and take up new and different responsibilities, start up a business, maybe get married and have children.

    •  

  • Considered from that perspective, it is remarkable that they were willing to embrace a whole new world of responsibilities and ask to see.

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  • Likewise, there are responsibilities that naturally come along with being a recipient of God’s free grace. Are you willing to accept the responsibilities that come along with whatever it is you are asking God for"

    •  

    20:34 And Jesus, gut-wrenched, touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes saw again! Then they followed Him.

    Σπλαγχνισθεις δε ‘ο Ιησους ‘ηψατο των οφθαλμων[11] αυτων και ευθεως ανεβλεψαν [αυτων ‘οι οφθαλμοι[12]] και ηκολουθησαν αυτῷ.

     

  • Jesus’ response was first of all to be moved with compassion/pity. Literally, He was “gut-wrenched.” Do you realize what an awesome thing it is to have as God One who can be moved with compassion" Who sympathizes with us! When we are torn up inside, when we cry, the Ruler of the Universe enters into those feelings with us. Brothers and sisters, let us pray from our heart when we pray to Him!

    •  

  • The crux of the story, of course, is that, with a mere touch, Jesus physically healed two blind men.

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  •  
  • In Mat 8:3, after the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus touched a man with a skin disease, and the leprosy was immediately cured,

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  • In Mat 8:15 Jesus touched Peter’s mother-in-law, and she was relieved of a fever,

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  • Others touched Jesus and were cured (9:20; 14:36)

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  • In Mar. 7:33, Jesus touched a deaf man who was immediately healed, and later with a touch, Jesus restored a servant who had gotten his ear chopped off (Luke 22:51)!

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  • In Luke 7:14, we read of Jesus touching a coffin, and, sure enough, the young man inside came alive!

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  • In Mat 9:29, Jesus touched the eyes of two blind men and they were healed,

    •  

  •  
  • And now, at a touch, four more eyes that were not able to physically function suddenly regain/ recover/ receive the marvel of sight.

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  •  
  • The touch of Jesus has no limit to its power to bring physical healing.

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  • Luke’s account mentions an additional statement from Jesus, “Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.” This reveals another staggering miracle. Jesus not only just fixed their eyes, He saved their souls from hell!

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  •  
  • But wait, we may say, “The Bible reads, ‘your faith saved you.’”

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  •  
  • Yes, but what was the content of their faith" It was that God had sent Jesus to be the Messiah, the savior of the world. Their faith did not make Jesus the savior-Messiah, it merely acknowledged and acted upon the truth that Jesus is the savior of the world. It is God’s grace that sent Jesus to die for our sins and save us from eternal damnation, and it is God’s grace that plants faith in human hearts to believe that. As we exercise that faith, we are saved, but our faith is a response, not the cause of our salvation.

    •  

  • But the story doesn’t end there; Jesus goes on to provide employment for these men who just lost their jobs as beggars due to His healing them. Unlike many of the people He healed whom He would not allow to follow Him, Jesus let these men become His followers, providing a context for them to learn a new life as men with seeing eyes.

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  • Luke’s account says that the formerly-blind men then followed Jesus, “glorifying God,” and that when all the people saw this, they praised God as well!

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  • They were some of the ones shouting “Hosanna” the loudest, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, and that they

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  • Followed Him to hear Him teach in Bethany, and maybe even saw Him crucified.
  • They were among the 500 people who saw Jesus after His resurrection

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  • And among the 120 people in the upper room upon whom the Holy Spirit fell.

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  • The genuineness of their faith in Jesus was demonstrated to the world by the fact that they continued to follow Jesus after they were healed.

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    Conclusion: Six Principles of Effective Prayer Drawn From Two Blind Beggars

     

    1. Punctuality

     

  • The Holy Spirit works in our minds in real time throughout the day. If we feel like we need something or if we are impressed to pray for a certain person, don’t wait until our bedtime prayers to speak to God about it. Go for it right away. We can pray for it later, too.

    •  

  • Matthew Henry commented, “When they heard that Jesus passed by, they asked no further questions, who were with him, or whether he was in haste, but immediately cried out. Note, It is good to improve the present opportunity, to make the best of the price now in the hand, because, if once let slip, it may never return; these blind men did so, and did wisely; for we do not find that Christ ever came to Jericho again. Now is the accepted time.”

    •  

    2. Humility

     

  • These men did not say, “Jesus, we really ought to be healed. You know, we’re really poor, but we have given a large percentage of our income to the Lord, and we have been such good people, and our parents were such good people, and we have suffered so much from our blindness that you owe it to us.” No, they came humbly, simply asking for mercy. That is a good example for us. “Sovereign Lord, please have mercy.”

    •  

  • “It is the will of God that we should in everything make our requests known to Him by prayer and supplication; not to inform or move Him, but to qualify ourselves for the mercy. The waterman in the boat, who with his hook takes hold of the shore, does not thereby pull the shore to the boat, but the boat to the shore. So in prayer we do not draw the mercy to ourselves, but ourselves to the mercy.” Lord, have mercy on us.

    •  

    3. Faith

     

  • The two blind beggars were convinced that Jesus is the Lord, that He is the Messiah, and that He could give them God’s mercy, and they said that out loud.

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  • That got Jesus’ attention, and we can learn a lesson from that. We must know the truth about who Jesus is and place our faith in Him, even confess it out loud, if we want to grow in our prayer life.

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  • And we must believe that Jesus will do whatever we’re asking Him to do before we can pray for Him to do it. If you have some doubt, go back to the Bible to find out if it’s the kind of thing He would do and if He has the power to do it! Then pray with faith in Him!

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  • “It is of excellent use in prayer to eye Christ in the grace and glory of His Messiah ship; to remember that He is the Son of David, whose office it is to help and save, and to plead it with Him.”

    •  

    4. Community

     

  • Peer pressure can be a good thing. Sometimes when we pray with somebody else, we experience a holy uprising of faith that emboldens us to pray for what we might never have had the faith to believe God could do if we had been praying alone.

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  • Often we step into prayer meetings without much of a passion to pray for anything. Then someone starts praying maybe for God to transform the lives of families in his church, and that seems to spark the faith of someone else, and he’ll pray maybe for transformation in the lives of the children in all the schools, and that gets somebody else praying for all the lost in our town, and pretty soon we’re ready to pray for revival for the whole nation!

    •  

  • Matthew Henry noted something about corporate prayer in his commentary, “These joint-sufferers were joint-suitors; being companions in the same tribulation, they were partners in the same supplication. Note, it is good for those that are laboring under the same calamity, or infirmity of body or mind, to join together in the same prayer to God for relief, that they may quicken one another's fervency, and encourage one another's faith. There is mercy enough in Christ for all the petitioners.”

    •  

    5. Persistence

     

  • Remember the Syro-Phonecian woman who would not take “No” for an answer until Jesus healed her daughter" And the widow in Jesus’ parable who wore out the unjust judge" Even in Jesus’ question, “What is your will"” He acknowledges that in these two blind men there has been, for a sustained period of time, an exercise of their will, trained by the Holy Spirit to press for the fulfillment of a particular goal. There is something to persisting in prayer with a determined will over time.

    •  

  • “There is need of constancy to transcend all hindrances, and the more barriers that Satan erects, the more must we be kindled to prayer, just as we see the blind men redoubling their cries.” John Calvin

    •  

  • “Hence learn, O beloved, that though we be very vile and outcast, but yet approach God with earnestness, even by ourselves we shall be able to effect whatsoever we ask. See, for instance, these men, how, having none of the apostles to plead with them, but rather many to stop their mouths, they were able to pass over the hindrances, and to come unto Jesus Himself… These then let us also emulate. Though God defer the gift, though there be many withdrawing us, let us not desist from asking. For in this way most of all shall we win God to us… although it be mercy and grace, it seeks for the worthy.” John Chrysostom

    •  

  • “In following Christ with our prayers, we must expect to meet with hindrances and manifold discouragements from within and from without… Men ought always to pray and not to faint; to pray with all perseverance (Luke 18:1); to continue in prayer with resolution and not yield to opposition… This wrestling with God in prayer… makes us the fitter to receive mercy; for the more it is striven for, the more it will be prized and thankfully acknowledged.”

    •  

    6. Follow-through

     

  • When your prayer is answered, don’t forget to thank God afterward!

    •  

  • After your prayer is answered, continue to walk with Christ, and pray about other things. Even remind yourself from time to time so that you never forget God’s mercy in your life!

    •  

  • And when prayers are answered, tell other people about it! Show your gratitude by being, as John Calvin put it, “a spectacle of Christ’s grace to many on this journey.”

    •  

    So, what is it that God would have you pray for"

     

    Matthew 20:29-34

     

    I. Matthew 20:29: And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed Him.

     

    We know that in Matthew 19:1 Jesus was in the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. In verse seventeen of chapter twenty we saw that Jesus was still continuing His journey to Jerusalem, but there was no way of knowing exactly where He was, somewhere between Jerusalem on the west side of the Jordan River and the region of Judea (Perea) on the east side of the Jordan River.

     

    But now, here in verse twenty-nine, we learn that Jesus has crossed the Jordan, and is already leaving Jericho. Jericho was about eight miles west of the Jordan River and only fifteen miles away from Jerusalem. For the crowds of pilgrims from Galilee, Jericho was the last city before the final three thousand foot climb to Jerusalem. Everyone coming to Jerusalem from the east would pass through Jericho. So it was here that the pilgrims would converge, and their numbers swell, and the excitement and electricity in the air would grow even greater.

     

    And now adding to the excitement of these crowds from Galilee was the fact that Jesus (their own “hero” from back home) was walking with them on the same road. So “as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed Him.”

     

    II. Matthew 20:30: And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

     

    Here, again, is that favorite word of Matthew’s, “behold.” Forty-four times Matthew uses this word compared to Luke’s thirty-six times and Mark’s 14 times. And here is one of those places where Matthew says “behold,” and Mark and Luke do not. We should be careful about reading too much into a favorite word, but Matthew is alerting us once again to the special importance and significance of what’s about to happen, in light of what just happened.

     

    We had James and John (via their mother) making a request of Jesus. James and John are among the inner circle of the inner circle of Jesus’ closest disciples. For anyone who believed Jesus, it would be natural to think that James and John would be treated with a little extra respect and deference. But now compare these two “important” disciples with the two blind men sitting by the roadside.

     

    Two blind men sitting by the side of the road are almost certainly begging for money, and Mark and Luke tell us that this is exactly what they were doing (Mark 10:46; Luke 18:35). Mark speaks of only one blind man (cf. Luke) and calls him a “blind beggar named Bartimaeus.” There couldn’t be much more of a contrast! Compared to important men like James and John, these two blind beggars would certainly be the “little ones,” or the “small ones” (Matthew 18), those who were insignificant and unimportant.

     

    And this becomes very obvious in verse thirty-one when we find the crowd rebuking them and telling them to be quiet. So there’s a pretty stark contrast between the “rank,” or station in life of the two specially privileged disciples and the two blind beggars. But this isn’t the only contrast, as we’re about to see. “When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, ‘Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!’”  

     

    For the significance of this miracle as a pointer to Jesus’ identity as Israel’s Messiah, see the message on Matthew 9:27-31. While in and of itself this miracle functions in exactly the same way as the earlier one, it seems that Matthew includes the miracle here as a fitting contrast with the preceding story of James and John (cf. Mark [10:35-52]; contra Luke [18:35-43]) and therefore as a fitting conclusion to all of Jesus’ teaching on humility and true “greatness” (beginning in chapter eighteen). The blind beggars (in contrast with James and John) remind us of the “small ones” who are the “greatest,” and the “last” who will be “first.” 

     

    III. Matthew 20:31: The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all

     the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

     

    It shouldn’t take much for us to imagine the desperation in the voices of these two blind beggars. They “cry out” not just so they can be heard over the crowd, but especially because of the intense longing in their hearts. Here is their chance for healing. It’s a chance they may never have again. And so they cry out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David.”

     

    It was common in Jesus’ day to assume that a physical defect like blindness was God’s judgment for some sin (cf. John 9:1-2). Now whether or not these two men believed that their blindness was a punishment for sin, they obviously didn’t believe that they had any rights to be healed.

     

    “Lord, have mercy on us.” This isn’t just desperation, it’s a humble desperation; a recognition that the very thing we need and long for so badly is also something to which we are not entitled. The blind beggars know that they have no claim on Jesus for His healing. All they can plead for is

    His mercy.

    When the crowd rebukes them, telling them to be silent, they only cry out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David.” They’re blind, they’re beggars, they’re shunned by society, they’re insignificant and unimportant, and yet they have faith. They believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah, and Son of David. They believe that He is able to restore their sight (cf. Mark 10:52). And so they cry out in humble desperation, and with only five simple words, “Lord, have mercy on us.”

     

    But actually, we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves, aren’t we" The two blind men have not specifically asked Jesus for healing. They’ve asked only for mercy. Now we’ve assumed that this means they want to be healed, but even though Jesus certainly knew exactly what they wanted, He makes no assumptions. Instead, we read in verse thirty-two:

     

    IV. Matthew 20:32: And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you"”

     

    Does this sound familiar" There are only two places in all of the Gospels where Jesus asks someone what they want Him to do. Here is one of those places. But do we know where the other place is" It’s in the story right before this one, the story of James and John and their request of Jesus (via their mother).

     

    James and John somewhat vaguely asked Jesus to grant them a request. Mark is less subtle. He says that “James and John… came up to [Jesus] and said to Him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you” (Mark 10:35). And Jesus replied: “What do you want"” Or as Mark has it, “What do you want Me to do for you"” (Mark 10:36) That’s what just happened in the last story.

     

    But now we have two blind beggars (what a contrast with James and John!) crying out: “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” (What a contrast with “please give me something,” or, “we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You”!) And just like He did with James and John, so now Jesus does with the two blind beggars. He asks them, “What do you want Me to do for you"”

     

    Once again, this is the second of only two times in all the Gospels that Jesus asks anyone

    what they want Him to do for them, and both of these times are right here, back to back, one right after the other. So in the question asked of these two blind beggars, we can’t help but be reminded of the same question that Jesus just asked James and John. “And stopping, Jesus called them and said, ‘What do you want Me to do for you"’”

     

    V. Matthew 20:33: They said to Him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.”

     

    The blind beggars just want to see. That’s all. They have no grand aspirations for “greatness” in the Messiah’s kingdom. Anyway, how could they" They’re just blind beggars. They plead only the mercy of Jesus, and no entitlement or rights of their own. The blind beggars just want to see. That’s it. That’s all. Nothing more.

     

    But James and John have moved on to “bigger” things. James and John have “graduated” to more lofty goals. James and John want to be granted the positions of highest honor at the right and left hand of Jesus when He comes in His kingdom.

     

    Blind beggars just want to see. “They said to [Jesus], ‘Lord, let our eyes be opened.’”

     

    VI. Matthew 20:34a: And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered

     their sight.

     

    James’ and John’s request did not flow from any understanding of their need for mercy or compassion. Obviously not! We don’t ask for the highest positions in the kingdom and then explain our request as a cry for mercy! On the other hand, we don’t cry out for mercy, and then immediately turn around and ask for the highest positions in the kingdom! As it turns out, these special positions, at least as the disciples understood them, did not even exist. And so in light of all these things, it was impossible that Jesus could respond to the disciples’ request with a compassionate “yes.”

     

    But the request of the two blind beggars is a very, very different story. Their desire to have their eyes opened was nothing more than a desperate and humble plea for mercy. So while the two specially privileged disciples were denied their request, it was the two blind beggars who got what they asked for. And they got what they asked for because of the “pity” of Jesus. One commentator translates like this: “Jesus’ heart went out to them” not to James and John, but to the two blind beggars who cried out for mercy.

     

    VII. Matthew 20:34: And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered

     their sight and followed Him.

     

    The two blind beggars received their sight. They were blind, but now they can see. And Matthew describes their response very simply: “They… followed Him.” We heard in verse twenty-nine that already “a great crowd followed Him.” But when the formerly blind beggars followed Jesus, this was obviously something very different. This is the kind of “following” that naturally flows, from the experience of God’s mercy. They followed Jesus because He gave them their sight. They followed Jesus because He showed them pity. It’s not complicated! It’s just that simple.

     

    Conclusion

     

    So who are we most like" Are we more like the two specially privileged disciples, or are we

    more like the two blind beggars" Have we moved on to bigger things" Have we graduated to more lofty goals" James and John have implied that part of the reason they’re following Jesus is because of certain extra benefits they hope to receive. But the two formerly blind beggars follow Jesus because of the undeserved mercy and pity that they have already received. James and John have become more “complicated.” The two formerly blind beggars are very “simple” and uncomplicated. They follow Jesus because He gave them their sight. They follow Jesus because showed them pity. At this point, how could they even think about extra benefits to be lobbied for in the future"

     

    Certainly, they wouldn’t be thinking of the seats at Jesus’ right and left hand! They’ve already received more than they had any right to expect, and so for them this is already more than enough. They are content now, and more than satisfied, just to set off on the road following Jesus. If only our own Christian lives could be so “simple.” If only our own Christian lives could be so “uncomplicated.” But they can be, right" In fact, they must be!

    We must come back to a devotion to Christ that is simple and pure (cf. 2 Cor. 11:3). Why are we followers of Christ" Is it because we asked for mercy and He gave it to us" Is it just that simple" Or have things become more complicated" Have we moved on to bigger things" Have we graduated to more lofty goals" How much of our following of Jesus is really just the complicated pursuit of extra “favors” from God"

     

    Or how much of our following of Jesus is simply and purely because He heard our pleas for mercy" We cried out in desperation for mercy. In His pity, Jesus has shown us mercy. And now, every day, we follow Him. Is that “it”" Is that enough" Do our lives really say that it’s just “that simple”" Can we say with the Psalmist:

     

    Psalm 131:1–3  O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor do I have a haughty look. I do not have great aspirations, or concern myself with things that are beyond me. Indeed I am composed and quiet, like a young child carried by its mother; I am content like the young child I carry. O Israel, hope in the Lord now and forevermore!

     

    Let's look at Matthew chapter 20, the last wonderful, wonderful section in this twentieth chapter...Matthew chapter 20, verses 29 through 34.

    A very simple story, very simple. Easy to understand and not even unusual in the life of Christ for stories like this could be repeated a thousand times a thousand. So much so perhaps that as John said, all the books of all the world couldn't even contain them. Why this story" Why is it here" As Jesus goes to Jerusalem to die, why stop in the progress of such a great event as the Passover where He is to be the lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, why stop to include a story of two blind men"

    Among many reasons, one sort of overpowering reason is indicated by the word "compassion" in verse 34. And if all other lessons were set aside, one great and profound truth would grab our minds and that is this, that Jesus had great compassion. People who were nothing but an irritation and a distraction to the crowd were a cause for deep pain to Him, the pain of sympathy, empathy and compassion.

    While the world wanted to silence these kinds of people, Jesus wanted to hear what they had to say. While the world wanted to make sure they didn't get in the way, Jesus wanted to be sure He stood with them. While the world wanted to be sure they didn't interrupt anything by articulating their need, Jesus wanted not only to know their need but to meet it. And so, at best this wonderful little story is a demonstration of the heart of God which is a heart of compassion.

    And that is to say, beloved, that God not only knows what pain we endure, He feels it. That's right. He not only knows it, it is not just cognition, it is not God in heaven saying, "O, I understand his suffering," it isn't just that. It's the feeling of that suffering. It is the pain of that which touches His own great heart. And therefore, when God allows you to suffer, He allows Himself to suffer as well and be sure then that if indeed your suffering is not alleviated, He continues to suffer with you and must therefore have some great purpose in mind for He Himself could eliminate His own suffering as well.

    And so does Jesus demonstrate compassion.

    We would imagine that He would have been preoccupied with the disciples, perhaps, which were to carry on the legacy after His death which will occur in a few days. We would imagine that He could have been distracted by the thought of dying itself and becoming the sacrificial lamb as He looked up the plateau to Jerusalem from the vantage point of Jericho far below. It would have been easy for us to understand that He really didn't have time in this particular moment in history to stop and take care of a couple of blind men of which there were many such and maybe many many such in Jericho for it was said of Jericho that there grew balsam bushes and balsam bushes could be made into a special kind of medicine which was good for the curing of the eyes. And yet He has time. And that is to say that God is compassionate. And Jesus Christ is not too busy redeeming the entire world to give sight to two insignificant blind men who have nothing to offer Him but their problem. And that may be a more profound lesson than we have thought.

    Blindness, in fact, is a matter of record in the Bible. It's quite common, physical blindness and spiritual blindness.

    Physical blindness occurred quite frequently in the ancient world. Poverty, lack of medical care, unsanitary conditions, brilliant sunlight, blowing sand, certain kinds of accidents, war, fighting, all of these things could cause blindness. But most commonly, blindness was caused basically because of gonorrheal diplococcus that would find their way from a woman's body into the conjunctiva of the eye of a child at birth and there they would form their disease and permanent blindness could occur. Sometimes blindness came by the infecting virus trichoma("). And today, much of these things are curable because of the drugs that we have available, but then they were not. So it was not uncommon to be blind, especially maybe not uncommon, in Jericho where they believed there was a certain bush that healed blindness.

    But even more common than physical blindness was spiritual blindness. And metaphorically the gospels and the epistles speak often of the blindness of the heart. In fact, it's summed up in the words of John 1 which simply says, "That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not.

    He came unto His own and His own received Him not." Or in the third chapter where it says that men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Or Romans 11:25 which says blindness in part has happened to Israel. Or 2 Corinthians 3:14, "Their minds were blinded." Or Jesus' words in Matthew 23, "Woe unto you blind guides, you blind Pharisee," He said. Blind to God. May be able to see physically, but blind to God.

    Now the case of these men is most interesting because while they are physically blind, they appear to have unusually clear spiritual sight. Physically they see nothing, spiritually they see very well. And they will see even better when the Lord Jesus is finished with them. And they will also see physically.

    Why are people spiritually blind" Sin, we're blinded by sin. In Matthew 6 it talks about the fact that when we're evil, our whole eye is darkened. Satan sort of adds a double blindness by blinding the minds of them that believe not, 2 Corinthians 4:4. And then God may add a triple blindness when His sovereignty makes the eye blind, as Isaiah 6 indicates, in a judicial punishment of unbelievers. And so we see then that men are blind by sin and doubly blinded by Satan and doubly or triply blinded by God. And it is into the darkness of man's spiritual blindness that Jesus comes. And we remember when He announced His arrival in Luke 4:18, He said He had come to give sight to the blind. And, He was not primarily speaking of physical blindness; He was primarily speaking of spiritual. He said in John 8, "I am the light that lights the world; whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness." He came to give spiritual light to blind eyes.

    And sometimes He gave physical sight to blind eyes. And He did that for three reasons. First of all, it was part of Messianic proof. He was demonstrating that He was the Messiah. Secondly, it was part of millennial preview. He was showing them what it was going to be like in His Kingdom when all of that kind of thing was turned over and there was glorious wholeness and healing in the Kingdom. And thirdly, it was a matter of symbol or picture. It was a marvelous picture.

    Every time He healed someone of physical blindness, He was in effect saying that's only a symbol of what I want to do to the soul. Every time He unstopped the ears so that someone could hear sound, He was in effect saying and that is exactly what I want to do to the heart so you can hear the Word of God. And every time He raised someone from the dead physically, He was saying I want to give life to the soul as I am able to give life to the body. And that is why Jesus found it no more difficult to forgive sins than to heal someone. And when posed with that question, that's what He said, "What's the difference" I am showing you by My absolute control over the physical world and the natural laws that I have control over the spiritual world and the supernatural laws."

    And so, in the case of these two blind men, we have Messianic proof. We have millennial preview. And we have a marvelous picture of what He's able to do to the heart. And then we have the reality. Before the story's over, these two blind men are saved, redeemed souls. And so they see physically, they see spiritually. And they demonstrate to us that no matter how involved our Lord is, His heart of compassion reaches out to those who cry for His help.

    Now let's look at the scene in verse 29. It's a very simple story and a simple scene. "As they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him." Jesus had finished His ministry in Galilee. He finished His ministry in Peraea. Peraea is the area east of the Jordan. Jesus had crossed the Jordan at some northern point near the Sea of Galilee and descended down the eastern side of the Jordan River in that area known as Peraea.

    He's finished His ministry of a few weeks there and now He's on His way to Jerusalem. So He has to cross again the Jordan River to the west.

    He probably crossed at a fairy spot, about five miles north of Jericho. Jericho's the first city we see when we cross the Jordan from the east. And as we fairy across the river, we walk across nowadays what is known as the Allenby (") Bridge, the first sight we see is Jericho. It isn't the Jericho of old; it's really the third Jericho. They keep moving south. But in Jesus' time, there was the Old Testament Jericho which was ruins. And then a little south of that, right against it really, was the New Testament Jericho that flourished at this time. And it was a beautiful place, still is. It has its own unique beauty.

    In those days, it was so exquisite a place that Herod built himself a wonderful fort and palace there. And that was his winter home. And they...Josephus used to say that when there was snow in Jerusalem, they were wearing linen because it was so warm in Jericho and it's only about 15 miles as the crow flies. But it's so far down into that desert that it stays warm. It's the Palm Springs of Palestine. It was known as the city of palms.

    And if we want to understand the geography of the land of Palestine, we'll be interested to note that it is almost an absolute identical copy of southern California, both in terms of geography and climate. For it has a seacoast, a beautiful gorgeous beach on the Mediterranean. And then there is a lovely valley known as the Sharon Valley. And then the mountains rise up, we know them as the Carmel Mountain Range. And at the southern end is this massive plateau of Jerusalem. And from there descends straight down to the desert. It's almost a parallel. The only difference would be that where as Los Angeles is in a basin, Jerusalem is on a plateau. But it's much like our area. From the seacoast it rises to the mountains and then descends to the desert.

    And Jericho was a lovely place in the winter, even in the spring. Because the crops all came in early in Jericho. Mark tells us it was not yet fig picking time in Jerusalem, but it would have been in Jericho because of the warmth. There were citrus trees everywhere because Jericho is endlessly fed by some beautiful springs, of lovely water, pure and clear and that water was channeled by irrigation all through that area around Jericho so that it flourished. And there were palm trees everywhere and citrus trees and then this balsam bush which had some multiple uses that was growing there. And so it would have been a very lovely place.

    It was also a place that must have literally exploded on the minds of Jesus...on the mind of Jesus with memory because He would no doubt remember a very special woman from that city by the name of Rahab who was a prostitute but who hid the spies, who came to spy out the land. And as a result in the grace of God she was given a place in Messianic genealogy and you find her listed as an ancestor of the Messiah Himself in Matthew chapter 1.

    And as He stood on the edge of the Jordan River, ready to go south about five miles maybe to the New Testament city of Jericho, He would have looked straight ahead to a cliff of mountains that rises straight up into the sky, chalky white, limestone-like parapet that cast its shadow in the late afternoon over the city of Jericho. And He would have remembered that that was very likely the place where He was tempted for 40 days and 40 nights by the devil. It's called by historians the devastation of bleak and desolate place.

    And so, His mind is literally filled with things. Around Him is pressing a huge crowd, moving now from crossing the river down to Jericho, passing through the ruins of Old Testament Jericho which ruins, by the way, are still there for a visitor to see...including the ancient wall which so accommodated the plan of God by falling over on cue. And as they came to the city, He could see the sights and smell the smells and hear the sounds and it would be such a fulfilling experience. And in the midst of all of this, the tremendous anticipation of His own death only days away. He's only; by the way, six hours walk maybe from Jerusalem, six miles north of the Dead Sea. And it's a fulfilling thing.

    Now as He comes into the city, naturally the mob presses Him on all sides. He can heal. Anybody today who even claims to heal can pack in a crowd. You can get 15,000 people into Madison Square Garden if you just tell them you're going to heal them. Even if you can't, they'll come just to find out if you can. And if you really can heal, they're there, believe it!

    In Jesus' time, they mobbed Him. That's why the Lord had to tell the disciples not to take any money because they could have made literally a fortune in a day selling healings. And so the people pile all around Jesus, His teaching, His preaching, the magnetism of His personality, His ability to raise the dead and heal people from any disease.

    And as He came into the city with the press of the crowd, there was one little guy that really wanted to see Him. You remember his name" Zacchaeus. And he was number-one public enemy, hated. He was a Jew who sold out to Rome for money. He became chief tax collector. He exacerbated tax out of Israel to the point of a fault. He defrauded them. He stole them blind. And he pocketed it all for himself and they hated him. Not only was he a traitor, but he was a crook. But he was fascinated by Jesus.

    Now how did he know about Him" Well, it hadn't been long before this that Jesus made a short trip to Bethany. And when He was there, He raised Lazarus from the dead. And the word went like wildfire. Bethany was the town between Jericho and Jerusalem, just up the hill. It's very likely that everybody would have known who the Mary, Martha, Joseph little family was...or Mary, Martha and Lazarus, rather. They would have known who they were. And, of course, the whole city was in an uproar when He raised him from the dead. And His enemies pursued Him that He had to go back on the other side of the Jordan for a while for safety's sake. At least He had to retreat away. And so they knew. He had practically banished disease from Palestine and so everybody knew who He was. They were all there. And Zacchaeus wanted a view of Him.

    Since he couldn't see like a little kid at a parade, he crawled up in a tree. And Jesus came along and He stopped and said, "Come down out of that tree, I'm coming to your house, I'm going to spend the night." Which wouldn't have done anything for the popularity of Jesus superficially because since this was the most hated man in town. But He had a wonderful evening with Zacchaeus and He transformed him. He redeemed him. The man was totally transformed. The reason we know that was he said to Jesus just before the dawning came and the thing was all completed, he said, "I'm going to give everything I give back to the poor, everything I've ever taken from anybody four-fold."

    And Jesus said, "Surely salvation has come to this house."

    That's the real thing! That's the real thing. He is the perfect opposite of the rich young ruler. True salvation, he wants to give it all away. You don't even have to tell him to do it, he wants to do it. Everything he's defrauded and more.

    And so, as the morning breaks and Zacchaeus is running around town settling his account and he's like some incredible Santa Claus giving everybody back four times what he took and saying it's all because of Jesus, the crowd perhaps even swelled greater. And the whole place is lined with people. Now you have to reach the other accounts to get that. We're not looking at that in verse 29.

    And so by now Jesus is ready to leave. He spent the night. He's going to Jerusalem. He must move to the Passover. And so we pick it up in verse 30. "And behold two blind men sitting by the wayside, when they heard that Jesus passed by cried out saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David."

    Now, it says in verse 29 "As they departed from Jericho" this happened. Mark says, in the comparative passage, "As they were leaving Jericho." But Luke says, "As He came near Jericho." Now people say, "How do you harmonize this" Isn't this a biblical error" Two have Him leaving, one has Him coming." And some say, "Well, if you remember that there was Old Testament Jericho and New Testament Jericho, it's possible that He was leaving Old Testament Jericho and entering into New Testament Jericho."

    But why would He stay overnight in the ruins" We don't know, maybe Zacchaeus lived over there. It's possible. We don't know the explanation, but we’re wonderfully content with the fact that there is an explanation... Beggars, from experience in studying the Bible, usually hung around the thoroughfares where the people were. And if we've ever been to Jerusalem, we know where they hang around. In fact, just outside the city gate. And that seems to be the rather traditional place for them.

    And so, perhaps one explanation of what might have happened is that, as Jesus is moving with this mob and they come to the gate and the crowd and the noise and all that's going on and they pass out the gate, then all of a sudden the cries of these blind men are brought to His attention at which point He turns to return into the city to confront them and meet them and find their need. Certainly a possible explanation. But it's really wonderful to note that each gospel writer is not intimidated by what the other says, therefore they're not copying some extraneous source. They are rather writing from their own heart under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And when you pull it all together, it makes wonderful and beautiful sense.

    And so, as Jesus moves along, perhaps going out the gate, moving directly west up that incredible incline to the plateau of Jerusalem, it is brought to His attention that these blind men are crying after Him.

    Now, verse 30 says, "Behold," and that is a term of exclamation. And the exclamation here is not because of the blind men, it isn't "Behold, two blind men," like that was some big deal. Probably the same two blind men that had been there a while. It wasn't that they were sitting, they always sat. And it wasn't they were along the road, they were always along the road. The reason they put a "behold" in there is because of what they said. They said, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David." And they call Him by His Messianic title. Two beggars, Mark says, who were begging, Luke says, sitting by the wayside, Matthew says, screaming out the Messianic title. Where did these guys come off as such consummate theologians" Where did they get their information and faith"

    That's the "behold." That's the exclamation. Not that they were blind or that they were there or that they were begging or that they were yelling, but it was what they were saying.

    At this point we find another wonderful thought. Luke only discusses one of the two, the more prominent one. But never says there was only one. And Mark goes a step further, he only discusses one of the two and he gives us his name. His name is Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus. Now we could wonder why he bothers to name him. Matthew just wants us to see the majesty of Christ. Luke emphasizes the same, but Mark touches the real human cord by naming this man. And perhaps is because he was well-known. Oh, not then but later. So that when Mark pens the gospel and the letters are written to the church to read about the account of the life of our Lord, when they can sit down and read this, they'll have there the story of the conversion of one who by now they greatly love. It's as if Mark is saying, "And you know who one of those guys was" It was none other than your friend, Bartimaeus." And so he picks up a little of history...of the history of one of the beloved brothers in the church by the time the gospel would be read by some.

    It's not unusual, by the way, for one gospel writer to mention two and the others to focus on one. You'll find the same thing in the maniac across the Sea of Galilee at Gerasa where some writers note two and some concentrate on the healing of one. That's the background.

    Now a brief outline and we'll run right through the simple story. Their sad plight, their sad plight, verse 30, it says, "When they heard Jesus pass by, they cried out saying, Have mercy on us." And then in verse 31 at the end, "They cried again saying the more, Have mercy on us." The word "cry" here is krazo, it means to scream. It's used in the New Testament of the screeching and screaming’s of demon possessed people, Mark 5. It's used of the screaming of insane people and epileptics. It's used of the cry, the loud anguish cry of a mother giving birth to a child.

    And the idea of the form of the text here is there was a constant screaming. They were yelling at the top of their voice, "Have mercy on us," a cry of anguish and a cry of desperation, cry of pain. They know that if Jesus gets out of the hearing of their voices, that they're doomed to blindness the rest of their life. They know this is the only one who can do this. And the desperation is powerful, the drama. You can imagine the shrieking and screaming of two men who know they've got one moment in time or the rest of their life they are to be blind stones. And they scream in almost a frenzy. And they say, "Have mercy on us."

    They didn't say, "Hey, God gave us a dirty deal, why don't You make it right." They recognized that they needed mercy. "Take pity on us. Look at our sad situation."

    There's a sense of humility in that that speaks of the mark of someone with true humility. They wail with an intense desire to be healed, but they make not demands and they make no claim to worthiness. And they are so persistent that they refused to be bludgeoned into silence by the indifferent crowd. Verse 31, "The multitude rebuked them that they should hold their peace and they screamed louder." The world always tries to keep people from getting to Jesus, don't they"

    It isn't anything really different. People get disgusted with beggars and if you've ever been in a part of the world where there are a lot of them, you really do kind of slough them off and they do get in the way and they're a little bit obtrusive.

    But, their heart was right. "Have mercy on us, take pity." They felt their deep need. They knew they deserved nothing. They cried for mercy. There's no merit in mercy. There’s no merit to be given to one who seeks mercy. They were quite different than the Pharisees who sought no mercy because they believed on the basis of merit; they possessed a right to everything. So we see their sad plight.

    And then their strong persistence. In verse 31, it says, "When the crowd tried to shut them up, they just kept screaming louder." And these people really wanted to get to Jesus, with spirit and their strong persistence.

    There's a third thing here to note...their sound perception. As blind as they were physically, they were equally able to see spiritually because of something they said. "O Lord, Son of David," verse 30, "O Lord, Son of David," verse 31, that's the Messianic title. They had come to the place where they believed that He was the Messiah. Now to what extent that faith extends" We don’t have an insight into the dimensions of their faith. But it was there to some extent or they wouldn't have been screaming as frantically as they were. There wasn't any doubt in their mind that this was their only chance. Maybe, we can say how sure they were, it was a chance or it was a real opportunity but they knew there wasn't any other and they put all they had into this one.

    And when they said, "O Lord," there must have been something in that. We don't know whether they assumed Him to be God, deity or whether they were giving Him a title of honor and respect which indicated that He was a sovereign of some kind, a lord of some kind. But when they said "Son of David," they were identifying Him as the Messiah. For it says in Matthew 1:1 in the beginning of the genealogies of Jesus that He is the Son of David, Son of Abraham. That is the most common Jewish term for the coming king because in 2 Samuel 7:12 and 13, when God gave the covenant and promised that there would come a greater king than David; it would be David's greater Son.

    And so, Son of David became the title by which Messiah was designated and Jesus was the Son of David, for Joseph, His father, had come in the Davidic line and Mary, His mother, had also come in the Davidic line. And He indeed was the Son of David. And when the birth of Jesus Christ occurred in Luke 1 verse 32, we read, "He shall be great and be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father, David, and He shall reign and the end of His Kingdom shall never come." And so they give Him a Messianic name.

    It's the same thing they called Him in chapter 21 when He came into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday in verse 9, "Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest." And verse 11 they said, "This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee." So they are saying, "Jesus of Nazareth from Galilee, a prophet, is none other than Son of David, the one who comes in the name of the highest." And so it is a double act of faith. They have faith in His power to heal; they have faith in His person as Messiah. Maybe it was due to the resurrection of Lazarus. Maybe it was due to the ministry of John the Baptist a few years before, for they would have been in the proximity of the Jordan River out there and they may well have known John the Baptist, they may well have known that he had called for repentance in preparation for the Messiah. We don't know. They may well even have known Isaiah 29:18 which said that when Messiah comes He will give sight to the blind.

    But whatever it was, they had enough faith to know that they were in need of mercy and to believe that this was the one who could do for them what they needed done and that He was Lord to some extent and that He was Messiah to the full extent. And we believe that when we have come to the point of all the faith that is possible, the Lord will meet us at that point of faith and take us all the way to redemption.

    And that's what He does with these two men. "The faith of the blind rose to the full height of divine possibility." And so, we see their simple plea...sad plight, strong persistence, sound perception, simple plea...verse 32, "And Jesus stood still and called them and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you"" He stood still. Stop the whole procession.

    Here was a great moment in which three things could occur generally, Messianic proof again, millennial preview, and a marvelous picture of what He would do for the heart. It was a time to demonstrate His credentials all over again, but it was more than that, it was a moment of tender compassion on behalf of two needy people. And He called them.

    How did He call them" Well, if we read Mark's account it seems as though He called them with a messenger. Someone ran back and that's another reason why they were out of the city and somebody ran back to these guys who were over there by the gate. And he ran back and in Mark 10:49 says, "Be of good comfort, rise, He calls you." He wants you. And in Mark 10:50 it says, "The blind rose up and threw off his garment and went to Jesus." Once he heard that Jesus had gotten the message, he just threw away his garment and took off. Maybe he figured he'd come back and be able to see enough to find it again.

    And Jesus says, "What will you that I should do to you""

    This is to evoke out of their hearts a greater expectation, this is to confirm in the crowd exactly what He was doing. And the response is a simple plea of verse 33, "They said unto Him, Lord, that our eyes may be open." You see, they're confessing they're blind. And that needs to be made very clear. They were blind.

    And that leads to their supernatural privilege...supernatural privilege, verse 34, "And Jesus had compassion on them, touched their eyes, immediately their eyes received sight." Now it says that Jesus had compassion. And that's the real message of this wonderful story. He felt their need. He felt their pain. He hurt for them. There is such tenderness in Him. He reached out and He touched their eyes.

    And Luke adds, "He said when He touched them, Receive your sight." And instantly all physical laws were set aside and just as God creates something out of nothing, Christ created seeing eyes.

    Interesting that the Greek verb here is anablepo, blepo, to see, ana, to see again which is to say that perhaps their blindness had occurred in life, not in birth. And so they were made to see again. Those who have lost their sight have a greater pain to bear than those who were born blind and do not know what they've missed. And so He restores to them their sight again out of compassion, touching and speaking.

    Oh, He used many methods. Sometimes He touched, sometimes He didn't. Sometimes they touched Him. Sometimes He spoke, sometimes He merely thought a thought and they were healed. Sometimes He put fingers in ears, sometimes He used clay, sometimes He used spittle. He healed many, many different ways. But always His healings were total, complete, instantaneous and defied any natural explanation.

    As a footnote. There are a lot of people around today who want us to believe that they can heal. And we'll turn on our television from time to time and we'll see those kinds of things, but have we ever noticed the absence of blind people" Have we ever noticed that" Oh, they pretend to be able to help people hear and lengthen legs and help people with aches and pains, but where are the people who have glass eyes and all of a sudden they have seeing eyes" This is a monumental miracle. A person who may be crippled and full of pain can be made in the euphoria of a moment and the hype of their own mind and the energy of a situation and in a strong act of confident faith in some healer to stand up and take a few steps, but none of that stuff is going to make a person without eyeballs see. So let the healers’ line up who claim they have the gift and heal the blind or raise the dead.

    Now this takes us to a final point. This takes us to a final point in verse 34, "their submissive pursuit." Sad plight, strong persistence, sound perception, simple plea, supernatural privilege, submissive pursuit, they pursue. The end of verse 34, "They followed Him." That's just a simple little statement but it's a beautiful statement.

    And what makes it especially beautiful is when they were healed, one of the other gospel writers, Mark, says, "Jesus said to them, Go your way...go your way." Well, what their way was" When He said go your way, what way did they go" Their way was His way from now on. This is just the kind of stuff that indicates real regeneration. And Mark 10:52 says, "Jesus said, Go your way, your faith has made you whole." Now listen carefully. The word there, "your faith has made you whole" is not iaomai, healed you, it's sozo, your faith has saved you. That is the classic New Testament word for "to be saved." Your faith has saved you. And inherent in what our Lord said there in Mark 10:52 to these blind men was this, "You're redeemed."

    Now listen carefully. We do not have to have faith in the New Testament record to be healed. There were plenty of people healed in the New Testament who didn't have faith. Dead people don't have faith. There were a lot of people healed in the New Testament that didn't have faith. We can look through all kinds of illustrations of that. But you can find all kinds of healings where there was no faith, but you'll never find salvation without faith. And so, whereas faith is not necessary for healing, faith is necessary for salvation. And when Jesus said, "Your faith hath saved you," that's exactly what He meant. Sure there was physical wholeness there and they did have faith in that, but it was more than that.

    In Luke 17, ten lepers came and Jesus said, "Go show yourself to the priest," and on the way all ten were cleansed, katharizo, a form of healing, they were all katharizoed, cleansed of leprosy. How many came back" One, to whom Jesus said, "Your faith has saved you." I believe there were ten healed, there was one...saved.

    And there's another reason to think they really had a transformed life. It says they followed Him. Somebody's going to say, "Oh, but they were just following Him to Jerusalem." Well, that's right. But it says in Luke, "They followed, glorifying God." Glorifying God. And it even tells us, interestingly enough, in Luke 18:43, that all the whole multitude started chanting praise to God. And this thing starts mounting. And by the time they get to Jerusalem, we know what broke loose on Palm Sunday, right" He touched that city from top to bottom. He hit the richest guy, Zacchaeus, and a couple of poor beggars, the most despised up and inner, and the most despised down and outers, He got them all. What a demonstration. And it was sort of a final Messianic display that swept the crowd into the hosannas of Palm Sunday.

    Let’s hope it's testimony that we've been touched by the compassion of Jesus because we've cried for Him and He's made us see. Let's pray.

    We can all say with the blind man in John 9 that once we were blind and now we see when we've been touched with the saving grace of Christ. We thank You for that, our Lord, for whereas we were blind, we do see. And we thank You that Jesus is compassionate, that He is never too busy in the matter of redeeming the universe to stop to hear the cry of those in need.

    And that His heart is touched deeply with compassion for that heart. We thank You that when we who are spiritually blind come and cry out, O that our eyes may be opened, that the same Lord of compassion is there to open our eyes as well and our faith can make us to be saved, to be whole in spirit.

    We thank You, also, Father, that Jesus Christ has the power to heal all disease and someday will do that in glory at the redemption of our bodies when all sickness and sorrow and pain and death is banished forever. We thank You and we wait for that display of power. In the meantime, because we know that sickness must endure as long as sin endures, we thank You that our Savior is compassionate and He understands our frailties, He feels the pain of our fallenness, He sympathizes with our sorrow and has even in the midst of them His holy purposes that we through those things might be made more like Jesus Christ who is indeed a sympathetic high priest.

    We thank You for this glimpse of our dear Savior. We pray that we might see Him with as clear eyes as those two blind men saw Him. The Lord, the Son of David, the rightful King, the one alone who can save those who come in faith and cry for mercy out of their sad distress.

    With your head bowed in a moment as we close. If you have never come to the light of Christ, we would invite you to do that this morning. Believe in your heart, confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and accept His work on the cross for you and you will come to see with the eyes of the soul. Amen

    Commentary on Matthew 20:17-34

     

    The Third Prediction of the Passion and Triumph. 20:17-19.

     

    I. The Prediction itself.

     

    A. Affinities with 16:21 and 17:22-23.

     

    Here, as in both earlier passages, Jesus predicts both His death and His resurrection. As in 16:21, He identifies His enemies as "the chief priests and the teachers of the law" (Sadducee and Pharisaic interests are combined against the common foe). As in 17:22-23 Jesus had spoken of being "handed over" (paradid©mi) to the Jews, here (using the verb twice) He speaks of being handed over to both Jews and (by their instrumentality) to the Gentiles.

     

    B. Distinctive Features of this Prediction.

     

    In 16:21 Jesus predicted that "He must...suffer many things at the hands of [the Jewish authorities]" before His death. Here He says, "They [the Jewish authorities] will turn Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified" (v. 19). Gentiles do the actual mocking and flogging, but it is the Jews' purpose they fulfill. In other words, according to 20:19 no less than 16:21, Jesus "suffers many things" at Jewish hands.

     

    Noting that Matthew uses three infinitives of purpose ("in order to be mocked, flogged, and crucified") in place of Mk's finite verbs (10:34), Gundry comments: "Thus the center of attention shifts from the action of the Gentiles to the malevolent purpose of the Jewish leaders in handing Jesus over to them" (401). Cf. 26:2; 27:31.

     

    II. The position of the Prediction.

     

    Placed at this juncture, this third prediction (1) provides a foil to the petty ambitions of the disciples, 20:20-24, (2) anticipates the great declaration of v. 28, and (3) reminds readers at what great personal cost God bestows His unmerited favor upon His people (cf. 20:14-15).

     

    The Test of Greatness. 20:20-28.

     

    I. Jesus and the Family of Zebedee. 20:20-23.

     

    A. The Family's Request. 20:20-21.

     

    1. The source of the request. According to Mt, it is the mother of James and John who asks a favor on their behalf; according to Mk (10:35), it is James and John themselves. These two accounts may easily be synthesized.

     

    2. The reason for the request. That such a request comes from this particular family, may be attributed in part to Jesus' choice of James and John to be numbered among the "inner three" (cf. 17:1). There may well be another reason: "The mother of Zebedee's sons probably bore the name Salome (cf. 27:56 with Mark 15:40) and perhaps had Mary the mother of Jesus for a sister (see John 19:25). Family relationship, then, may lie behind the request". This in turn would explain the involvement of both mother and sons (as noted under 1.).

     

    3. The nature of the request. The mother's request that her sons be permitted to sit "on Jesus' right and left" in His kingdom, pertains not to the Messianic banquet (as foreshadowed in the Last Supper) but to the thrones closest to that of Jesus (cf. 19:28; the above interpretation of 20:1-16; and Gundry, 402).

     

    B. Jesus' Response. 20:22-23.

     

    James and John (and their mother) are ignorant of two things.

     

    1. Suffering comes before glory.

     

    a. The cup of Jesus. Jesus asks James and John, "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink"" As applied to Jesus, the figure of "drinking the cup [potsrion]" signals His approaching experience of suffering and death (as just predicted, vv. 18-19). As He is the sin-bearer (1:21; 3:15), it also signals His personal experience of the wrath of God. It is chiefly the prospect of experiencing God's wrath, and the consequent separation from the Father, that causes Jesus to cry out in Gethsemane, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup [pots ion] be taken from Me" (26:39). Cf. ibid. 152-53.

     

    b. The disciples' expectation. That disciples could envisage glory without suffering, is clear from 16:21-17:13. Yet perhaps by this stage the sons of Zebedee are beginning to grasp that Jesus must enter into glory by way of suffering (for He has now thrice predicted His death and resurrection). And perhaps the words of v. 22b ("We can" drink your cup) are quite sincere. But if so, the words are as naive as they are sincere. For in the first place, even if the disciples are beginning to accept the inevitability of Jesus' death, they have as yet only the faintest understanding of the meaning of that death (cf. 20:28; 26:26-28). Had they perceived that Jesus would die as the sin-bearer and the object of the divine wrath, would they so quickly have affirmed their ability to drink His cup" And in the second place, the context suggests that the thrones closest to Jesus' own are reserved for those disciples whose suffering comes closest to approximating His own - i.e., whose suffering is marked by the greatest sacrifice and the greatest anguish (cf. v. 28). For James and John to make their present request intelligently, would require that they ask also for the grace needed to bear the suffering which leads to the glory (cf. 24:9; Rom 8:17; 2 Tim 2:12; Rev 3:21).

     

    c. The disciples' experience. In response to the disciples' boast (v. 22b), Jesus says, "You will drink My cup" (v. 23a, RSV). The words "My cup" show that it remains Jesus' cup even as the others drink it. NEB well renders, "You shall indeed share My cup." In fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy, James suffers martyrdom at the hands of Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:2); and John, while probably dying a natural death in old age, nonetheless suffers for Jesus' sake (Rev 1:9).

     

    2. The Father's will is decisive. "But to sit at My right or left is not for Me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by My Father" (v. 23b).

     

    a. The Father's prerogative. According to Jesus, the apostles will sit on twelve thrones alongside His own (19:28). Jesus Himself will be enthroned, because the Father has granted Him, the Son of Man, authority to execute final Judgment (see especially Jn 5:19-27). From this we might infer that the apostles' authority to judge (19:28) also comes from the Father. Mt 20:23 leaves us in no doubt that this is the case; that the Father chooses the occupants of these two thrones, indicates that He has chosen the occupants of all twelve. Jesus declares (19:28) what the Father has authorized (20:23).

     

    b. The Father's choice. The Father has prepared these two thrones for a given two apostles of His choice. The preparation presupposes the choice. Which two apostles are to occupy those thrones has not yet been disclosed. That would undermine the very reason for the choice.

     

    c. The Father's reason. Those two seats are reserved (it appears) for apostles who identify most closely with Jesus in His willingness to serve and to suffer (v. 28, and 1.b. above), and who therefore are the least self-conscious, the least calculating, and the least ambitious (cf. 25:37-39). Such persons will be astounded to learn that they have been assigned the thrones next to Jesus: they would willingly take those furthest removed from Him. Those most like Jesus shall be seated closest to Him. Cf. 1 Cor 4:9, "us apostles...at the end of the procession."

     

    II. Jesus and the Twelve. 20:24-28.

     

    A. The Reaction of the Ten. 20:24.

     

    The reason for their indignation toward James and John, has already been considered.

     

    B. Jesus' Response. 20:25-28.

     

    Having brought all twelve disciples together (v. 25a), Jesus addresses the competitive pride that infects all the disciples and threatens to tear their company asunder.

     

    1. The destructive use of power. "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them" (v. 25b). The way of the world, as typified here by Gentile rulers, is to exercise power by demanding submission and service. The rulers' power readily serves the purpose of pride, in that by asserting their power they can keep their subjects beneath them. Power is the means of continually reminding subjects just who is in charge. And since this is (by the standards of the Kingdom) a spurious power, ever more strenuous effort is needed to maintain it.

     

    2. The creative use of power. "Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant [diakonos], and whoever wants to be first must be your slave [doulos]" (20:26-27). The apostles are endowed with stupendous power and authority, that of Jesus Himself (10:1; cf. 28:18-20). Yet as those who are slaves (douloi) of Jesus and fully accountable to Him as Lord, they have no right to lord it over others or to wield power as a means of advancing themselves. On the contrary, their slavery to Jesus manifests itself as slavery to other people (vv. 26-27). As those who experience the security and freedom of the Kingdom, they have no need to lord it over others. As those who emulate Jesus, they discover that self-giving service is the very means by which God releases the true power. Accordingly, the disciples' greatness does not lie beyond the service but precisely in the service. Jesus thus drives home the lesson about true greatness in ch. 18 and the lesson about equality in 20:1-16.

     

    3. Jesus the Servant. Jesus provides the supreme example of selfless service: "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many" (v. 28).

     

    a. The power of service. If ever one possessed power and authority, it is Jesus the Son of Man. In coming to serve, he does not abandon power, He exercises power. Cf. Phil 2:6-8.

     

    b. The sacrificial death. He comes "to serve and to give",  or better, "to serve, i.e. to give" (the "and," kai, is epexegetical; following Gundry, 404). The singular focus of this verse is Jesus' service in death. The language is rooted in Isa 53:10-12.

     

    c. The ransom for many (lutron anti poll©n].

     

    (1) Jesus' death is redemptive. He liberates the "many" from the bondage and guilt of sin, at great cost to Himself.

     

    (2) In bearing the sins of His people (1:21), He simultaneously renders both the lowliest and the noblest service ever. Moreover, as the sin-bearer He dies in the place of the many, as their substitute (note the preposition anti).

    (3) The use of the word "many" is explained both by the presence of rabim, "many," in Isa 53:11, 12, and by Jesus' purpose to save a host of people from among both Jews and Gentiles. The term "many" embraces all of those, from whatever nation, for whom Jesus dies. The contrast is drawn between the many and the few (for some interpreters, "many" is equivalent to "all"). With respect to the Gentiles, observe how this saying relates to other passages: Before Jesus' death the proclamation of the Kingdom is confined almost entirely to Jews, both in Jesus' preaching (15:24) and in that of His disciples (10:6). Two things account for the shift from those sayings to the Great Commission of 28:18-20, namely Israel's rejection of their Messiah (21:18-22:14) and Messiah's death as "a ransom for many." Before the Gospel of liberation from sin may be taken to the Gentiles, the Savior must actually accomplish their liberation from sin. The work of salvation must precede the news of salvation.

     

    The Healing of Two Blind Men. 20:29-34.

     

    I. The Place. 20:29.

     

    The last stage of the ascent to Jerusalem (cf. 20:17) was "the road from Jericho, leading up the Wadi Qelt. On either side of the lower reaches of the wadi lay NT Jericho, a new foundation built by Herod the Great as his winter residence...about a mile south of OT Jericho". OT Jericho lay about 17 miles northeast of Jerusalem, NT Jericho about 16. In Mt and Mk (10:46) the episode occurs as Jesus is leaving Jericho, whereas in Lk (18:35) Jesus is entering the town. One of the suggestions for harmonizing the accounts that Mt and Mk speak of old Jericho, and Lk of new).

     

    II. Affinities with 9:27-31.

     

    In both passages, (1) Mt speaks of two men, not just one (cf. Mk 8:22-26; 10:46-52); (2) the men confess Jesus to be "Son of David" (once there, twice here), and cry for mercy; and (3) Jesus touches their eyes, whereupon their sight is restored.

     

    III. Distinctive features of 20:29-34.

     

    Here (1) the men acclaim Jesus "Lord" (kyrios) as well as "Son of David"; and (2) Jesus includes no command to silence (here Jesus heals in public, there in private, 9:28; also, as Jesus is now much closer to the cross, there is less need to protect against the spread of false Messianism). Most significantly, while the first story places much greater stress than this one upon the blind men's faith (see 9:28-29; in 20:30-33 faith is not expressly mentioned, though it clearly underlies the men's words), the present story, in keeping with the immediately preceding verses, is concerned to present Jesus as a compassionate Servant to the needy. The verb splagchnizomai ("to show compassion") is used here (v. 34) but not there. Jesus uses His great power to heal others, not to save Himself.

     

    Matthew 20:29-34

     

    Lives are changed when they come to Jesus a He commanded: 2Th 2:10 And with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 2Th 2:11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 2Th 2:12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe (obey) the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

     

    When the truth is presented to the church people today, we will either stop, think, or reason in their minds where they stand with God. We will think deeply about where we will spend eternity and go and seek the truth at all cost. But we refuse sound doctrine, and refuse to love anything besides our own misplaced conceived notions about Jesus Christ, why He came to earth as God, and died to set us free from the bondages of sin and the corrupt ways of the world.

     

    We love the lie, because it asks us to do nothing, to do nothing to prove our heart is real before God, not perfect, but in perfect submission to His will and word.
    But sad to say the strong delusion is everywhere today, and many of us who think are saved by some provision that was never made are still under this delusion, and refuse to examine ourselves to be sure we are in the faith, thus leading us down the wide road to destruction, loving the lie that declares us a poor, helpless sinner after we say the sinners prayer, and think we are right with God.

     

    We fall for every wind of doctrine, being led into a ditch by many well-meaning, and not so well meaning so called bible scholars who think we are safe, secure, and in the truth, when in reality we too are under the strong delusion, God promised to send to those who persist in the lie, making it virtually impossible for them to escape the snare of the father of lies!

     

    May we wake up, Come to love the truth, by counting the great cost of coming clean before God, loving His truth, and standing fast in it!

      Healing on the Way

    “They said to Him, ‘Lord, let our eyes be opened.’ And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed Him” (vv. 33–34).  

     

    Matthew 20:29–34

     

    Christ began His final trip to Jerusalem after Peter’s great confession (Matt. 16:13–23). In all likelihood, He traveled mostly along the eastern bank of the Jordan River as He and His disciples moved southward from Caesarea Philippi. This was a common route for Galilean pilgrims in His day, and the crowds that we have read about during this trip are those Jews who, while traveling to Jerusalem for the Passover, have seen the deeds of Jesus and are hoping that He is the Messiah (17:14–18; 19:1–2). These men and women are among those who will hail our Savior’s triumphal entry into the Holy City (21:1–11).

     

    Today’s passage indicates that Jesus will soon arrive in Jerusalem to complete His messianic work, for He has been in Jericho, located fifteen miles or so from the Holy City, about a day’s journey in first-century Judea. Leaving Jericho, Christ and His followers begin the ascent 3,000 feet up to Jerusalem, but they do not get very far before meeting two desperate men in need. These blind men, one of whom is named Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46), beg Jesus to heal them, confessing Him as the “Son of David” (Matt. 20:30), a title loaded with messianic assumptions. Knowing that the Messiah is present gives them hope that He will fulfill His call to work miracles and give them sight (see Isa. 35).

     

    Yet the crowd is displeased with these blind men, rebuking them as they cry out to Jesus (Matt. 20:31). They probably feel the beggars are unworthy of the Messiah’s attention since many first-century Jews thought blindness was God’s punishment for sin (John 9:1–3). It is also likely that they do not want Jesus to “waste His time” on these blind men. Those who believe Jesus might be the Christ would be looking for Him to enter Jerusalem immediately so that He might overthrow the Romans and set Israel over the world.

     

    For Jesus, however, it is not a waste of time to pause and heal the blind men, so moved is He by compassion (Matt. 20:32–34). This healing is against the people’s idea of what the Messiah should do, and it portends stronger opposition to come. The crowd that now does not want Him to help a fellow Israelite will later call for Jesus’ head when He does not live up to their expectations (27:15–23).  

      Coram Deo   When we do the work of ministry it can be easy to get so caught up in the big plans and programs we have going that we miss the needs of certain individuals among us. As followers of Jesus, we must imitate His compassion and take the time to minister to hurting individuals even if it may sometimes get in the way of our own plans and purposes. What are we doing in our churches to make sure people are shown compassion and not forgotten"

    Lessons On Seeing From A Blind Man (Matthew 20 29-34)

     

    Jesus was now on His way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover with His disciples.  Infinitely more important than that, however, He was going there to suffer and die (20:18-19).  He would be celebrating the Passover for the last time and then giving Himself as the one, final, perfect Passover Lamb, sacrificed for the sins of the whole world (Heb. 7:27).

     

    His arrest, trial, and crucifixion were but a few weeks away.  Why, we may wonder, did He take time to minister to two blind beggars"  In light of the disciples’ slowness to learn and believe, why did He not spend the last few days alone with them, drilling into them what He so much wanted them to understand"

     

    The reason was His compassion (v. 34).  When better could Jesus have demonstrated the depth and breadth of divine compassion than while He was on the way to His crucifixion"  The Twelve would one day look back on the healing in Jericho and on all His other acts of mercy and realize that their Lord was never too preoccupied to be compassionate, never in too much of a hurry to heal the afflicted, never in too much agony Himself to be insensitive to the agony of others.  That realization itself would be one of the most important lessons they would learn from their Master.  In these few verses is found one of the most beautiful portrayals of the loving, compassionate heart of God.

    We also see demonstrated in the actions of these two blind men how each of us are to approach the Lord.

    1A.      The Men (20:29-30)

    1B.      The blind men and their condition (20:29-30a)

    The crowd that followed (20:29)

    ·         Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem His disciples and are great crowd of pilgrims followed Him.

    The condition they were in (20:30a)

    ·         They were blind

    ·         They were beggars (Mark 10:46)

    This is our condition without Christ

    Revelation 3:17-18  "Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing', and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked , 18 "I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

    2 Corinthians 4:3-4  3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,  4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

    John 3:19-20 19 "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  20 "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

    We must see our true condition before we will call on Jesus!

    2B.      The blind men and their conviction (20:30-31)

    Their plea (20:30)

    ·         They were desperate.

    Cried out, (krazo); literally to cry out in anguish; it is the same word to describe the cries of a woman during childbirth

    ·         They were broken.

    ·         They cried for mercy!

    21 times the Psalmist pleads with God for mercy.

    Luke 18:13-14  13 "And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!'  14 "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

    ·         They believed

    O Lord, Son of David, this was the popular Jewish designation for the Messiah.

    Their persistence (20:31)

    ·         They would not be denied.

    ·         They would not be discouraged.

    No one had to beg these men to come to Christ!

    Why"  Because they were convinced that Jesus was who He said He was and that He alone was their hope.

    2A.      The Master (20:32-34)

    1B.      His call (20:32)

    Jesus stops for them.

    Psalm 4:1  Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness!  You have relieved me in my distress; Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer

    Jesus stoops to them.

    Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.

    Psalm 4:3   3 But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly; The Lord will hear when I call to Him.

    2B.      His compassion (20:33-34a)

    The Lord’s motive

    ·         Not the crowd

    ·         Not the worthiness or usefulness of the men.

    ·         Not the faith of the men.

    ·         His sovereign choice, His compassion!

    2 Timothy 1:9   (God) who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,

    The Lord’s method

    ·         He touched them and they were healed.

    3B.      His converts (20:34b)

    They followed Him

    ·         Though many followed Jesus without true faith these men seem a bit different.

    They had faith in Him

    Mark 10:52 Then Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.

    They glorified Him

    Luke 18:43 And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God.  And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

    Application

    We recognize our lost condition.

    We are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked…”

    We must humble ourselves before the Lord.

    James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

    We must cry out to God for mercy.

    Psalm 119:145-146 145 I cry out with my whole heart; Hear me, O Lord! I will keep Your statutes.  146 I cry out to You; Save me, and I will keep Your testimonies.

    We must trust God to save us.

    Isaiah 12:2    Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid…"

    Commentaries:

     

    I want Jesus to "open my eyes" too so that I may be closer to Him with peace.  Blessings.

     

    I want Jesus to give me wisdom & I want him to make me a better man of God!

     

    I want Jesus to draw me closer to Him. As this blessing takes its course, I want my family to experience Him and come to know him as their personnel, Lord and Savior. And I would be truly happy.

    God Bless.

     

    I hope He'll provide what's best for me! Thy will be done in my life for I know it's going to be the best!

     

    I want Jesus to make me a strong Christian. I want to be the person He wants me to be. I want to know and do His will. I want my relationship with Jesus to grow. I want to know and love Him!!!

     

    I want Jesus to make me more firm and strong in my believe and take me to the highest faith always and guide me throughout my life. I want him to provide me a man of believe (Follower of Jesus) as my life partner

     

    I want the LORD Jesus to open my eyes so that I could see Him and to open my ears so I could hear Him and to have wisdom to spread the good news.

     

    I believe Jesus knows what I need or wants Him to do for me because my thoughts and my groaning are always before Him. But as the blind men did ,I will continue to place before Him my fate as a retired public worker in need of where and how to shelter my family let alone to give them three square meals a day..

     

    I want Jesus to save me from all troubles. I pray Jesus to solve all my problems and give me strength and peace.

     

    I want JESUS to give my mother perfect healing of breast cancer, electric brain, success in my posture exam that is coming up in few days from now, and finally financial brake true.

     

    Respectfully, I'd like for JESUS to continue to help me in many ways. Most importantly, growing closer to him and always tailoring my life and the way I conduct myself as JESUS did. Secondly, to continue to bless me with the HOLY SPIRIT so that I may always be led by the SPIRIT and not by human nature. Finally, I continue to thirst in many ways and would like to drink from the water that JESUS provides. The water that when consumed, you never thirst again. For this I pray is JESUS' name. AMEN.

     

    On this weekend of Pentecost I'd like to ask God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit to let the power of The Holy Spirit be at work in the Pope who is the head of the Catholic Church.

    That we can all ask Jesus to "OPEN OUR EYES" so we can all listen and give more attention to the Pope's teachings since he is guided by God's word. That before making choices we may all consider what Jesus would do. Especially in politics what would Jesus say about our choices (Keeping in mind God's 10 Commandments).That we all may find joy from reading and understanding the bible. Also for us to all ask the Holy Spirit to touch us and enter into our hearts. For us to all become instruments of Peace, Love and Joy. See God in even person we interact with and most of all keep Jesus Christ in everything we do and say. Amen.

     

    When we do not know which decision to make that we may Open the Bible and re-read the 10 Commandments and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us because he will :)

     

    I want Jesus to protect my three sons and to guide me in following Him so I will never fail in my belief in Him. Blessings.

     

    To love like he does.

     

    From today Jesus to inspire every move I make. I want to feel His presence

     

    I want Gods presence at all time to be filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom that I would make the right choose

     

    I want my Lord Jesus to open my eye spiritually and provide light to the path that I walk, so that I never stumble and fall into the pit of darkness. I want Him to be my shepherd so that I as His humble sheep, walk in His guidance and do not get lost in sin.

     

    Jesus know the blind man what he is going to ask Jesus but Jesus is testing his faith Jesus never leave me always I want to follow him I need His strength to do good things for others the Holy Spirit always guiding to me.

     

    I want Jesus that he should fill me afresh with the Holy Spirit and be with me now and forever.  Jesus should protect me and guide and guard me always.

     

    I think firstly I want to ask him for forgiveness and for him to completely purify me and make me clean once again. I also want him to open the eyes of my heart so that I may see more things through his eyes. I would also want him to give me wisdom and understanding to better serve him. I also want him to show me what he wants me to do for him and also to give me a bigger heart that loving and forgiving. I would also like to be filled with more of the Holy Spirit.

     

    To get rid of my evil things, open my eyes so I can see the truth and open my ears so I can hear the word of God and keep the word forever.

     

    I want Jesus to keep me in His sight, help me overcome my sins and follow Him always. I love you Jesus. Blessings.

     

    l want Jesus to increase my faith and help me to be a person who is helpful to the society and to have the fruits of the holy spirit which are love, joy, peace, humility, kindness, tolerance, a forgiving heart and to be the best mother for my kids and husband.

     

    I want Jesus to increase my faith in Him, and to trust in His love, and know that if I lean on Him, He will take care of my needs. To help me to be patient and tolerant of others. To give me a forgiving heart, that I may learn to forgive and forget; and to forgive me my sins, and help me to live a life that is pleasing to Him.

     

    I would like to first Thank Jesus for all of the blessings he has given to me.  I would like to ask and invite God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to purify me and come live in my heart, to speak with me and guide me.  

     

    I would like to ask Jesus to give me the wisdom to understand his teachings.  Just like the blind men, I would like to ask Jesus for a kind heart (to open my Heart and give me eyes to see his truth) so that I could see Jesus in everyone I encounter and that I may treat others as he commanded we should with love, respect and less judgment.

     

    I would like to ask Jesus for inner peace, courage and a strong, clear voice so that I may do his will and help others.   Amen

     

    Ps. I would like to ask God to teach the world how to choose Love every minute of today in everything we do. Choose to love instead of war, unkindness or greed. Choose Love with our families and always turn the other cheek. Choose to love even when driving in our cars, have patients in traffic. Let us all who claim to love Jesus be that example of Love :) every moment every day.


    By: Gregorio Magdaleno - September 22, 2015 - Public
    Category: Two Blind Men Receive Sight
    Comment Helpful? Favorite Violation
    September 22, 2015
    Jesus asked the blind man what they wanted Him to do. What do you want Jesus to do for you?

    Matthew 20:29-34 

     

    Two Blind Men Receive Sight

     

    As they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. Behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, "Lord, have mercy on us, You son of David!" The multitude rebuked them, telling them that they should be quiet, but they cried out even more, "Lord, have mercy on us, You son of David!" 

     

    Jesus stood still, and called them, and asked, "What do you want Me to do for you"" 

    They told Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened." 

     

    Jesus, being moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received their sight, and they followed Him. 

     

    Jesus asked the blind man what they wanted Him to do. What do you want Jesus to do for you"

     

    Relentless Faith and Great Compassion - Matthew 20:29-34

     

    Text Comment

     

    v.29: This next episode plays a strategic role in the Gospel history.  For the traveler to Jerusalem, coming from the Trans-Jordan, Jericho is the last city before Jerusalem.  The capital was only some 15 miles from Jericho on a main road.  You will notice that the next paragraph in Matthew’s Gospel concerns the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Imagine the scene.  Jesus is not alone with His disciples on this road through Jericho.  It is crowded with pilgrims heading to Jerusalem for Passover.  We know from the other Gospels that popular excitement over the possibility that Jesus was the Messiah, fueled by His miracles and by His teaching, was now reaching a fever pitch. Passover was, in any case, the most patriotic time of year for the Jews.  So there is nothing surprising in the fact that a crowd of people would have attached themselves to Jesus to walk with Him toward Jerusalem. This dramatic miracle, witnessed by so many people, would only have inflamed people’s expectations the more.  News of it would have reached Jerusalem only a few hours later.  In Matthew’s account the pre-Jerusalem ministry concludes with this miracle.  We know from the other Gospels that, in fact, some days were to elapse before Palm Sunday.  But take note, it was to be the crowds’ disappointment … Jesus, His failure to meet their expectations that would secure His execution some days later. They were looking for a political deliver not a Redeemer.

     

    v.30: Mark names one of these blind men:  Bartimaeus.  The fact that his name was known probably is an indication that he was known among the believers as a disciple of Jesus.  The fact that he is named only in Mark, which is, as you remember, Peter’s Gospel, may indicate that he was a personal acquaintance or friend of the Apostle Peter.

     

    When the blind men call Jesus “Son of David,” they are calling Him Messiah, for that is what the title meant.  Even beggars on the street knew of the remarkable ministry of Jesus of Nazareth and were caught up in the excitement generated by the growing belief that the Messiah had appeared.  They knew of the miracles of healing that Jesus had performed and they hoped for something for themselves.

    v.31: It is entirely typical that the demonstration of Jesus’ Messiah ship should have been provided in a work of compassion and kindness that the crowd thought was beneath His dignity. How little they understood of what was to come.

     

    How often in the NT is true and living faith in Christ described as a conviction of Christ’s willingness and ability to help, as no one else can, that it refuses to take “no” for an answer. These are men who believed in Christ’s power to save them.

     

    v.32: By stopping and attending to these blind beggars Jesus is once more overturning and repudiating the popular understanding of what the Messiah would be and would do.

     

    v.33: If you were blind is this not what you would ask for" There is no account of the giving of sight to the blind in the OT, no such miracle performed by Moses or Elijah or Elisha.  Nor is there any such miracle reported in the NT as having been performed by the apostles after Pentecost.  But there are more miracles of this type, giving sight to the blind, reported among the healing miracles of the Lord than of any other type of healing miracle.  Perhaps that is because in the Old Testament, giving sight to the blind was not only something that God alone could do, but further, something that the Messiah would do!

     

    “Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.”  [Isa. 35:5]

     

    “Here is My servant, whom I uphold, My chosen one in whom I delight…I will keep You and will make You to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind and to free captives from prison…  [Isa. 42:7]

     

    To open the eyes of the blind is supremely a revelation of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Messiah. 

     

    But, as we have also often noticed, the Lord’s miracles were important not only for the proof they provided of the Lord’s credentials as the Messiah, they were also pictures of the salvation that Jesus had come into the world to provide.  The dead being raised, the demon possessed being restored to sound mind, the leper cleansed, and the blind given his sight are not only astonishing works of divine power, works that no one could perform but someone who had been given power from on high, but all are ways in which the Bible describes the nature of salvation.  We are dead in sins and in Christ we are made alive.  We are slaves of the Devil but Christ sets us free.  We are impure, as the leper, but Christ makes us clean.  And we are blind, we cannot see the truth about God, about the world, about ourselves, about the way of salvation, and Christ opens our eyes to see the truth that sets men free.

     

    In the case of the man born blind, whose healing John records in the 9th chapter of his Gospel, this point is made explicitly:  the granting sight to the blind in the physical sense, miracle that it was, was a picture of the giving of spiritual sight to the spiritually blind.  There Jesus said,

     

    “For this I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”  [v. 39]

     

    The Lord was speaking to the intransigent Pharisees and telling them that no matter how good their physical vision, they were blind spiritually, and the proof was that the Son of God was standing in front of them and they couldn’t see Him for what He was, no matter the miracles, no matter the truth that was on His lips, no matter the perfect goodness of His life.  He said that if they thought they were seeing, as they did, they would remain blind.

     

    Think of, John Rug, the missionary to Chile, who also was born blind, was born blind in both senses, but later as a young man was given sight by the Lord Jesus Christ.  For some years yet he will not be able to see in the physical sense, but he has for many years been able to see in the more important sense.  Indeed, those who know John will say of him that he has very acute vision when it comes to seeing the truth and the light that is in Jesus Christ.  And, in the same way, we know many people who have very good eyesight, but who are blind as bats when it comes to seeing what is truly and eternally important.

     

    This point is made here also in Matthew.  We have noticed the last two words of our text:  these two men whom Jesus had healed of their blindness followed Him.  Those are potent words in Matthew.  These men became Christ’s followers right then and there.  We might have expected them to go to the city and seek out their relatives and see their homes for the first time, but they followed Jesus.  They became followers of Jesus and, in so doing, they proved that they saw more clearly who Jesus was and what He had come into the world to do than did the multitudes on the road that day who had never been blind but who couldn’t see the truth when it was standing before them and being demonstrated in the most spectacular ways.  They followed Jesus.  They knew that their lives must from this point on be bound up with Him.  They knew that physical sight was, by no means, the only thing; it was not even the most important thing they would receive from Him.

     

    In this marvelous event, we have the entire message of the gospel summed up.  Christ Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah sent into the world to bring salvation to human beings who all are in desperate need of salvation and who cannot save themselves.  What all men are summoned to do is to acknowledge that Jesus Christ and He alone has eternal life in His hands, He and He alone brings the truth which sets men and women free, and then to seek that life and that truth from hand and set out to living according to it.  There are many human beings who would rather starve than come to any feast that is set by the Son of God, who would rather remain in darkness if the price of seeing the light is to confess that one is as needy and has been as bad as Christ says.  But, there are those who, by God’s grace, see themselves blind and hungry and sick and see Christ offering sight, a feast, and eternal health, and they take it from their hands and the rest of their lives they are found telling others, “I was blind, but now I see.”

     

    Imagine what it must have been for those men as they stood up able to see for the first time, no doubt able to see with perfectly sharp vision. Imagine what it must have been for them to see everything for the first time, see what everything looked like that they had only had described to them before; saw colors, saw faces, saw the city of Jericho, saw their parents, their siblings, and their homes.  All that day long and for some days after, they would have closed their eyes to imagine themselves back in their blindness and then open them to exult in their being able at last to see"  Perhaps they fellows wore people out over the next weeks talking endlessly about how everything appeared to them that they had never been able to see before.  How different the appearance of things must have to what they had imagined during the years, never having been able to see, never known what anything looked like!  There were two happy men!

     

    It is not hard to see how similar it must be for a man who has been spiritually blind, but, through faith in Christ, now sees things as they truly are with the clearest vision, whose eyes the Lord Christ has opened by His Holy Spirit.  How many Christians, through the ages, have thought of their salvation in just these terms:  “I was blind, but now I see.”

     

    Thomas Halliburton, one of the great figures of Scottish Christianity in the 18th century, in his magnificent autobiography, describes his coming to faith in Christ as a young man in just this way.  Indeed, here is the way he begins his account:

     

    “I cannot be very positive about the day or hour of this deliverance, nor can I satisfy many other questions about the way and manner of it.  But this is of no consequence, if the work is in substance sound, for ‘the wind bloweth where it listeth; and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” (John iii. 8)  Many things about the way and manner we may be ignorant of, while we are sufficiently sure of the effects.  As to these things, I must say with the blind man, ‘I know not: one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.”

     

    Through the reading of the Word of God and praying for light, the Lord came to him and opened his eyes near the end of January in 1698.  And that is how he puts it and how he thought about his conversion.  It was an opening of his blind eyes.  Indeed words like “see” and “sight” are found all through the account.  And true Puritan that he was, he proceeded to describe in nine particulars.  He says it was 1) a heavenly light, it shone above me, it opened heaven to me, and led me up, as it were, to heaven; 2) a true light, exposing the falsehoods about himself and the world and God that he had so long entertained; 3) a pleasant light; 4) a distinct and clear light; 5) a satisfying light; 6) a refreshing and healing light, it warmed him and his life; 7) a great light; 8) a powerful light, dissipating the thick darkness that had overspread his mind; and 9) a composing light; not like lightning that appears in a moment and disappears leaving terror behind, but composed and quieted his soul that had been troubled about so many things.  Then he concludes, “…I know that no words can express the notion that the weakest Christian, who has his eyes opened, really has of [the glory of this light.]  …  No words can convey a true notion of light to the blind; and he that has eyes…will need no words to describe it.”  [Memoirs, 99-104]

     

    Perhaps the blind men to whom the Lord gave sight would have described their experience in very similar terms"  And, finally, they exulted far more in the spiritual sight that they had been given, the knowledge of Christ and salvation, than the sight of his eyes. More than once in the remaining years of those men’s lives they assuredly told people that they would rather have remained blind all their days if in their physical blindness they had been given to see Christ and the way to heaven than to be given their eyesight but never the sight of Christ or heaven.

     

    Is it not extraordinary that we in our modern world, so different in many ways from the world of Jericho in the first century, should understand immediately what happened to those two men, should find their experience immediately relevant to our own.  How little the world has really changed, because the human heart has not changed.  How perfectly the Bible describes the universal experience of man in sin and man in salvation!

     

    Let’s hope we are all touched by the wonder of this miracle and the glorious effect it had upon these two men.  That we see afresh and anew the wonder of God’s graces that has given us sight when otherwise we would have remained blind.  The world is full of blind people with 20/20 eyesight.  They walk through this world utterly oblivious to the spiritual world all around them, to God their Creator, to the looming Day of Judgment, to heaven or hell that awaits every person at the end.  How wonderful when a man or a woman is given to see!  To see God and Christ and the way that leads to the world of everlasting joy!  We’ve seen people get their sight and there is nothing more wonderful in the entire world!

     

    But there is something more here that deserves our careful attention.  Matthew makes a point of saying that Jesus healed these blind men because He had compassion on them.  This great deliverance, the physical one and the far greater eternal and spiritual one that it symbolized, came to these two benighted men living in darkness because Jesus had compassion on them.

     

    This is not the only place in the Gospel where a great healing was performed because Jesus had compassion on the sufferer.  In 9:36 we are told that Christ’s preaching of the good news to the crowds was motivated by His compassion for them in their lostness.  In 14:14 we read that Christ healed the sick that were brought to Him in large numbers because He had compassion on them.  In 15:32 we read that He provided food for the 4000 because He had compassion on that Gentile company.

     

    The word that is translated “had compassion on” in the NIV is connected with the noun for the entrails, the viscera, the inner organs which, in that culture were regarded as the seat of the emotions.  One scholar of the language of the New Testament writes that, in distinction from the word “heart,” this is “a more blunt, forceful and unequivocal term.”  It is interesting, by the way, that Greeks thought of strong emotion ordinarily in terms of anger; Christians, on the other hand, thought of compassion.  This word, “has compassion” is always connected with Jesus in the New Testament.  What we have here is not mere human pity, but divine compassion for troubled people filling a human heart.  We have the heart of the Son of God going out to those in great need. We have here not only the record of one of the breathtaking miracles that Jesus performed but a picture of salvation coming to lost men, then this compassion is part of that beautiful picture.

     

    How does the life-giving power of God in Christ come to men and women in our day"

     

    “We are fooling ourselves if we [think] that we can ever make the authentic gospel popular … It’s too simple in an age of rationalism; too narrow in an age of pluralism; too humiliating in an age of self-confidence; too demanding in an age of permissiveness….  What are we going to share with our friends" [Dudley Smith, John Stott, ii, 267]

     

    We can share the light, the sight that Christ gave to these blind men with the blind men around us.  We cannot give physical sight to the blind, but we can shed the light on the spiritual blindness of those around us.  But what will make them pay attention to us and receive our words"  If we speak for the same reason that Jesus did so.  Love breaks into blindness like nothing else.  Love can make a self-confident man realize his terrible need, a man who thinks he sees suddenly realize that he has lived his whole life in darkness. 

     

    The world around us is full of the blind. They are not crying out on purpose, in many cases, as these blind men did near Jericho, but their circumstances are evidence of their darkness.  Their condition is obvious enough to us.  We can see that they cannot see.  We can often see the misery that must be endured by the blind.  Surely, we who have received Christ’s love should have compassion for those who are as we were and who must remain so unless someone should bring the light to them.  Does the love of Christ constrain us"

     

    How shall we become compassionate as He was"  How shall we have the power to cut through the darkness in which so many live" 

     

    Nothing is more likely to make it a power in our lives, this compassion for others, than simply to stare long and hard at those two happy men who got up from the side of the road where they had spent so many long, miserable days, got up to follow Jesus, every now and then kicking up their heels unable to believe that they could really see!  And not only see, but live and live forever.  Surely any Christian must want to see many others as happy as that!

    Matthew 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43

    Matthew 20:29-34

    Mark 10:46-52

    Luke 18:35-43

    29. And while they were departing from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. 30. And, lo, two blind men sitting near the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried aloud, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 31. And the multitude rebuked them, that they might be silent; but they cried out the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 32. And Jesus stood, and called them, and said, What do you wish that I should do to you" 33. They say to Him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. 34. And Jesus, moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.

     

    46. And they come to Jericho: and while they was departing from the city Jericho, and His disciples, and a great multitude, Bartimeus, son of Timeus, a blind man, was sitting hear the road begging. 47. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry aloud, and to say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. 48. And many rebuked him, that he might be silent: but he cried out so much the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. 49. And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying to him, Be of good courage, rise; he calleth thee.50. And he, throwing away his mantle, arose, and came to Jesus. 51. And Jesus answering, saith to him, What dost thou wish that I should do to thee" And the blind man said to Him, Master, 668668     “Rabboni;” — “Maistre.” that I may receive sight. 52 And Jesus said to him, Go away; thy faith hath cured thee. And immediately he received sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

     

    35. And it happened that, while He was approaching Jericho, a certain blind man was sitting near the road begging: 36. And when he heard a multitude passing by, he asked what it was. 37. And they said to him, that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. 38. And he cried out, saying, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. 39. And they that were going before rebuked him, that he might be silent: but he cried out so much the more, Son of David, have mercy on me.40. And Jesus, standing still, commanded him to be brought to him: and while He was approaching, He asked him, 41. Saying, What dost thou wish that I should do to thee" And he said, Lord, that I may receive sight. 42. Then Jesus said to him, Receive sight: thy faith hath cred thee. 43. And immediately he received sight, and followed Him, glorifying God: and all the people when they saw it, gave praise to God.

     

    Matthew 20:29: And while they were departing from Jericho. Osiander has resolved to display his ingenuity by making four blind men out of one. But nothing can be more frivolous than this supposition. Having observed that the Evangelists differ in a few expressions, he imagined that one blind man received sight when they were entering into the city, and that the second, and other two, received sight when Christ was departing from it. But all the circumstances agree so completely, that no person of sound judgment will believe them to be different narratives. Not to mention other matters, when Christ’s followers had endeavored to put the first to silence, and saw him cured contrary to their expectation, would they immediately have made the same attempt with the other three" But it is unnecessary to go into particulars, from which any man may easily infer that it is one and the same event which is related.

    But there is a puzzling contradiction in this respect, that Matthew and Mark say that the miracle was performed on one or on two blind men, when Christ had already departed from the city; while Luke relates that it was done before He came to the city. Besides, Mark and Luke speak of not more than one blind man, while Matthew mentions two. But as we know that it frequently occurs in the Evangelists, that in the same narrative one passes by what is mentioned by the others, and, on the other hand, states more clearly what they have omitted, it ought not to be looked upon as strange or unusual in the present passage.

    The conjecture is, that, while Christ was approaching to the city, the blind man cried out, but that, as he was not heard on account of the noise, he placed himself in the way, as they were departing from the city, “Mais pource qu’il ne peut estre ouy a cause du bruit du peuple, qu’il s’en alla, l’autre porte de la ville par laquelle Christ devoit sortir, pour l’attendre la au chemin;” “but, because he could not be heard on account of the noise of the people, that he went away to the other gate by which Christ was to go out, to wait for Him there on the road.” and then was at length called by Christ. And so Luke, commencing with what was true, does not follow out the whole narrative, but passes over Christ’s stay in the city; while the other Evangelists attend only to the time which was nearer to the miracle. There is probability in the conjecture that, as Christ frequently, when He wished to try the faith of men, delayed for a short time to relieve them, so He subjected this blind man to the same scrutiny.

    The second difficulty may be speedily removed; for we have seen, on a former occasion, that Mark and Luke speak of one demoniac as having been cured, while Matthew, as in the present instance, mentions two, (Matthew 8:28; Mark 5:2; Luke 8:27) And yet this involves no contradiction between them; but it may rather be conjectured with probability, that at first one blind man implored the favor of Christ, and that another was excited by his example, and that in this way two persons received sight Mark and Luke speak of one only, either because he was better known, or because in him the demonstration of been on account of his having been extensively known that he was selected by Mark, who gives both his own name and that of his father: Bartimeus, son of Timeus By doing so, he does not claim for him either illustrious descent or wealth; for he was a beggar of the lowest class. Hence it appears that the miracle was more remarkable in his person, because his calamity had been generally known. This appears to be the reason why Mark and Luke mention him only, and say nothing about the other, who was a sort of inferior appendage. But Matthew, who was an eye-witness, “Qui avoit este present au miracle;” “who had been present at the miracle.” did not choose to pass by even this person, though less known.

    30. Have mercy on me, O Lord. There was at first but one who cried out, but the other was induced by a similar necessity to join him. They confer on Christ no ordinary honor, when they request Him to have mercy, and relieve them; for they must have been convinced that He had in his power the assistance or remedy which they needed. But their faith is still more clearly exhibited by their acknowledgment of Him as Messiah, to whom we know that the Jews gave this designation, Son of David They therefore apply to Christ, not only as some Prophet, but as that person whom God had promised to be the only Author of salvation. The cry proved the ardor of the desire; for, though they knew that what they said exposed them to the hatred of many, who were highly displeased with the honor done to Christ, their fear was overcome by the ardor of desire, so that they did not refrain, on this account, from raising their voice aloud.

    31. And the multitude reproved them. It is surprising that the disciples of Christ, who follow Him through a sense of duty and of respect, should wish to drive wretched men from the favor of Christ, and, so far as lies in them, to prevent the exercise of His power. But it frequently happens that the greater part of those who profess the name of Christ, instead of inviting us to Him, rather hinder or delay our approach. If Satan endeavored to throw obstacles in the way of two blind men, by means of pious and simple persons, who were induced by some sentiments of religion to follow Christ, how much more will he succeed in accomplishing it by means of hypocrites and traitors, if we be not strictly on our guard. Perseverance is therefore necessary to overcome every difficulty, and the more numerous the obstacles are which Satan throws in the way, the more powerfully ought we to be excited to earnestness in prayer, as we see that the blind men redoubled their cry

    32. What do you wish that I should do to you" He gently and kindly asks what they desire; for He had determined to grant their requests. There is no reason to doubt that they prayed by a special movement of the Holy Spirit; for, as the Lord does not intend to grant to all persons deliverance from bodily diseases, so neither does He permit them simply to pray for it. A rule has been prescribed for us what we ought to ask, and in what manner, and to what extent; and we are not at liberty to depart from that rule, unless the Lord, by a secret movement of the Spirit, suggest to us some special prayer, which rarely happens. Christ puts the question to them, not for their sake as individuals, but for the sake of all the people; for we know how the world swallows God’s benefits without perceiving them, unless they are stimulated and aroused. Christ, therefore, by His voice, awakens the assembled crowd to observe the miracle, as He awakens them shortly afterwards by a visible sign, when He opens their eyes by touching them.

    34. And Jesus, moved with compassion, etc. Σπλαγχνισθείς, moved with compassion, is not the participle of the same verb which Matthew had just now employed in reference to the blind man, ἐλέησον,have mercy “Quand ils disoyent, Fils de David, aye misericorde de nous;” “when they said, Son of David, have mercy on us.” They implored the mercy of Christ, that He might relieve their wretchedness; but now the Evangelist expresses that Christ was induced to cure them, not only by undeserved goodness, but because He pitied their distress. For the metaphor is taken from thebowels, (σπλάγχνα,) in which dwells that kindness and mutual compassion which prompts us to assist our neighbors.

    Mark 10:52. Thy faith hath saved thee By the word faith is meant not only a confident hope of recovering sight, but a loftier conviction, which was, that this blind man had acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah whom God had promised. Nor must we imagine that it was only some confused knowledge; for we have already seen that this confession was taken from the Law and the Prophets. For the blind man did not at random bestow on Christ the name of Son of David, but embraced Him as that person whose coming he had been taught by the divine predictions to expect. Now Christ attributes it to faith that the blind man received sight; for, though the power and grace of God sometimes extend even to unbelievers, yet no man enjoys His benefits in a right and profitable manner, unless he receive them by faith; nay, the use of the gifts of God is so far from being advantageous to unbelievers, that it is even hurtful. And therefore, when Christ says, thy faith hath saved thee, the word saved is not limited to an outward cure, but includes also the health and safety of the soul; as if Christ had said, that by faith the blind man obtained that God was gracious to him, and granted his wish. And if it was in regard to faith that God bestowed his favor on the blind man, it follows that he was justified by faith

    Matthew 20:34. And followed Him. This was an expression of gratitude, “Ceci a este un signe de reconnaissance du bien receu de Christ;” “this was an expression of gratitude for the favor received from Christ.” when the blind men became followers of Christ; for, though it is uncertain how long they discharged this duty, yet it showed a grateful mind, that they presented themselves to many, in that journey, as mirrors of the grace of Christ. Luke adds, that the people gave praise to God, which tends to prove the certainty of the miracle.

    New International Version: As Jesus and His disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.

    New Living Translation: As Jesus and the disciples left the town of Jericho, a large crowd followed behind.

    English Standard Version: And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed Him.

    New American Standard Bible : As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.

    King James Bible: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

    Holman Christian Standard Bible: As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.

    International Standard Version: As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Jesus.

    NET Bible: As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed them.

    Aramaic Bible in Plain English: And when Yeshua went out from Jericho, a great crowd was coming after Him.

     

    GOD'S WORD® Translation: As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Jesus.

    Jubilee Bible 2000: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

    King James 2000 Bible: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

    American King James Version: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

     

    American Standard Version: And as they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

     

    Douay-Rheims Bible: And when they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. 

    Darby Bible Translation: And as they went out from Jericho a great crowd followed Him.

    English Revised Version: And as they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

    Webster's Bible Translation: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

     

    Weymouth New Testament: As they were leaving Jericho, an immense crowd following Him,

    World English Bible: As they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

     

    Young's Literal Translation: And they going forth from Jericho, there followed Him a great multitude,

     

    Parallel Commentaries Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

     

    20:29-34 It is good for those under the same trial, or infirmity of body or mind, to join in prayer to God for relief, that they may quicken and encourage one another. There is mercy enough in Christ for all that ask. They were earnest in prayer. They cried out as men in earnest. Cold desires beg denials. They were humble in prayer, casting themselves upon, and referring themselves cheerfully to, the Mediator's mercy. They showed faith in prayer, by the title they gave to Christ. Surely it was by the Holy Ghost that they called Jesus, Lord. They persevered in prayer. When they were in pursuit of such mercy, it was no time for timidity or hesitation: they cried earnestly. Christ encouraged them. The wants and burdens of the body we are soon sensible of, and can readily relate. Oh that we did as feelingly complain of our spiritual maladies, especially our spiritual blindness! Many are spiritually blind, yet say they see. Jesus cured these blind men; and when they had received sight, they followed Him. None follow Christ blindly. He first by His grace opens men's eyes, and so draws their hearts after Him. These miracles are our call to Jesus; may we hear it, and make it our daily prayer to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

     

    Pulpit Commentary:

     

    Verses 29-34. - Healing of two blind men at Jericho. (Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43.) The miracle narrated in this passage is common to the three synopsis’s, but with some remarkable differences, not one of them agreeing altogether in details. St. Matthew speaks of two blind men, St. Luke and St. Mark of one only, and the latter mentions this one by name as Bartimaeus. St. Matthew and St. Mark make the miracle performed as Jesus quitted Jericho; St. Luke assigns it to the approach to the city. Thus the number of the cured and the locality of the miracle are alike variously stated. It is an easy solution to say, with St. Augustine, Lightfoot, and Greswell, that two, or perhaps three, distinct facts are here related; and it is not absolutely impossible. though altogether improbable, that in the same locality, under identical circumstances, like sufferers made the same request, and received the same relief in the same manner. But we are not driven to this extravagant hypothesis; and the unity of the narrative can be preserved without doing violence to the language of the writers. As to the number of the blind men, we have seen the same discrepancy in the case of the demoniacs at Gadara solved by supposing that one of the two was the more remarkable and better known than the other. Hence, in this incident, the tradition followed by some of the synopsis’s preserved the memory of this one alone, who may have become known in the Christian community as a devoted follower of Jesus, the other passing into obscurity and being heard of no more. Another hypothesis is that a single blind man first addressed Christ as He entered Jericho, but was not cured at that time. Jesus passed that night in the city at the house of Zacchreus (Luke 19:1-10); and on the morrow, when leaving Jericho, was again entreated by the blind man, who meantime had been joined by a companion, and healed them both. There are other solutions offered, e.g., that there were two Jericho’s, an old and a new town, and that one blind man was healed as they entered one city, and the other as they left the other; or that the term rendered "was come nigh" (Luke 18:35) might mean "was nigh," and might therefore apply to one who was leaving as well as to one entering the city.

     

    But we weary ourselves in vain in seeking to harmonize every little detail in the Gospel narratives. No two, much less three, independent witnesses would give an identical account of an incident, especially one which reached some of them only by hearsay. Inspiration extends not to petty circumstances, and the credibility of the gospel depends not on the rectification of such minutiae.

     

    Verse 29. - Jericho. The Lord was on His way to Jerusalem to meet the death which He was willing to undergo, and to win the victory which He was by this path to accomplish. His route lay through Jericho, as the march of His forerunner Joshua had led. Joshua had set forth to conquer the Promised Land; Jesus sets forth to win His promised inheritance by the sword of the Spirit. "The upland pastures of Peraea were now behind them, "and the road led down to the sunken channel of the Jordan, and the 'divine district' of Jericho. This small but rich plain was the most luxuriant spot in Palestine. Sloping gently upwards from the level of the Dead Sea, 1350 feet under the Mediterranean, to the stern background of the hills of Quarantana, it had the climate of Lower Egypt, and displayed the vegetation of the tropics. Its fig trees were pre-eminently famous; it was unique in its growth of palms of various kinds: its crops of dates were a proverb; the balsam plant, which grew principally here, furnished a costly perfume, and was in great repute for healing wounds; maize yielded a double harvest; wheat ripened a whole month earlier than in Galilee, and innumerable bees found a paradise in the many aromatic flowers and plants, not a few unknown elsewhere, which filled the air with odours and the landscape with beauty. Rising like an amphitheatre from amidst this luxuriant scene, lay Jericho, the chief place east of Jerusalem, at seven or eight miles distant from the Jordan, on swelling slopes, seven hundred feet above the bed of the river, from which its gardens and groves, thickly interspersed with mansions, and covering seventy furlongs from north to south, and twenty from east to west, were divided by a strip of wilderness.

     

    The town had had an eventful history. Once the stronghold of the Canaanites, it was still, in the days of Christ, surrounded by towers and castles. A great stone aqueduct of eleven arches brought a copious supply of water to the city, and the Roman military road ran through it. The houses themselves, however, though showy, were not substantial, but were built mostly of sun-dried bricks, like those of Egypt; so that now, as in the similar case of Babylon, Nineveh, or Egypt, after long desolation, hardly a trace of them remains." A great multitude. A vast crowd of pilgrims, bound for Jerusalem to keep the Passover, accompanied Jesus and His disciples. The number of people that this great festival attracted to the central place of worship seems to us incredibly large. Josephus ('Bell. Jud.,' 6:09. 3) reckons them at three millions. Doubtless our Lord was followed by many of those whom He had benefited, and others whom He had won by His teaching; and these, at any rate, would witness the ensuing miracle. 

     

    Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

     

    And as they departed from Jericho ... Which, was distant about ten parsas, or miles, from Jerusalem (i), through which Christ just passed, and had met with Zacchaeus, and called him, and delivered the parable concerning a nobleman's going into a far country. The Syriac and Persic versions render the words, "when Jesus departed from Jericho"; and the Arabic, "when He went out of Jericho"; not alone, but "with His disciples", as Mark says; and not with them only, for a great multitude followed Him out of the city; either to hear Him, or be healed by Him, or to see Him, or behold His miracles, or to accompany Him to Jerusalem; whither He was going to keep the feast of the Passover, and where they might be in some expectation He would set up His kingdom. The Ethiopic version reads it, "As they went out from Jerusalem", contrary to all copies and versions. 

     

    Matthew 20:29-20:34 What Would You Have Me Do For You"  

     

    It would appear that Jesus never asked this question of anyone else in the Gospels. Didn’t He know what these blind men needed"

     

    He was seeking help, but in the process of seeking that help he got distracted. The light was on and it drew him away from the place where he might actually get help.

    In Matthew 20, Jesus is entering the final week of His ministry. He’s on His way to Jerusalem and will soon be betrayed, arrested, and crucified… the crowds will clamor for His blood and cry "Crucify Him!" "Crucify Him!"

     

    But as of now, the crowds still love Him. They line the streets and clamor for His attention. They’ve come to believe that this Jesus is: The hope of Israel. The Messiah. The Son of David. The promised King of Israel

     

    Everyone is speculating that He will soon claim His crown, throw off the yoke of the hated Romans and restore Israel to its former glory. But amongst the crowd are 2 blind men. 
    Everybody knows them. They’re always sitting by the roadside begging for alms. They cry out “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” (Matthew 20:30) And the crowd is irritated. This isn’t what they think Jesus is “all about”. Jesus is too important to be bothered by rabble like this.

     

    But Jesus stops and asks these blind men “What do want me to do for you"”

    Now this is an unusual question for two reasons: 1st This is the only time in the Gospels we find Jesus asking anyone what they need done. 2nd You would think it would be obvious what these men needed. They’re blind. Even if Jesus couldn’t have looked into their eyes and seen the cloudiness that is often there in the eyes of the blind, or watched them as they grope about in the ways blind men do…

     

    This is Jesus. He doesn’t need anyone to tell Him what these men were blind. He’s God…  He knows these things. So why ask the question"

     

    Well, it seems obvious to me that He didn’t ask the question for His own benefit (as if He didn’t know what they needed in their lives). Jesus asked the question for the benefit of the others who were there that day.

     

    1st. Jesus asked this question for the benefit of the crowds. This crowd is obviously not into helping blind people. Blind people were a nuisance. They were a hindrance. They were a distraction to what Jesus’ real purpose ought to be.

     

    And would that “real purpose” be" Meeting their needs, building their kingdom.

     

    When it becomes obvious, a few days later, that this wasn’t what Jesus had in mind the crowds turned their backs on Him and cry out for His blood. And so it was intriguing that Jesus didn’t ask the crowds what He could do for them. He asked the blind men.

    There are times when the Church forgets why it exists. There are times when Christians forget what Jesus saved them for. They begin to think church is all about them. They think their relationship with Jesus is totally focused on their needs and their agenda. They

     

    "Matthew 20:29-34 says Jesus healed two blind men as He left Jericho. Mark 10:46-52 and Luke 18:35-43 say He healed one man as He entered Jericho. Is this a contradiction""

     

    In spite of apparent discrepancies, these three passages do refer to the same incident. The Matthew account cites two men healed as Jesus left Jericho. Mark and Luke refer to only one blind man healed, but Luke says it happened as Jesus was entering Jericho while Mark records it happening as He left Jericho. There are legitimate explanations for the apparent discrepancies. Let’s look at them rather than deciding this is a contradiction and the Bible is in error.

     

    That this is the same incident is seen in the similarity of the accounts, beginning with the two beggars sitting on the roadside. They call out to Jesus, referring to Him as “Son of David” (Matthew 20:30; Mark 10:48; Luke 18:38), and in all three accounts, they are rebuked by those nearby and told to be quiet but continue to shout out to Jesus (Matthew 20:31; Mark 10:48; Luke 18:39). The three accounts describe nearly identical conversations between Jesus and the beggars and the conclusions of the stories are also identical. The beggars receive their sight immediately and follow Jesus.

     

    Only Mark and Luke chose to identify one of the beggars as Bartimeus, perhaps because he was the main character in the story and was therefore the sole focus of Mark’s and Luke’s accounts. Perhaps it was because Bartimeus was known to them as the son of Timeus, but the other man was a stranger to them. In any case, the fact that only one man of the two is recorded as speaking does not mean there was only one man. It simply means Mark and Luke identified only one man speaking, Bartimeus. Matthew refers to both of them calling out to Jesus, clearly indicating there were two men.

     

    The other issue in question is whether Jesus was entering Jericho or leaving it. Bible commentators cite the fact that at that time there were two Jericho’s, one the mound of the ancient city (still existing today) and the other the inhabited city of Jericho. Therefore, Jesus could have healed the two men as He was leaving the ancient city of Jericho and entering the new city of Jericho.

     

    In any case, to focus on these minor details to the exclusion of all else is to miss the point of the story, Jesus healed the blind men, proving that He was indeed the Son of God with powers beyond anything a mortal man could have. Unlike the Pharisees who refused to see what was before their eyes, our response to Jesus should be the same as that of the blind men, call on Him to give us eyes to see spiritual truth, recognize Him for who He is, and follow Him.

     

    Transcripts

     

    The exposition of the word of God is the exposition of Matthew chapter 20 verses 29 through verse 34, but is also built upon the parallel account in Mark chapter 10.  So let’s turn first to Matthew chapter 20, verses 29 through 34, and then we’ll turn to the Markan passage in chapter 10 of that Gospel.  Remember the context.  The Lord Jesus is now on His way to the city of Jerusalem where He will offer Himself as a sacrifice for sinners.  Matthew writes in verse 29 of chapter 20 and Mark chapter 10 and verse 46.  Luke in his account comments that he followed the Lord Jesus glorifying God, and that the people gave praise to God as a result of what had happened.  May the Lord bless this reading of His word.

     

    We may have overlooked the fact in our study of the New Testament that the name of our Lord Jesus, Jesus is the same as the name for Joshua in the Old Testament.  The word Iesous in the Greek of the New Testament is the equivalent of Y’hoshua or Joshua, in the Old Testament.  So what we have in this account that we are looking at is an appearance of the second Joshua before Jericho, and so the title this morning for the message is “The Second Joshua Working Miracles at Jericho Again.”

     

    The biblical critics have had a happy time studying this passage of Scripture which has to do with the healing of the blind men, as our Lord was at Jericho on His last visit to the city of Jerusalem while in the flesh.  And it contains problems that lend some credence to their view that the Bible is after all only an ordinary book.  Confidently, they intone in details and many important points, the gospels do not agree.

               

    Then they go on to say, somewhat condescendingly, that the differences in these accounts do not really make a whole lot of difference, except insofar as they give instruction to those who believe that the Bible is true in all of its statements.  So they tell us that these differences in the accounts don’t mean anything, but they at least should instruct those simple-minded people, they mean us, who think that the words of holy Scripture are inerrant.  What are the difficulties which give the detractors of the Bible such relish in these accounts of the healing of the blind men"

               

    There are two particularly.  In the first place, Matthew speaks of two men who are healed, while Mark and Luke speak only of one.  Now of course we should notice immediately if we have any facility for thinking logically, that when Matthew says that there are two, and Mark and Luke speak only of one, Mark and Luke do not say that there was only one blind man.  Now that is very important.  All that Luke and Mark say is that the Lord healed a blind man.  Mark gives his name as Bartimaeus.  They do not say He healed only one man.  So there is really no contradiction between the accounts in that respect.

     

    But there is something else that is of probably of greater difficulty.  Mark and Matthew place the healing after the Lord Jesus leaves Jericho, while Luke appears to place the healing before the Lord Jesus enters Jericho.

     

    Now that might be a serious problem for those who believe that the Bible is inerrant in the statements that it makes.  We must of course remember that so far as the Scriptures are concerned, we do not have all of the details surrounding the incidents of the Bible, and so we have to think in our own minds of situations in which the words of Scripture may find their significance and relevance.  But there have been a number of suggestions by individuals in attempts to harmonize this fact that Mark and Matthew place the healing after Jericho whereas Luke suggests that the healing occurred before the Lord entered Jericho.

               

    One Bible teacher, who has been a very prominent Bible teacher, has taught that really we have two different healings.  Now of course we have already had the healing of two blind men in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 9 and since it was the Messianic office of the Lord Jesus to heal blind men, it’s certainly true that He did heal many blind men through the three years or so of His ministry.  And so it has been suggested that what we have in Luke is one account whereas what we have in Mark and Matthew is another account, and if that is so that would of course solve all of our difficulties.

     

    Still others have said, for example Professor A. T. Robertson, the well known New Testament professor, that there were really two Jericho’s.  That is, an old or ancient city and a new modern Jericho, which was new and modern in our Lord’s day.  We know that this is generally true, and it is Professor Robertson’s contention that in one of the accounts, the author looks at it from the standpoint of the old city of Jericho and thus the healing was as He came out of the city of Jericho, and as He was to enter the new Jericho, and the other account is written from that standpoint.  So if there were two Jericho’s it would be very easy to harmonize these accounts.  The healing took place between the leaving of one and the entering of another.

               

    Another ancient commentator, the Pietist commentator Albrecht Bengel, whose writings have been read by countless thousands of students of the Scripture, not only in the original Latin in the which he wrote them, but in other translations of them.  Bengel has made the suggestion that what happened really was that the blind men met the Lord Jesus as he was entering Jericho, and since Jericho was a relatively small city, they followed the great crowd seeking to get to Him as He made His way through Jericho, and then finally came into touch with Him as they were leaving the city and thus both of the accounts could be true:  one written from the standpoint of the entrance and the other written from the standpoint of the exit where the healing really took place.

               

    There are some modern interpretations, too.  One of the modern interpreters has suggested that really what happened was something like this:  the two blind men were seated right near the outskirts of the city, but when they heard the crowd which preceded the Lord Jesus, and they heard word that Jesus was coming, they began to shout, and so they began to shout as the Lord Jesus entered the city, and Luke writes his account from that standpoint.  But finally as He came to leave the city, they came into contact with Him and were healed as He left the city.

               

    Still another has suggested this explanation.  He has said that it’s shortly after this that the Lord Jesus sees Zacchaeus in the in the tree, and He calls down Zacchaeus, and remember, says that He was going to lodge with him that night.  Now since Zacchaeus lived in Jericho, and since he wanted to see the Lord Jesus, he had raced outside the city so he could catch a good view of Him and when the Lord Jesus saw him with the multitude looking at the little man up in the tree, He called out to Zacchaeus as He came out of the city and said Zacchaeus come down I must lodge with you tonight.  And the incident involving Zacchaeus took place, and then He went back into the city and spent the night with Zacchaeus.  And so one of the accounts is written from the standpoint of the leaving of the city whereas the other is written from the standpoint of our Lord entering back into the city, and as He entered, He met the blind men and healed them.

               

    So there are a number of suggestions that have been offered.  The Gospels do not really give us anything necessarily contradictory.  We just don’t know the details.  One of the interesting things that we shall be engaged in at least for a little while when we get to heaven is the harmonization of many things with which we do not have enough information to harmonize ourselves.  So, there is not any serious problem in this at all.  It’s interesting.  We don’t know how it happened, and we’ll be looking forward to finding out how when we get there.  But when we get there these will be rather insignificant things.  And we’ll probably say, why did we waist eight or nine minutes talking about that" [Laughter]

               

    There is a two-fold significance in this event that is more important, and the first thing is what we can call, for the sake of a better word, a dispensational significance.  Remember the Lord Jesus is coming to Jerusalem as the King of Israel.  When He enters, shortly in the next message we shall consider his untriumphal entry, He will come and the people shall shout out, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.”  And, since it was one of the duties of the Messianic king to heal the eyes of the blind, specifically, that it’s very appropriate that as He makes His plans for entering the city of Jerusalem, He should heal again some blind men making or bringing to the forefront again the fact that He is the Messianic king who performs the miracles that He is supposed to perform according to Old Testament prophesy.  That’s one of the important things.

               

    But there is another thing that is even more important, and that is the reference that this particular incident has to the spiritual life of men and women.  It is again a beautiful illustration of the Lord’s power to illuminate the spiritually blind.  The word of God tells us the Apostle Paul, particularly, that the natural man, that is the man who does not have any relationship to the Lord Jesus that is vital and life-giving, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned.

               

    In other words, the Apostle Paul says that the natural man cannot understand spiritual truth.  There must be a previous working of the Holy Spirit by which their minds are illuminated to understand divine truth.  Paul puts it in other ways.  He says that we are dead in trespasses and sin.  Some who do not have a vital saving relationship with Jesus Christ, and we rather wonder why it is that we are here.  Perhaps some friend has brought you.  Or perhaps out of what you thought was mere curiosity, and we wonder why it is that people come to hear an exposition of an ancient book written hundreds and hundreds of years ago.  We read it and we do not get anything out of it.  We find it, in the words of the Apostle Paul, foolishness.  We are actually fulfilling the words of Scripture in the fact that we do not understand it and rather think that it is stupid, that’s the meaning of Paul’s term really. Stupid.

     

    Now the Bible tells us that those who do not have eternal life are spiritually blind. Over and over again, the apostle mentions that.  He says that we are blind in our hearts.  We are alienated from God and do not have the life of God within us.  And this incident is designed to illustrate the fact that it is the Lord Jesus who works in the hearts of blind men.  Men who are spiritually blind.

               

    There are people who sit in an audience who do not understand anything more about spiritual things.  We are here and that’s all, and we wonder why. That’s true, because we attend church and many of us do not understand what in the world was going on.  We are blind as a bat spiritually.  Now God the Holy Spirit must work in the hearts of men for spiritual illumination to come, and this incident this miracle in the life of our Lord is another illustration of His power.  Let’s turn to it now, and first of all, let´s say a word about the historical situation against the background of which the Lord Jesus ministers.

               

    We are in the part of Matthew in which we are going to have a great deal of stress upon the ministry of the Lord in the last days studying these last chapters of the Gospel of Matthew again, because the most fruitful parts of biblical study are the passages in the gospels that have to do with the passion of the Lord Jesus.  And we are fast approaching that part of the Gospel of Matthew in which the Lord Jesus in the last days of His life ministers there, preparatory to giving His life a ransom for many.

               

    Now as He made His way down to Jerusalem on the last of His journeys to that city in the flesh, He was making His way with the apostles, and also with a company of friends.  Mark tells us in the 32nd verse of the 10th chapter, “And they were on the way going up to Jerusalem and Jesus went before them.”  And you can picture the little crowd the apostles gathered close to the Lord Jesus and then their friends and relatives who were a little back, and the Lord Jesus suddenly began to lengthen His steps, as He made His way toward Jerusalem.  Luke describes His countenance as an appearance as if He were going to Jerusalem.  And so as He lengthened His step and marched out with increasing speed before them the apostles noticed that that was not His customary action in their travels, and so the Scriptures say that they were amazed, they were astonished.

               

    And then looking at the people who were following Mark continues and says, “As they followed they were afraid.”  So there was something about the occasion in which our Lord had this different look upon His face moved out in front of the company, there was something about it that caused the rest of the group that were with them to come under the influence of this sense of the luminous, and awe stricken they observed the Lord Jesus as He made His way toward Jerusalem.

               

    Bengel, that same German commentator, asks the question, what was He doing", and then answers it by saying that He was dwelling in His passion.  He was thinking about what now was immediately before Him when He would finally go to that cross and cry out, “It is finished” after having said “My God my God why hast Thou forsaken Me"”  That is really a kind of theme verse of these final chapters of the gospel records.

               

    So the Lord Jesus, having crossed the Jordan now comes to the little city of Jericho, and remembers His name was Joshua.  So a greater Joshua stands at Jericho with His word drawn to storm the stronghold of the Prince of Darkness, and He will win the battle by dying upon a Roman gibbet.  And this incident of the blind man is a kind of earnest of the victory the Lord Jesus will obtain when He shed his blood.

               

    Well as He draws near to Jericho, a great multitude is following Him.  They are friends of His.  No doubt many relatives of His too.  They draw near to the city of Jericho and behold Matthew says in the 30th verse, two blind men sitting by the way side.  It’s not surprising that our Lord’s miracles include the healing of blind men because that was the Messianic work:  to open the eyes of the blind.  Isaiah says that when the Messiah comes He will do that.  He says that in chapter 29, about verse 17 or 18 of that chapter.  He also says that in chapter 35 and verse 5.  So this was a specific Messianic miracle.

               

    So it’s not surprising then that in His miracles there should be the healing of many blind men.  And furthermore, it’s not surprising that there should be two of them.  It’s pathetic when you think about it, of course, but it was natural, because two blind men would naturally be anxious for sympathy and encouragement and help, and it is true that equal sorrows cause men to creep close for warmth and companionship.  We know that when we have other afflictions.  Those that have similar afflictions do tend to come together because they can mutually help one another.

               

    Blindness was very, very common, unfortunately, in the eastern cities in the time of our Lord.  One of the reasons for this was that there were conditions of uncleanness that caused such diseases to abound.  And in addition the bright glare of the sun in those parts of our world was such, and since they didn’t have protection from the sun, that they became afflicted in their eyes.  A visitor in our modern day to Cairo, Egypt has said that it was his observation that out of one hundred people in Egypt; about fifty were affected with eye disease.  Twenty were blind, ten had lost one eye, and twenty had other eye diseases.  So we should not be surprised then that the Lord Jesus in His ministry should encompass the healing of many blind men.

               

    The text says that when the Lord Jesus passed by, they heard that Jesus had passed by.  And incidentally in the words that are the outpouring of their heart, it’s evident that they had already heard of the Lord Jesus.  They knew something about Him.  It’s even possible that they had heard accounts of the healing ministry of this Jesus of Nazareth, and incidentally since they had no doubt studied the Scriptures themselves and paid because of their affliction particular attention to those prophesies of the Old Testament that spoke of the healing of blind men, and longing for that themselves, that they were naturally attracted to the stories concerning the Lord Jesus.

    The Holy Scripture says, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  So the word concerning the Lord Jesus had been disseminated, and they had heard it and on the basis of what they had heard the Holy Spirit had wrought in their hearts. This incident, incidentally is the origin of Sankey’s hymn,

     

    “What means this eager anxious throng which moves with busy haste along these wondrous gatherings day by day;  what means this strange commotion pray in accents hushed the throng reply Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.” 

     

    When the word came to the blind men that the Lord Jesus might be near, they began to cry out.  Now Mark tells us they began to.  We would gather that from Matthew, because in the account here in Matthew, they cry out,  “Have mercy upon us,” and then when some seek to stop them they still cry out the more,  “O Lord, thou son of David, have mercy upon us.”

               

    So they began to cry out, and notice what they say when they cry out to Him.  They do not say, O man of Nazareth, have mercy upon us.  They do not say, O Yankee or Northerner have mercy upon us.  They have some very definite information concerning Him.  They cry out, have mercy on us O Lord thou son of David. It is evident they have faith in His person as the Lord.  That is, they have some conception that He is a divine person and also they have a conception of Him as the Messiah, because son of David is a Messianic term.  So they know that He is the Son of God, and they know that He is the Messiah.

               

    Now whether they understood all of the significance of it, or whether they would understand what that meant in the light of the Council of Calcedon later on, that’s another matter.  But at least they had come to the conviction He was the Lord and come to the conviction that He was the Messianic king.  And not only did they have faith in His person, but they had a great confidence in His power, because they said, have mercy upon us.  They knew that it was within the power of the Lord Jesus to heal them, and so they cried out have mercy upon us.

               

    These men are a picture in the kind of attitude that men ought to have when they come into conviction for sin and desire to have deliverance.  They were earnest.  They cried.  They kept crying.  Even the tenses of the verbs in the other accounts stress the fact that this cry of theirs was a continual thing.  They were earnest.  We are earnest about everything but spiritual things.

               

    First thing to note is, we are very earnest about our sports.  We are very earnest about our business.  We are very earnest about our studies.  We are very earnest about our calling in life about our friends our hobbies, about everything, but when it comes to spiritual things, our hearts are as the old commentators used to say, as cold as the arctic snows.        

     

    These men were earnest.  Not only that they were persistent.  When actually people said, shut up, they said we’re going to not only keep it up but we’re going to shout loud enough in order to get over the heads of our hinderers, and so they cried out the text of Scripture says the more.  So the more they were told to shut up the louder they cried.  They were persistent.  They knew what they wanted.  And this is a very poignant fact when you think of blind men who could not see in the midst of a multitude.  They must have been crying out all along where is He"  Which way did He go"  What street did He turn down"  And all at the same time shouting out, O Lord, thou son of David have mercy upon us!  Which way did He go"  Lord have mercy upon us.  Did He turn that way"  Show me.  Take me to Him.  You can see this was something that was very important for them.  They knew what they wanted and incidentally they were humble.

               

    These cries that they were making were confessions of their unworthiness.  O Lord, thou son of David have mercy upon me.  They did not talk of their merits.  They didn’t say, for example, O Lord have mercy upon us, we attend the synagogue regularly.  We listen to the Pharisees.  We study the Scriptures.  We do good works.  We don’t put a sign our face “blind” when we really can see.  They had no talk of merit whatsoever, because whenever we talk of merit before the Lord, the doors of heaven are shut.  O Lord, thou son of David have mercy upon us.  They really were beggar, literally, Mark tells us, and they were beggars spiritually seeking for help.  And they plead as criminals, have mercy upon us.

               

    Now this illustrates of course the fact that according to the teaching of the word of God, our wills are obstinate in rebellion against the Lord.  The Scriptures so plainly teach about one of the most difficult things for men to grasp, the relationship of the will in our salvation. The Bible teaches that we have a will, that we do make decisions.  But the Bible teaches that the will is a secondary agent.  The will acts in accordance with our nature and our nature affected by the fall is wicked and rebellious against God.  Therefore, the decisions of the will which are a response to the inmost disposition of a man are always decisions contrary to the will of God.   This repeats over and over again, and we should say it again, because there are always some strangers in the midst.  We never make a decision of the will that is favorable to God unless God has previously “jiggled our willed.”

     

    That is biblical teaching.  It’s hard for men to understand that.  But nevertheless it is true.  It is basic to the gospel of the Lord Jesus.  The responses that men make do not arise ultimately from the heart of men; ultimately they arise from God’s working.  That’s why salvation is of the Lord.  So when we read these men cry out, have mercy upon us, it’s obvious that God has already wrought in their will, and they are crying out now in response to what He has done.

     

    Their wills naturally were obstinate.  They were rebellious.  Their understanding was darkened.  Their affections were depraved.  They were blind to the things that really counted.  That’s the way we are born.  We are born in our sin.  We know we can speak to someone about the wonders of this creation about us. We can talk to men about the beauties of and the wonders of His divine creation and men are able to understand with us.  We can speak of the wonders of creation ourselves, but when we turn to speak about the wonders of the New Covenant and of the blood that was shed by which we have everlasting life, by which we are brought into the family of God, by which we are justified, by which we become the children of God, then the beauties of the person of the Redeemer and the work of the Redeemer seem as nothing as foolishness to us.  We do not understand them at all.

               

    So these men cry out humbly with confessions of their own unworthiness, and the message that they proclaim is that the Lord Jesus is the Lord and the Messiah.  It’s striking that these blind men, these poor bind men, give the glory to the Lord Jesus that the leaders the religious leaders in Jerusalem did not. They did not own Him as Lord.  They rebelled against the very idea and they did not accept Him as the son of David.  They rebelled against that idea.  So these two poor blind men who did not have the religious training, and no doubt the religious experiences that the Pharisees and the Sadducees did, had by the grace of God been enabled to understand things that religious leaders do not.  There is a great lesson in that.

               

    The Lord’s reaction to this is remarkable.  A cry of need brings Him to a complete stop.  We read in verse 32, “And Jesus stood still.”  Isn’t that striking"  When Joshua was here in his historical ministry in the Old Testament recorded in the Book of Joshua, Joshua spoke to the sun and the sun and the moon stood still.  Remarkable miracle.  But here are two blind men who address the Son of Righteousness, for that is one our Lord’s titles, and the Son of Righteousness stops at their request.  It seems as if it is even a greater miracle than that performed by Joshua in the Old Testament.

               

    Reminds us that the apostle says that he is rich unto all that call on him.  If you have never believed in the Lord Jesus, let’s assure you that if you call upon Him, He is rich unto those that call unto Him.  So he stopped.  And interestingly those people that were trying to keep these two men quiet, shut up, shut up, are told by the Lord Jesus to go get the blind men.  That’s kind of ironical.  These people who were attempting to shut the blind men are forced to do errands for the blind men.  And so they go off and get the blind men and they are brought into the presence of the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus said, what do you want me to do"

               

    Isn’t it striking too the way Mark describes the way that Bartimaeus came to the Lord Jesus"  We can see the blind man with his coat.  It probably was the only coat that he had or ever hoped to have.  He knew that there were times when he needed that desperately, but Mark says he threw away his garment and came to the Lord Jesus.

               

    If we were an artist, the most prolific source of artistry would be the Bible itself.  One of the most striking things in all of the New Testament is when the Lord Jesus stood up in the boat in the midst of the storm, preparatory to saying, stop, or be muzzled ,and there came a great calm.  And here, as Bartimaeus threw away his cloak, figurative of the fact that everything must go when we come to the Lord Jesus, as Paul said, “He suffered the loss of all things as he came to Christ.”  What a beautiful picture that is.  And he came to Jesus, Mark says.  There’s nothing more fundamental, nothing more significant, nothing more necessary in life than to come to the Lord Jesus.

               

    One of the saddest things in the world is for a man to go through life shine in his school work, shine in his college work, graduate near the top of his class, become a successful businessman, be successful in business, come to the end of his days retired, and then to be placed in a grave like the rest of the people who have lived up to this time without the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  What a pitiful what a pitiful thing.   To come to the Lord Jesus is the fundamental thing.  To think of it.  To become the President of General Motors, but not know Christ.  To be the Chairman of the Board of Texas Instruments but not know Jesus Christ, what a failure.

               

    So the Lord said, what do you want"  These men have just no doubt been acquainted with the words the Lord Jesus had said not long before this:  the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister.  And so they in effect challenged Him.  You said you come to minister, well, minister that we may see again that we may have our eyesight.  One of the manuscripts reading the Matthian account, they requested, Lord that our eyes may be opened, that we may see Thee.  That’s a very fitting addition.  That’s the way they thought, having called out, O Lord Thou son of David.  That’s what they were thinking.  But first of all that our eyes may be opened.

               

    Then the healing is described in the last verse, and notice that there are outward means, inward means, and ultimate means.  The text of Scripture says, “So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes.”  Now that was the touch of sympathy.  Blind men no doubt needed the encouragement of the personal touch, and it’s a beautiful expression of the true humanity of Lord Jesus who understands all of our human needs.  He touched them.  But it also is an identification, for to touch, to lay hands upon was a sign of identification. And all He was saying, symbolically, was, as He touched them, yes I am sympathetic with your condition.  I identify with your sin, not that I’m a sinner, but it is for sin that I have come.  And the apostle puts it very succinctly; He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  And so He identified Himself with suffering sinning humanity for He shall die for sinners.

               

    Mark says that He said to him your faith has made you whole.  Incidentally, it was faith not adulterated by sight.  They couldn’t be saved by sight; they had no sight.  Our churches give us the impression that our faith is really grounded in a great deal of sight, for as we draw up to church buildings we are impressed.  They are magnificent structures.  And usually there’s a cross sticking above them.  And then we enter, and we enter into the auditorium.

               

    The auditorium should be very simple.  That’s the way we like it.  As a matter of fact that’s the way the earliest churches were constructed, and that’s the reason why the auditorium is simple.  But many of our churches and the churches in which we’ve grown up are very impressive, and the services are very impressive.  The men come in and they are dressed in different kinds of clothes.  They are either dressed in a robe, or they are dressed in clerical garb with the round clerical collar. 

               

    And when they stand in the pulpit, they not only stand in the pulpit but they go through motions that are designed to impress our senses.  They twist.  They turn.  They genuflect.  They kneel.  They bow.  They frequently take things and do things with them.  They stand before the altar.  The whole impression seems to be, faith does come by sight, to some extent at least.  They impress us.

               

    But the Lord Jesus said, your faith, not your humility, not your persistence, not your purposefulness, your faith has made you whole.  God has so worked that He has given you faith and that faith is the basis of your salvation.  The ultimate means is His compassion.  Jesus had compassion on them.  Paul says He speaks about God who was rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He had loved us.  And so out of compassion, the Lord Jesus responded to what He had produced in their hearts and gave them the pronouncement that they were now whole forgiven men.

               

    And not only that, but their eyes were opened.  Men speak of merits.  Proud men get down upon their knees and offer prayers to God, thinking that their prayers are the means of God’s blessing.  But the wind sweeps the prayers away, for God does not hear that kind of prayer.  When the messenger of mercy the Lord Jesus came to this earth, He did not enter into the Hiltons and the Sheratons and the Holiday Inns and the Howard Johnson Inns, but He came to the inn of the broken heart and the contrite spirit, because God responds to those who acknowledge that they have nothing with which to commend themselves to the Lord.

               

    Well the result of the healing is that they followed Him, and Luke tells us that they glorified God, which led to the praise of the Lord by the people.  What a beautiful thing that is, too.  There are several things that persist through our days of spiritual darkness, and one of them is the purpose for men being here.  Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  And when the Lord Jesus worked in the hearts of these two blind men, they were so happy over what God had done to them and they so praised God that they glorified God.  They had reached that ultimate goal for which we are here in this earth to glorify Him.

               

    Now the Lord Jesus has changed His position.  He’s no longer here in our midst.  He’s at the right hand of the majesty on high, but it’s still true, that Jesus of Nazareth passes by.  He does not do it physically.  He does it through His word and through His spirit.  And we have listened as we have read the word of God to the exposition of the power Jesus Christ to heal.  And if someone under the influence of the Holy Spirit, has been brought to the conviction of his sin, He stands ready and waiting to deliver from the blindness of our heart, to bring you into the knowledge of the Lord Jesus which means everlasting life.

               

    Remembering that later the Lord Jesus will die upon the cross at Calvary for sinners, making it possible for all of our sin and guilt and condemnation to be washed totally clean.  And if God has brought in our heart the desire He brought into the hearts of these blind men for healing, may God help us deep down within the recesses of our being to cry out, O Lord Thou son of David, have mercy upon us.  And this great miracle of healing will be accomplished spiritually again.  May God speak to our heart to that end.  Let’s pray for the benediction.

               

    Prayer:

     

    Father, we know that we have inadequately expressed the greatness of the healing ministry of the Lord Jesus, but we do know deep down within us, Lord, what Thou hast done for us and what Thou art able to do for men who come through the Spirit’s enablement to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel, the Savior of sinners.

               

    And Lord, if there should be someone present in this auditorium, one little child, perhaps one young man, one young woman, one elderly man or woman in whom the Holy Spirit has worked, O God, by the Holy Spirit, bring to their inmost being that urgent request, O Lord Thou son of David have mercy upon me.

               

    Accomplish, Lord the supernatural work of the new birth. May grace mercy and peace go with us. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

     

    Chapter Contents

    The parable of the laborers in the vineyard. (1-16) Jesus again foretells His sufferings. (17-19) The ambition of James and John. (20-28) Jesus gives sight to two blind men near Jericho. (29-34)

     

    Commentary on Matthew 20:1-16

     

    The direct object of this parable seems to be, to show that though the Jews were first called into the vineyard, at length the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles, and they should be admitted to equal privileges and advantages with the Jews. The parable may also be applied more generally, and shows,

     

    1. That God is debtor to no man.

     

    2. That many who begin last, and promise little in religion, sometimes, by the blessing of God, arrive at a great deal of knowledge, grace, and usefulness.

     

    3. That the recompense of reward will be given to the saints, but not according to the time of their conversion. It describes the state of the visible church, and explains the declaration that the last shall be first, and the first last, in its various references.

                   

    Until we are hired into the service of God, we are standing all the day idle: a sinful state, though a state of drudgery to Satan, may be called a state of idleness. The market-place is the world, and from that we are called by the gospel. Come; come from this market-place. Work for God will not admit of trifling. A man may go idle to hell, but he that will go to heaven, must be diligent. The Roman penny was seven pence halfpenny in our money, wages then enough for the day's support. This does not prove that the reward of our obedience to God is of works, or of debt; when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants; but it signifies that there is a reward set before us, yet let none, upon this presumption, put off repentance till they are old. Some were sent into the vineyard at the eleventh hour; but nobody had hired them before. The Gentiles came in at the eleventh hour; the gospel had not been before preached to them. Those that have had gospel offers made them at the third or sixth hour, and have refused them, will not have to say at the eleventh hour, as these had, No man has hired us.

     

    Therefore, not to discourage any, but to awaken all, be it remembered, that now is the accepted time. The riches of Divine grace are loudly murmured at, among proud Pharisees and nominal Christians. There is great proneness in us to think that we have too little, and others too much of the tokens of God's favor; and that we do too much, and others too little in the work of God. But if God gives grace to others, it is kindness to them, and no injustice to us.

     

    Carnal worldliness agrees with God for their penny in this world; and chooses their portion in this life. Obedient believers agree with God for their penny in the other world, and must remember they have so agreed. Didst not thou agree to take up with heaven as thy portion, thy all; wilt thou seek for happiness in the creature" God punishes none more than they deserve, and recompenses every service done for Him; He therefore does no wrong to any, by showing extraordinary grace to some.

     

    See here the nature of envy. It is an evil eye, which is displeased at the good of others, and desires their hurt. It is a grief to us, displeasing to God, and hurtful to our neighbors: it is a sin that has neither pleasure, profit, nor honor. Let us forego every proud claim, and seek for salvation as a free gift. Let us never envy or grudge, but rejoice and praise God for His mercy to others as well as to ourselves.

     

    Commentary on Matthew 20:17-19

     

    Christ is more particular here in foretelling His sufferings than before. And here, as before, He adds the mention of His resurrection and His glory, to that of His death and sufferings, to encourage His disciples, and comfort them. A believing view of our once crucified and now glorified Redeemer, is good to humble a proud, self-justifying disposition. When we consider the need of the humiliation and sufferings of the Son of God, in order to the salvation of perishing sinners, surely we must be aware of the freeness and richness of Divine grace in our salvation.

     

    Commentary on Matthew 20:20-28

     

    The sons of Zebedee abused what Christ said to comfort the disciples. Some cannot have comforts but they turn them to a wrong purpose. Pride is a sin that most easily besets us; it is sinful ambition to outdo others in pomp and grandeur. To put down the vanity and ambition of their request, Christ leads them to the thoughts of their sufferings. It is a bitter cup that is to be drunk of; a cup of trembling, but not the cup of the wicked. It is but a cup, it is but a draught, bitter perhaps, but soon emptied; it is a cup in the hand of a Father, John 18:11. Baptism is an ordinance by which we are joined to the Lord in covenant and communion; and so is suffering for Christ, Ezekiel 20:37; Isaiah 48:10. Baptism is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace; and so is suffering for Christ, for unto us it is given, Philippians 1:29. But they knew not what Christ's cup was, nor what His baptism. Those are commonly most confident, who are least acquainted with the cross. Nothing makes more mischief among brethren, than desire of greatness. And we never find Christ's disciples quarrelling, but something of this was at the bottom of it. That man who labors most diligently, and suffers most patiently, seeking to do good to his brethren, and to promote the salvation of souls, most resembles Christ, and will be most honored by Him to all eternity. Our Lord speaks of His death in the terms applied to the sacrifices of old. It is a sacrifice for the sins of men, and is that true and substantial sacrifice, which those of the law faintly and imperfectly represented. It was a ransom for many, enough for all, working upon many; and, if for many, then the poor trembling soul may say, Why not for me"

     

    Commentary on Matthew 20:29-34

     

    It is good for those under the same trial, or infirmity of body or mind, to join in prayer to God for relief, that they may quicken and encourage one another. There is mercy enough in Christ for all that ask. They were earnest in prayer. They cried out as men in earnest. Cold desires beg denials. They were humble in prayer, casting themselves upon, and referring themselves cheerfully to, the Mediator's mercy. They showed faith in prayer, by the title they gave to Christ. Surely it was by the Holy Ghost that they called Jesus, Lord. They persevered in prayer. When they were in pursuit of such mercy, it was no time for timidity or hesitation: they cried earnestly. Christ encouraged them. The wants and burdens of the body we are soon sensible of, and can readily relate. Oh that we did as feelingly complain of our spiritual maladies, especially our spiritual blindness! Many are spiritually blind, yet say they see. Jesus cured these blind men; and when they had received sight, they followed Him. None follow Christ blindly. He first by His grace opens men's eyes, and so draws their hearts after Him. These miracles are our call to Jesus; may we hear it, and make it our daily prayer to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

     

    Alleged Contradictions and Inaccuracies

     

    In Matthew's account two blind men are healed, whereas in the accounts of Mark and Luke only one blind man is mentioned: If two blind men were healed, then certainly one was healed. The Gospel writers did not include all that Jesus did and said. (cf. John 21:25).

     

    Matthew and Mark place the healing when Jesus was departing from Jericho, whereas Luke places the healing when Jesus was coming to Jericho: It is perfectly possible that Jesus healed "a certain blind man" as He was come nigh to Jericho (Luke's account), and then healed two more blind men (one of whom was blind Bartimaeus, Mark's account) as He was leaving Jericho.

     

    Matthew 20:29-34 “What Do You Want Jesus to Do For You"”

     

    Translation

     

    20:29 Now, as they were proceeding out from Jericho, a numerous crowd followed Him,

     

    20:30 and, two blind men sitting beside the road heard that Jesus was coming along [and] cried out saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

     

    20:31 But the crowd reprimanded them in order that they might hush, but as for them, they were crying out more, saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

    20:32 Then Jesus stood [still] and whistled to them and said, “What are y’all wanting Me to do for you"”

     

    20:33 They say to Him, “Lord, that our eyes might be opened!”

     

    20:34 And Jesus, gut-wrenched, touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes saw again! Then they followed Him.

     

    Introduction

     

    Exploring about how to pray. In Matthew 20:21, we just saw James and John’s mom ask Jesus for something, and now again in v.29ff, we have someone else making a request of Jesus.

     

  • In both cases Jesus asks, “What do you want"”

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  • However, in the first case, Jesus is appalled at the presumptuousness and pride of the request.

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  • But in the second scenario before us, we see that Jesus is “moved with compassion,” and fulfills the request of the blind men.

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  • What made the difference" We need to explore the status we have as children of God which privileges us to ask God for things, and to look at what characterizes the sort of requests that Jesus honors so that we can become better at praying to God.

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  • As Jesus makes His way closer to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, He reaches the town of Jericho, the very city that Joshua captured when the walls fell down some thousand four hundred years before then, and here, the road which had been running South along the Jordan river turns up West into the hills toward Jerusalem. In about 15 miles it will ascend 3,300 feet to the gates of the holy city where He will be crucified.

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  • But for now, Jesus is just approaching Jericho, a lovely resort town where He will spend the night. He was apparently pretty famous by this time and had many out-of-town people follow­ing Him in, as well as people like Zaccheus who were from Jericho and wanted to see Him.

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  • It appears Jesus was getting a real Middle-Eastern welcome as He approached Jericho!

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  • This, by the way, was the same crowd that Zaccheus was trying to see through to get a glimpse of Jesus, and it was because of this throng that he climbed the tree. Matthew doesn’t tell us the story of Zaccheus, only Luke does, but the story of Zaccheus reminds us that Jesus was not merely concerned for the needs of the poor, blind beggars but also for the miserable, rich oppressors in the town of Jericho!

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    Exegesis

     

    20:29 Now, as they were proceeding out from Jericho, a numerous crowd followed Him,

    Και εκπορευομενων αυτων απο Ιεριχω ηκολουθησεν αυτῷ οχλος[3] πολυς.

     

    20:30 and, get this, two blind men sitting beside the road heard that Jesus was coming along [and] cried out saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

    και ιδου δυο τυφλοι καθημενοι παρα την ‘οδον ακουσαντες ‘οτι[4] Ιησους παραγει εκραξαν λεγοντες Ελεησον ‘ημας Κυριε[5] ‘Υιος Δαυιδ.[6]

     

  • This is remarkably like the account of the two blind men Jesus healed in Capernaum in Matt. 9:27ff.

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  • The blind men in Capernaum said the same thing, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.”

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  •  
  • Is it possible that these two blind men on the other side of the country in Jericho had heard about this and were modeling their request after their northern counterparts"

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  • Perhaps these blind men in Jericho hadn’t heard of the blind men healed in Caper­naum. Perhaps all they had to go on was the prophecy of Isaiah 35:4ff, “Be strong; do not be afraid. See your God come… He will save you! Then the eyes of blind men will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.”

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  •  
  • Later on in Matt. 22:41-42, when Jesus asks the Pharisees, “What do you think about the Christ/Anointed One/Messiah, whose son is He"’ They say to Him, ‘He is the son of David.’” So, the title “Son of David,” was the title of the Messiah, speaking of His being descended from the great king David and fulfilling the promise God made to David that a descendent of his would reign as a king forever.

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  •  
  • So these blind men cry out for the Messiah’s attention.

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  • Now, the gospel of Luke traces the story of only one of these two blind men, and in Mark’s gospel we find his name: Bar-timmaeus (Mk. 10:46) which can be interpreted, “Son of Filth.”

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  •  
  • There is no problem with the fact that Matthew mentions a second blind man with Bartimaeus. It doesn’t contradict Luke and Mark’s account that there was at least one blind man there. If there were two, then there was one… plus another.

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  • There does appear to be a discrepancy, however, between the gospel accounts in the timing of this incident.

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    ·         According to Matthew (20:29), the encounter with the blind beggars happened as Jesus was leaving Jericho,

     

    ·         But according to Luke (18:35), it happened as they were approaching Jericho,

     

    ·         And according to Mark (10:46), it happened as they were both coming to Jericho and as they were going out from Jericho! How can that be"

     

    ·         A.T. Robertson’s explanation seems the best, that there were two Jericho’s: the ancient city site and the township newly rebuilt by Herod, with only a short distance between.

     

    ·         A distinction between the old city and the new city is pretty common in ancient cities around the world. [You can see in the photo that the mound of the old city is still on the NW side of the modern town of Jericho.

     

    ·         So Jesus encountered these beggars on the road in-between the two sites. Thus Matthew, writing to a Jewish audience, says that they had just passed the historic site of old Jericho, where “Joshua fit the battle,” and Luke, writing to a Greek audience says that they were approaching the new Roman resort town], and Mark, writing to a Roman audience, locates them geographically between leaving the old city and entering the new city of Jericho. God’s word is amazingly accurate when you chase down its details!

     

    20:31 But the crowd reprimanded them in order that they might hush, 
    but as for them, they were crying out more, saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

    ‘Ο δε οχλος επετιμησεν αυτοις ‘ινα σιωπησωσιν ‘οι δε μειζον εκραζον[8] λεγοντες Ελεησον ‘ημας Κυριε Υιος Δαυιδ.

     

  • Have you ever wanted God to do something special, then shared it with somebody and got laughed at or even rebuked for it"

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  • The things we pray for should not be evaluated on the basis of whether other people think we should pray for it, but rather whether God wants you to pray for it. We know God wants us to pray for something if He has laid it on our heart and if it is consistent with what He has already revealed in the Bible.

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  • The majority of the people on the street that day in Jericho, however, thought that the best thing for these blind men was to be quiet, to hold their peace.

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  • So when the blind men kept their racket up, the crowd said to them, “We wish you were dumb as well as blind! If you don’t shut up, we’ll make you shut up!

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  • But the blind men had faith in Jesus:

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  • They openly confessed not only that Jesus is the Messiah, the promised Son of David,

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  • But that He is also the Lord.

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  • Furthermore they confess that Jesus is capable of extending the mercy of God to them by healing them.

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  •  
  • These are staggering statements to make about any man, Messianic King, God Almighty, and Mediator of God’s blessings. These two men seem to understand better than anyone else in that vast crowd who Jesus really is and what Jesus is capable of doing. Such faith arrests Jesus’ attention:

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  • Jesus interrupted His very important mission to Jerusalem and responded to these faith-filled men. Likewise, we Christians, who are supposed to be imitators of Christ, are we also willing to be interrupted in our work" Bible commentator Matthew Henry remarked on this point, “Why are we ever so much in haste about any business" … We should be willing to stand still to do good.”

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    20:32 Then Jesus stood [still] and whistled to them and said, “What are y’all want Me to do for you"”

    Και στας ‘ο Ιησους εφωνησεν αυτους και ειπεν Τί θελετε ποιησω ‘υμιν;

     

  • Seeing as all the other English translations render it “called the Greek word ephwnesen translates as “whistled,”.” However, the word literally means to “make a sound” which seems to be distinct from actually speaking words, and the only other time Matthew uses this word is to describe a rooster crowing (26:34, 74, and 75).

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  • It is curious that Jesus does not go over to them. Instead He stands where He is and calls them over to Him.

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  • According to Luke’s account (18:40), Jesus commands the very people who have been insulting the blind men to now escort the blind men for a personal audience with Him!

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  • Mark (10:49) has the same people that had been shushing the blind men now saying, “Cheer up; get up; He’s calling for you!” If it weren’t so hypocritical, it would be funny.

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  • It is as though, when Jesus heard Himself referred to as the “Lord” and Messianic King, “Son of David,” He obliged these men by playing the part of a great king.

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  • Great kings don’t come to you; you come to them.

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  • Great kings have courtiers that bring you to the king.

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  • And great kings ask for formal proposals,

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  • So Jesus transforms the dusty street into a king’s palace for these two beggars who have recognized, more than anyone else, how great a king stands before them, perhaps due, in part, to the fact that they had no eyes to see how humble a form the Lord of the universe had taken upon Himself!

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  •  
  • When you close your eyes to pray, do you realize how great the God is that you are addressing"

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  • Now, at that moment, before Jesus on the street, the blind men could have asked for anything.

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    What would you have asked for, if it were you, and Jesus offered to make one wish come true"

     

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  • All their life they had asked for “mercy” as beggars, soliciting passers-by for coins. Would they ask for money" They could ask for enough to live on for the rest of their lives, and never have to beg again!

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  • Mark’s gospel gives us one clue before either beggar says a word: in Mark 10:50, it says that the blind man “threw off his cloak” when he went to Jesus. He decided to leave his beggar’s garb behind because he anticipated a miraculous answer to the audacious request he was about to make.

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  • If this was truly the Messiah, and if Isaiah prophesied truly, then blind men would see. The blind men’s reasoning appears to be as simple as that.

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  • No doctor in the world could have healed them, and apparently not even God had healed a blind person in the history of the world until the time of Christ.

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  • This would be the ultimate proof that Jesus was the Messiah. If He couldn’t give them sight, then Jesus was a sham and God was a liar.

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  • Maybe they also longed, like Simeon that their own eyes might see God’s salvation, he prophesied Son of David, and the Messiah finally comes"

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  • These two blind men were going to go for broke and ask to see!

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    20:33 They say to Him, “Lord, that our eyes might be opened!”

    Λεγουσιν αυτῷ Κυριε ‘ινα ανοιχθωσιν[10] ‘ημων ‘οι οφθαλμοι.

     

  • Now think about what the blind men chose to ask for.

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  • All their lives they have made their living by sitting in public places begging for money. It was considered a community service for them to do so. It gave the community an opportunity to give to the poor and win favor with God (and man) with their generosity, and such beggars provided a very desirable service by praying for God to bless those who gave to them. (“God bless” is still a common parting word from panhandlers in our country today.)

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  • All this, of course, hinged on the beggar’s inability to work at gainful employment. Blindness was such an obvious handicap that their status as beggars worked well. But if they were to receive their sight, all that would change. They would no longer be able to continue the life they had once led as beggars. Suddenly they would have to learn to read, learn a trade, and take up new and different responsibilities, start up a business, maybe get married and have children.

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  • Considered from that perspective, it is remarkable that they were willing to embrace a whole new world of responsibilities and ask to see.

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  • Likewise, there are responsibilities that naturally come along with being a recipient of God’s free grace. Are you willing to accept the responsibilities that come along with whatever it is you are asking God for"

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    20:34 And Jesus, gut-wrenched, touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes saw again! Then they followed Him.

    Σπλαγχνισθεις δε ‘ο Ιησους ‘ηψατο των οφθαλμων[11] αυτων και ευθεως ανεβλεψαν [αυτων ‘οι οφθαλμοι[12]] και ηκολουθησαν αυτῷ.

     

  • Jesus’ response was first of all to be moved with compassion/pity. Literally, He was “gut-wrenched.” Do you realize what an awesome thing it is to have as God One who can be moved with compassion" Who sympathizes with us! When we are torn up inside, when we cry, the Ruler of the Universe enters into those feelings with us. Brothers and sisters, let us pray from our heart when we pray to Him!

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  • The crux of the story, of course, is that, with a mere touch, Jesus physically healed two blind men.

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  • In Mat 8:3, after the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus touched a man with a skin disease, and the leprosy was immediately cured,

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  • In Mat 8:15 Jesus touched Peter’s mother-in-law, and she was relieved of a fever,

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  • Others touched Jesus and were cured (9:20; 14:36)

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  • In Mar. 7:33, Jesus touched a deaf man who was immediately healed, and later with a touch, Jesus restored a servant who had gotten his ear chopped off (Luke 22:51)!

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  • In Luke 7:14, we read of Jesus touching a coffin, and, sure enough, the young man inside came alive!

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  • In Mat 9:29, Jesus touched the eyes of two blind men and they were healed,

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  • And now, at a touch, four more eyes that were not able to physically function suddenly regain/ recover/ receive the marvel of sight.

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  • The touch of Jesus has no limit to its power to bring physical healing.

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  • Luke’s account mentions an additional statement from Jesus, “Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.” This reveals another staggering miracle. Jesus not only just fixed their eyes, He saved their souls from hell!

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  • But wait, we may say, “The Bible reads, ‘your faith saved you.’”

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  • Yes, but what was the content of their faith" It was that God had sent Jesus to be the Messiah, the savior of the world. Their faith did not make Jesus the savior-Messiah, it merely acknowledged and acted upon the truth that Jesus is the savior of the world. It is God’s grace that sent Jesus to die for our sins and save us from eternal damnation, and it is God’s grace that plants faith in human hearts to believe that. As we exercise that faith, we are saved, but our faith is a response, not the cause of our salvation.

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  • But the story doesn’t end there; Jesus goes on to provide employment for these men who just lost their jobs as beggars due to His healing them. Unlike many of the people He healed whom He would not allow to follow Him, Jesus let these men become His followers, providing a context for them to learn a new life as men with seeing eyes.

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  • Luke’s account says that the formerly-blind men then followed Jesus, “glorifying God,” and that when all the people saw this, they praised God as well!

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  • They were some of the ones shouting “Hosanna” the loudest, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, and that they

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  • Followed Him to hear Him teach in Bethany, and maybe even saw Him crucified.
  • They were among the 500 people who saw Jesus after His resurrection

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  • And among the 120 people in the upper room upon whom the Holy Spirit fell.

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  • The genuineness of their faith in Jesus was demonstrated to the world by the fact that they continued to follow Jesus after they were healed.

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    Conclusion: Six Principles of Effective Prayer Drawn From Two Blind Beggars

     

    1. Punctuality

     

  • The Holy Spirit works in our minds in real time throughout the day. If we feel like we need something or if we are impressed to pray for a certain person, don’t wait until our bedtime prayers to speak to God about it. Go for it right away. We can pray for it later, too.

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  • Matthew Henry commented, “When they heard that Jesus passed by, they asked no further questions, who were with him, or whether he was in haste, but immediately cried out. Note, It is good to improve the present opportunity, to make the best of the price now in the hand, because, if once let slip, it may never return; these blind men did so, and did wisely; for we do not find that Christ ever came to Jericho again. Now is the accepted time.”

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    2. Humility

     

  • These men did not say, “Jesus, we really ought to be healed. You know, we’re really poor, but we have given a large percentage of our income to the Lord, and we have been such good people, and our parents were such good people, and we have suffered so much from our blindness that you owe it to us.” No, they came humbly, simply asking for mercy. That is a good example for us. “Sovereign Lord, please have mercy.”

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  • “It is the will of God that we should in everything make our requests known to Him by prayer and supplication; not to inform or move Him, but to qualify ourselves for the mercy. The waterman in the boat, who with his hook takes hold of the shore, does not thereby pull the shore to the boat, but the boat to the shore. So in prayer we do not draw the mercy to ourselves, but ourselves to the mercy.” Lord, have mercy on us.

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    3. Faith

     

  • The two blind beggars were convinced that Jesus is the Lord, that He is the Messiah, and that He could give them God’s mercy, and they said that out loud.

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  • That got Jesus’ attention, and we can learn a lesson from that. We must know the truth about who Jesus is and place our faith in Him, even confess it out loud, if we want to grow in our prayer life.

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  • And we must believe that Jesus will do whatever we’re asking Him to do before we can pray for Him to do it. If you have some doubt, go back to the Bible to find out if it’s the kind of thing He would do and if He has the power to do it! Then pray with faith in Him!

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  • “It is of excellent use in prayer to eye Christ in the grace and glory of His Messiah ship; to remember that He is the Son of David, whose office it is to help and save, and to plead it with Him.”

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    4. Community

     

  • Peer pressure can be a good thing. Sometimes when we pray with somebody else, we experience a holy uprising of faith that emboldens us to pray for what we might never have had the faith to believe God could do if we had been praying alone.

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  • Often we step into prayer meetings without much of a passion to pray for anything. Then someone starts praying maybe for God to transform the lives of families in his church, and that seems to spark the faith of someone else, and he’ll pray maybe for transformation in the lives of the children in all the schools, and that gets somebody else praying for all the lost in our town, and pretty soon we’re ready to pray for revival for the whole nation!

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  • Matthew Henry noted something about corporate prayer in his commentary, “These joint-sufferers were joint-suitors; being companions in the same tribulation, they were partners in the same supplication. Note, it is good for those that are laboring under the same calamity, or infirmity of body or mind, to join together in the same prayer to God for relief, that they may quicken one another's fervency, and encourage one another's faith. There is mercy enough in Christ for all the petitioners.”

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    5. Persistence

     

  • Remember the Syro-Phonecian woman who would not take “No” for an answer until Jesus healed her daughter" And the widow in Jesus’ parable who wore out the unjust judge" Even in Jesus’ question, “What is your will"” He acknowledges that in these two blind men there has been, for a sustained period of time, an exercise of their will, trained by the Holy Spirit to press for the fulfillment of a particular goal. There is something to persisting in prayer with a determined will over time.

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  • “There is need of constancy to transcend all hindrances, and the more barriers that Satan erects, the more must we be kindled to prayer, just as we see the blind men redoubling their cries.” John Calvin

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  • “Hence learn, O beloved, that though we be very vile and outcast, but yet approach God with earnestness, even by ourselves we shall be able to effect whatsoever we ask. See, for instance, these men, how, having none of the apostles to plead with them, but rather many to stop their mouths, they were able to pass over the hindrances, and to come unto Jesus Himself… These then let us also emulate. Though God defer the gift, though there be many withdrawing us, let us not desist from asking. For in this way most of all shall we win God to us… although it be mercy and grace, it seeks for the worthy.” John Chrysostom

    •  

  • “In following Christ with our prayers, we must expect to meet with hindrances and manifold discouragements from within and from without… Men ought always to pray and not to faint; to pray with all perseverance (Luke 18:1); to continue in prayer with resolution and not yield to opposition… This wrestling with God in prayer… makes us the fitter to receive mercy; for the more it is striven for, the more it will be prized and thankfully acknowledged.”

    •  

    6. Follow-through

     

  • When your prayer is answered, don’t forget to thank God afterward!

    •  

  • After your prayer is answered, continue to walk with Christ, and pray about other things. Even remind yourself from time to time so that you never forget God’s mercy in your life!

    •  

  • And when prayers are answered, tell other people about it! Show your gratitude by being, as John Calvin put it, “a spectacle of Christ’s grace to many on this journey.”

    •  

    So, what is it that God would have you pray for"

     

    Matthew 20:29-34

     

    I. Matthew 20:29: And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed Him.

     

    We know that in Matthew 19:1 Jesus was in the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. In verse seventeen of chapter twenty we saw that Jesus was still continuing His journey to Jerusalem, but there was no way of knowing exactly where He was, somewhere between Jerusalem on the west side of the Jordan River and the region of Judea (Perea) on the east side of the Jordan River.

     

    But now, here in verse twenty-nine, we learn that Jesus has crossed the Jordan, and is already leaving Jericho. Jericho was about eight miles west of the Jordan River and only fifteen miles away from Jerusalem. For the crowds of pilgrims from Galilee, Jericho was the last city before the final three thousand foot climb to Jerusalem. Everyone coming to Jerusalem from the east would pass through Jericho. So it was here that the pilgrims would converge, and their numbers swell, and the excitement and electricity in the air would grow even greater.

     

    And now adding to the excitement of these crowds from Galilee was the fact that Jesus (their own “hero” from back home) was walking with them on the same road. So “as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed Him.”

     

    II. Matthew 20:30: And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

     

    Here, again, is that favorite word of Matthew’s, “behold.” Forty-four times Matthew uses this word compared to Luke’s thirty-six times and Mark’s 14 times. And here is one of those places where Matthew says “behold,” and Mark and Luke do not. We should be careful about reading too much into a favorite word, but Matthew is alerting us once again to the special importance and significance of what’s about to happen, in light of what just happened.

     

    We had James and John (via their mother) making a request of Jesus. James and John are among the inner circle of the inner circle of Jesus’ closest disciples. For anyone who believed Jesus, it would be natural to think that James and John would be treated with a little extra respect and deference. But now compare these two “important” disciples with the two blind men sitting by the roadside.

     

    Two blind men sitting by the side of the road are almost certainly begging for money, and Mark and Luke tell us that this is exactly what they were doing (Mark 10:46; Luke 18:35). Mark speaks of only one blind man (cf. Luke) and calls him a “blind beggar named Bartimaeus.” There couldn’t be much more of a contrast! Compared to important men like James and John, these two blind beggars would certainly be the “little ones,” or the “small ones” (Matthew 18), those who were insignificant and unimportant.

     

    And this becomes very obvious in verse thirty-one when we find the crowd rebuking them and telling them to be quiet. So there’s a pretty stark contrast between the “rank,” or station in life of the two specially privileged disciples and the two blind beggars. But this isn’t the only contrast, as we’re about to see. “When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, ‘Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!’”  

     

    For the significance of this miracle as a pointer to Jesus’ identity as Israel’s Messiah, see the message on Matthew 9:27-31. While in and of itself this miracle functions in exactly the same way as the earlier one, it seems that Matthew includes the miracle here as a fitting contrast with the preceding story of James and John (cf. Mark [10:35-52]; contra Luke [18:35-43]) and therefore as a fitting conclusion to all of Jesus’ teaching on humility and true “greatness” (beginning in chapter eighteen). The blind beggars (in contrast with James and John) remind us of the “small ones” who are the “greatest,” and the “last” who will be “first.” 

     

    III. Matthew 20:31: The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all

     the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

     

    It shouldn’t take much for us to imagine the desperation in the voices of these two blind beggars. They “cry out” not just so they can be heard over the crowd, but especially because of the intense longing in their hearts. Here is their chance for healing. It’s a chance they may never have again. And so they cry out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David.”

     

    It was common in Jesus’ day to assume that a physical defect like blindness was God’s judgment for some sin (cf. John 9:1-2). Now whether or not these two men believed that their blindness was a punishment for sin, they obviously didn’t believe that they had any rights to be healed.

     

    “Lord, have mercy on us.” This isn’t just desperation, it’s a humble desperation; a recognition that the very thing we need and long for so badly is also something to which we are not entitled. The blind beggars know that they have no claim on Jesus for His healing. All they can plead for is

    His mercy.

    When the crowd rebukes them, telling them to be silent, they only cry out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David.” They’re blind, they’re beggars, they’re shunned by society, they’re insignificant and unimportant, and yet they have faith. They believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah, and Son of David. They believe that He is able to restore their sight (cf. Mark 10:52). And so they cry out in humble desperation, and with only five simple words, “Lord, have mercy on us.”

     

    But actually, we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves, aren’t we" The two blind men have not specifically asked Jesus for healing. They’ve asked only for mercy. Now we’ve assumed that this means they want to be healed, but even though Jesus certainly knew exactly what they wanted, He makes no assumptions. Instead, we read in verse thirty-two:

     

    IV. Matthew 20:32: And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you"”

     

    Does this sound familiar" There are only two places in all of the Gospels where Jesus asks someone what they want Him to do. Here is one of those places. But do we know where the other place is" It’s in the story right before this one, the story of James and John and their request of Jesus (via their mother).

     

    James and John somewhat vaguely asked Jesus to grant them a request. Mark is less subtle. He says that “James and John… came up to [Jesus] and said to Him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you” (Mark 10:35). And Jesus replied: “What do you want"” Or as Mark has it, “What do you want Me to do for you"” (Mark 10:36) That’s what just happened in the last story.

     

    But now we have two blind beggars (what a contrast with James and John!) crying out: “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” (What a contrast with “please give me something,” or, “we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You”!) And just like He did with James and John, so now Jesus does with the two blind beggars. He asks them, “What do you want Me to do for you"”

     

    Once again, this is the second of only two times in all the Gospels that Jesus asks anyone

    what they want Him to do for them, and both of these times are right here, back to back, one right after the other. So in the question asked of these two blind beggars, we can’t help but be reminded of the same question that Jesus just asked James and John. “And stopping, Jesus called them and said, ‘What do you want Me to do for you"’”

     

    V. Matthew 20:33: They said to Him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.”

     

    The blind beggars just want to see. That’s all. They have no grand aspirations for “greatness” in the Messiah’s kingdom. Anyway, how could they" They’re just blind beggars. They plead only the mercy of Jesus, and no entitlement or rights of their own. The blind beggars just want to see. That’s it. That’s all. Nothing more.

     

    But James and John have moved on to “bigger” things. James and John have “graduated” to more lofty goals. James and John want to be granted the positions of highest honor at the right and left hand of Jesus when He comes in His kingdom.

     

    Blind beggars just want to see. “They said to [Jesus], ‘Lord, let our eyes be opened.’”

     

    VI. Matthew 20:34a: And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered

     their sight.

     

    James’ and John’s request did not flow from any understanding of their need for mercy or compassion. Obviously not! We don’t ask for the highest positions in the kingdom and then explain our request as a cry for mercy! On the other hand, we don’t cry out for mercy, and then immediately turn around and ask for the highest positions in the kingdom! As it turns out, these special positions, at least as the disciples understood them, did not even exist. And so in light of all these things, it was impossible that Jesus could respond to the disciples’ request with a compassionate “yes.”

     

    But the request of the two blind beggars is a very, very different story. Their desire to have their eyes opened was nothing more than a desperate and humble plea for mercy. So while the two specially privileged disciples were denied their request, it was the two blind beggars who got what they asked for. And they got what they asked for because of the “pity” of Jesus. One commentator translates like this: “Jesus’ heart went out to them” not to James and John, but to the two blind beggars who cried out for mercy.

     

    VII. Matthew 20:34: And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered

     their sight and followed Him.

     

    The two blind beggars received their sight. They were blind, but now they can see. And Matthew describes their response very simply: “They… followed Him.” We heard in verse twenty-nine that already “a great crowd followed Him.” But when the formerly blind beggars followed Jesus, this was obviously something very different. This is the kind of “following” that naturally flows, from the experience of God’s mercy. They followed Jesus because He gave them their sight. They followed Jesus because He showed them pity. It’s not complicated! It’s just that simple.

     

    Conclusion

     

    So who are we most like" Are we more like the two specially privileged disciples, or are we

    more like the two blind beggars" Have we moved on to bigger things" Have we graduated to more lofty goals" James and John have implied that part of the reason they’re following Jesus is because of certain extra benefits they hope to receive. But the two formerly blind beggars follow Jesus because of the undeserved mercy and pity that they have already received. James and John have become more “complicated.” The two formerly blind beggars are very “simple” and uncomplicated. They follow Jesus because He gave them their sight. They follow Jesus because showed them pity. At this point, how could they even think about extra benefits to be lobbied for in the future"

     

    Certainly, they wouldn’t be thinking of the seats at Jesus’ right and left hand! They’ve already received more than they had any right to expect, and so for them this is already more than enough. They are content now, and more than satisfied, just to set off on the road following Jesus. If only our own Christian lives could be so “simple.” If only our own Christian lives could be so “uncomplicated.” But they can be, right" In fact, they must be!

    We must come back to a devotion to Christ that is simple and pure (cf. 2 Cor. 11:3). Why are we followers of Christ" Is it because we asked for mercy and He gave it to us" Is it just that simple" Or have things become more complicated" Have we moved on to bigger things" Have we graduated to more lofty goals" How much of our following of Jesus is really just the complicated pursuit of extra “favors” from God"

     

    Or how much of our following of Jesus is simply and purely because He heard our pleas for mercy" We cried out in desperation for mercy. In His pity, Jesus has shown us mercy. And now, every day, we follow Him. Is that “it”" Is that enough" Do our lives really say that it’s just “that simple”" Can we say with the Psalmist:

     

    Psalm 131:1–3  O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor do I have a haughty look. I do not have great aspirations, or concern myself with things that are beyond me. Indeed I am composed and quiet, like a young child carried by its mother; I am content like the young child I carry. O Israel, hope in the Lord now and forevermore!

     

    Let's look at Matthew chapter 20, the last wonderful, wonderful section in this twentieth chapter...Matthew chapter 20, verses 29 through 34.

    A very simple story, very simple. Easy to understand and not even unusual in the life of Christ for stories like this could be repeated a thousand times a thousand. So much so perhaps that as John said, all the books of all the world couldn't even contain them. Why this story" Why is it here" As Jesus goes to Jerusalem to die, why stop in the progress of such a great event as the Passover where He is to be the lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, why stop to include a story of two blind men"

    Among many reasons, one sort of overpowering reason is indicated by the word "compassion" in verse 34. And if all other lessons were set aside, one great and profound truth would grab our minds and that is this, that Jesus had great compassion. People who were nothing but an irritation and a distraction to the crowd were a cause for deep pain to Him, the pain of sympathy, empathy and compassion.

    While the world wanted to silence these kinds of people, Jesus wanted to hear what they had to say. While the world wanted to make sure they didn't get in the way, Jesus wanted to be sure He stood with them. While the world wanted to be sure they didn't interrupt anything by articulating their need, Jesus wanted not only to know their need but to meet it. And so, at best this wonderful little story is a demonstration of the heart of God which is a heart of compassion.

    And that is to say, beloved, that God not only knows what pain we endure, He feels it. That's right. He not only knows it, it is not just cognition, it is not God in heaven saying, "O, I understand his suffering," it isn't just that. It's the feeling of that suffering. It is the pain of that which touches His own great heart. And therefore, when God allows you to suffer, He allows Himself to suffer as well and be sure then that if indeed your suffering is not alleviated, He continues to suffer with you and must therefore have some great purpose in mind for He Himself could eliminate His own suffering as well.

    And so does Jesus demonstrate compassion.

    We would imagine that He would have been preoccupied with the disciples, perhaps, which were to carry on the legacy after His death which will occur in a few days. We would imagine that He could have been distracted by the thought of dying itself and becoming the sacrificial lamb as He looked up the plateau to Jerusalem from the vantage point of Jericho far below. It would have been easy for us to understand that He really didn't have time in this particular moment in history to stop and take care of a couple of blind men of which there were many such and maybe many many such in Jericho for it was said of Jericho that there grew balsam bushes and balsam bushes could be made into a special kind of medicine which was good for the curing of the eyes. And yet He has time. And that is to say that God is compassionate. And Jesus Christ is not too busy redeeming the entire world to give sight to two insignificant blind men who have nothing to offer Him but their problem. And that may be a more profound lesson than we have thought.

    Blindness, in fact, is a matter of record in the Bible. It's quite common, physical blindness and spiritual blindness.

    Physical blindness occurred quite frequently in the ancient world. Poverty, lack of medical care, unsanitary conditions, brilliant sunlight, blowing sand, certain kinds of accidents, war, fighting, all of these things could cause blindness. But most commonly, blindness was caused basically because of gonorrheal diplococcus that would find their way from a woman's body into the conjunctiva of the eye of a child at birth and there they would form their disease and permanent blindness could occur. Sometimes blindness came by the infecting virus trichoma("). And today, much of these things are curable because of the drugs that we have available, but then they were not. So it was not uncommon to be blind, especially maybe not uncommon, in Jericho where they believed there was a certain bush that healed blindness.

    But even more common than physical blindness was spiritual blindness. And metaphorically the gospels and the epistles speak often of the blindness of the heart. In fact, it's summed up in the words of John 1 which simply says, "That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not.

    He came unto His own and His own received Him not." Or in the third chapter where it says that men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Or Romans 11:25 which says blindness in part has happened to Israel. Or 2 Corinthians 3:14, "Their minds were blinded." Or Jesus' words in Matthew 23, "Woe unto you blind guides, you blind Pharisee," He said. Blind to God. May be able to see physically, but blind to God.

    Now the case of these men is most interesting because while they are physically blind, they appear to have unusually clear spiritual sight. Physically they see nothing, spiritually they see very well. And they will see even better when the Lord Jesus is finished with them. And they will also see physically.

    Why are people spiritually blind" Sin, we're blinded by sin. In Matthew 6 it talks about the fact that when we're evil, our whole eye is darkened. Satan sort of adds a double blindness by blinding the minds of them that believe not, 2 Corinthians 4:4. And then God may add a triple blindness when His sovereignty makes the eye blind, as Isaiah 6 indicates, in a judicial punishment of unbelievers. And so we see then that men are blind by sin and doubly blinded by Satan and doubly or triply blinded by God. And it is into the darkness of man's spiritual blindness that Jesus comes. And we remember when He announced His arrival in Luke 4:18, He said He had come to give sight to the blind. And, He was not primarily speaking of physical blindness; He was primarily speaking of spiritual. He said in John 8, "I am the light that lights the world; whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness." He came to give spiritual light to blind eyes.

    And sometimes He gave physical sight to blind eyes. And He did that for three reasons. First of all, it was part of Messianic proof. He was demonstrating that He was the Messiah. Secondly, it was part of millennial preview. He was showing them what it was going to be like in His Kingdom when all of that kind of thing was turned over and there was glorious wholeness and healing in the Kingdom. And thirdly, it was a matter of symbol or picture. It was a marvelous picture.

    Every time He healed someone of physical blindness, He was in effect saying that's only a symbol of what I want to do to the soul. Every time He unstopped the ears so that someone could hear sound, He was in effect saying and that is exactly what I want to do to the heart so you can hear the Word of God. And every time He raised someone from the dead physically, He was saying I want to give life to the soul as I am able to give life to the body. And that is why Jesus found it no more difficult to forgive sins than to heal someone. And when posed with that question, that's what He said, "What's the difference" I am showing you by My absolute control over the physical world and the natural laws that I have control over the spiritual world and the supernatural laws."

    And so, in the case of these two blind men, we have Messianic proof. We have millennial preview. And we have a marvelous picture of what He's able to do to the heart. And then we have the reality. Before the story's over, these two blind men are saved, redeemed souls. And so they see physically, they see spiritually. And they demonstrate to us that no matter how involved our Lord is, His heart of compassion reaches out to those who cry for His help.

    Now let's look at the scene in verse 29. It's a very simple story and a simple scene. "As they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him." Jesus had finished His ministry in Galilee. He finished His ministry in Peraea. Peraea is the area east of the Jordan. Jesus had crossed the Jordan at some northern point near the Sea of Galilee and descended down the eastern side of the Jordan River in that area known as Peraea.

    He's finished His ministry of a few weeks there and now He's on His way to Jerusalem. So He has to cross again the Jordan River to the west.

    He probably crossed at a fairy spot, about five miles north of Jericho. Jericho's the first city we see when we cross the Jordan from the east. And as we fairy across the river, we walk across nowadays what is known as the Allenby (") Bridge, the first sight we see is Jericho. It isn't the Jericho of old; it's really the third Jericho. They keep moving south. But in Jesus' time, there was the Old Testament Jericho which was ruins. And then a little south of that, right against it really, was the New Testament Jericho that flourished at this time. And it was a beautiful place, still is. It has its own unique beauty.

    In those days, it was so exquisite a place that Herod built himself a wonderful fort and palace there. And that was his winter home. And they...Josephus used to say that when there was snow in Jerusalem, they were wearing linen because it was so warm in Jericho and it's only about 15 miles as the crow flies. But it's so far down into that desert that it stays warm. It's the Palm Springs of Palestine. It was known as the city of palms.

    And if we want to understand the geography of the land of Palestine, we'll be interested to note that it is almost an absolute identical copy of southern California, both in terms of geography and climate. For it has a seacoast, a beautiful gorgeous beach on the Mediterranean. And then there is a lovely valley known as the Sharon Valley. And then the mountains rise up, we know them as the Carmel Mountain Range. And at the southern end is this massive plateau of Jerusalem. And from there descends straight down to the desert. It's almost a parallel. The only difference would be that where as Los Angeles is in a basin, Jerusalem is on a plateau. But it's much like our area. From the seacoast it rises to the mountains and then descends to the desert.

    And Jericho was a lovely place in the winter, even in the spring. Because the crops all came in early in Jericho. Mark tells us it was not yet fig picking time in Jerusalem, but it would have been in Jericho because of the warmth. There were citrus trees everywhere because Jericho is endlessly fed by some beautiful springs, of lovely water, pure and clear and that water was channeled by irrigation all through that area around Jericho so that it flourished. And there were palm trees everywhere and citrus trees and then this balsam bush which had some multiple uses that was growing there. And so it would have been a very lovely place.

    It was also a place that must have literally exploded on the minds of Jesus...on the mind of Jesus with memory because He would no doubt remember a very special woman from that city by the name of Rahab who was a prostitute but who hid the spies, who came to spy out the land. And as a result in the grace of God she was given a place in Messianic genealogy and you find her listed as an ancestor of the Messiah Himself in Matthew chapter 1.

    And as He stood on the edge of the Jordan River, ready to go south about five miles maybe to the New Testament city of Jericho, He would have looked straight ahead to a cliff of mountains that rises straight up into the sky, chalky white, limestone-like parapet that cast its shadow in the late afternoon over the city of Jericho. And He would have remembered that that was very likely the place where He was tempted for 40 days and 40 nights by the devil. It's called by historians the devastation of bleak and desolate place.

    And so, His mind is literally filled with things. Around Him is pressing a huge crowd, moving now from crossing the river down to Jericho, passing through the ruins of Old Testament Jericho which ruins, by the way, are still there for a visitor to see...including the ancient wall which so accommodated the plan of God by falling over on cue. And as they came to the city, He could see the sights and smell the smells and hear the sounds and it would be such a fulfilling experience. And in the midst of all of this, the tremendous anticipation of His own death only days away. He's only; by the way, six hours walk maybe from Jerusalem, six miles north of the Dead Sea. And it's a fulfilling thing.

    Now as He comes into the city, naturally the mob presses Him on all sides. He can heal. Anybody today who even claims to heal can pack in a crowd. You can get 15,000 people into Madison Square Garden if you just tell them you're going to heal them. Even if you can't, they'll come just to find out if you can. And if you really can heal, they're there, believe it!

    In Jesus' time, they mobbed Him. That's why the Lord had to tell the disciples not to take any money because they could have made literally a fortune in a day selling healings. And so the people pile all around Jesus, His teaching, His preaching, the magnetism of His personality, His ability to raise the dead and heal people from any disease.

    And as He came into the city with the press of the crowd, there was one little guy that really wanted to see Him. You remember his name" Zacchaeus. And he was number-one public enemy, hated. He was a Jew who sold out to Rome for money. He became chief tax collector. He exacerbated tax out of Israel to the point of a fault. He defrauded them. He stole them blind. And he pocketed it all for himself and they hated him. Not only was he a traitor, but he was a crook. But he was fascinated by Jesus.

    Now how did he know about Him" Well, it hadn't been long before this that Jesus made a short trip to Bethany. And when He was there, He raised Lazarus from the dead. And the word went like wildfire. Bethany was the town between Jericho and Jerusalem, just up the hill. It's very likely that everybody would have known who the Mary, Martha, Joseph little family was...or Mary, Martha and Lazarus, rather. They would have known who they were. And, of course, the whole city was in an uproar when He raised him from the dead. And His enemies pursued Him that He had to go back on the other side of the Jordan for a while for safety's sake. At least He had to retreat away. And so they knew. He had practically banished disease from Palestine and so everybody knew who He was. They were all there. And Zacchaeus wanted a view of Him.

    Since he couldn't see like a little kid at a parade, he crawled up in a tree. And Jesus came along and He stopped and said, "Come down out of that tree, I'm coming to your house, I'm going to spend the night." Which wouldn't have done anything for the popularity of Jesus superficially because since this was the most hated man in town. But He had a wonderful evening with Zacchaeus and He transformed him. He redeemed him. The man was totally transformed. The reason we know that was he said to Jesus just before the dawning came and the thing was all completed, he said, "I'm going to give everything I give back to the poor, everything I've ever taken from anybody four-fold."

    And Jesus said, "Surely salvation has come to this house."

    That's the real thing! That's the real thing. He is the perfect opposite of the rich young ruler. True salvation, he wants to give it all away. You don't even have to tell him to do it, he wants to do it. Everything he's defrauded and more.

    And so, as the morning breaks and Zacchaeus is running around town settling his account and he's like some incredible Santa Claus giving everybody back four times what he took and saying it's all because of Jesus, the crowd perhaps even swelled greater. And the whole place is lined with people. Now you have to reach the other accounts to get that. We're not looking at that in verse 29.

    And so by now Jesus is ready to leave. He spent the night. He's going to Jerusalem. He must move to the Passover. And so we pick it up in verse 30. "And behold two blind men sitting by the wayside, when they heard that Jesus passed by cried out saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David."

    Now, it says in verse 29 "As they departed from Jericho" this happened. Mark says, in the comparative passage, "As they were leaving Jericho." But Luke says, "As He came near Jericho." Now people say, "How do you harmonize this" Isn't this a biblical error" Two have Him leaving, one has Him coming." And some say, "Well, if you remember that there was Old Testament Jericho and New Testament Jericho, it's possible that He was leaving Old Testament Jericho and entering into New Testament Jericho."

    But why would He stay overnight in the ruins" We don't know, maybe Zacchaeus lived over there. It's possible. We don't know the explanation, but we’re wonderfully content with the fact that there is an explanation... Beggars, from experience in studying the Bible, usually hung around the thoroughfares where the people were. And if we've ever been to Jerusalem, we know where they hang around. In fact, just outside the city gate. And that seems to be the rather traditional place for them.

    And so, perhaps one explanation of what might have happened is that, as Jesus is moving with this mob and they come to the gate and the crowd and the noise and all that's going on and they pass out the gate, then all of a sudden the cries of these blind men are brought to His attention at which point He turns to return into the city to confront them and meet them and find their need. Certainly a possible explanation. But it's really wonderful to note that each gospel writer is not intimidated by what the other says, therefore they're not copying some extraneous source. They are rather writing from their own heart under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And when you pull it all together, it makes wonderful and beautiful sense.

    And so, as Jesus moves along, perhaps going out the gate, moving directly west up that incredible incline to the plateau of Jerusalem, it is brought to His attention that these blind men are crying after Him.

    Now, verse 30 says, "Behold," and that is a term of exclamation. And the exclamation here is not because of the blind men, it isn't "Behold, two blind men," like that was some big deal. Probably the same two blind men that had been there a while. It wasn't that they were sitting, they always sat. And it wasn't they were along the road, they were always along the road. The reason they put a "behold" in there is because of what they said. They said, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David." And they call Him by His Messianic title. Two beggars, Mark says, who were begging, Luke says, sitting by the wayside, Matthew says, screaming out the Messianic title. Where did these guys come off as such consummate theologians" Where did they get their information and faith"

    That's the "behold." That's the exclamation. Not that they were blind or that they were there or that they were begging or that they were yelling, but it was what they were saying.

    At this point we find another wonderful thought. Luke only discusses one of the two, the more prominent one. But never says there was only one. And Mark goes a step further, he only discusses one of the two and he gives us his name. His name is Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus. Now we could wonder why he bothers to name him. Matthew just wants us to see the majesty of Christ. Luke emphasizes the same, but Mark touches the real human cord by naming this man. And perhaps is because he was well-known. Oh, not then but later. So that when Mark pens the gospel and the letters are written to the church to read about the account of the life of our Lord, when they can sit down and read this, they'll have there the story of the conversion of one who by now they greatly love. It's as if Mark is saying, "And you know who one of those guys was" It was none other than your friend, Bartimaeus." And so he picks up a little of history...of the history of one of the beloved brothers in the church by the time the gospel would be read by some.

    It's not unusual, by the way, for one gospel writer to mention two and the others to focus on one. You'll find the same thing in the maniac across the Sea of Galilee at Gerasa where some writers note two and some concentrate on the healing of one. That's the background.

    Now a brief outline and we'll run right through the simple story. Their sad plight, their sad plight, verse 30, it says, "When they heard Jesus pass by, they cried out saying, Have mercy on us." And then in verse 31 at the end, "They cried again saying the more, Have mercy on us." The word "cry" here is krazo, it means to scream. It's used in the New Testament of the screeching and screaming’s of demon possessed people, Mark 5. It's used of the screaming of insane people and epileptics. It's used of the cry, the loud anguish cry of a mother giving birth to a child.

    And the idea of the form of the text here is there was a constant screaming. They were yelling at the top of their voice, "Have mercy on us," a cry of anguish and a cry of desperation, cry of pain. They know that if Jesus gets out of the hearing of their voices, that they're doomed to blindness the rest of their life. They know this is the only one who can do this. And the desperation is powerful, the drama. You can imagine the shrieking and screaming of two men who know they've got one moment in time or the rest of their life they are to be blind stones. And they scream in almost a frenzy. And they say, "Have mercy on us."

    They didn't say, "Hey, God gave us a dirty deal, why don't You make it right." They recognized that they needed mercy. "Take pity on us. Look at our sad situation."

    There's a sense of humility in that that speaks of the mark of someone with true humility. They wail with an intense desire to be healed, but they make not demands and they make no claim to worthiness. And they are so persistent that they refused to be bludgeoned into silence by the indifferent crowd. Verse 31, "The multitude rebuked them that they should hold their peace and they screamed louder." The world always tries to keep people from getting to Jesus, don't they"

    It isn't anything really different. People get disgusted with beggars and if you've ever been in a part of the world where there are a lot of them, you really do kind of slough them off and they do get in the way and they're a little bit obtrusive.

    But, their heart was right. "Have mercy on us, take pity." They felt their deep need. They knew they deserved nothing. They cried for mercy. There's no merit in mercy. There’s no merit to be given to one who seeks mercy. They were quite different than the Pharisees who sought no mercy because they believed on the basis of merit; they possessed a right to everything. So we see their sad plight.

    And then their strong persistence. In verse 31, it says, "When the crowd tried to shut them up, they just kept screaming louder." And these people really wanted to get to Jesus, with spirit and their strong persistence.

    There's a third thing here to note...their sound perception. As blind as they were physically, they were equally able to see spiritually because of something they said. "O Lord, Son of David," verse 30, "O Lord, Son of David," verse 31, that's the Messianic title. They had come to the place where they believed that He was the Messiah. Now to what extent that faith extends" We don’t have an insight into the dimensions of their faith. But it was there to some extent or they wouldn't have been screaming as frantically as they were. There wasn't any doubt in their mind that this was their only chance. Maybe, we can say how sure they were, it was a chance or it was a real opportunity but they knew there wasn't any other and they put all they had into this one.

    And when they said, "O Lord," there must have been something in that. We don't know whether they assumed Him to be God, deity or whether they were giving Him a title of honor and respect which indicated that He was a sovereign of some kind, a lord of some kind. But when they said "Son of David," they were identifying Him as the Messiah. For it says in Matthew 1:1 in the beginning of the genealogies of Jesus that He is the Son of David, Son of Abraham. That is the most common Jewish term for the coming king because in 2 Samuel 7:12 and 13, when God gave the covenant and promised that there would come a greater king than David; it would be David's greater Son.

    And so, Son of David became the title by which Messiah was designated and Jesus was the Son of David, for Joseph, His father, had come in the Davidic line and Mary, His mother, had also come in the Davidic line. And He indeed was the Son of David. And when the birth of Jesus Christ occurred in Luke 1 verse 32, we read, "He shall be great and be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father, David, and He shall reign and the end of His Kingdom shall never come." And so they give Him a Messianic name.

    It's the same thing they called Him in chapter 21 when He came into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday in verse 9, "Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest." And verse 11 they said, "This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee." So they are saying, "Jesus of Nazareth from Galilee, a prophet, is none other than Son of David, the one who comes in the name of the highest." And so it is a double act of faith. They have faith in His power to heal; they have faith in His person as Messiah. Maybe it was due to the resurrection of Lazarus. Maybe it was due to the ministry of John the Baptist a few years before, for they would have been in the proximity of the Jordan River out there and they may well have known John the Baptist, they may well have known that he had called for repentance in preparation for the Messiah. We don't know. They may well even have known Isaiah 29:18 which said that when Messiah comes He will give sight to the blind.

    But whatever it was, they had enough faith to know that they were in need of mercy and to believe that this was the one who could do for them what they needed done and that He was Lord to some extent and that He was Messiah to the full extent. And we believe that when we have come to the point of all the faith that is possible, the Lord will meet us at that point of faith and take us all the way to redemption.

    And that's what He does with these two men. "The faith of the blind rose to the full height of divine possibility." And so, we see their simple plea...sad plight, strong persistence, sound perception, simple plea...verse 32, "And Jesus stood still and called them and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you"" He stood still. Stop the whole procession.

    Here was a great moment in which three things could occur generally, Messianic proof again, millennial preview, and a marvelous picture of what He would do for the heart. It was a time to demonstrate His credentials all over again, but it was more than that, it was a moment of tender compassion on behalf of two needy people. And He called them.

    How did He call them" Well, if we read Mark's account it seems as though He called them with a messenger. Someone ran back and that's another reason why they were out of the city and somebody ran back to these guys who were over there by the gate. And he ran back and in Mark 10:49 says, "Be of good comfort, rise, He calls you." He wants you. And in Mark 10:50 it says, "The blind rose up and threw off his garment and went to Jesus." Once he heard that Jesus had gotten the message, he just threw away his garment and took off. Maybe he figured he'd come back and be able to see enough to find it again.

    And Jesus says, "What will you that I should do to you""

    This is to evoke out of their hearts a greater expectation, this is to confirm in the crowd exactly what He was doing. And the response is a simple plea of verse 33, "They said unto Him, Lord, that our eyes may be open." You see, they're confessing they're blind. And that needs to be made very clear. They were blind.

    And that leads to their supernatural privilege...supernatural privilege, verse 34, "And Jesus had compassion on them, touched their eyes, immediately their eyes received sight." Now it says that Jesus had compassion. And that's the real message of this wonderful story. He felt their need. He felt their pain. He hurt for them. There is such tenderness in Him. He reached out and He touched their eyes.

    And Luke adds, "He said when He touched them, Receive your sight." And instantly all physical laws were set aside and just as God creates something out of nothing, Christ created seeing eyes.

    Interesting that the Greek verb here is anablepo, blepo, to see, ana, to see again which is to say that perhaps their blindness had occurred in life, not in birth. And so they were made to see again. Those who have lost their sight have a greater pain to bear than those who were born blind and do not know what they've missed. And so He restores to them their sight again out of compassion, touching and speaking.

    Oh, He used many methods. Sometimes He touched, sometimes He didn't. Sometimes they touched Him. Sometimes He spoke, sometimes He merely thought a thought and they were healed. Sometimes He put fingers in ears, sometimes He used clay, sometimes He used spittle. He healed many, many different ways. But always His healings were total, complete, instantaneous and defied any natural explanation.

    As a footnote. There are a lot of people around today who want us to believe that they can heal. And we'll turn on our television from time to time and we'll see those kinds of things, but have we ever noticed the absence of blind people" Have we ever noticed that" Oh, they pretend to be able to help people hear and lengthen legs and help people with aches and pains, but where are the people who have glass eyes and all of a sudden they have seeing eyes" This is a monumental miracle. A person who may be crippled and full of pain can be made in the euphoria of a moment and the hype of their own mind and the energy of a situation and in a strong act of confident faith in some healer to stand up and take a few steps, but none of that stuff is going to make a person without eyeballs see. So let the healers’ line up who claim they have the gift and heal the blind or raise the dead.

    Now this takes us to a final point. This takes us to a final point in verse 34, "their submissive pursuit." Sad plight, strong persistence, sound perception, simple plea, supernatural privilege, submissive pursuit, they pursue. The end of verse 34, "They followed Him." That's just a simple little statement but it's a beautiful statement.

    And what makes it especially beautiful is when they were healed, one of the other gospel writers, Mark, says, "Jesus said to them, Go your way...go your way." Well, what their way was" When He said go your way, what way did they go" Their way was His way from now on. This is just the kind of stuff that indicates real regeneration. And Mark 10:52 says, "Jesus said, Go your way, your faith has made you whole." Now listen carefully. The word there, "your faith has made you whole" is not iaomai, healed you, it's sozo, your faith has saved you. That is the classic New Testament word for "to be saved." Your faith has saved you. And inherent in what our Lord said there in Mark 10:52 to these blind men was this, "You're redeemed."

    Now listen carefully. We do not have to have faith in the New Testament record to be healed. There were plenty of people healed in the New Testament who didn't have faith. Dead people don't have faith. There were a lot of people healed in the New Testament that didn't have faith. We can look through all kinds of illustrations of that. But you can find all kinds of healings where there was no faith, but you'll never find salvation without faith. And so, whereas faith is not necessary for healing, faith is necessary for salvation. And when Jesus said, "Your faith hath saved you," that's exactly what He meant. Sure there was physical wholeness there and they did have faith in that, but it was more than that.

    In Luke 17, ten lepers came and Jesus said, "Go show yourself to the priest," and on the way all ten were cleansed, katharizo, a form of healing, they were all katharizoed, cleansed of leprosy. How many came back" One, to whom Jesus said, "Your faith has saved you." I believe there were ten healed, there was one...saved.

    And there's another reason to think they really had a transformed life. It says they followed Him. Somebody's going to say, "Oh, but they were just following Him to Jerusalem." Well, that's right. But it says in Luke, "They followed, glorifying God." Glorifying God. And it even tells us, interestingly enough, in Luke 18:43, that all the whole multitude started chanting praise to God. And this thing starts mounting. And by the time they get to Jerusalem, we know what broke loose on Palm Sunday, right" He touched that city from top to bottom. He hit the richest guy, Zacchaeus, and a couple of poor beggars, the most despised up and inner, and the most despised down and outers, He got them all. What a demonstration. And it was sort of a final Messianic display that swept the crowd into the hosannas of Palm Sunday.

    Let’s hope it's testimony that we've been touched by the compassion of Jesus because we've cried for Him and He's made us see. Let's pray.

    We can all say with the blind man in John 9 that once we were blind and now we see when we've been touched with the saving grace of Christ. We thank You for that, our Lord, for whereas we were blind, we do see. And we thank You that Jesus is compassionate, that He is never too busy in the matter of redeeming the universe to stop to hear the cry of those in need.

    And that His heart is touched deeply with compassion for that heart. We thank You that when we who are spiritually blind come and cry out, O that our eyes may be opened, that the same Lord of compassion is there to open our eyes as well and our faith can make us to be saved, to be whole in spirit.

    We thank You, also, Father, that Jesus Christ has the power to heal all disease and someday will do that in glory at the redemption of our bodies when all sickness and sorrow and pain and death is banished forever. We thank You and we wait for that display of power. In the meantime, because we know that sickness must endure as long as sin endures, we thank You that our Savior is compassionate and He understands our frailties, He feels the pain of our fallenness, He sympathizes with our sorrow and has even in the midst of them His holy purposes that we through those things might be made more like Jesus Christ who is indeed a sympathetic high priest.

    We thank You for this glimpse of our dear Savior. We pray that we might see Him with as clear eyes as those two blind men saw Him. The Lord, the Son of David, the rightful King, the one alone who can save those who come in faith and cry for mercy out of their sad distress.

    With your head bowed in a moment as we close. If you have never come to the light of Christ, we would invite you to do that this morning. Believe in your heart, confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and accept His work on the cross for you and you will come to see with the eyes of the soul. Amen

    Commentary on Matthew 20:17-34

     

    The Third Prediction of the Passion and Triumph. 20:17-19.

     

    I. The Prediction itself.

     

    A. Affinities with 16:21 and 17:22-23.

     

    Here, as in both earlier passages, Jesus predicts both His death and His resurrection. As in 16:21, He identifies His enemies as "the chief priests and the teachers of the law" (Sadducee and Pharisaic interests are combined against the common foe). As in 17:22-23 Jesus had spoken of being "handed over" (paradid©mi) to the Jews, here (using the verb twice) He speaks of being handed over to both Jews and (by their instrumentality) to the Gentiles.

     

    B. Distinctive Features of this Prediction.

     

    In 16:21 Jesus predicted that "He must...suffer many things at the hands of [the Jewish authorities]" before His death. Here He says, "They [the Jewish authorities] will turn Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified" (v. 19). Gentiles do the actual mocking and flogging, but it is the Jews' purpose they fulfill. In other words, according to 20:19 no less than 16:21, Jesus "suffers many things" at Jewish hands.

     

    Noting that Matthew uses three infinitives of purpose ("in order to be mocked, flogged, and crucified") in place of Mk's finite verbs (10:34), Gundry comments: "Thus the center of attention shifts from the action of the Gentiles to the malevolent purpose of the Jewish leaders in handing Jesus over to them" (401). Cf. 26:2; 27:31.

     

    II. The position of the Prediction.

     

    Placed at this juncture, this third prediction (1) provides a foil to the petty ambitions of the disciples, 20:20-24, (2) anticipates the great declaration of v. 28, and (3) reminds readers at what great personal cost God bestows His unmerited favor upon His people (cf. 20:14-15).

     

    The Test of Greatness. 20:20-28.

     

    I. Jesus and the Family of Zebedee. 20:20-23.

     

    A. The Family's Request. 20:20-21.

     

    1. The source of the request. According to Mt, it is the mother of James and John who asks a favor on their behalf; according to Mk (10:35), it is James and John themselves. These two accounts may easily be synthesized.

     

    2. The reason for the request. That such a request comes from this particular family, may be attributed in part to Jesus' choice of James and John to be numbered among the "inner three" (cf. 17:1). There may well be another reason: "The mother of Zebedee's sons probably bore the name Salome (cf. 27:56 with Mark 15:40) and perhaps had Mary the mother of Jesus for a sister (see John 19:25). Family relationship, then, may lie behind the request". This in turn would explain the involvement of both mother and sons (as noted under 1.).

     

    3. The nature of the request. The mother's request that her sons be permitted to sit "on Jesus' right and left" in His kingdom, pertains not to the Messianic banquet (as foreshadowed in the Last Supper) but to the thrones closest to that of Jesus (cf. 19:28; the above interpretation of 20:1-16; and Gundry, 402).

     

    B. Jesus' Response. 20:22-23.

     

    James and John (and their mother) are ignorant of two things.

     

    1. Suffering comes before glory.

     

    a. The cup of Jesus. Jesus asks James and John, "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink"" As applied to Jesus, the figure of "drinking the cup [potsrion]" signals His approaching experience of suffering and death (as just predicted, vv. 18-19). As He is the sin-bearer (1:21; 3:15), it also signals His personal experience of the wrath of God. It is chiefly the prospect of experiencing God's wrath, and the consequent separation from the Father, that causes Jesus to cry out in Gethsemane, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup [pots ion] be taken from Me" (26:39). Cf. ibid. 152-53.

     

    b. The disciples' expectation. That disciples could envisage glory without suffering, is clear from 16:21-17:13. Yet perhaps by this stage the sons of Zebedee are beginning to grasp that Jesus must enter into glory by way of suffering (for He has now thrice predicted His death and resurrection). And perhaps the words of v. 22b ("We can" drink your cup) are quite sincere. But if so, the words are as naive as they are sincere. For in the first place, even if the disciples are beginning to accept the inevitability of Jesus' death, they have as yet only the faintest understanding of the meaning of that death (cf. 20:28; 26:26-28). Had they perceived that Jesus would die as the sin-bearer and the object of the divine wrath, would they so quickly have affirmed their ability to drink His cup" And in the second place, the context suggests that the thrones closest to Jesus' own are reserved for those disciples whose suffering comes closest to approximating His own - i.e., whose suffering is marked by the greatest sacrifice and the greatest anguish (cf. v. 28). For James and John to make their present request intelligently, would require that they ask also for the grace needed to bear the suffering which leads to the glory (cf. 24:9; Rom 8:17; 2 Tim 2:12; Rev 3:21).

     

    c. The disciples' experience. In response to the disciples' boast (v. 22b), Jesus says, "You will drink My cup" (v. 23a, RSV). The words "My cup" show that it remains Jesus' cup even as the others drink it. NEB well renders, "You shall indeed share My cup." In fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy, James suffers martyrdom at the hands of Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:2); and John, while probably dying a natural death in old age, nonetheless suffers for Jesus' sake (Rev 1:9).

     

    2. The Father's will is decisive. "But to sit at My right or left is not for Me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by My Father" (v. 23b).

     

    a. The Father's prerogative. According to Jesus, the apostles will sit on twelve thrones alongside His own (19:28). Jesus Himself will be enthroned, because the Father has granted Him, the Son of Man, authority to execute final Judgment (see especially Jn 5:19-27). From this we might infer that the apostles' authority to judge (19:28) also comes from the Father. Mt 20:23 leaves us in no doubt that this is the case; that the Father chooses the occupants of these two thrones, indicates that He has chosen the occupants of all twelve. Jesus declares (19:28) what the Father has authorized (20:23).

     

    b. The Father's choice. The Father has prepared these two thrones for a given two apostles of His choice. The preparation presupposes the choice. Which two apostles are to occupy those thrones has not yet been disclosed. That would undermine the very reason for the choice.

     

    c. The Father's reason. Those two seats are reserved (it appears) for apostles who identify most closely with Jesus in His willingness to serve and to suffer (v. 28, and 1.b. above), and who therefore are the least self-conscious, the least calculating, and the least ambitious (cf. 25:37-39). Such persons will be astounded to learn that they have been assigned the thrones next to Jesus: they would willingly take those furthest removed from Him. Those most like Jesus shall be seated closest to Him. Cf. 1 Cor 4:9, "us apostles...at the end of the procession."

     

    II. Jesus and the Twelve. 20:24-28.

     

    A. The Reaction of the Ten. 20:24.

     

    The reason for their indignation toward James and John, has already been considered.

     

    B. Jesus' Response. 20:25-28.

     

    Having brought all twelve disciples together (v. 25a), Jesus addresses the competitive pride that infects all the disciples and threatens to tear their company asunder.

     

    1. The destructive use of power. "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them" (v. 25b). The way of the world, as typified here by Gentile rulers, is to exercise power by demanding submission and service. The rulers' power readily serves the purpose of pride, in that by asserting their power they can keep their subjects beneath them. Power is the means of continually reminding subjects just who is in charge. And since this is (by the standards of the Kingdom) a spurious power, ever more strenuous effort is needed to maintain it.

     

    2. The creative use of power. "Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant [diakonos], and whoever wants to be first must be your slave [doulos]" (20:26-27). The apostles are endowed with stupendous power and authority, that of Jesus Himself (10:1; cf. 28:18-20). Yet as those who are slaves (douloi) of Jesus and fully accountable to Him as Lord, they have no right to lord it over others or to wield power as a means of advancing themselves. On the contrary, their slavery to Jesus manifests itself as slavery to other people (vv. 26-27). As those who experience the security and freedom of the Kingdom, they have no need to lord it over others. As those who emulate Jesus, they discover that self-giving service is the very means by which God releases the true power. Accordingly, the disciples' greatness does not lie beyond the service but precisely in the service. Jesus thus drives home the lesson about true greatness in ch. 18 and the lesson about equality in 20:1-16.

     

    3. Jesus the Servant. Jesus provides the supreme example of selfless service: "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many" (v. 28).

     

    a. The power of service. If ever one possessed power and authority, it is Jesus the Son of Man. In coming to serve, he does not abandon power, He exercises power. Cf. Phil 2:6-8.

     

    b. The sacrificial death. He comes "to serve and to give",  or better, "to serve, i.e. to give" (the "and," kai, is epexegetical; following Gundry, 404). The singular focus of this verse is Jesus' service in death. The language is rooted in Isa 53:10-12.

     

    c. The ransom for many (lutron anti poll©n].

     

    (1) Jesus' death is redemptive. He liberates the "many" from the bondage and guilt of sin, at great cost to Himself.

     

    (2) In bearing the sins of His people (1:21), He simultaneously renders both the lowliest and the noblest service ever. Moreover, as the sin-bearer He dies in the place of the many, as their substitute (note the preposition anti).

    (3) The use of the word "many" is explained both by the presence of rabim, "many," in Isa 53:11, 12, and by Jesus' purpose to save a host of people from among both Jews and Gentiles. The term "many" embraces all of those, from whatever nation, for whom Jesus dies. The contrast is drawn between the many and the few (for some interpreters, "many" is equivalent to "all"). With respect to the Gentiles, observe how this saying relates to other passages: Before Jesus' death the proclamation of the Kingdom is confined almost entirely to Jews, both in Jesus' preaching (15:24) and in that of His disciples (10:6). Two things account for the shift from those sayings to the Great Commission of 28:18-20, namely Israel's rejection of their Messiah (21:18-22:14) and Messiah's death as "a ransom for many." Before the Gospel of liberation from sin may be taken to the Gentiles, the Savior must actually accomplish their liberation from sin. The work of salvation must precede the news of salvation.

     

    The Healing of Two Blind Men. 20:29-34.

     

    I. The Place. 20:29.

     

    The last stage of the ascent to Jerusalem (cf. 20:17) was "the road from Jericho, leading up the Wadi Qelt. On either side of the lower reaches of the wadi lay NT Jericho, a new foundation built by Herod the Great as his winter residence...about a mile south of OT Jericho". OT Jericho lay about 17 miles northeast of Jerusalem, NT Jericho about 16. In Mt and Mk (10:46) the episode occurs as Jesus is leaving Jericho, whereas in Lk (18:35) Jesus is entering the town. One of the suggestions for harmonizing the accounts that Mt and Mk speak of old Jericho, and Lk of new).

     

    II. Affinities with 9:27-31.

     

    In both passages, (1) Mt speaks of two men, not just one (cf. Mk 8:22-26; 10:46-52); (2) the men confess Jesus to be "Son of David" (once there, twice here), and cry for mercy; and (3) Jesus touches their eyes, whereupon their sight is restored.

     

    III. Distinctive features of 20:29-34.

     

    Here (1) the men acclaim Jesus "Lord" (kyrios) as well as "Son of David"; and (2) Jesus includes no command to silence (here Jesus heals in public, there in private, 9:28; also, as Jesus is now much closer to the cross, there is less need to protect against the spread of false Messianism). Most significantly, while the first story places much greater stress than this one upon the blind men's faith (see 9:28-29; in 20:30-33 faith is not expressly mentioned, though it clearly underlies the men's words), the present story, in keeping with the immediately preceding verses, is concerned to present Jesus as a compassionate Servant to the needy. The verb splagchnizomai ("to show compassion") is used here (v. 34) but not there. Jesus uses His great power to heal others, not to save Himself.

     

    Matthew 20:29-34

     

    Lives are changed when they come to Jesus a He commanded: 2Th 2:10 And with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 2Th 2:11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 2Th 2:12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe (obey) the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

     

    When the truth is presented to the church people today, we will either stop, think, or reason in their minds where they stand with God. We will think deeply about where we will spend eternity and go and seek the truth at all cost. But we refuse sound doctrine, and refuse to love anything besides our own misplaced conceived notions about Jesus Christ, why He came to earth as God, and died to set us free from the bondages of sin and the corrupt ways of the world.

     

    We love the lie, because it asks us to do nothing, to do nothing to prove our heart is real before God, not perfect, but in perfect submission to His will and word.
    But sad to say the strong delusion is everywhere today, and many of us who think are saved by some provision that was never made are still under this delusion, and refuse to examine ourselves to be sure we are in the faith, thus leading us down the wide road to destruction, loving the lie that declares us a poor, helpless sinner after we say the sinners prayer, and think we are right with God.

     

    We fall for every wind of doctrine, being led into a ditch by many well-meaning, and not so well meaning so called bible scholars who think we are safe, secure, and in the truth, when in reality we too are under the strong delusion, God promised to send to those who persist in the lie, making it virtually impossible for them to escape the snare of the father of lies!

     

    May we wake up, Come to love the truth, by counting the great cost of coming clean before God, loving His truth, and standing fast in it!

      Healing on the Way

    “They said to Him, ‘Lord, let our eyes be opened.’ And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed Him” (vv. 33–34).  

     

    Matthew 20:29–34

     

    Christ began His final trip to Jerusalem after Peter’s great confession (Matt. 16:13–23). In all likelihood, He traveled mostly along the eastern bank of the Jordan River as He and His disciples moved southward from Caesarea Philippi. This was a common route for Galilean pilgrims in His day, and the crowds that we have read about during this trip are those Jews who, while traveling to Jerusalem for the Passover, have seen the deeds of Jesus and are hoping that He is the Messiah (17:14–18; 19:1–2). These men and women are among those who will hail our Savior’s triumphal entry into the Holy City (21:1–11).

     

    Today’s passage indicates that Jesus will soon arrive in Jerusalem to complete His messianic work, for He has been in Jericho, located fifteen miles or so from the Holy City, about a day’s journey in first-century Judea. Leaving Jericho, Christ and His followers begin the ascent 3,000 feet up to Jerusalem, but they do not get very far before meeting two desperate men in need. These blind men, one of whom is named Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46), beg Jesus to heal them, confessing Him as the “Son of David” (Matt. 20:30), a title loaded with messianic assumptions. Knowing that the Messiah is present gives them hope that He will fulfill His call to work miracles and give them sight (see Isa. 35).

     

    Yet the crowd is displeased with these blind men, rebuking them as they cry out to Jesus (Matt. 20:31). They probably feel the beggars are unworthy of the Messiah’s attention since many first-century Jews thought blindness was God’s punishment for sin (John 9:1–3). It is also likely that they do not want Jesus to “waste His time” on these blind men. Those who believe Jesus might be the Christ would be looking for Him to enter Jerusalem immediately so that He might overthrow the Romans and set Israel over the world.

     

    For Jesus, however, it is not a waste of time to pause and heal the blind men, so moved is He by compassion (Matt. 20:32–34). This healing is against the people’s idea of what the Messiah should do, and it portends stronger opposition to come. The crowd that now does not want Him to help a fellow Israelite will later call for Jesus’ head when He does not live up to their expectations (27:15–23).  

      Coram Deo   When we do the work of ministry it can be easy to get so caught up in the big plans and programs we have going that we miss the needs of certain individuals among us. As followers of Jesus, we must imitate His compassion and take the time to minister to hurting individuals even if it may sometimes get in the way of our own plans and purposes. What are we doing in our churches to make sure people are shown compassion and not forgotten"

    Lessons On Seeing From A Blind Man (Matthew 20 29-34)

     

    Jesus was now on His way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover with His disciples.  Infinitely more important than that, however, He was going there to suffer and die (20:18-19).  He would be celebrating the Passover for the last time and then giving Himself as the one, final, perfect Passover Lamb, sacrificed for the sins of the whole world (Heb. 7:27).

     

    His arrest, trial, and crucifixion were but a few weeks away.  Why, we may wonder, did He take time to minister to two blind beggars"  In light of the disciples’ slowness to learn and believe, why did He not spend the last few days alone with them, drilling into them what He so much wanted them to understand"

     

    The reason was His compassion (v. 34).  When better could Jesus have demonstrated the depth and breadth of divine compassion than while He was on the way to His crucifixion"  The Twelve would one day look back on the healing in Jericho and on all His other acts of mercy and realize that their Lord was never too preoccupied to be compassionate, never in too much of a hurry to heal the afflicted, never in too much agony Himself to be insensitive to the agony of others.  That realization itself would be one of the most important lessons they would learn from their Master.  In these few verses is found one of the most beautiful portrayals of the loving, compassionate heart of God.

    We also see demonstrated in the actions of these two blind men how each of us are to approach the Lord.

    1A.      The Men (20:29-30)

    1B.      The blind men and their condition (20:29-30a)

    The crowd that followed (20:29)

    ·         Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem His disciples and are great crowd of pilgrims followed Him.

    The condition they were in (20:30a)

    ·         They were blind

    ·         They were beggars (Mark 10:46)

    This is our condition without Christ

    Revelation 3:17-18  "Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing', and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked , 18 "I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

    2 Corinthians 4:3-4  3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,  4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

    John 3:19-20 19 "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  20 "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

    We must see our true condition before we will call on Jesus!

    2B.      The blind men and their conviction (20:30-31)

    Their plea (20:30)

    ·         They were desperate.

    Cried out, (krazo); literally to cry out in anguish; it is the same word to describe the cries of a woman during childbirth

    ·         They were broken.

    ·         They cried for mercy!

    21 times the Psalmist pleads with God for mercy.

    Luke 18:13-14  13 "And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!'  14 "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

    ·         They believed

    O Lord, Son of David, this was the popular Jewish designation for the Messiah.

    Their persistence (20:31)

    ·         They would not be denied.

    ·         They would not be discouraged.

    No one had to beg these men to come to Christ!

    Why"  Because they were convinced that Jesus was who He said He was and that He alone was their hope.

    2A.      The Master (20:32-34)

    1B.      His call (20:32)

    Jesus stops for them.

    Psalm 4:1  Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness!  You have relieved me in my distress; Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer

    Jesus stoops to them.

    Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.

    Psalm 4:3   3 But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly; The Lord will hear when I call to Him.

    2B.      His compassion (20:33-34a)

    The Lord’s motive

    ·         Not the crowd

    ·         Not the worthiness or usefulness of the men.

    ·         Not the faith of the men.

    ·         His sovereign choice, His compassion!

    2 Timothy 1:9   (God) who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,

    The Lord’s method

    ·         He touched them and they were healed.

    3B.      His converts (20:34b)

    They followed Him

    ·         Though many followed Jesus without true faith these men seem a bit different.

    They had faith in Him

    Mark 10:52 Then Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.

    They glorified Him

    Luke 18:43 And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God.  And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

    Application

    We recognize our lost condition.

    We are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked…”

    We must humble ourselves before the Lord.

    James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

    We must cry out to God for mercy.

    Psalm 119:145-146 145 I cry out with my whole heart; Hear me, O Lord! I will keep Your statutes.  146 I cry out to You; Save me, and I will keep Your testimonies.

    We must trust God to save us.

    Isaiah 12:2    Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid…"

    Commentaries:

     

    I want Jesus to "open my eyes" too so that I may be closer to Him with peace.  Blessings.

     

    I want Jesus to give me wisdom & I want him to make me a better man of God!

     

    I want Jesus to draw me closer to Him. As this blessing takes its course, I want my family to experience Him and come to know him as their personnel, Lord and Savior. And I would be truly happy.

    God Bless.

     

    I hope He'll provide what's best for me! Thy will be done in my life for I know it's going to be the best!

     

    I want Jesus to make me a strong Christian. I want to be the person He wants me to be. I want to know and do His will. I want my relationship with Jesus to grow. I want to know and love Him!!!

     

    I want Jesus to make me more firm and strong in my believe and take me to the highest faith always and guide me throughout my life. I want him to provide me a man of believe (Follower of Jesus) as my life partner

     

    I want the LORD Jesus to open my eyes so that I could see Him and to open my ears so I could hear Him and to have wisdom to spread the good news.

     

    I believe Jesus knows what I need or wants Him to do for me because my thoughts and my groaning are always before Him. But as the blind men did ,I will continue to place before Him my fate as a retired public worker in need of where and how to shelter my family let alone to give them three square meals a day..

     

    I want Jesus to save me from all troubles. I pray Jesus to solve all my problems and give me strength and peace.

     

    I want JESUS to give my mother perfect healing of breast cancer, electric brain, success in my posture exam that is coming up in few days from now, and finally financial brake true.

     

    Respectfully, I'd like for JESUS to continue to help me in many ways. Most importantly, growing closer to him and always tailoring my life and the way I conduct myself as JESUS did. Secondly, to continue to bless me with the HOLY SPIRIT so that I may always be led by the SPIRIT and not by human nature. Finally, I continue to thirst in many ways and would like to drink from the water that JESUS provides. The water that when consumed, you never thirst again. For this I pray is JESUS' name. AMEN.

     

    On this weekend of Pentecost I'd like to ask God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit to let the power of The Holy Spirit be at work in the Pope who is the head of the Catholic Church.

    That we can all ask Jesus to "OPEN OUR EYES" so we can all listen and give more attention to the Pope's teachings since he is guided by God's word. That before making choices we may all consider what Jesus would do. Especially in politics what would Jesus say about our choices (Keeping in mind God's 10 Commandments).That we all may find joy from reading and understanding the bible. Also for us to all ask the Holy Spirit to touch us and enter into our hearts. For us to all become instruments of Peace, Love and Joy. See God in even person we interact with and most of all keep Jesus Christ in everything we do and say. Amen.

     

    When we do not know which decision to make that we may Open the Bible and re-read the 10 Commandments and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us because he will :)

     

    I want Jesus to protect my three sons and to guide me in following Him so I will never fail in my belief in Him. Blessings.

     

    To love like he does.

     

    From today Jesus to inspire every move I make. I want to feel His presence

     

    I want Gods presence at all time to be filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom that I would make the right choose

     

    I want my Lord Jesus to open my eye spiritually and provide light to the path that I walk, so that I never stumble and fall into the pit of darkness. I want Him to be my shepherd so that I as His humble sheep, walk in His guidance and do not get lost in sin.

     

    Jesus know the blind man what he is going to ask Jesus but Jesus is testing his faith Jesus never leave me always I want to follow him I need His strength to do good things for others the Holy Spirit always guiding to me.

     

    I want Jesus that he should fill me afresh with the Holy Spirit and be with me now and forever.  Jesus should protect me and guide and guard me always.

     

    I think firstly I want to ask him for forgiveness and for him to completely purify me and make me clean once again. I also want him to open the eyes of my heart so that I may see more things through his eyes. I would also want him to give me wisdom and understanding to better serve him. I also want him to show me what he wants me to do for him and also to give me a bigger heart that loving and forgiving. I would also like to be filled with more of the Holy Spirit.

     

    To get rid of my evil things, open my eyes so I can see the truth and open my ears so I can hear the word of God and keep the word forever.

     

    I want Jesus to keep me in His sight, help me overcome my sins and follow Him always. I love you Jesus. Blessings.

     

    l want Jesus to increase my faith and help me to be a person who is helpful to the society and to have the fruits of the holy spirit which are love, joy, peace, humility, kindness, tolerance, a forgiving heart and to be the best mother for my kids and husband.

     

    I want Jesus to increase my faith in Him, and to trust in His love, and know that if I lean on Him, He will take care of my needs. To help me to be patient and tolerant of others. To give me a forgiving heart, that I may learn to forgive and forget; and to forgive me my sins, and help me to live a life that is pleasing to Him.

     

    I would like to first Thank Jesus for all of the blessings he has given to me.  I would like to ask and invite God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to purify me and come live in my heart, to speak with me and guide me.  

     

    I would like to ask Jesus to give me the wisdom to understand his teachings.  Just like the blind men, I would like to ask Jesus for a kind heart (to open my Heart and give me eyes to see his truth) so that I could see Jesus in everyone I encounter and that I may treat others as he commanded we should with love, respect and less judgment.

     

    I would like to ask Jesus for inner peace, courage and a strong, clear voice so that I may do his will and help others.   Amen

     

    Ps. I would like to ask God to teach the world how to choose Love every minute of today in everything we do. Choose to love instead of war, unkindness or greed. Choose Love with our families and always turn the other cheek. Choose to love even when driving in our cars, have patients in traffic. Let us all who claim to love Jesus be that example of Love :) every moment every day.


    By: Gregorio Magdaleno - September 22, 2015 - Public
    Category: Two Blind Men Receive Sight
    Comment Helpful? Favorite Violation
    September 22, 2015
    Jesus asked the blind man what they wanted Him to do. What do you want Jesus to do for you?

    Matthew 20:29-34 

     

    Two Blind Men Receive Sight

     

    As they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. Behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, "Lord, have mercy on us, You son of David!" The multitude rebuked them, telling them that they should be quiet, but they cried out even more, "Lord, have mercy on us, You son of David!" 

     

    Jesus stood still, and called them, and asked, "What do you want Me to do for you"" 

    They told Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened." 

     

    Jesus, being moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received their sight, and they followed Him. 

     

    Jesus asked the blind man what they wanted Him to do. What do you want Jesus to do for you"

     

    Relentless Faith and Great Compassion - Matthew 20:29-34

     

    Text Comment

     

    v.29: This next episode plays a strategic role in the Gospel history.  For the traveler to Jerusalem, coming from the Trans-Jordan, Jericho is the last city before Jerusalem.  The capital was only some 15 miles from Jericho on a main road.  You will notice that the next paragraph in Matthew’s Gospel concerns the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Imagine the scene.  Jesus is not alone with His disciples on this road through Jericho.  It is crowded with pilgrims heading to Jerusalem for Passover.  We know from the other Gospels that popular excitement over the possibility that Jesus was the Messiah, fueled by His miracles and by His teaching, was now reaching a fever pitch. Passover was, in any case, the most patriotic time of year for the Jews.  So there is nothing surprising in the fact that a crowd of people would have attached themselves to Jesus to walk with Him toward Jerusalem. This dramatic miracle, witnessed by so many people, would only have inflamed people’s expectations the more.  News of it would have reached Jerusalem only a few hours later.  In Matthew’s account the pre-Jerusalem ministry concludes with this miracle.  We know from the other Gospels that, in fact, some days were to elapse before Palm Sunday.  But take note, it was to be the crowds’ disappointment … Jesus, His failure to meet their expectations that would secure His execution some days later. They were looking for a political deliver not a Redeemer.

     

    v.30: Mark names one of these blind men:  Bartimaeus.  The fact that his name was known probably is an indication that he was known among the believers as a disciple of Jesus.  The fact that he is named only in Mark, which is, as you remember, Peter’s Gospel, may indicate that he was a personal acquaintance or friend of the Apostle Peter.

     

    When the blind men call Jesus “Son of David,” they are calling Him Messiah, for that is what the title meant.  Even beggars on the street knew of the remarkable ministry of Jesus of Nazareth and were caught up in the excitement generated by the growing belief that the Messiah had appeared.  They knew of the miracles of healing that Jesus had performed and they hoped for something for themselves.

    v.31: It is entirely typical that the demonstration of Jesus’ Messiah ship should have been provided in a work of compassion and kindness that the crowd thought was beneath His dignity. How little they understood of what was to come.

     

    How often in the NT is true and living faith in Christ described as a conviction of Christ’s willingness and ability to help, as no one else can, that it refuses to take “no” for an answer. These are men who believed in Christ’s power to save them.

     

    v.32: By stopping and attending to these blind beggars Jesus is once more overturning and repudiating the popular understanding of what the Messiah would be and would do.

     

    v.33: If you were blind is this not what you would ask for" There is no account of the giving of sight to the blind in the OT, no such miracle performed by Moses or Elijah or Elisha.  Nor is there any such miracle reported in the NT as having been performed by the apostles after Pentecost.  But there are more miracles of this type, giving sight to the blind, reported among the healing miracles of the Lord than of any other type of healing miracle.  Perhaps that is because in the Old Testament, giving sight to the blind was not only something that God alone could do, but further, something that the Messiah would do!

     

    “Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.”  [Isa. 35:5]

     

    “Here is My servant, whom I uphold, My chosen one in whom I delight…I will keep You and will make You to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind and to free captives from prison…  [Isa. 42:7]

     

    To open the eyes of the blind is supremely a revelation of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Messiah. 

     

    But, as we have also often noticed, the Lord’s miracles were important not only for the proof they provided of the Lord’s credentials as the Messiah, they were also pictures of the salvation that Jesus had come into the world to provide.  The dead being raised, the demon possessed being restored to sound mind, the leper cleansed, and the blind given his sight are not only astonishing works of divine power, works that no one could perform but someone who had been given power from on high, but all are ways in which the Bible describes the nature of salvation.  We are dead in sins and in Christ we are made alive.  We are slaves of the Devil but Christ sets us free.  We are impure, as the leper, but Christ makes us clean.  And we are blind, we cannot see the truth about God, about the world, about ourselves, about the way of salvation, and Christ opens our eyes to see the truth that sets men free.

     

    In the case of the man born blind, whose healing John records in the 9th chapter of his Gospel, this point is made explicitly:  the granting sight to the blind in the physical sense, miracle that it was, was a picture of the giving of spiritual sight to the spiritually blind.  There Jesus said,

     

    “For this I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”  [v. 39]

     

    The Lord was speaking to the intransigent Pharisees and telling them that no matter how good their physical vision, they were blind spiritually, and the proof was that the Son of God was standing in front of them and they couldn’t see Him for what He was, no matter the miracles, no matter the truth that was on His lips, no matter the perfect goodness of His life.  He said that if they thought they were seeing, as they did, they would remain blind.

     

    Think of, John Rug, the missionary to Chile, who also was born blind, was born blind in both senses, but later as a young man was given sight by the Lord Jesus Christ.  For some years yet he will not be able to see in the physical sense, but he has for many years been able to see in the more important sense.  Indeed, those who know John will say of him that he has very acute vision when it comes to seeing the truth and the light that is in Jesus Christ.  And, in the same way, we know many people who have very good eyesight, but who are blind as bats when it comes to seeing what is truly and eternally important.

     

    This point is made here also in Matthew.  We have noticed the last two words of our text:  these two men whom Jesus had healed of their blindness followed Him.  Those are potent words in Matthew.  These men became Christ’s followers right then and there.  We might have expected them to go to the city and seek out their relatives and see their homes for the first time, but they followed Jesus.  They became followers of Jesus and, in so doing, they proved that they saw more clearly who Jesus was and what He had come into the world to do than did the multitudes on the road that day who had never been blind but who couldn’t see the truth when it was standing before them and being demonstrated in the most spectacular ways.  They followed Jesus.  They knew that their lives must from this point on be bound up with Him.  They knew that physical sight was, by no means, the only thing; it was not even the most important thing they would receive from Him.

     

    In this marvelous event, we have the entire message of the gospel summed up.  Christ Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah sent into the world to bring salvation to human beings who all are in desperate need of salvation and who cannot save themselves.  What all men are summoned to do is to acknowledge that Jesus Christ and He alone has eternal life in His hands, He and He alone brings the truth which sets men and women free, and then to seek that life and that truth from hand and set out to living according to it.  There are many human beings who would rather starve than come to any feast that is set by the Son of God, who would rather remain in darkness if the price of seeing the light is to confess that one is as needy and has been as bad as Christ says.  But, there are those who, by God’s grace, see themselves blind and hungry and sick and see Christ offering sight, a feast, and eternal health, and they take it from their hands and the rest of their lives they are found telling others, “I was blind, but now I see.”

     

    Imagine what it must have been for those men as they stood up able to see for the first time, no doubt able to see with perfectly sharp vision. Imagine what it must have been for them to see everything for the first time, see what everything looked like that they had only had described to them before; saw colors, saw faces, saw the city of Jericho, saw their parents, their siblings, and their homes.  All that day long and for some days after, they would have closed their eyes to imagine themselves back in their blindness and then open them to exult in their being able at last to see"  Perhaps they fellows wore people out over the next weeks talking endlessly about how everything appeared to them that they had never been able to see before.  How different the appearance of things must have to what they had imagined during the years, never having been able to see, never known what anything looked like!  There were two happy men!

     

    It is not hard to see how similar it must be for a man who has been spiritually blind, but, through faith in Christ, now sees things as they truly are with the clearest vision, whose eyes the Lord Christ has opened by His Holy Spirit.  How many Christians, through the ages, have thought of their salvation in just these terms:  “I was blind, but now I see.”

     

    Thomas Halliburton, one of the great figures of Scottish Christianity in the 18th century, in his magnificent autobiography, describes his coming to faith in Christ as a young man in just this way.  Indeed, here is the way he begins his account:

     

    “I cannot be very positive about the day or hour of this deliverance, nor can I satisfy many other questions about the way and manner of it.  But this is of no consequence, if the work is in substance sound, for ‘the wind bloweth where it listeth; and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” (John iii. 8)  Many things about the way and manner we may be ignorant of, while we are sufficiently sure of the effects.  As to these things, I must say with the blind man, ‘I know not: one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.”

     

    Through the reading of the Word of God and praying for light, the Lord came to him and opened his eyes near the end of January in 1698.  And that is how he puts it and how he thought about his conversion.  It was an opening of his blind eyes.  Indeed words like “see” and “sight” are found all through the account.  And true Puritan that he was, he proceeded to describe in nine particulars.  He says it was 1) a heavenly light, it shone above me, it opened heaven to me, and led me up, as it were, to heaven; 2) a true light, exposing the falsehoods about himself and the world and God that he had so long entertained; 3) a pleasant light; 4) a distinct and clear light; 5) a satisfying light; 6) a refreshing and healing light, it warmed him and his life; 7) a great light; 8) a powerful light, dissipating the thick darkness that had overspread his mind; and 9) a composing light; not like lightning that appears in a moment and disappears leaving terror behind, but composed and quieted his soul that had been troubled about so many things.  Then he concludes, “…I know that no words can express the notion that the weakest Christian, who has his eyes opened, really has of [the glory of this light.]  …  No words can convey a true notion of light to the blind; and he that has eyes…will need no words to describe it.”  [Memoirs, 99-104]

     

    Perhaps the blind men to whom the Lord gave sight would have described their experience in very similar terms"  And, finally, they exulted far more in the spiritual sight that they had been given, the knowledge of Christ and salvation, than the sight of his eyes. More than once in the remaining years of those men’s lives they assuredly told people that they would rather have remained blind all their days if in their physical blindness they had been given to see Christ and the way to heaven than to be given their eyesight but never the sight of Christ or heaven.

     

    Is it not extraordinary that we in our modern world, so different in many ways from the world of Jericho in the first century, should understand immediately what happened to those two men, should find their experience immediately relevant to our own.  How little the world has really changed, because the human heart has not changed.  How perfectly the Bible describes the universal experience of man in sin and man in salvation!

     

    Let’s hope we are all touched by the wonder of this miracle and the glorious effect it had upon these two men.  That we see afresh and anew the wonder of God’s graces that has given us sight when otherwise we would have remained blind.  The world is full of blind people with 20/20 eyesight.  They walk through this world utterly oblivious to the spiritual world all around them, to God their Creator, to the looming Day of Judgment, to heaven or hell that awaits every person at the end.  How wonderful when a man or a woman is given to see!  To see God and Christ and the way that leads to the world of everlasting joy!  We’ve seen people get their sight and there is nothing more wonderful in the entire world!

     

    But there is something more here that deserves our careful attention.  Matthew makes a point of saying that Jesus healed these blind men because He had compassion on them.  This great deliverance, the physical one and the far greater eternal and spiritual one that it symbolized, came to these two benighted men living in darkness because Jesus had compassion on them.

     

    This is not the only place in the Gospel where a great healing was performed because Jesus had compassion on the sufferer.  In 9:36 we are told that Christ’s preaching of the good news to the crowds was motivated by His compassion for them in their lostness.  In 14:14 we read that Christ healed the sick that were brought to Him in large numbers because He had compassion on them.  In 15:32 we read that He provided food for the 4000 because He had compassion on that Gentile company.

     

    The word that is translated “had compassion on” in the NIV is connected with the noun for the entrails, the viscera, the inner organs which, in that culture were regarded as the seat of the emotions.  One scholar of the language of the New Testament writes that, in distinction from the word “heart,” this is “a more blunt, forceful and unequivocal term.”  It is interesting, by the way, that Greeks thought of strong emotion ordinarily in terms of anger; Christians, on the other hand, thought of compassion.  This word, “has compassion” is always connected with Jesus in the New Testament.  What we have here is not mere human pity, but divine compassion for troubled people filling a human heart.  We have the heart of the Son of God going out to those in great need. We have here not only the record of one of the breathtaking miracles that Jesus performed but a picture of salvation coming to lost men, then this compassion is part of that beautiful picture.

     

    How does the life-giving power of God in Christ come to men and women in our day"

     

    “We are fooling ourselves if we [think] that we can ever make the authentic gospel popular … It’s too simple in an age of rationalism; too narrow in an age of pluralism; too humiliating in an age of self-confidence; too demanding in an age of permissiveness….  What are we going to share with our friends" [Dudley Smith, John Stott, ii, 267]

     

    We can share the light, the sight that Christ gave to these blind men with the blind men around us.  We cannot give physical sight to the blind, but we can shed the light on the spiritual blindness of those around us.  But what will make them pay attention to us and receive our words"  If we speak for the same reason that Jesus did so.  Love breaks into blindness like nothing else.  Love can make a self-confident man realize his terrible need, a man who thinks he sees suddenly realize that he has lived his whole life in darkness. 

     

    The world around us is full of the blind. They are not crying out on purpose, in many cases, as these blind men did near Jericho, but their circumstances are evidence of their darkness.  Their condition is obvious enough to us.  We can see that they cannot see.  We can often see the misery that must be endured by the blind.  Surely, we who have received Christ’s love should have compassion for those who are as we were and who must remain so unless someone should bring the light to them.  Does the love of Christ constrain us"

     

    How shall we become compassionate as He was"  How shall we have the power to cut through the darkness in which so many live" 

     

    Nothing is more likely to make it a power in our lives, this compassion for others, than simply to stare long and hard at those two happy men who got up from the side of the road where they had spent so many long, miserable days, got up to follow Jesus, every now and then kicking up their heels unable to believe that they could really see!  And not only see, but live and live forever.  Surely any Christian must want to see many others as happy as that!

    Matthew 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43

    Matthew 20:29-34

    Mark 10:46-52

    Luke 18:35-43

    29. And while they were departing from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. 30. And, lo, two blind men sitting near the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried aloud, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 31. And the multitude rebuked them, that they might be silent; but they cried out the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 32. And Jesus stood, and called them, and said, What do you wish that I should do to you" 33. They say to Him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. 34. And Jesus, moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.

     

    46. And they come to Jericho: and while they was departing from the city Jericho, and His disciples, and a great multitude, Bartimeus, son of Timeus, a blind man, was sitting hear the road begging. 47. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry aloud, and to say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. 48. And many rebuked him, that he might be silent: but he cried out so much the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. 49. And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying to him, Be of good courage, rise; he calleth thee.50. And he, throwing away his mantle, arose, and came to Jesus. 51. And Jesus answering, saith to him, What dost thou wish that I should do to thee" And the blind man said to Him, Master, 668668     “Rabboni;” — “Maistre.” that I may receive sight. 52 And Jesus said to him, Go away; thy faith hath cured thee. And immediately he received sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

     

    35. And it happened that, while He was approaching Jericho, a certain blind man was sitting near the road begging: 36. And when he heard a multitude passing by, he asked what it was. 37. And they said to him, that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. 38. And he cried out, saying, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. 39. And they that were going before rebuked him, that he might be silent: but he cried out so much the more, Son of David, have mercy on me.40. And Jesus, standing still, commanded him to be brought to him: and while He was approaching, He asked him, 41. Saying, What dost thou wish that I should do to thee" And he said, Lord, that I may receive sight. 42. Then Jesus said to him, Receive sight: thy faith hath cred thee. 43. And immediately he received sight, and followed Him, glorifying God: and all the people when they saw it, gave praise to God.

     

    Matthew 20:29: And while they were departing from Jericho. Osiander has resolved to display his ingenuity by making four blind men out of one. But nothing can be more frivolous than this supposition. Having observed that the Evangelists differ in a few expressions, he imagined that one blind man received sight when they were entering into the city, and that the second, and other two, received sight when Christ was departing from it. But all the circumstances agree so completely, that no person of sound judgment will believe them to be different narratives. Not to mention other matters, when Christ’s followers had endeavored to put the first to silence, and saw him cured contrary to their expectation, would they immediately have made the same attempt with the other three" But it is unnecessary to go into particulars, from which any man may easily infer that it is one and the same event which is related.

    But there is a puzzling contradiction in this respect, that Matthew and Mark say that the miracle was performed on one or on two blind men, when Christ had already departed from the city; while Luke relates that it was done before He came to the city. Besides, Mark and Luke speak of not more than one blind man, while Matthew mentions two. But as we know that it frequently occurs in the Evangelists, that in the same narrative one passes by what is mentioned by the others, and, on the other hand, states more clearly what they have omitted, it ought not to be looked upon as strange or unusual in the present passage.

    The conjecture is, that, while Christ was approaching to the city, the blind man cried out, but that, as he was not heard on account of the noise, he placed himself in the way, as they were departing from the city, “Mais pource qu’il ne peut estre ouy a cause du bruit du peuple, qu’il s’en alla, l’autre porte de la ville par laquelle Christ devoit sortir, pour l’attendre la au chemin;” “but, because he could not be heard on account of the noise of the people, that he went away to the other gate by which Christ was to go out, to wait for Him there on the road.” and then was at length called by Christ. And so Luke, commencing with what was true, does not follow out the whole narrative, but passes over Christ’s stay in the city; while the other Evangelists attend only to the time which was nearer to the miracle. There is probability in the conjecture that, as Christ frequently, when He wished to try the faith of men, delayed for a short time to relieve them, so He subjected this blind man to the same scrutiny.

    The second difficulty may be speedily removed; for we have seen, on a former occasion, that Mark and Luke speak of one demoniac as having been cured, while Matthew, as in the present instance, mentions two, (Matthew 8:28; Mark 5:2; Luke 8:27) And yet this involves no contradiction between them; but it may rather be conjectured with probability, that at first one blind man implored the favor of Christ, and that another was excited by his example, and that in this way two persons received sight Mark and Luke speak of one only, either because he was better known, or because in him the demonstration of been on account of his having been extensively known that he was selected by Mark, who gives both his own name and that of his father: Bartimeus, son of Timeus By doing so, he does not claim for him either illustrious descent or wealth; for he was a beggar of the lowest class. Hence it appears that the miracle was more remarkable in his person, because his calamity had been generally known. This appears to be the reason why Mark and Luke mention him only, and say nothing about the other, who was a sort of inferior appendage. But Matthew, who was an eye-witness, “Qui avoit este present au miracle;” “who had been present at the miracle.” did not choose to pass by even this person, though less known.

    30. Have mercy on me, O Lord. There was at first but one who cried out, but the other was induced by a similar necessity to join him. They confer on Christ no ordinary honor, when they request Him to have mercy, and relieve them; for they must have been convinced that He had in his power the assistance or remedy which they needed. But their faith is still more clearly exhibited by their acknowledgment of Him as Messiah, to whom we know that the Jews gave this designation, Son of David They therefore apply to Christ, not only as some Prophet, but as that person whom God had promised to be the only Author of salvation. The cry proved the ardor of the desire; for, though they knew that what they said exposed them to the hatred of many, who were highly displeased with the honor done to Christ, their fear was overcome by the ardor of desire, so that they did not refrain, on this account, from raising their voice aloud.

    31. And the multitude reproved them. It is surprising that the disciples of Christ, who follow Him through a sense of duty and of respect, should wish to drive wretched men from the favor of Christ, and, so far as lies in them, to prevent the exercise of His power. But it frequently happens that the greater part of those who profess the name of Christ, instead of inviting us to Him, rather hinder or delay our approach. If Satan endeavored to throw obstacles in the way of two blind men, by means of pious and simple persons, who were induced by some sentiments of religion to follow Christ, how much more will he succeed in accomplishing it by means of hypocrites and traitors, if we be not strictly on our guard. Perseverance is therefore necessary to overcome every difficulty, and the more numerous the obstacles are which Satan throws in the way, the more powerfully ought we to be excited to earnestness in prayer, as we see that the blind men redoubled their cry

    32. What do you wish that I should do to you" He gently and kindly asks what they desire; for He had determined to grant their requests. There is no reason to doubt that they prayed by a special movement of the Holy Spirit; for, as the Lord does not intend to grant to all persons deliverance from bodily diseases, so neither does He permit them simply to pray for it. A rule has been prescribed for us what we ought to ask, and in what manner, and to what extent; and we are not at liberty to depart from that rule, unless the Lord, by a secret movement of the Spirit, suggest to us some special prayer, which rarely happens. Christ puts the question to them, not for their sake as individuals, but for the sake of all the people; for we know how the world swallows God’s benefits without perceiving them, unless they are stimulated and aroused. Christ, therefore, by His voice, awakens the assembled crowd to observe the miracle, as He awakens them shortly afterwards by a visible sign, when He opens their eyes by touching them.

    34. And Jesus, moved with compassion, etc. Σπλαγχνισθείς, moved with compassion, is not the participle of the same verb which Matthew had just now employed in reference to the blind man, ἐλέησον,have mercy “Quand ils disoyent, Fils de David, aye misericorde de nous;” “when they said, Son of David, have mercy on us.” They implored the mercy of Christ, that He might relieve their wretchedness; but now the Evangelist expresses that Christ was induced to cure them, not only by undeserved goodness, but because He pitied their distress. For the metaphor is taken from thebowels, (σπλάγχνα,) in which dwells that kindness and mutual compassion which prompts us to assist our neighbors.

    Mark 10:52. Thy faith hath saved thee By the word faith is meant not only a confident hope of recovering sight, but a loftier conviction, which was, that this blind man had acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah whom God had promised. Nor must we imagine that it was only some confused knowledge; for we have already seen that this confession was taken from the Law and the Prophets. For the blind man did not at random bestow on Christ the name of Son of David, but embraced Him as that person whose coming he had been taught by the divine predictions to expect. Now Christ attributes it to faith that the blind man received sight; for, though the power and grace of God sometimes extend even to unbelievers, yet no man enjoys His benefits in a right and profitable manner, unless he receive them by faith; nay, the use of the gifts of God is so far from being advantageous to unbelievers, that it is even hurtful. And therefore, when Christ says, thy faith hath saved thee, the word saved is not limited to an outward cure, but includes also the health and safety of the soul; as if Christ had said, that by faith the blind man obtained that God was gracious to him, and granted his wish. And if it was in regard to faith that God bestowed his favor on the blind man, it follows that he was justified by faith

    Matthew 20:34. And followed Him. This was an expression of gratitude, “Ceci a este un signe de reconnaissance du bien receu de Christ;” “this was an expression of gratitude for the favor received from Christ.” when the blind men became followers of Christ; for, though it is uncertain how long they discharged this duty, yet it showed a grateful mind, that they presented themselves to many, in that journey, as mirrors of the grace of Christ. Luke adds, that the people gave praise to God, which tends to prove the certainty of the miracle.

    New International Version: As Jesus and His disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.

    New Living Translation: As Jesus and the disciples left the town of Jericho, a large crowd followed behind.

    English Standard Version: And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed Him.

    New American Standard Bible : As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.

    King James Bible: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

    Holman Christian Standard Bible: As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.

    International Standard Version: As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Jesus.

    NET Bible: As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed them.

    Aramaic Bible in Plain English: And when Yeshua went out from Jericho, a great crowd was coming after Him.

     

    GOD'S WORD® Translation: As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Jesus.

    Jubilee Bible 2000: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

    King James 2000 Bible: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

    American King James Version: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

     

    American Standard Version: And as they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

     

    Douay-Rheims Bible: And when they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. 

    Darby Bible Translation: And as they went out from Jericho a great crowd followed Him.

    English Revised Version: And as they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

    Webster's Bible Translation: And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

     

    Weymouth New Testament: As they were leaving Jericho, an immense crowd following Him,

    World English Bible: As they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.

     

    Young's Literal Translation: And they going forth from Jericho, there followed Him a great multitude,

     

    Parallel Commentaries Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

     

    20:29-34 It is good for those under the same trial, or infirmity of body or mind, to join in prayer to God for relief, that they may quicken and encourage one another. There is mercy enough in Christ for all that ask. They were earnest in prayer. They cried out as men in earnest. Cold desires beg denials. They were humble in prayer, casting themselves upon, and referring themselves cheerfully to, the Mediator's mercy. They showed faith in prayer, by the title they gave to Christ. Surely it was by the Holy Ghost that they called Jesus, Lord. They persevered in prayer. When they were in pursuit of such mercy, it was no time for timidity or hesitation: they cried earnestly. Christ encouraged them. The wants and burdens of the body we are soon sensible of, and can readily relate. Oh that we did as feelingly complain of our spiritual maladies, especially our spiritual blindness! Many are spiritually blind, yet say they see. Jesus cured these blind men; and when they had received sight, they followed Him. None follow Christ blindly. He first by His grace opens men's eyes, and so draws their hearts after Him. These miracles are our call to Jesus; may we hear it, and make it our daily prayer to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

     

    Pulpit Commentary:

     

    Verses 29-34. - Healing of two blind men at Jericho. (Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43.) The miracle narrated in this passage is common to the three synopsis’s, but with some remarkable differences, not one of them agreeing altogether in details. St. Matthew speaks of two blind men, St. Luke and St. Mark of one only, and the latter mentions this one by name as Bartimaeus. St. Matthew and St. Mark make the miracle performed as Jesus quitted Jericho; St. Luke assigns it to the approach to the city. Thus the number of the cured and the locality of the miracle are alike variously stated. It is an easy solution to say, with St. Augustine, Lightfoot, and Greswell, that two, or perhaps three, distinct facts are here related; and it is not absolutely impossible. though altogether improbable, that in the same locality, under identical circumstances, like sufferers made the same request, and received the same relief in the same manner. But we are not driven to this extravagant hypothesis; and the unity of the narrative can be preserved without doing violence to the language of the writers. As to the number of the blind men, we have seen the same discrepancy in the case of the demoniacs at Gadara solved by supposing that one of the two was the more remarkable and better known than the other. Hence, in this incident, the tradition followed by some of the synopsis’s preserved the memory of this one alone, who may have become known in the Christian community as a devoted follower of Jesus, the other passing into obscurity and being heard of no more. Another hypothesis is that a single blind man first addressed Christ as He entered Jericho, but was not cured at that time. Jesus passed that night in the city at the house of Zacchreus (Luke 19:1-10); and on the morrow, when leaving Jericho, was again entreated by the blind man, who meantime had been joined by a companion, and healed them both. There are other solutions offered, e.g., that there were two Jericho’s, an old and a new town, and that one blind man was healed as they entered one city, and the other as they left the other; or that the term rendered "was come nigh" (Luke 18:35) might mean "was nigh," and might therefore apply to one who was leaving as well as to one entering the city.

     

    But we weary ourselves in vain in seeking to harmonize every little detail in the Gospel narratives. No two, much less three, independent witnesses would give an identical account of an incident, especially one which reached some of them only by hearsay. Inspiration extends not to petty circumstances, and the credibility of the gospel depends not on the rectification of such minutiae.

     

    Verse 29. - Jericho. The Lord was on His way to Jerusalem to meet the death which He was willing to undergo, and to win the victory which He was by this path to accomplish. His route lay through Jericho, as the march of His forerunner Joshua had led. Joshua had set forth to conquer the Promised Land; Jesus sets forth to win His promised inheritance by the sword of the Spirit. "The upland pastures of Peraea were now behind them, "and the road led down to the sunken channel of the Jordan, and the 'divine district' of Jericho. This small but rich plain was the most luxuriant spot in Palestine. Sloping gently upwards from the level of the Dead Sea, 1350 feet under the Mediterranean, to the stern background of the hills of Quarantana, it had the climate of Lower Egypt, and displayed the vegetation of the tropics. Its fig trees were pre-eminently famous; it was unique in its growth of palms of various kinds: its crops of dates were a proverb; the balsam plant, which grew principally here, furnished a costly perfume, and was in great repute for healing wounds; maize yielded a double harvest; wheat ripened a whole month earlier than in Galilee, and innumerable bees found a paradise in the many aromatic flowers and plants, not a few unknown elsewhere, which filled the air with odours and the landscape with beauty. Rising like an amphitheatre from amidst this luxuriant scene, lay Jericho, the chief place east of Jerusalem, at seven or eight miles distant from the Jordan, on swelling slopes, seven hundred feet above the bed of the river, from which its gardens and groves, thickly interspersed with mansions, and covering seventy furlongs from north to south, and twenty from east to west, were divided by a strip of wilderness.

     

    The town had had an eventful history. Once the stronghold of the Canaanites, it was still, in the days of Christ, surrounded by towers and castles. A great stone aqueduct of eleven arches brought a copious supply of water to the city, and the Roman military road ran through it. The houses themselves, however, though showy, were not substantial, but were built mostly of sun-dried bricks, like those of Egypt; so that now, as in the similar case of Babylon, Nineveh, or Egypt, after long desolation, hardly a trace of them remains." A great multitude. A vast crowd of pilgrims, bound for Jerusalem to keep the Passover, accompanied Jesus and His disciples. The number of people that this great festival attracted to the central place of worship seems to us incredibly large. Josephus ('Bell. Jud.,' 6:09. 3) reckons them at three millions. Doubtless our Lord was followed by many of those whom He had benefited, and others whom He had won by His teaching; and these, at any rate, would witness the ensuing miracle. 

     

    Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

     

    And as they departed from Jericho ... Which, was distant about ten parsas, or miles, from Jerusalem (i), through which Christ just passed, and had met with Zacchaeus, and called him, and delivered the parable concerning a nobleman's going into a far country. The Syriac and Persic versions render the words, "when Jesus departed from Jericho"; and the Arabic, "when He went out of Jericho"; not alone, but "with His disciples", as Mark says; and not with them only, for a great multitude followed Him out of the city; either to hear Him, or be healed by Him, or to see Him, or behold His miracles, or to accompany Him to Jerusalem; whither He was going to keep the feast of the Passover, and where they might be in some expectation He would set up His kingdom. The Ethiopic version reads it, "As they went out from Jerusalem", contrary to all copies and versions. 

     

    Matthew 20:29-20:34 What Would You Have Me Do For You"  

     

    It would appear that Jesus never asked this question of anyone else in the Gospels. Didn’t He know what these blind men needed"

     

    He was seeking help, but in the process of seeking that help he got distracted. The light was on and it drew him away from the place where he might actually get help.

    In Matthew 20, Jesus is entering the final week of His ministry. He’s on His way to Jerusalem and will soon be betrayed, arrested, and crucified… the crowds will clamor for His blood and cry "Crucify Him!" "Crucify Him!"

     

    But as of now, the crowds still love Him. They line the streets and clamor for His attention. They’ve come to believe that this Jesus is: The hope of Israel. The Messiah. The Son of David. The promised King of Israel

     

    Everyone is speculating that He will soon claim His crown, throw off the yoke of the hated Romans and restore Israel to its former glory. But amongst the crowd are 2 blind men. 
    Everybody knows them. They’re always sitting by the roadside begging for alms. They cry out “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” (Matthew 20:30) And the crowd is irritated. This isn’t what they think Jesus is “all about”. Jesus is too important to be bothered by rabble like this.

     

    But Jesus stops and asks these blind men “What do want me to do for you"”

    Now this is an unusual question for two reasons: 1st This is the only time in the Gospels we find Jesus asking anyone what they need done. 2nd You would think it would be obvious what these men needed. They’re blind. Even if Jesus couldn’t have looked into their eyes and seen the cloudiness that is often there in the eyes of the blind, or watched them as they grope about in the ways blind men do…

     

    This is Jesus. He doesn’t need anyone to tell Him what these men were blind. He’s God…  He knows these things. So why ask the question"

     

    Well, it seems obvious to me that He didn’t ask the question for His own benefit (as if He didn’t know what they needed in their lives). Jesus asked the question for the benefit of the others who were there that day.

     

    1st. Jesus asked this question for the benefit of the crowds. This crowd is obviously not into helping blind people. Blind people were a nuisance. They were a hindrance. They were a distraction to what Jesus’ real purpose ought to be.

     

    And would that “real purpose” be" Meeting their needs, building their kingdom.

     

    When it becomes obvious, a few days later, that this wasn’t what Jesus had in mind the crowds turned their backs on Him and cry out for His blood. And so it was intriguing that Jesus didn’t ask the crowds what He could do for them. He asked the blind men.

    There are times when the Church forgets why it exists. There are times when Christians forget what Jesus saved them for. They begin to think church is all about them. They think their relationship with Jesus is totally focused on their needs and their agenda. They

     

    "Matthew 20:29-34 says Jesus healed two blind men as He left Jericho. Mark 10:46-52 and Luke 18:35-43 say He healed one man as He entered Jericho. Is this a contradiction""

     

    In spite of apparent discrepancies, these three passages do refer to the same incident. The Matthew account cites two men healed as Jesus left Jericho. Mark and Luke refer to only one blind man healed, but Luke says it happened as Jesus was entering Jericho while Mark records it happening as He left Jericho. There are legitimate explanations for the apparent discrepancies. Let’s look at them rather than deciding this is a contradiction and the Bible is in error.

     

    That this is the same incident is seen in the similarity of the accounts, beginning with the two beggars sitting on the roadside. They call out to Jesus, referring to Him as “Son of David” (Matthew 20:30; Mark 10:48; Luke 18:38), and in all three accounts, they are rebuked by those nearby and told to be quiet but continue to shout out to Jesus (Matthew 20:31; Mark 10:48; Luke 18:39). The three accounts describe nearly identical conversations between Jesus and the beggars and the conclusions of the stories are also identical. The beggars receive their sight immediately and follow Jesus.

     

    Only Mark and Luke chose to identify one of the beggars as Bartimeus, perhaps because he was the main character in the story and was therefore the sole focus of Mark’s and Luke’s accounts. Perhaps it was because Bartimeus was known to them as the son of Timeus, but the other man was a stranger to them. In any case, the fact that only one man of the two is recorded as speaking does not mean there was only one man. It simply means Mark and Luke identified only one man speaking, Bartimeus. Matthew refers to both of them calling out to Jesus, clearly indicating there were two men.

     

    The other issue in question is whether Jesus was entering Jericho or leaving it. Bible commentators cite the fact that at that time there were two Jericho’s, one the mound of the ancient city (still existing today) and the other the inhabited city of Jericho. Therefore, Jesus could have healed the two men as He was leaving the ancient city of Jericho and entering the new city of Jericho.

     

    In any case, to focus on these minor details to the exclusion of all else is to miss the point of the story, Jesus healed the blind men, proving that He was indeed the Son of God with powers beyond anything a mortal man could have. Unlike the Pharisees who refused to see what was before their eyes, our response to Jesus should be the same as that of the blind men, call on Him to give us eyes to see spiritual truth, recognize Him for who He is, and follow Him.

     

    Transcripts

     

    The exposition of the word of God is the exposition of Matthew chapter 20 verses 29 through verse 34, but is also built upon the parallel account in Mark chapter 10.  So let’s turn first to Matthew chapter 20, verses 29 through 34, and then we’ll turn to the Markan passage in chapter 10 of that Gospel.  Remember the context.  The Lord Jesus is now on His way to the city of Jerusalem where He will offer Himself as a sacrifice for sinners.  Matthew writes in verse 29 of chapter 20 and Mark chapter 10 and verse 46.  Luke in his account comments that he followed the Lord Jesus glorifying God, and that the people gave praise to God as a result of what had happened.  May the Lord bless this reading of His word.

     

    We may have overlooked the fact in our study of the New Testament that the name of our Lord Jesus, Jesus is the same as the name for Joshua in the Old Testament.  The word Iesous in the Greek of the New Testament is the equivalent of Y’hoshua or Joshua, in the Old Testament.  So what we have in this account that we are looking at is an appearance of the second Joshua before Jericho, and so the title this morning for the message is “The Second Joshua Working Miracles at Jericho Again.”

     

    The biblical critics have had a happy time studying this passage of Scripture which has to do with the healing of the blind men, as our Lord was at Jericho on His last visit to the city of Jerusalem while in the flesh.  And it contains problems that lend some credence to their view that the Bible is after all only an ordinary book.  Confidently, they intone in details and many important points, the gospels do not agree.

               

    Then they go on to say, somewhat condescendingly, that the differences in these accounts do not really make a whole lot of difference, except insofar as they give instruction to those who believe that the Bible is true in all of its statements.  So they tell us that these differences in the accounts don’t mean anything, but they at least should instruct those simple-minded people, they mean us, who think that the words of holy Scripture are inerrant.  What are the difficulties which give the detractors of the Bible such relish in these accounts of the healing of the blind men"

               

    There are two particularly.  In the first place, Matthew speaks of two men who are healed, while Mark and Luke speak only of one.  Now of course we should notice immediately if we have any facility for thinking logically, that when Matthew says that there are two, and Mark and Luke speak only of one, Mark and Luke do not say that there was only one blind man.  Now that is very important.  All that Luke and Mark say is that the Lord healed a blind man.  Mark gives his name as Bartimaeus.  They do not say He healed only one man.  So there is really no contradiction between the accounts in that respect.

     

    But there is something else that is of probably of greater difficulty.  Mark and Matthew place the healing after the Lord Jesus leaves Jericho, while Luke appears to place the healing before the Lord Jesus enters Jericho.

     

    Now that might be a serious problem for those who believe that the Bible is inerrant in the statements that it makes.  We must of course remember that so far as the Scriptures are concerned, we do not have all of the details surrounding the incidents of the Bible, and so we have to think in our own minds of situations in which the words of Scripture may find their significance and relevance.  But there have been a number of suggestions by individuals in attempts to harmonize this fact that Mark and Matthew place the healing after Jericho whereas Luke suggests that the healing occurred before the Lord entered Jericho.

               

    One Bible teacher, who has been a very prominent Bible teacher, has taught that really we have two different healings.  Now of course we have already had the healing of two blind men in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 9 and since it was the Messianic office of the Lord Jesus to heal blind men, it’s certainly true that He did heal many blind men through the three years or so of His ministry.  And so it has been suggested that what we have in Luke is one account whereas what we have in Mark and Matthew is another account, and if that is so that would of course solve all of our difficulties.

     

    Still others have said, for example Professor A. T. Robertson, the well known New Testament professor, that there were really two Jericho’s.  That is, an old or ancient city and a new modern Jericho, which was new and modern in our Lord’s day.  We know that this is generally true, and it is Professor Robertson’s contention that in one of the accounts, the author looks at it from the standpoint of the old city of Jericho and thus the healing was as He came out of the city of Jericho, and as He was to enter the new Jericho, and the other account is written from that standpoint.  So if there were two Jericho’s it would be very easy to harmonize these accounts.  The healing took place between the leaving of one and the entering of another.

               

    Another ancient commentator, the Pietist commentator Albrecht Bengel, whose writings have been read by countless thousands of students of the Scripture, not only in the original Latin in the which he wrote them, but in other translations of them.  Bengel has made the suggestion that what happened really was that the blind men met the Lord Jesus as he was entering Jericho, and since Jericho was a relatively small city, they followed the great crowd seeking to get to Him as He made His way through Jericho, and then finally came into touch with Him as they were leaving the city and thus both of the accounts could be true:  one written from the standpoint of the entrance and the other written from the standpoint of the exit where the healing really took place.

               

    There are some modern interpretations, too.  One of the modern interpreters has suggested that really what happened was something like this:  the two blind men were seated right near the outskirts of the city, but when they heard the crowd which preceded the Lord Jesus, and they heard word that Jesus was coming, they began to shout, and so they began to shout as the Lord Jesus entered the city, and Luke writes his account from that standpoint.  But finally as He came to leave the city, they came into contact with Him and were healed as He left the city.

               

    Still another has suggested this explanation.  He has said that it’s shortly after this that the Lord Jesus sees Zacchaeus in the in the tree, and He calls down Zacchaeus, and remember, says that He was going to lodge with him that night.  Now since Zacchaeus lived in Jericho, and since he wanted to see the Lord Jesus, he had raced outside the city so he could catch a good view of Him and when the Lord Jesus saw him with the multitude looking at the little man up in the tree, He called out to Zacchaeus as He came out of the city and said Zacchaeus come down I must lodge with you tonight.  And the incident involving Zacchaeus took place, and then He went back into the city and spent the night with Zacchaeus.  And so one of the accounts is written from the standpoint of the leaving of the city whereas the other is written from the standpoint of our Lord entering back into the city, and as He entered, He met the blind men and healed them.

               

    So there are a number of suggestions that have been offered.  The Gospels do not really give us anything necessarily contradictory.  We just don’t know the details.  One of the interesting things that we shall be engaged in at least for a little while when we get to heaven is the harmonization of many things with which we do not have enough information to harmonize ourselves.  So, there is not any serious problem in this at all.  It’s interesting.  We don’t know how it happened, and we’ll be looking forward to finding out how when we get there.  But when we get there these will be rather insignificant things.  And we’ll probably say, why did we waist eight or nine minutes talking about that" [Laughter]

               

    There is a two-fold significance in this event that is more important, and the first thing is what we can call, for the sake of a better word, a dispensational significance.  Remember the Lord Jesus is coming to Jerusalem as the King of Israel.  When He enters, shortly in the next message we shall consider his untriumphal entry, He will come and the people shall shout out, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.”  And, since it was one of the duties of the Messianic king to heal the eyes of the blind, specifically, that it’s very appropriate that as He makes His plans for entering the city of Jerusalem, He should heal again some blind men making or bringing to the forefront again the fact that He is the Messianic king who performs the miracles that He is supposed to perform according to Old Testament prophesy.  That’s one of the important things.

               

    But there is another thing that is even more important, and that is the reference that this particular incident has to the spiritual life of men and women.  It is again a beautiful illustration of the Lord’s power to illuminate the spiritually blind.  The word of God tells us the Apostle Paul, particularly, that the natural man, that is the man who does not have any relationship to the Lord Jesus that is vital and life-giving, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned.

               

    In other words, the Apostle Paul says that the natural man cannot understand spiritual truth.  There must be a previous working of the Holy Spirit by which their minds are illuminated to understand divine truth.  Paul puts it in other ways.  He says that we are dead in trespasses and sin.  Some who do not have a vital saving relationship with Jesus Christ, and we rather wonder why it is that we are here.  Perhaps some friend has brought you.  Or perhaps out of what you thought was mere curiosity, and we wonder why it is that people come to hear an exposition of an ancient book written hundreds and hundreds of years ago.  We read it and we do not get anything out of it.  We find it, in the words of the Apostle Paul, foolishness.  We are actually fulfilling the words of Scripture in the fact that we do not understand it and rather think that it is stupid, that’s the meaning of Paul’s term really. Stupid.

     

    Now the Bible tells us that those who do not have eternal life are spiritually blind. Over and over again, the apostle mentions that.  He says that we are blind in our hearts.  We are alienated from God and do not have the life of God within us.  And this incident is designed to illustrate the fact that it is the Lord Jesus who works in the hearts of blind men.  Men who are spiritually blind.

               

    There are people who sit in an audience who do not understand anything more about spiritual things.  We are here and that’s all, and we wonder why. That’s true, because we attend church and many of us do not understand what in the world was going on.  We are blind as a bat spiritually.  Now God the Holy Spirit must work in the hearts of men for spiritual illumination to come, and this incident this miracle in the life of our Lord is another illustration of His power.  Let’s turn to it now, and first of all, let´s say a word about the historical situation against the background of which the Lord Jesus ministers.

               

    We are in the part of Matthew in which we are going to have a great deal of stress upon the ministry of the Lord in the last days studying these last chapters of the Gospel of Matthew again, because the most fruitful parts of biblical study are the passages in the gospels that have to do with the passion of the Lord Jesus.  And we are fast approaching that part of the Gospel of Matthew in which the Lord Jesus in the last days of His life ministers there, preparatory to giving His life a ransom for many.

               

    Now as He made His way down to Jerusalem on the last of His journeys to that city in the flesh, He was making His way with the apostles, and also with a company of friends.  Mark tells us in the 32nd verse of the 10th chapter, “And they were on the way going up to Jerusalem and Jesus went before them.”  And you can picture the little crowd the apostles gathered close to the Lord Jesus and then their friends and relatives who were a little back, and the Lord Jesus suddenly began to lengthen His steps, as He made His way toward Jerusalem.  Luke describes His countenance as an appearance as if He were going to Jerusalem.  And so as He lengthened His step and marched out with increasing speed before them the apostles noticed that that was not His customary action in their travels, and so the Scriptures say that they were amazed, they were astonished.

               

    And then looking at the people who were following Mark continues and says, “As they followed they were afraid.”  So there was something about the occasion in which our Lord had this different look upon His face moved out in front of the company, there was something about it that caused the rest of the group that were with them to come under the influence of this sense of the luminous, and awe stricken they observed the Lord Jesus as He made His way toward Jerusalem.

               

    Bengel, that same German commentator, asks the question, what was He doing", and then answers it by saying that He was dwelling in His passion.  He was thinking about what now was immediately before Him when He would finally go to that cross and cry out, “It is finished” after having said “My God my God why hast Thou forsaken Me"”  That is really a kind of theme verse of these final chapters of the gospel records.

               

    So the Lord Jesus, having crossed the Jordan now comes to the little city of Jericho, and remembers His name was Joshua.  So a greater Joshua stands at Jericho with His word drawn to storm the stronghold of the Prince of Darkness, and He will win the battle by dying upon a Roman gibbet.  And this incident of the blind man is a kind of earnest of the victory the Lord Jesus will obtain when He shed his blood.

               

    Well as He draws near to Jericho, a great multitude is following Him.  They are friends of His.  No doubt many relatives of His too.  They draw near to the city of Jericho and behold Matthew says in the 30th verse, two blind men sitting by the way side.  It’s not surprising that our Lord’s miracles include the healing of blind men because that was the Messianic work:  to open the eyes of the blind.  Isaiah says that when the Messiah comes He will do that.  He says that in chapter 29, about verse 17 or 18 of that chapter.  He also says that in chapter 35 and verse 5.  So this was a specific Messianic miracle.

               

    So it’s not surprising then that in His miracles there should be the healing of many blind men.  And furthermore, it’s not surprising that there should be two of them.  It’s pathetic when you think about it, of course, but it was natural, because two blind men would naturally be anxious for sympathy and encouragement and help, and it is true that equal sorrows cause men to creep close for warmth and companionship.  We know that when we have other afflictions.  Those that have similar afflictions do tend to come together because they can mutually help one another.

               

    Blindness was very, very common, unfortunately, in the eastern cities in the time of our Lord.  One of the reasons for this was that there were conditions of uncleanness that caused such diseases to abound.  And in addition the bright glare of the sun in those parts of our world was such, and since they didn’t have protection from the sun, that they became afflicted in their eyes.  A visitor in our modern day to Cairo, Egypt has said that it was his observation that out of one hundred people in Egypt; about fifty were affected with eye disease.  Twenty were blind, ten had lost one eye, and twenty had other eye diseases.  So we should not be surprised then that the Lord Jesus in His ministry should encompass the healing of many blind men.

               

    The text says that when the Lord Jesus passed by, they heard that Jesus had passed by.  And incidentally in the words that are the outpouring of their heart, it’s evident that they had already heard of the Lord Jesus.  They knew something about Him.  It’s even possible that they had heard accounts of the healing ministry of this Jesus of Nazareth, and incidentally since they had no doubt studied the Scriptures themselves and paid because of their affliction particular attention to those prophesies of the Old Testament that spoke of the healing of blind men, and longing for that themselves, that they were naturally attracted to the stories concerning the Lord Jesus.

    The Holy Scripture says, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  So the word concerning the Lord Jesus had been disseminated, and they had heard it and on the basis of what they had heard the Holy Spirit had wrought in their hearts. This incident, incidentally is the origin of Sankey’s hymn,

     

    “What means this eager anxious throng which moves with busy haste along these wondrous gatherings day by day;  what means this strange commotion pray in accents hushed the throng reply Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.” 

     

    When the word came to the blind men that the Lord Jesus might be near, they began to cry out.  Now Mark tells us they began to.  We would gather that from Matthew, because in the account here in Matthew, they cry out,  “Have mercy upon us,” and then when some seek to stop them they still cry out the more,  “O Lord, thou son of David, have mercy upon us.”

               

    So they began to cry out, and notice what they say when they cry out to Him.  They do not say, O man of Nazareth, have mercy upon us.  They do not say, O Yankee or Northerner have mercy upon us.  They have some very definite information concerning Him.  They cry out, have mercy on us O Lord thou son of David. It is evident they have faith in His person as the Lord.  That is, they have some conception that He is a divine person and also they have a conception of Him as the Messiah, because son of David is a Messianic term.  So they know that He is the Son of God, and they know that He is the Messiah.

               

    Now whether they understood all of the significance of it, or whether they would understand what that meant in the light of the Council of Calcedon later on, that’s another matter.  But at least they had come to the conviction He was the Lord and come to the conviction that He was the Messianic king.  And not only did they have faith in His person, but they had a great confidence in His power, because they said, have mercy upon us.  They knew that it was within the power of the Lord Jesus to heal them, and so they cried out have mercy upon us.

               

    These men are a picture in the kind of attitude that men ought to have when they come into conviction for sin and desire to have deliverance.  They were earnest.  They cried.  They kept crying.  Even the tenses of the verbs in the other accounts stress the fact that this cry of theirs was a continual thing.  They were earnest.  We are earnest about everything but spiritual things.

               

    First thing to note is, we are very earnest about our sports.  We are very earnest about our business.  We are very earnest about our studies.  We are very earnest about our calling in life about our friends our hobbies, about everything, but when it comes to spiritual things, our hearts are as the old commentators used to say, as cold as the arctic snows.        

     

    These men were earnest.  Not only that they were persistent.  When actually people said, shut up, they said we’re going to not only keep it up but we’re going to shout loud enough in order to get over the heads of our hinderers, and so they cried out the text of Scripture says the more.  So the more they were told to shut up the louder they cried.  They were persistent.  They knew what they wanted.  And this is a very poignant fact when you think of blind men who could not see in the midst of a multitude.  They must have been crying out all along where is He"  Which way did He go"  What street did He turn down"  And all at the same time shouting out, O Lord, thou son of David have mercy upon us!  Which way did He go"  Lord have mercy upon us.  Did He turn that way"  Show me.  Take me to Him.  You can see this was something that was very important for them.  They knew what they wanted and incidentally they were humble.

               

    These cries that they were making were confessions of their unworthiness.  O Lord, thou son of David have mercy upon me.  They did not talk of their merits.  They didn’t say, for example, O Lord have mercy upon us, we attend the synagogue regularly.  We listen to the Pharisees.  We study the Scriptures.  We do good works.  We don’t put a sign our face “blind” when we really can see.  They had no talk of merit whatsoever, because whenever we talk of merit before the Lord, the doors of heaven are shut.  O Lord, thou son of David have mercy upon us.  They really were beggar, literally, Mark tells us, and they were beggars spiritually seeking for help.  And they plead as criminals, have mercy upon us.

               

    Now this illustrates of course the fact that according to the teaching of the word of God, our wills are obstinate in rebellion against the Lord.  The Scriptures so plainly teach about one of the most difficult things for men to grasp, the relationship of the will in our salvation. The Bible teaches that we have a will, that we do make decisions.  But the Bible teaches that the will is a secondary agent.  The will acts in accordance with our nature and our nature affected by the fall is wicked and rebellious against God.  Therefore, the decisions of the will which are a response to the inmost disposition of a man are always decisions contrary to the will of God.   This repeats over and over again, and we should say it again, because there are always some strangers in the midst.  We never make a decision of the will that is favorable to God unless God has previously “jiggled our willed.”

     

    That is biblical teaching.  It’s hard for men to understand that.  But nevertheless it is true.  It is basic to the gospel of the Lord Jesus.  The responses that men make do not arise ultimately from the heart of men; ultimately they arise from God’s working.  That’s why salvation is of the Lord.  So when we read these men cry out, have mercy upon us, it’s obvious that God has already wrought in their will, and they are crying out now in response to what He has done.

     

    Their wills naturally were obstinate.  They were rebellious.  Their understanding was darkened.  Their affections were depraved.  They were blind to the things that really counted.  That’s the way we are born.  We are born in our sin.  We know we can speak to someone about the wonders of this creation about us. We can talk to men about the beauties of and the wonders of His divine creation and men are able to understand with us.  We can speak of the wonders of creation ourselves, but when we turn to speak about the wonders of the New Covenant and of the blood that was shed by which we have everlasting life, by which we are brought into the family of God, by which we are justified, by which we become the children of God, then the beauties of the person of the Redeemer and the work of the Redeemer seem as nothing as foolishness to us.  We do not understand them at all.

               

    So these men cry out humbly with confessions of their own unworthiness, and the message that they proclaim is that the Lord Jesus is the Lord and the Messiah.  It’s striking that these blind men, these poor bind men, give the glory to the Lord Jesus that the leaders the religious leaders in Jerusalem did not. They did not own Him as Lord.  They rebelled against the very idea and they did not accept Him as the son of David.  They rebelled against that idea.  So these two poor blind men who did not have the religious training, and no doubt the religious experiences that the Pharisees and the Sadducees did, had by the grace of God been enabled to understand things that religious leaders do not.  There is a great lesson in that.

               

    The Lord’s reaction to this is remarkable.  A cry of need brings Him to a complete stop.  We read in verse 32, “And Jesus stood still.”  Isn’t that striking"  When Joshua was here in his historical ministry in the Old Testament recorded in the Book of Joshua, Joshua spoke to the sun and the sun and the moon stood still.  Remarkable miracle.  But here are two blind men who address the Son of Righteousness, for that is one our Lord’s titles, and the Son of Righteousness stops at their request.  It seems as if it is even a greater miracle than that performed by Joshua in the Old Testament.

               

    Reminds us that the apostle says that he is rich unto all that call on him.  If you have never believed in the Lord Jesus, let’s assure you that if you call upon Him, He is rich unto those that call unto Him.  So he stopped.  And interestingly those people that were trying to keep these two men quiet, shut up, shut up, are told by the Lord Jesus to go get the blind men.  That’s kind of ironical.  These people who were attempting to shut the blind men are forced to do errands for the blind men.  And so they go off and get the blind men and they are brought into the presence of the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus said, what do you want me to do"

               

    Isn’t it striking too the way Mark describes the way that Bartimaeus came to the Lord Jesus"  We can see the blind man with his coat.  It probably was the only coat that he had or ever hoped to have.  He knew that there were times when he needed that desperately, but Mark says he threw away his garment and came to the Lord Jesus.

               

    If we were an artist, the most prolific source of artistry would be the Bible itself.  One of the most striking things in all of the New Testament is when the Lord Jesus stood up in the boat in the midst of the storm, preparatory to saying, stop, or be muzzled ,and there came a great calm.  And here, as Bartimaeus threw away his cloak, figurative of the fact that everything must go when we come to the Lord Jesus, as Paul said, “He suffered the loss of all things as he came to Christ.”  What a beautiful picture that is.  And he came to Jesus, Mark says.  There’s nothing more fundamental, nothing more significant, nothing more necessary in life than to come to the Lord Jesus.

               

    One of the saddest things in the world is for a man to go through life shine in his school work, shine in his college work, graduate near the top of his class, become a successful businessman, be successful in business, come to the end of his days retired, and then to be placed in a grave like the rest of the people who have lived up to this time without the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  What a pitiful what a pitiful thing.   To come to the Lord Jesus is the fundamental thing.  To think of it.  To become the President of General Motors, but not know Christ.  To be the Chairman of the Board of Texas Instruments but not know Jesus Christ, what a failure.

               

    So the Lord said, what do you want"  These men have just no doubt been acquainted with the words the Lord Jesus had said not long before this:  the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister.  And so they in effect challenged Him.  You said you come to minister, well, minister that we may see again that we may have our eyesight.  One of the manuscripts reading the Matthian account, they requested, Lord that our eyes may be opened, that we may see Thee.  That’s a very fitting addition.  That’s the way they thought, having called out, O Lord Thou son of David.  That’s what they were thinking.  But first of all that our eyes may be opened.

               

    Then the healing is described in the last verse, and notice that there are outward means, inward means, and ultimate means.  The text of Scripture says, “So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes.”  Now that was the touch of sympathy.  Blind men no doubt needed the encouragement of the personal touch, and it’s a beautiful expression of the true humanity of Lord Jesus who understands all of our human needs.  He touched them.  But it also is an identification, for to touch, to lay hands upon was a sign of identification. And all He was saying, symbolically, was, as He touched them, yes I am sympathetic with your condition.  I identify with your sin, not that I’m a sinner, but it is for sin that I have come.  And the apostle puts it very succinctly; He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  And so He identified Himself with suffering sinning humanity for He shall die for sinners.

               

    Mark says that He said to him your faith has made you whole.  Incidentally, it was faith not adulterated by sight.  They couldn’t be saved by sight; they had no sight.  Our churches give us the impression that our faith is really grounded in a great deal of sight, for as we draw up to church buildings we are impressed.  They are magnificent structures.  And usually there’s a cross sticking above them.  And then we enter, and we enter into the auditorium.

               

    The auditorium should be very simple.  That’s the way we like it.  As a matter of fact that’s the way the earliest churches were constructed, and that’s the reason why the auditorium is simple.  But many of our churches and the churches in which we’ve grown up are very impressive, and the services are very impressive.  The men come in and they are dressed in different kinds of clothes.  They are either dressed in a robe, or they are dressed in clerical garb with the round clerical collar. 

               

    And when they stand in the pulpit, they not only stand in the pulpit but they go through motions that are designed to impress our senses.  They twist.  They turn.  They genuflect.  They kneel.  They bow.  They frequently take things and do things with them.  They stand before the altar.  The whole impression seems to be, faith does come by sight, to some extent at least.  They impress us.

               

    But the Lord Jesus said, your faith, not your humility, not your persistence, not your purposefulness, your faith has made you whole.  God has so worked that He has given you faith and that faith is the basis of your salvation.  The ultimate means is His compassion.  Jesus had compassion on them.  Paul says He speaks about God who was rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He had loved us.  And so out of compassion, the Lord Jesus responded to what He had produced in their hearts and gave them the pronouncement that they were now whole forgiven men.

               

    And not only that, but their eyes were opened.  Men speak of merits.  Proud men get down upon their knees and offer prayers to God, thinking that their prayers are the means of God’s blessing.  But the wind sweeps the prayers away, for God does not hear that kind of prayer.  When the messenger of mercy the Lord Jesus came to this earth, He did not enter into the Hiltons and the Sheratons and the Holiday Inns and the Howard Johnson Inns, but He came to the inn of the broken heart and the contrite spirit, because God responds to those who acknowledge that they have nothing with which to commend themselves to the Lord.

               

    Well the result of the healing is that they followed Him, and Luke tells us that they glorified God, which led to the praise of the Lord by the people.  What a beautiful thing that is, too.  There are several things that persist through our days of spiritual darkness, and one of them is the purpose for men being here.  Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  And when the Lord Jesus worked in the hearts of these two blind men, they were so happy over what God had done to them and they so praised God that they glorified God.  They had reached that ultimate goal for which we are here in this earth to glorify Him.

               

    Now the Lord Jesus has changed His position.  He’s no longer here in our midst.  He’s at the right hand of the majesty on high, but it’s still true, that Jesus of Nazareth passes by.  He does not do it physically.  He does it through His word and through His spirit.  And we have listened as we have read the word of God to the exposition of the power Jesus Christ to heal.  And if someone under the influence of the Holy Spirit, has been brought to the conviction of his sin, He stands ready and waiting to deliver from the blindness of our heart, to bring you into the knowledge of the Lord Jesus which means everlasting life.

               

    Remembering that later the Lord Jesus will die upon the cross at Calvary for sinners, making it possible for all of our sin and guilt and condemnation to be washed totally clean.  And if God has brought in our heart the desire He brought into the hearts of these blind men for healing, may God help us deep down within the recesses of our being to cry out, O Lord Thou son of David, have mercy upon us.  And this great miracle of healing will be accomplished spiritually again.  May God speak to our heart to that end.  Let’s pray for the benediction.

               

    Prayer:

     

    Father, we know that we have inadequately expressed the greatness of the healing ministry of the Lord Jesus, but we do know deep down within us, Lord, what Thou hast done for us and what Thou art able to do for men who come through the Spirit’s enablement to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel, the Savior of sinners.

               

    And Lord, if there should be someone present in this auditorium, one little child, perhaps one young man, one young woman, one elderly man or woman in whom the Holy Spirit has worked, O God, by the Holy Spirit, bring to their inmost being that urgent request, O Lord Thou son of David have mercy upon me.

               

    Accomplish, Lord the supernatural work of the new birth. May grace mercy and peace go with us. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

     

    Chapter Contents

    The parable of the laborers in the vineyard. (1-16) Jesus again foretells His sufferings. (17-19) The ambition of James and John. (20-28) Jesus gives sight to two blind men near Jericho. (29-34)

     

    Commentary on Matthew 20:1-16

     

    The direct object of this parable seems to be, to show that though the Jews were first called into the vineyard, at length the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles, and they should be admitted to equal privileges and advantages with the Jews. The parable may also be applied more generally, and shows,

     

    1. That God is debtor to no man.

     

    2. That many who begin last, and promise little in religion, sometimes, by the blessing of God, arrive at a great deal of knowledge, grace, and usefulness.

     

    3. That the recompense of reward will be given to the saints, but not according to the time of their conversion. It describes the state of the visible church, and explains the declaration that the last shall be first, and the first last, in its various references.

                   

    Until we are hired into the service of God, we are standing all the day idle: a sinful state, though a state of drudgery to Satan, may be called a state of idleness. The market-place is the world, and from that we are called by the gospel. Come; come from this market-place. Work for God will not admit of trifling. A man may go idle to hell, but he that will go to heaven, must be diligent. The Roman penny was seven pence halfpenny in our money, wages then enough for the day's support. This does not prove that the reward of our obedience to God is of works, or of debt; when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants; but it signifies that there is a reward set before us, yet let none, upon this presumption, put off repentance till they are old. Some were sent into the vineyard at the eleventh hour; but nobody had hired them before. The Gentiles came in at the eleventh hour; the gospel had not been before preached to them. Those that have had gospel offers made them at the third or sixth hour, and have refused them, will not have to say at the eleventh hour, as these had, No man has hired us.

     

    Therefore, not to discourage any, but to awaken all, be it remembered, that now is the accepted time. The riches of Divine grace are loudly murmured at, among proud Pharisees and nominal Christians. There is great proneness in us to think that we have too little, and others too much of the tokens of God's favor; and that we do too much, and others too little in the work of God. But if God gives grace to others, it is kindness to them, and no injustice to us.

     

    Carnal worldliness agrees with God for their penny in this world; and chooses their portion in this life. Obedient believers agree with God for their penny in the other world, and must remember they have so agreed. Didst not thou agree to take up with heaven as thy portion, thy all; wilt thou seek for happiness in the creature" God punishes none more than they deserve, and recompenses every service done for Him; He therefore does no wrong to any, by showing extraordinary grace to some.

     

    See here the nature of envy. It is an evil eye, which is displeased at the good of others, and desires their hurt. It is a grief to us, displeasing to God, and hurtful to our neighbors: it is a sin that has neither pleasure, profit, nor honor. Let us forego every proud claim, and seek for salvation as a free gift. Let us never envy or grudge, but rejoice and praise God for His mercy to others as well as to ourselves.

     

    Commentary on Matthew 20:17-19

     

    Christ is more particular here in foretelling His sufferings than before. And here, as before, He adds the mention of His resurrection and His glory, to that of His death and sufferings, to encourage His disciples, and comfort them. A believing view of our once crucified and now glorified Redeemer, is good to humble a proud, self-justifying disposition. When we consider the need of the humiliation and sufferings of the Son of God, in order to the salvation of perishing sinners, surely we must be aware of the freeness and richness of Divine grace in our salvation.

     

    Commentary on Matthew 20:20-28

     

    The sons of Zebedee abused what Christ said to comfort the disciples. Some cannot have comforts but they turn them to a wrong purpose. Pride is a sin that most easily besets us; it is sinful ambition to outdo others in pomp and grandeur. To put down the vanity and ambition of their request, Christ leads them to the thoughts of their sufferings. It is a bitter cup that is to be drunk of; a cup of trembling, but not the cup of the wicked. It is but a cup, it is but a draught, bitter perhaps, but soon emptied; it is a cup in the hand of a Father, John 18:11. Baptism is an ordinance by which we are joined to the Lord in covenant and communion; and so is suffering for Christ, Ezekiel 20:37; Isaiah 48:10. Baptism is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace; and so is suffering for Christ, for unto us it is given, Philippians 1:29. But they knew not what Christ's cup was, nor what His baptism. Those are commonly most confident, who are least acquainted with the cross. Nothing makes more mischief among brethren, than desire of greatness. And we never find Christ's disciples quarrelling, but something of this was at the bottom of it. That man who labors most diligently, and suffers most patiently, seeking to do good to his brethren, and to promote the salvation of souls, most resembles Christ, and will be most honored by Him to all eternity. Our Lord speaks of His death in the terms applied to the sacrifices of old. It is a sacrifice for the sins of men, and is that true and substantial sacrifice, which those of the law faintly and imperfectly represented. It was a ransom for many, enough for all, working upon many; and, if for many, then the poor trembling soul may say, Why not for me"

     

    Commentary on Matthew 20:29-34

     

    It is good for those under the same trial, or infirmity of body or mind, to join in prayer to God for relief, that they may quicken and encourage one another. There is mercy enough in Christ for all that ask. They were earnest in prayer. They cried out as men in earnest. Cold desires beg denials. They were humble in prayer, casting themselves upon, and referring themselves cheerfully to, the Mediator's mercy. They showed faith in prayer, by the title they gave to Christ. Surely it was by the Holy Ghost that they called Jesus, Lord. They persevered in prayer. When they were in pursuit of such mercy, it was no time for timidity or hesitation: they cried earnestly. Christ encouraged them. The wants and burdens of the body we are soon sensible of, and can readily relate. Oh that we did as feelingly complain of our spiritual maladies, especially our spiritual blindness! Many are spiritually blind, yet say they see. Jesus cured these blind men; and when they had received sight, they followed Him. None follow Christ blindly. He first by His grace opens men's eyes, and so draws their hearts after Him. These miracles are our call to Jesus; may we hear it, and make it our daily prayer to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

     

    Alleged Contradictions and Inaccuracies

     

    In Matthew's account two blind men are healed, whereas in the accounts of Mark and Luke only one blind man is mentioned: If two blind men were healed, then certainly one was healed. The Gospel writers did not include all that Jesus did and said. (cf. John 21:25).

     

    Matthew and Mark place the healing when Jesus was departing from Jericho, whereas Luke places the healing when Jesus was coming to Jericho: It is perfectly possible that Jesus healed "a certain blind man" as He was come nigh to Jericho (Luke's account), and then healed two more blind men (one of whom was blind Bartimaeus, Mark's account) as He was leaving Jericho.

     

    Matthew 20:29-34 “What Do You Want Jesus to Do For You"”

     

    Translation

     

    20:29 Now, as they were proceeding out from Jericho, a numerous crowd followed Him,

     

    20:30 and, two blind men sitting beside the road heard that Jesus was coming along [and] cried out saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

     

    20:31 But the crowd reprimanded them in order that they might hush, but as for them, they were crying out more, saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

    20:32 Then Jesus stood [still] and whistled to them and said, “What are y’all wanting Me to do for you"”

     

    20:33 They say to Him, “Lord, that our eyes might be opened!”

     

    20:34 And Jesus, gut-wrenched, touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes saw again! Then they followed Him.

     

    Introduction

     

    Exploring about how to pray. In Matthew 20:21, we just saw James and John’s mom ask Jesus for something, and now again in v.29ff, we have someone else making a request of Jesus.

     

  • In both cases Jesus asks, “What do you want"”

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  • However, in the first case, Jesus is appalled at the presumptuousness and pride of the request.

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  • But in the second scenario before us, we see that Jesus is “moved with compassion,” and fulfills the request of the blind men.

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  • What made the difference" We need to explore the status we have as children of God which privileges us to ask God for things, and to look at what characterizes the sort of requests that Jesus honors so that we can become better at praying to God.

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  • As Jesus makes His way closer to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, He reaches the town of Jericho, the very city that Joshua captured when the walls fell down some thousand four hundred years before then, and here, the road which had been running South along the Jordan river turns up West into the hills toward Jerusalem. In about 15 miles it will ascend 3,300 feet to the gates of the holy city where He will be crucified.

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  • But for now, Jesus is just approaching Jericho, a lovely resort town where He will spend the night. He was apparently pretty famous by this time and had many out-of-town people follow­ing Him in, as well as people like Zaccheus who were from Jericho and wanted to see Him.

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  • It appears Jesus was getting a real Middle-Eastern welcome as He approached Jericho!

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  • This, by the way, was the same crowd that Zaccheus was trying to see through to get a glimpse of Jesus, and it was because of this throng that he climbed the tree. Matthew doesn’t tell us the story of Zaccheus, only Luke does, but the story of Zaccheus reminds us that Jesus was not merely concerned for the needs of the poor, blind beggars but also for the miserable, rich oppressors in the town of Jericho!

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    Exegesis

     

    20:29 Now, as they were proceeding out from Jericho, a numerous crowd followed Him,

    Και εκπορευομενων αυτων απο Ιεριχω ηκολουθησεν αυτῷ οχλος[3] πολυς.

     

    20:30 and, get this, two blind men sitting beside the road heard that Jesus was coming along [and] cried out saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

    και ιδου δυο τυφλοι καθημενοι παρα την ‘οδον ακουσαντες ‘οτι[4] Ιησους παραγει εκραξαν λεγοντες Ελεησον ‘ημας Κυριε[5] ‘Υιος Δαυιδ.[6]

     

  • This is remarkably like the account of the two blind men Jesus healed in Capernaum in Matt. 9:27ff.

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  • The blind men in Capernaum said the same thing, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.”

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  • Is it possible that these two blind men on the other side of the country in Jericho had heard about this and were modeling their request after their northern counterparts"

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  • Perhaps these blind men in Jericho hadn’t heard of the blind men healed in Caper­naum. Perhaps all they had to go on was the prophecy of Isaiah 35:4ff, “Be strong; do not be afraid. See your God come… He will save you! Then the eyes of blind men will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.”

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  •  
  • Later on in Matt. 22:41-42, when Jesus asks the Pharisees, “What do you think about the Christ/Anointed One/Messiah, whose son is He"’ They say to Him, ‘He is the son of David.’” So, the title “Son of David,” was the title of the Messiah, speaking of His being descended from the great king David and fulfilling the promise God made to David that a descendent of his would reign as a king forever.

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  • So these blind men cry out for the Messiah’s attention.

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  • Now, the gospel of Luke traces the story of only one of these two blind men, and in Mark’s gospel we find his name: Bar-timmaeus (Mk. 10:46) which can be interpreted, “Son of Filth.”

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  •  
  • There is no problem with the fact that Matthew mentions a second blind man with Bartimaeus. It doesn’t contradict Luke and Mark’s account that there was at least one blind man there. If there were two, then there was one… plus another.

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  • There does appear to be a discrepancy, however, between the gospel accounts in the timing of this incident.

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    ·         According to Matthew (20:29), the encounter with the blind beggars happened as Jesus was leaving Jericho,

     

    ·         But according to Luke (18:35), it happened as they were approaching Jericho,

     

    ·         And according to Mark (10:46), it happened as they were both coming to Jericho and as they were going out from Jericho! How can that be"

     

    ·         A.T. Robertson’s explanation seems the best, that there were two Jericho’s: the ancient city site and the township newly rebuilt by Herod, with only a short distance between.

     

    ·         A distinction between the old city and the new city is pretty common in ancient cities around the world. [You can see in the photo that the mound of the old city is still on the NW side of the modern town of Jericho.

     

    ·         So Jesus encountered these beggars on the road in-between the two sites. Thus Matthew, writing to a Jewish audience, says that they had just passed the historic site of old Jericho, where “Joshua fit the battle,” and Luke, writing to a Greek audience says that they were approaching the new Roman resort town], and Mark, writing to a Roman audience, locates them geographically between leaving the old city and entering the new city of Jericho. God’s word is amazingly accurate when you chase down its details!

     

    20:31 But the crowd reprimanded them in order that they might hush, 
    but as for them, they were crying out more, saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

    ‘Ο δε οχλος επετιμησεν αυτοις ‘ινα σιωπησωσιν ‘οι δε μειζον εκραζον[8] λεγοντες Ελεησον ‘ημας Κυριε Υιος Δαυιδ.

     

  • Have you ever wanted God to do something special, then shared it with somebody and got laughed at or even rebuked for it"

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  • The things we pray for should not be evaluated on the basis of whether other people think we should pray for it, but rather whether God wants you to pray for it. We know God wants us to pray for something if He has laid it on our heart and if it is consistent with what He has already revealed in the Bible.

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  • The majority of the people on the street that day in Jericho, however, thought that the best thing for these blind men was to be quiet, to hold their peace.

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  • So when the blind men kept their racket up, the crowd said to them, “We wish you were dumb as well as blind! If you don’t shut up, we’ll make you shut up!

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  • But the blind men had faith in Jesus:

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  • They openly confessed not only that Jesus is the Messiah, the promised Son of David,

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  • But that He is also the Lord.

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  • Furthermore they confess that Jesus is capable of extending the mercy of God to them by healing them.

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  • These are staggering statements to make about any man, Messianic King, God Almighty, and Mediator of God’s blessings. These two men seem to understand better than anyone else in that vast crowd who Jesus really is and what Jesus is capable of doing. Such faith arrests Jesus’ attention:

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  • Jesus interrupted His very important mission to Jerusalem and responded to these faith-filled men. Likewise, we Christians, who are supposed to be imitators of Christ, are we also willing to be interrupted in our work" Bible commentator Matthew Henry remarked on this point, “Why are we ever so much in haste about any business" … We should be willing to stand still to do good.”

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    20:32 Then Jesus stood [still] and whistled to them and said, “What are y’all want Me to do for you"”

    Και στας ‘ο Ιησους εφωνησεν αυτους και ειπεν Τί θελετε ποιησω ‘υμιν;

     

  • Seeing as all the other English translations render it “called the Greek word ephwnesen translates as “whistled,”.” However, the word literally means to “make a sound” which seems to be distinct from actually speaking words, and the only other time Matthew uses this word is to describe a rooster crowing (26:34, 74, and 75).

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  • It is curious that Jesus does not go over to them. Instead He stands where He is and calls them over to Him.

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  • According to Luke’s account (18:40), Jesus commands the very people who have been insulting the blind men to now escort the blind men for a personal audience with Him!

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  • Mark (10:49) has the same people that had been shushing the blind men now saying, “Cheer up; get up; He’s calling for you!” If it weren’t so hypocritical, it would be funny.

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  • It is as though, when Jesus heard Himself referred to as the “Lord” and Messianic King, “Son of David,” He obliged these men by playing the part of a great king.

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  • Great kings don’t come to you; you come to them.

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  • Great kings have courtiers that bring you to the king.

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  • And great kings ask for formal proposals,

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  • So Jesus transforms the dusty street into a king’s palace for these two beggars who have recognized, more than anyone else, how great a king stands before them, perhaps due, in part, to the fact that they had no eyes to see how humble a form the Lord of the universe had taken upon Himself!

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  • When you close your eyes to pray, do you realize how great the God is that you are addressing"

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  • Now, at that moment, before Jesus on the street, the blind men could have asked for anything.

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    What would you have asked for, if it were you, and Jesus offered to make one wish come true"

     

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  • All their life they had asked for “mercy” as beggars, soliciting passers-by for coins. Would they ask for money" They could ask for enough to live on for the rest of their lives, and never have to beg again!

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  • Mark’s gospel gives us one clue before either beggar says a word: in Mark 10:50, it says that the blind man “threw off his cloak” when he went to Jesus. He decided to leave his beggar’s garb behind because he anticipated a miraculous answer to the audacious request he was about to make.

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  • If this was truly the Messiah, and if Isaiah prophesied truly, then blind men would see. The blind men’s reasoning appears to be as simple as that.

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  • No doctor in the world could have healed them, and apparently not even God had healed a blind person in the history of the world until the time of Christ.

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  • This would be the ultimate proof that Jesus was the Messiah. If He couldn’t give them sight, then Jesus was a sham and God was a liar.

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  • Maybe they also longed, like Simeon that their own eyes might see God’s salvation, he prophesied Son of David, and the Messiah finally comes"

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  • These two blind men were going to go for broke and ask to see!

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    20:33 They say to Him, “Lord, that our eyes might be opened!”

    Λεγουσιν αυτῷ Κυριε ‘ινα ανοιχθωσιν[10] ‘ημων ‘οι οφθαλμοι.

     

  • Now think about what the blind men chose to ask for.

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  • All their lives they have made their living by sitting in public places begging for money. It was considered a community service for them to do so. It gave the community an opportunity to give to the poor and win favor with God (and man) with their generosity, and such beggars provided a very desirable service by praying for God to bless those who gave to them. (“God bless” is still a common parting word from panhandlers in our country today.)

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  • All this, of course, hinged on the beggar’s inability to work at gainful employment. Blindness was such an obvious handicap that their status as beggars worked well. But if they were to receive their sight, all that would change. They would no longer be able to continue the life they had once led as beggars. Suddenly they would have to learn to read, learn a trade, and take up new and different responsibilities, start up a business, maybe get married and have children.

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  • Considered from that perspective, it is remarkable that they were willing to embrace a whole new world of responsibilities and ask to see.

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  • Likewise, there are responsibilities that naturally come along with being a recipient of God’s free grace. Are you willing to accept the responsibilities that come along with whatever it is you are asking God for"

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    20:34 And Jesus, gut-wrenched, touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes saw again! Then they followed Him.

    Σπλαγχνισθεις δε ‘ο Ιησους ‘ηψατο των οφθαλμων[11] αυτων και ευθεως ανεβλεψαν [αυτων ‘οι οφθαλμοι[12]] και ηκολουθησαν αυτῷ.

     

  • Jesus’ response was first of all to be moved with compassion/pity. Literally, He was “gut-wrenched.” Do you realize what an awesome thing it is to have as God One who can be moved with compassion" Who sympathizes with us! When we are torn up inside, when we cry, the Ruler of the Universe enters into those feelings with us. Brothers and sisters, let us pray from our heart when we pray to Him!

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  • The crux of the story, of course, is that, with a mere touch, Jesus physically healed two blind men.

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  • In Mat 8:3, after the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus touched a man with a skin disease, and the leprosy was immediately cured,

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  • In Mat 8:15 Jesus touched Peter’s mother-in-law, and she was relieved of a fever,

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  • Others touched Jesus and were cured (9:20; 14:36)

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  • In Mar. 7:33, Jesus touched a deaf man who was immediately healed, and later with a touch, Jesus restored a servant who had gotten his ear chopped off (Luke 22:51)!

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  • In Luke 7:14, we read of Jesus touching a coffin, and, sure enough, the young man inside came alive!

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  • In Mat 9:29, Jesus touched the eyes of two blind men and they were healed,

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  • And now, at a touch, four more eyes that were not able to physically function suddenly regain/ recover/ receive the marvel of sight.

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  • The touch of Jesus has no limit to its power to bring physical healing.

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  • Luke’s account mentions an additional statement from Jesus, “Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.” This reveals another staggering miracle. Jesus not only just fixed their eyes, He saved their souls from hell!

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  • But wait, we may say, “The Bible reads, ‘your faith saved you.’”

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  • Yes, but what was the content of their faith" It was that God had sent Jesus to be the Messiah, the savior of the world. Their faith did not make Jesus the savior-Messiah, it merely acknowledged and acted upon the truth that Jesus is the savior of the world. It is God’s grace that sent Jesus to die for our sins and save us from eternal damnation, and it is God’s grace that plants faith in human hearts to believe that. As we exercise that faith, we are saved, but our faith is a response, not the cause of our salvation.

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  • But the story doesn’t end there; Jesus goes on to provide employment for these men who just lost their jobs as beggars due to His healing them. Unlike many of the people He healed whom He would not allow to follow Him, Jesus let these men become His followers, providing a context for them to learn a new life as men with seeing eyes.

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  • Luke’s account says that the formerly-blind men then followed Jesus, “glorifying God,” and that when all the people saw this, they praised God as well!

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  • They were some of the ones shouting “Hosanna” the loudest, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, and that they

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  • Followed Him to hear Him teach in Bethany, and maybe even saw Him crucified.
  • They were among the 500 people who saw Jesus after His resurrection

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  • And among the 120 people in the upper room upon whom the Holy Spirit fell.

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  • The genuineness of their faith in Jesus was demonstrated to the world by the fact that they continued to follow Jesus after they were healed.

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    Conclusion: Six Principles of Effective Prayer Drawn From Two Blind Beggars

     

    1. Punctuality

     

  • The Holy Spirit works in our minds in real time throughout the day. If we feel like we need something or if we are impressed to pray for a certain person, don’t wait until our bedtime prayers to speak to God about it. Go for it right away. We can pray for it later, too.

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  • Matthew Henry commented, “When they heard that Jesus passed by, they asked no further questions, who were with him, or whether he was in haste, but immediately cried out. Note, It is good to improve the present opportunity, to make the best of the price now in the hand, because, if once let slip, it may never return; these blind men did so, and did wisely; for we do not find that Christ ever came to Jericho again. Now is the accepted time.”

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    2. Humility

     

  • These men did not say, “Jesus, we really ought to be healed. You know, we’re really poor, but we have given a large percentage of our income to the Lord, and we have been such good people, and our parents were such good people, and we have suffered so much from our blindness that you owe it to us.” No, they came humbly, simply asking for mercy. That is a good example for us. “Sovereign Lord, please have mercy.”

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  • “It is the will of God that we should in everything make our requests known to Him by prayer and supplication; not to inform or move Him, but to qualify ourselves for the mercy. The waterman in the boat, who with his hook takes hold of the shore, does not thereby pull the shore to the boat, but the boat to the shore. So in prayer we do not draw the mercy to ourselves, but ourselves to the mercy.” Lord, have mercy on us.

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    3. Faith

     

  • The two blind beggars were convinced that Jesus is the Lord, that He is the Messiah, and that He could give them God’s mercy, and they said that out loud.

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  • That got Jesus’ attention, and we can learn a lesson from that. We must know the truth about who Jesus is and place our faith in Him, even confess it out loud, if we want to grow in our prayer life.

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  • And we must believe that Jesus will do whatever we’re asking Him to do before we can pray for Him to do it. If you have some doubt, go back to the Bible to find out if it’s the kind of thing He would do and if He has the power to do it! Then pray with faith in Him!

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  • “It is of excellent use in prayer to eye Christ in the grace and glory of His Messiah ship; to remember that He is the Son of David, whose office it is to help and save, and to plead it with Him.”

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    4. Community

     

  • Peer pressure can be a good thing. Sometimes when we pray with somebody else, we experience a holy uprising of faith that emboldens us to pray for what we might never have had the faith to believe God could do if we had been praying alone.

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  • Often we step into prayer meetings without much of a passion to pray for anything. Then someone starts praying maybe for God to transform the lives of families in his church, and that seems to spark the faith of someone else, and he’ll pray maybe for transformation in the lives of the children in all the schools, and that gets somebody else praying for all the lost in our town, and pretty soon we’re ready to pray for revival for the whole nation!

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  • Matthew Henry noted something about corporate prayer in his commentary, “These joint-sufferers were joint-suitors; being companions in the same tribulation, they were partners in the same supplication. Note, it is good for those that are laboring under the same calamity, or infirmity of body or mind, to join together in the same prayer to God for relief, that they may quicken one another's fervency, and encourage one another's faith. There is mercy enough in Christ for all the petitioners.”

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    5. Persistence

     

  • Remember the Syro-Phonecian woman who would not take “No” for an answer until Jesus healed her daughter" And the widow in Jesus’ parable who wore out the unjust judge" Even in Jesus’ question, “What is your will"” He acknowledges that in these two blind men there has been, for a sustained period of time, an exercise of their will, trained by the Holy Spirit to press for the fulfillment of a particular goal. There is something to persisting in prayer with a determined will over time.

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  • “There is need of constancy to transcend all hindrances, and the more barriers that Satan erects, the more must we be kindled to prayer, just as we see the blind men redoubling their cries.” John Calvin

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  • “Hence learn, O beloved, that though we be very vile and outcast, but yet approach God with earnestness, even by ourselves we shall be able to effect whatsoever we ask. See, for instance, these men, how, having none of the apostles to plead with them, but rather many to stop their mouths, they were able to pass over the hindrances, and to come unto Jesus Himself… These then let us also emulate. Though God defer the gift, though there be many withdrawing us, let us not desist from asking. For in this way most of all shall we win God to us… although it be mercy and grace, it seeks for the worthy.” John Chrysostom

    •  

  • “In following Christ with our prayers, we must expect to meet with hindrances and manifold discouragements from within and from without… Men ought always to pray and not to faint; to pray with all perseverance (Luke 18:1); to continue in prayer with resolution and not yield to opposition… This wrestling with God in prayer… makes us the fitter to receive mercy; for the more it is striven for, the more it will be prized and thankfully acknowledged.”

    •  

    6. Follow-through

     

  • When your prayer is answered, don’t forget to thank God afterward!

    •  

  • After your prayer is answered, continue to walk with Christ, and pray about other things. Even remind yourself from time to time so that you never forget God’s mercy in your life!

    •  

  • And when prayers are answered, tell other people about it! Show your gratitude by being, as John Calvin put it, “a spectacle of Christ’s grace to many on this journey.”

    •  

    So, what is it that God would have you pray for"

     

    Matthew 20:29-34

     

    I. Matthew 20:29: And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed Him.

     

    We know that in Matthew 19:1 Jesus was in the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. In verse seventeen of chapter twenty we saw that Jesus was still continuing His journey to Jerusalem, but there was no way of knowing exactly where He was, somewhere between Jerusalem on the west side of the Jordan River and the region of Judea (Perea) on the east side of the Jordan River.

     

    But now, here in verse twenty-nine, we learn that Jesus has crossed the Jordan, and is already leaving Jericho. Jericho was about eight miles west of the Jordan River and only fifteen miles away from Jerusalem. For the crowds of pilgrims from Galilee, Jericho was the last city before the final three thousand foot climb to Jerusalem. Everyone coming to Jerusalem from the east would pass through Jericho. So it was here that the pilgrims would converge, and their numbers swell, and the excitement and electricity in the air would grow even greater.

     

    And now adding to the excitement of these crowds from Galilee was the fact that Jesus (their own “hero” from back home) was walking with them on the same road. So “as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed Him.”

     

    II. Matthew 20:30: And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

     

    Here, again, is that favorite word of Matthew’s, “behold.” Forty-four times Matthew uses this word compared to Luke’s thirty-six times and Mark’s 14 times. And here is one of those places where Matthew says “behold,” and Mark and Luke do not. We should be careful about reading too much into a favorite word, but Matthew is alerting us once again to the special importance and significance of what’s about to happen, in light of what just happened.

     

    We had James and John (via their mother) making a request of Jesus. James and John are among the inner circle of the inner circle of Jesus’ closest disciples. For anyone who believed Jesus, it would be natural to think that James and John would be treated with a little extra respect and deference. But now compare these two “important” disciples with the two blind men sitting by the roadside.

     

    Two blind men sitting by the side of the road are almost certainly begging for money, and Mark and Luke tell us that this is exactly what they were doing (Mark 10:46; Luke 18:35). Mark speaks of only one blind man (cf. Luke) and calls him a “blind beggar named Bartimaeus.” There couldn’t be much more of a contrast! Compared to important men like James and John, these two blind beggars would certainly be the “little ones,” or the “small ones” (Matthew 18), those who were insignificant and unimportant.

     

    And this becomes very obvious in verse thirty-one when we find the crowd rebuking them and telling them to be quiet. So there’s a pretty stark contrast between the “rank,” or station in life of the two specially privileged disciples and the two blind beggars. But this isn’t the only contrast, as we’re about to see. “When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, ‘Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!’”  

     

    For the significance of this miracle as a pointer to Jesus’ identity as Israel’s Messiah, see the message on Matthew 9:27-31. While in and of itself this miracle functions in exactly the same way as the earlier one, it seems that Matthew includes the miracle here as a fitting contrast with the preceding story of James and John (cf. Mark [10:35-52]; contra Luke [18:35-43]) and therefore as a fitting conclusion to all of Jesus’ teaching on humility and true “greatness” (beginning in chapter eighteen). The blind beggars (in contrast with James and John) remind us of the “small ones” who are the “greatest,” and the “last” who will be “first.” 

     

    III. Matthew 20:31: The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all

     the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

     

    It shouldn’t take much for us to imagine the desperation in the voices of these two blind beggars. They “cry out” not just so they can be heard over the crowd, but especially because of the intense longing in their hearts. Here is their chance for healing. It’s a chance they may never have again. And so they cry out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David.”

     

    It was common in Jesus’ day to assume that a physical defect like blindness was God’s judgment for some sin (cf. John 9:1-2). Now whether or not these two men believed that their blindness was a punishment for sin, they obviously didn’t believe that they had any rights to be healed.

     

    “Lord, have mercy on us.” This isn’t just desperation, it’s a humble desperation; a recognition that the very thing we need and long for so badly is also something to which we are not entitled. The blind beggars know that they have no claim on Jesus for His healing. All they can plead for is

    His mercy.

    When the crowd rebukes them, telling them to be silent, they only cry out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David.” They’re blind, they’re beggars, they’re shunned by society, they’re insignificant and unimportant, and yet they have faith. They believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah, and Son of David. They believe that He is able to restore their sight (cf. Mark 10:52). And so they cry out in humble desperation, and with only five simple words, “Lord, have mercy on us.”

     

    But actually, we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves, aren’t we" The two blind men have not specifically asked Jesus for healing. They’ve asked only for mercy. Now we’ve assumed that this means they want to be healed, but even though Jesus certainly knew exactly what they wanted, He makes no assumptions. Instead, we read in verse thirty-two:

     

    IV. Matthew 20:32: And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you"”

     

    Does this sound familiar" There are only two places in all of the Gospels where Jesus asks someone what they want Him to do. Here is one of those places. But do we know where the other place is" It’s in the story right before this one, the story of James and John and their request of Jesus (via their mother).

     

    James and John somewhat vaguely asked Jesus to grant them a request. Mark is less subtle. He says that “James and John… came up to [Jesus] and said to Him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you” (Mark 10:35). And Jesus replied: “What do you want"” Or as Mark has it, “What do you want Me to do for you"” (Mark 10:36) That’s what just happened in the last story.

     

    But now we have two blind beggars (what a contrast with James and John!) crying out: “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” (What a contrast with “please give me something,” or, “we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You”!) And just like He did with James and John, so now Jesus does with the two blind beggars. He asks them, “What do you want Me to do for you"”

     

    Once again, this is the second of only two times in all the Gospels that Jesus asks anyone

    what they want Him to do for them, and both of these times are right here, back to back, one right after the other. So in the question asked of these two blind beggars, we can’t help but be reminded of the same question that Jesus just asked James and John. “And stopping, Jesus called them and said, ‘What do you want Me to do for you"’”

     

    V. Matthew 20:33: They said to Him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.”

     

    The blind beggars just want to see. That’s all. They have no grand aspirations for “greatness” in the Messiah’s kingdom. Anyway, how could they" They’re just blind beggars. They plead only the mercy of Jesus, and no entitlement or rights of their own. The blind beggars just want to see. That’s it. That’s all. Nothing more.

     

    But James and John have moved on to “bigger” things. James and John have “graduated” to more lofty goals. James and John want to be granted the positions of highest honor at the right and left hand of Jesus when He comes in His kingdom.

     

    Blind beggars just want to see. “They said to [Jesus], ‘Lord, let our eyes be opened.’”

     

    VI. Matthew 20:34a: And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered

     their sight.

     

    James’ and John’s request did not flow from any understanding of their need for mercy or compassion. Obviously not! We don’t ask for the highest positions in the kingdom and then explain our request as a cry for mercy! On the other hand, we don’t cry out for mercy, and then immediately turn around and ask for the highest positions in the kingdom! As it turns out, these special positions, at least as the disciples understood them, did not even exist. And so in light of all these things, it was impossible that Jesus could respond to the disciples’ request with a compassionate “yes.”

     

    But the request of the two blind beggars is a very, very different story. Their desire to have their eyes opened was nothing more than a desperate and humble plea for mercy. So while the two specially privileged disciples were denied their request, it was the two blind beggars who got what they asked for. And they got what they asked for because of the “pity” of Jesus. One commentator translates like this: “Jesus’ heart went out to them” not to James and John, but to the two blind beggars who cried out for mercy.

     

    VII. Matthew 20:34: And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered

     their sight and followed Him.

     

    The two blind beggars received their sight. They were blind, but now they can see. And Matthew describes their response very simply: “They… followed Him.” We heard in verse twenty-nine that already “a great crowd followed Him.” But when the formerly blind beggars followed Jesus, this was obviously something very different. This is the kind of “following” that naturally flows, from the experience of God’s mercy. They followed Jesus because He gave them their sight. They followed Jesus because He showed them pity. It’s not complicated! It’s just that simple.

     

    Conclusion

     

    So who are we most like" Are we more like the two specially privileged disciples, or are we

    more like the two blind beggars" Have we moved on to bigger things" Have we graduated to more lofty goals" James and John have implied that part of the reason they’re following Jesus is because of certain extra benefits they hope to receive. But the two formerly blind beggars follow Jesus because of the undeserved mercy and pity that they have already received. James and John have become more “complicated.” The two formerly blind beggars are very “simple” and uncomplicated. They follow Jesus because He gave them their sight. They follow Jesus because showed them pity. At this point, how could they even think about extra benefits to be lobbied for in the future"

     

    Certainly, they wouldn’t be thinking of the seats at Jesus’ right and left hand! They’ve already received more than they had any right to expect, and so for them this is already more than enough. They are content now, and more than satisfied, just to set off on the road following Jesus. If only our own Christian lives could be so “simple.” If only our own Christian lives could be so “uncomplicated.” But they can be, right" In fact, they must be!

    We must come back to a devotion to Christ that is simple and pure (cf. 2 Cor. 11:3). Why are we followers of Christ" Is it because we asked for mercy and He gave it to us" Is it just that simple" Or have things become more complicated" Have we moved on to bigger things" Have we graduated to more lofty goals" How much of our following of Jesus is really just the complicated pursuit of extra “favors” from God"

     

    Or how much of our following of Jesus is simply and purely because He heard our pleas for mercy" We cried out in desperation for mercy. In His pity, Jesus has shown us mercy. And now, every day, we follow Him. Is that “it”" Is that enough" Do our lives really say that it’s just “that simple”" Can we say with the Psalmist:

     

    Psalm 131:1–3  O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor do I have a haughty look. I do not have great aspirations, or concern myself with things that are beyond me. Indeed I am composed and quiet, like a young child carried by its mother; I am content like the young child I carry. O Israel, hope in the Lord now and forevermore!

     

    Let's look at Matthew chapter 20, the last wonderful, wonderful section in this twentieth chapter...Matthew chapter 20, verses 29 through 34.

    A very simple story, very simple. Easy to understand and not even unusual in the life of Christ for stories like this could be repeated a thousand times a thousand. So much so perhaps that as John said, all the books of all the world couldn't even contain them. Why this story" Why is it here" As Jesus goes to Jerusalem to die, why stop in the progress of such a great event as the Passover where He is to be the lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, why stop to include a story of two blind men"

    Among many reasons, one sort of overpowering reason is indicated by the word "compassion" in verse 34. And if all other lessons were set aside, one great and profound truth would grab our minds and that is this, that Jesus had great compassion. People who were nothing but an irritation and a distraction to the crowd were a cause for deep pain to Him, the pain of sympathy, empathy and compassion.

    While the world wanted to silence these kinds of people, Jesus wanted to hear what they had to say. While the world wanted to make sure they didn't get in the way, Jesus wanted to be sure He stood with them. While the world wanted to be sure they didn't interrupt anything by articulating their need, Jesus wanted not only to know their need but to meet it. And so, at best this wonderful little story is a demonstration of the heart of God which is a heart of compassion.

    And that is to say, beloved, that God not only knows what pain we endure, He feels it. That's right. He not only knows it, it is not just cognition, it is not God in heaven saying, "O, I understand his suffering," it isn't just that. It's the feeling of that suffering. It is the pain of that which touches His own great heart. And therefore, when God allows you to suffer, He allows Himself to suffer as well and be sure then that if indeed your suffering is not alleviated, He continues to suffer with you and must therefore have some great purpose in mind for He Himself could eliminate His own suffering as well.

    And so does Jesus demonstrate compassion.

    We would imagine that He would have been preoccupied with the disciples, perhaps, which were to carry on the legacy after His death which will occur in a few days. We would imagine that He could have been distracted by the thought of dying itself and becoming the sacrificial lamb as He looked up the plateau to Jerusalem from the vantage point of Jericho far below. It would have been easy for us to understand that He really didn't have time in this particular moment in history to stop and take care of a couple of blind men of which there were many such and maybe many many such in Jericho for it was said of Jericho that there grew balsam bushes and balsam bushes could be made into a special kind of medicine which was good for the curing of the eyes. And yet He has time. And that is to say that God is compassionate. And Jesus Christ is not too busy redeeming the entire world to give sight to two insignificant blind men who have nothing to offer Him but their problem. And that may be a more profound lesson than we have thought.

    Blindness, in fact, is a matter of record in the Bible. It's quite common, physical blindness and spiritual blindness.

    Physical blindness occurred quite frequently in the ancient world. Poverty, lack of medical care, unsanitary conditions, brilliant sunlight, blowing sand, certain kinds of accidents, war, fighting, all of these things could cause blindness. But most commonly, blindness was caused basically because of gonorrheal diplococcus that would find their way from a woman's body into the conjunctiva of the eye of a child at birth and there they would form their disease and permanent blindness could occur. Sometimes blindness came by the infecting virus trichoma("). And today, much of these things are curable because of the drugs that we have available, but then they were not. So it was not uncommon to be blind, especially maybe not uncommon, in Jericho where they believed there was a certain bush that healed blindness.

    But even more common than physical blindness was spiritual blindness. And metaphorically the gospels and the epistles speak often of the blindness of the heart. In fact, it's summed up in the words of John 1 which simply says, "That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not.

    He came unto His own and His own received Him not." Or in the third chapter where it says that men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Or Romans 11:25 which says blindness in part has happened to Israel. Or 2 Corinthians 3:14, "Their minds were blinded." Or Jesus' words in Matthew 23, "Woe unto you blind guides, you blind Pharisee," He said. Blind to God. May be able to see physically, but blind to God.

    Now the case of these men is most interesting because while they are physically blind, they appear to have unusually clear spiritual sight. Physically they see nothing, spiritually they see very well. And they will see even better when the Lord Jesus is finished with them. And they will also see physically.

    Why are people spiritually blind" Sin, we're blinded by sin. In Matthew 6 it talks about the fact that when we're evil, our whole eye is darkened. Satan sort of adds a double blindness by blinding the minds of them that believe not, 2 Corinthians 4:4. And then God may add a triple blindness when His sovereignty makes the eye blind, as Isaiah 6 indicates, in a judicial punishment of unbelievers. And so we see then that men are blind by sin and doubly blinded by Satan and doubly or triply blinded by God. And it is into the darkness of man's spiritual blindness that Jesus comes. And we remember when He announced His arrival in Luke 4:18, He said He had come to give sight to the blind. And, He was not primarily speaking of physical blindness; He was primarily speaking of spiritual. He said in John 8, "I am the light that lights the world; whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness." He came to give spiritual light to blind eyes.

    And sometimes He gave physical sight to blind eyes. And He did that for three reasons. First of all, it was part of Messianic proof. He was demonstrating that He was the Messiah. Secondly, it was part of millennial preview. He was showing them what it was going to be like in His Kingdom when all of that kind of thing was turned over and there was glorious wholeness and healing in the Kingdom. And thirdly, it was a matter of symbol or picture. It was a marvelous picture.

    Every time He healed someone of physical blindness, He was in effect saying that's only a symbol of what I want to do to the soul. Every time He unstopped the ears so that someone could hear sound, He was in effect saying and that is exactly what I want to do to the heart so you can hear the Word of God. And every time He raised someone from the dead physically, He was saying I want to give life to the soul as I am able to give life to the body. And that is why Jesus found it no more difficult to forgive sins than to heal someone. And when posed with that question, that's what He said, "What's the difference" I am showing you by My absolute control over the physical world and the natural laws that I have control over the spiritual world and the supernatural laws."

    And so, in the case of these two blind men, we have Messianic proof. We have millennial preview. And we have a marvelous picture of what He's able to do to the heart. And then we have the reality. Before the story's over, these two blind men are saved, redeemed souls. And so they see physically, they see spiritually. And they demonstrate to us that no matter how involved our Lord is, His heart of compassion reaches out to those who cry for His help.

    Now let's look at the scene in verse 29. It's a very simple story and a simple scene. "As they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him." Jesus had finished His ministry in Galilee. He finished His ministry in Peraea. Peraea is the area east of the Jordan. Jesus had crossed the Jordan at some northern point near the Sea of Galilee and descended down the eastern side of the Jordan River in that area known as Peraea.

    He's finished His ministry of a few weeks there and now He's on His way to Jerusalem. So He has to cross again the Jordan River to the west.

    He probably crossed at a fairy spot, about five miles north of Jericho. Jericho's the first city we see when we cross the Jordan from the east. And as we fairy across the river, we walk across nowadays what is known as the Allenby (") Bridge, the first sight we see is Jericho. It isn't the Jericho of old; it's really the third Jericho. They keep moving south. But in Jesus' time, there was the Old Testament Jericho which was ruins. And then a little south of that, right against it really, was the New Testament Jericho that flourished at this time. And it was a beautiful place, still is. It has its own unique beauty.

    In those days, it was so exquisite a place that Herod built himself a wonderful fort and palace there. And that was his winter home. And they...Josephus used to say that when there was snow in Jerusalem, they were wearing linen because it was so warm in Jericho and it's only about 15 miles as the crow flies. But it's so far down into that desert that it stays warm. It's the Palm Springs of Palestine. It was known as the city of palms.

    And if we want to understand the geography of the land of Palestine, we'll be interested to note that it is almost an absolute identical copy of southern California, both in terms of geography and climate. For it has a seacoast, a beautiful gorgeous beach on the Mediterranean. And then there is a lovely valley known as the Sharon Valley. And then the mountains rise up, we know them as the Carmel Mountain Range. And at the southern end is this massive plateau of Jerusalem. And from there descends straight down to the desert. It's almost a parallel. The only difference would be that where as Los Angeles is in a basin, Jerusalem is on a plateau. But it's much like our area. From the seacoast it rises to the mountains and then descends to the desert.

    And Jericho was a lovely place in the winter, even in the spring. Because the crops all came in early in Jericho. Mark tells us it was not yet fig picking time in Jerusalem, but it would have been in Jericho because of the warmth. There were citrus trees everywhere because Jericho is endlessly fed by some beautiful springs, of lovely water, pure and clear and that water was channeled by irrigation all through that area around Jericho so that it flourished. And there were palm trees everywhere and citrus trees and then this balsam bush which had some multiple uses that was growing there. And so it would have been a very lovely place.

    It was also a place that must have literally exploded on the minds of Jesus...on the mind of Jesus with memory because He would no doubt remember a very special woman from that city by the name of Rahab who was a prostitute but who hid the spies, who came to spy out the land. And as a result in the grace of God she was given a place in Messianic genealogy and you find her listed as an ancestor of the Messiah Himself in Matthew chapter 1.

    And as He stood on the edge of the Jordan River, ready to go south about five miles maybe to the New Testament city of Jericho, He would have looked straight ahead to a cliff of mountains that rises straight up into the sky, chalky white, limestone-like parapet that cast its shadow in the late afternoon over the city of Jericho. And He would have remembered that that was very likely the place where He was tempted for 40 days and 40 nights by the devil. It's called by historians the devastation of bleak and desolate place.

    And so, His mind is literally filled with things. Around Him is pressing a huge crowd, moving now from crossing the river down to Jericho, passing through the ruins of Old Testament Jericho which ruins, by the way, are still there for a visitor to see...including the ancient wall which so accommodated the plan of God by falling over on cue. And as they came to the city, He could see the sights and smell the smells and hear the sounds and it would be such a fulfilling experience. And in the midst of all of this, the tremendous anticipation of His own death only days away. He's only; by the way, six hours walk maybe from Jerusalem, six miles north of the Dead Sea. And it's a fulfilling thing.

    Now as He comes into the city, naturally the mob presses Him on all sides. He can heal. Anybody today who even claims to heal can pack in a crowd. You can get 15,000 people into Madison Square Garden if you just tell them you're going to heal them. Even if you can't, they'll come just to find out if you can. And if you really can heal, they're there, believe it!

    In Jesus' time, they mobbed Him. That's why the Lord had to tell the disciples not to take any money because they could have made literally a fortune in a day selling healings. And so the people pile all around Jesus, His teaching, His preaching, the magnetism of His personality, His ability to raise the dead and heal people from any disease.

    And as He came into the city with the press of the crowd, there was one little guy that really wanted to see Him. You remember his name" Zacchaeus. And he was number-one public enemy, hated. He was a Jew who sold out to Rome for money. He became chief tax collector. He exacerbated tax out of Israel to the point of a fault. He defrauded them. He stole them blind. And he pocketed it all for himself and they hated him. Not only was he a traitor, but he was a crook. But he was fascinated by Jesus.

    Now how did he know about Him" Well, it hadn't been long before this that Jesus made a short trip to Bethany. And when He was there, He raised Lazarus from the dead. And the word went like wildfire. Bethany was the town between Jericho and Jerusalem, just up the hill. It's very likely that everybody would have known who the Mary, Martha, Joseph little family was...or Mary, Martha and Lazarus, rather. They would have known who they were. And, of course, the whole city was in an uproar when He raised him from the dead. And His enemies pursued Him that He had to go back on the other side of the Jordan for a while for safety's sake. At least He had to retreat away. And so they knew. He had practically banished disease from Palestine and so everybody knew who He was. They were all there. And Zacchaeus wanted a view of Him.

    Since he couldn't see like a little kid at a parade, he crawled up in a tree. And Jesus came along and He stopped and said, "Come down out of that tree, I'm coming to your house, I'm going to spend the night." Which wouldn't have done anything for the popularity of Jesus superficially because since this was the most hated man in town. But He had a wonderful evening with Zacchaeus and He transformed him. He redeemed him. The man was totally transformed. The reason we know that was he said to Jesus just before the dawning came and the thing was all completed, he said, "I'm going to give everything I give back to the poor, everything I've ever taken from anybody four-fold."

    And Jesus said, "Surely salvation has come to this house."

    That's the real thing! That's the real thing. He is the perfect opposite of the rich young ruler. True salvation, he wants to give it all away. You don't even have to tell him to do it, he wants to do it. Everything he's defrauded and more.

    And so, as the morning breaks and Zacchaeus is running around town settling his account and he's like some incredible Santa Claus giving everybody back four times what he took and saying it's all because of Jesus, the crowd perhaps even swelled greater. And the whole place is lined with people. Now you have to reach the other accounts to get that. We're not looking at that in verse 29.

    And so by now Jesus is ready to leave. He spent the night. He's going to Jerusalem. He must move to the Passover. And so we pick it up in verse 30. "And behold two blind men sitting by the wayside, when they heard that Jesus passed by cried out saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David."

    Now, it says in verse 29 "As they departed from Jericho" this happened. Mark says, in the comparative passage, "As they were leaving Jericho." But Luke says, "As He came near Jericho." Now people say, "How do you harmonize this" Isn't this a biblical error" Two have Him leaving, one has Him coming." And some say, "Well, if you remember that there was Old Testament Jericho and New Testament Jericho, it's possible that He was leaving Old Testament Jericho and entering into New Testament Jericho."

    But why would He stay overnight in the ruins" We don't know, maybe Zacchaeus lived over there. It's possible. We don't know the explanation, but we’re wonderfully content with the fact that there is an explanation... Beggars, from experience in studying the Bible, usually hung around the thoroughfares where the people were. And if we've ever been to Jerusalem, we know where they hang around. In fact, just outside the city gate. And that seems to be the rather traditional place for them.

    And so, perhaps one explanation of what might have happened is that, as Jesus is moving with this mob and they come to the gate and the crowd and the noise and all that's going on and they pass out the gate, then all of a sudden the cries of these blind men are brought to His attention at which point He turns to return into the city to confront them and meet them and find their need. Certainly a possible explanation. But it's really wonderful to note that each gospel writer is not intimidated by what the other says, therefore they're not copying some extraneous source. They are rather writing from their own heart under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And when you pull it all together, it makes wonderful and beautiful sense.

    And so, as Jesus moves along, perhaps going out the gate, moving directly west up that incredible incline to the plateau of Jerusalem, it is brought to His attention that these blind men are crying after Him.

    Now, verse 30 says, "Behold," and that is a term of exclamation. And the exclamation here is not because of the blind men, it isn't "Behold, two blind men," like that was some big deal. Probably the same two blind men that had been there a while. It wasn't that they were sitting, they always sat. And it wasn't they were along the road, they were always along the road. The reason they put a "behold" in there is because of what they said. They said, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David." And they call Him by His Messianic title. Two beggars, Mark says, who were begging, Luke says, sitting by the wayside, Matthew says, screaming out the Messianic title. Where did these guys come off as such consummate theologians" Where did they get their information and faith"

    That's the "behold." That's the exclamation. Not that they were blind or that they were there or that they were begging or that they were yelling, but it was what they were saying.

    At this point we find another wonderful thought. Luke only discusses one of the two, the more prominent one. But never says there was only one. And Mark goes a step further, he only discusses one of the two and he gives us his name. His name is Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus. Now we could wonder why he bothers to name him. Matthew just wants us to see the majesty of Christ. Luke emphasizes the same, but Mark touches the real human cord by naming this man. And perhaps is because he was well-known. Oh, not then but later. So that when Mark pens the gospel and the letters are written to the church to read about the account of the life of our Lord, when they can sit down and read this, they'll have there the story of the conversion of one who by now they greatly love. It's as if Mark is saying, "And you know who one of those guys was" It was none other than your friend, Bartimaeus." And so he picks up a little of history...of the history of one of the beloved brothers in the church by the time the gospel would be read by some.

    It's not unusual, by the way, for one gospel writer to mention two and the others to focus on one. You'll find the same thing in the maniac across the Sea of Galilee at Gerasa where some writers note two and some concentrate on the healing of one. That's the background.

    Now a brief outline and we'll run right through the simple story. Their sad plight, their sad plight, verse 30, it says, "When they heard Jesus pass by, they cried out saying, Have mercy on us." And then in verse 31 at the end, "They cried again saying the more, Have mercy on us." The word "cry" here is krazo, it means to scream. It's used in the New Testament of the screeching and screaming’s of demon possessed people, Mark 5. It's used of the screaming of insane people and epileptics. It's used of the cry, the loud anguish cry of a mother giving birth to a child.

    And the idea of the form of the text here is there was a constant screaming. They were yelling at the top of their voice, "Have mercy on us," a cry of anguish and a cry of desperation, cry of pain. They know that if Jesus gets out of the hearing of their voices, that they're doomed to blindness the rest of their life. They know this is the only one who can do this. And the desperation is powerful, the drama. You can imagine the shrieking and screaming of two men who know they've got one moment in time or the rest of their life they are to be blind stones. And they scream in almost a frenzy. And they say, "Have mercy on us."

    They didn't say, "Hey, God gave us a dirty deal, why don't You make it right." They recognized that they needed mercy. "Take pity on us. Look at our sad situation."

    There's a sense of humility in that that speaks of the mark of someone with true humility. They wail with an intense desire to be healed, but they make not demands and they make no claim to worthiness. And they are so persistent that they refused to be bludgeoned into silence by the indifferent crowd. Verse 31, "The multitude rebuked them that they should hold their peace and they screamed louder." The world always tries to keep people from getting to Jesus, don't they"

    It isn't anything really different. People get disgusted with beggars and if you've ever been in a part of the world where there are a lot of them, you really do kind of slough them off and they do get in the way and they're a little bit obtrusive.

    But, their heart was right. "Have mercy on us, take pity." They felt their deep need. They knew they deserved nothing. They cried for mercy. There's no merit in mercy. There’s no merit to be given to one who seeks mercy. They were quite different than the Pharisees who sought no mercy because they believed on the basis of merit; they possessed a right to everything. So we see their sad plight.

    And then their strong persistence. In verse 31, it says, "When the crowd tried to shut them up, they just kept screaming louder." And these people really wanted to get to Jesus, with spirit and their strong persistence.

    There's a third thing here to note...their sound perception. As blind as they were physically, they were equally able to see spiritually because of something they said. "O Lord, Son of David," verse 30, "O Lord, Son of David," verse 31, that's the Messianic title. They had come to the place where they believed that He was the Messiah. Now to what extent that faith extends" We don’t have an insight into the dimensions of their faith. But it was there to some extent or they wouldn't have been screaming as frantically as they were. There wasn't any doubt in their mind that this was their only chance. Maybe, we can say how sure they were, it was a chance or it was a real opportunity but they knew there wasn't any other and they put all they had into this one.

    And when they said, "O Lord," there must have been something in that. We don't know whether they assumed Him to be God, deity or whether they were giving Him a title of honor and respect which indicated that He was a sovereign of some kind, a lord of some kind. But when they said "Son of David," they were identifying Him as the Messiah. For it says in Matthew 1:1 in the beginning of the genealogies of Jesus that He is the Son of David, Son of Abraham. That is the most common Jewish term for the coming king because in 2 Samuel 7:12 and 13, when God gave the covenant and promised that there would come a greater king than David; it would be David's greater Son.

    And so, Son of David became the title by which Messiah was designated and Jesus was the Son of David, for Joseph, His father, had come in the Davidic line and Mary, His mother, had also come in the Davidic line. And He indeed was the Son of David. And when the birth of Jesus Christ occurred in Luke 1 verse 32, we read, "He shall be great and be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father, David, and He shall reign and the end of His Kingdom shall never come." And so they give Him a Messianic name.

    It's the same thing they called Him in chapter 21 when He came into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday in verse 9, "Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest." And verse 11 they said, "This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee." So they are saying, "Jesus of Nazareth from Galilee, a prophet, is none other than Son of David, the one who comes in the name of the highest." And so it is a double act of faith. They have faith in His power to heal; they have faith in His person as Messiah. Maybe it was due to the resurrection of Lazarus. Maybe it was due to the ministry of John the Baptist a few years before, for they would have been in the proximity of the Jordan River out there and they may well have known John the Baptist, they may well have known that he had called for repentance in preparation for the Messiah. We don't know. They may well even have known Isaiah 29:18 which said that when Messiah comes He will give sight to the blind.

    But whatever it was, they had enough faith to know that they were in need of mercy and to believe that this was the one who could do for them what they needed done and that He was Lord to some extent and that He was Messiah to the full extent. And we believe that when we have come to the point of all the faith that is possible, the Lord will meet us at that point of faith and take us all the way to redemption.

    And that's what He does with these two men. "The faith of the blind rose to the full height of divine possibility." And so, we see their simple plea...sad plight, strong persistence, sound perception, simple plea...verse 32, "And Jesus stood still and called them and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you"" He stood still. Stop the whole procession.

    Here was a great moment in which three things could occur generally, Messianic proof again, millennial preview, and a marvelous picture of what He would do for the heart. It was a time to demonstrate His credentials all over again, but it was more than that, it was a moment of tender compassion on behalf of two needy people. And He called them.

    How did He call them" Well, if we read Mark's account it seems as though He called them with a messenger. Someone ran back and that's another reason why they were out of the city and somebody ran back to these guys who were over there by the gate. And he ran back and in Mark 10:49 says, "Be of good comfort, rise, He calls you." He wants you. And in Mark 10:50 it says, "The blind rose up and threw off his garment and went to Jesus." Once he heard that Jesus had gotten the message, he just threw away his garment and took off. Maybe he figured he'd come back and be able to see enough to find it again.

    And Jesus says, "What will you that I should do to you""

    This is to evoke out of their hearts a greater expectation, this is to confirm in the crowd exactly what He was doing. And the response is a simple plea of verse 33, "They said unto Him, Lord, that our eyes may be open." You see, they're confessing they're blind. And that needs to be made very clear. They were blind.

    And that leads to their supernatural privilege...supernatural privilege, verse 34, "And Jesus had compassion on them, touched their eyes, immediately their eyes received sight." Now it says that Jesus had compassion. And that's the real message of this wonderful story. He felt their need. He felt their pain. He hurt for them. There is such tenderness in Him. He reached out and He touched their eyes.

    And Luke adds, "He said when He touched them, Receive your sight." And instantly all physical laws were set aside and just as God creates something out of nothing, Christ created seeing eyes.

    Interesting that the Greek verb here is anablepo, blepo, to see, ana, to see again which is to say that perhaps their blindness had occurred in life, not in birth. And so they were made to see again. Those who have lost their sight have a greater pain to bear than those who were born blind and do not know what they've missed. And so He restores to them their sight again out of compassion, touching and speaking.

    Oh, He used many methods. Sometimes He touched, sometimes He didn't. Sometimes they touched Him. Sometimes He spoke, sometimes He merely thought a thought and they were healed. Sometimes He put fingers in ears, sometimes He used clay, sometimes He used spittle. He healed many, many different ways. But always His healings were total, complete, instantaneous and defied any natural explanation.

    As a footnote. There are a lot of people around today who want us to believe that they can heal. And we'll turn on our television from time to time and we'll see those kinds of things, but have we ever noticed the absence of blind people" Have we ever noticed that" Oh, they pretend to be able to help people hear and lengthen legs and help people with aches and pains, but where are the people who have glass eyes and all of a sudden they have seeing eyes" This is a monumental miracle. A person who may be crippled and full of pain can be made in the euphoria of a moment and the hype of their own mind and the energy of a situation and in a strong act of confident faith in some healer to stand up and take a few steps, but none of that stuff is going to make a person without eyeballs see. So let the healers’ line up who claim they have the gift and heal the blind or raise the dead.

    Now this takes us to a final point. This takes us to a final point in verse 34, "their submissive pursuit." Sad plight, strong persistence, sound perception, simple plea, supernatural privilege, submissive pursuit, they pursue. The end of verse 34, "They followed Him." That's just a simple little statement but it's a beautiful statement.

    And what makes it especially beautiful is when they were healed, one of the other gospel writers, Mark, says, "Jesus said to them, Go your way...go your way." Well, what their way was" When He said go your way, what way did they go" Their way was His way from now on. This is just the kind of stuff that indicates real regeneration. And Mark 10:52 says, "Jesus said, Go your way, your faith has made you whole." Now listen carefully. The word there, "your faith has made you whole" is not iaomai, healed you, it's sozo, your faith has saved you. That is the classic New Testament word for "to be saved." Your faith has saved you. And inherent in what our Lord said there in Mark 10:52 to these blind men was this, "You're redeemed."

    Now listen carefully. We do not have to have faith in the New Testament record to be healed. There were plenty of people healed in the New Testament who didn't have faith. Dead people don't have faith. There were a lot of people healed in the New Testament that didn't have faith. We can look through all kinds of illustrations of that. But you can find all kinds of healings where there was no faith, but you'll never find salvation without faith. And so, whereas faith is not necessary for healing, faith is necessary for salvation. And when Jesus said, "Your faith hath saved you," that's exactly what He meant. Sure there was physical wholeness there and they did have faith in that, but it was more than that.

    In Luke 17, ten lepers came and Jesus said, "Go show yourself to the priest," and on the way all ten were cleansed, katharizo, a form of healing, they were all katharizoed, cleansed of leprosy. How many came back" One, to whom Jesus said, "Your faith has saved you." I believe there were ten healed, there was one...saved.

    And there's another reason to think they really had a transformed life. It says they followed Him. Somebody's going to say, "Oh, but they were just following Him to Jerusalem." Well, that's right. But it says in Luke, "They followed, glorifying God." Glorifying God. And it even tells us, interestingly enough, in Luke 18:43, that all the whole multitude started chanting praise to God. And this thing starts mounting. And by the time they get to Jerusalem, we know what broke loose on Palm Sunday, right" He touched that city from top to bottom. He hit the richest guy, Zacchaeus, and a couple of poor beggars, the most despised up and inner, and the most despised down and outers, He got them all. What a demonstration. And it was sort of a final Messianic display that swept the crowd into the hosannas of Palm Sunday.

    Let’s hope it's testimony that we've been touched by the compassion of Jesus because we've cried for Him and He's made us see. Let's pray.

    We can all say with the blind man in John 9 that once we were blind and now we see when we've been touched with the saving grace of Christ. We thank You for that, our Lord, for whereas we were blind, we do see. And we thank You that Jesus is compassionate, that He is never too busy in the matter of redeeming the universe to stop to hear the cry of those in need.

    And that His heart is touched deeply with compassion for that heart. We thank You that when we who are spiritually blind come and cry out, O that our eyes may be opened, that the same Lord of compassion is there to open our eyes as well and our faith can make us to be saved, to be whole in spirit.

    We thank You, also, Father, that Jesus Christ has the power to heal all disease and someday will do that in glory at the redemption of our bodies when all sickness and sorrow and pain and death is banished forever. We thank You and we wait for that display of power. In the meantime, because we know that sickness must endure as long as sin endures, we thank You that our Savior is compassionate and He understands our frailties, He feels the pain of our fallenness, He sympathizes with our sorrow and has even in the midst of them His holy purposes that we through those things might be made more like Jesus Christ who is indeed a sympathetic high priest.

    We thank You for this glimpse of our dear Savior. We pray that we might see Him with as clear eyes as those two blind men saw Him. The Lord, the Son of David, the rightful King, the one alone who can save those who come in faith and cry for mercy out of their sad distress.

    With your head bowed in a moment as we close. If you have never come to the light of Christ, we would invite you to do that this morning. Believe in your heart, confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and accept His work on the cross for you and you will come to see with the eyes of the soul. Amen

    Commentary on Matthew 20:17-34

     

    The Third Prediction of the Passion and Triumph. 20:17-19.

     

    I. The Prediction itself.

     

    A. Affinities with 16:21 and 17:22-23.

     

    Here, as in both earlier passages, Jesus predicts both His death and His resurrection. As in 16:21, He identifies His enemies as "the chief priests and the teachers of the law" (Sadducee and Pharisaic interests are combined against the common foe). As in 17:22-23 Jesus had spoken of being "handed over" (paradid©mi) to the Jews, here (using the verb twice) He speaks of being handed over to both Jews and (by their instrumentality) to the Gentiles.

     

    B. Distinctive Features of this Prediction.

     

    In 16:21 Jesus predicted that "He must...suffer many things at the hands of [the Jewish authorities]" before His death. Here He says, "They [the Jewish authorities] will turn Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified" (v. 19). Gentiles do the actual mocking and flogging, but it is the Jews' purpose they fulfill. In other words, according to 20:19 no less than 16:21, Jesus "suffers many things" at Jewish hands.

     

    Noting that Matthew uses three infinitives of purpose ("in order to be mocked, flogged, and crucified") in place of Mk's finite verbs (10:34), Gundry comments: "Thus the center of attention shifts from the action of the Gentiles to the malevolent purpose of the Jewish leaders in handing Jesus over to them" (401). Cf. 26:2; 27:31.

     

    II. The position of the Prediction.

     

    Placed at this juncture, this third prediction (1) provides a foil to the petty ambitions of the disciples, 20:20-24, (2) anticipates the great declaration of v. 28, and (3) reminds readers at what great personal cost God bestows His unmerited favor upon His people (cf. 20:14-15).

     

    The Test of Greatness. 20:20-28.

     

    I. Jesus and the Family of Zebedee. 20:20-23.

     

    A. The Family's Request. 20:20-21.

     

    1. The source of the request. According to Mt, it is the mother of James and John who asks a favor on their behalf; according to Mk (10:35), it is James and John themselves. These two accounts may easily be synthesized.

     

    2. The reason for the request. That such a request comes from this particular family, may be attributed in part to Jesus' choice of James and John to be numbered among the "inner three" (cf. 17:1). There may well be another reason: "The mother of Zebedee's sons probably bore the name Salome (cf. 27:56 with Mark 15:40) and perhaps had Mary the mother of Jesus for a sister (see John 19:25). Family relationship, then, may lie behind the request". This in turn would explain the involvement of both mother and sons (as noted under 1.).

     

    3. The nature of the request. The mother's request that her sons be permitted to sit "on Jesus' right and left" in His kingdom, pertains not to the Messianic banquet (as foreshadowed in the Last Supper) but to the thrones closest to that of Jesus (cf. 19:28; the above interpretation of 20:1-16; and Gundry, 402).

     

    B. Jesus' Response. 20:22-23.

     

    James and John (and their mother) are ignorant of two things.

     

    1. Suffering comes before glory.

     

    a. The cup of Jesus. Jesus asks James and John, "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink"" As applied to Jesus, the figure of "drinking the cup [potsrion]" signals His approaching experience of suffering and death (as just predicted, vv. 18-19). As He is the sin-bearer (1:21; 3:15), it also signals His personal experience of the wrath of God. It is chiefly the prospect of experiencing God's wrath, and the consequent separation from the Father, that causes Jesus to cry out in Gethsemane, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup [pots ion] be taken from Me" (26:39). Cf. ibid. 152-53.

     

    b. The disciples' expectation. That disciples could envisage glory without suffering, is clear from 16:21-17:13. Yet perhaps by this stage the sons of Zebedee are beginning to grasp that Jesus must enter into glory by way of suffering (for He has now thrice predicted His death and resurrection). And perhaps the words of v. 22b ("We can" drink your cup) are quite sincere. But if so, the words are as naive as they are sincere. For in the first place, even if the disciples are beginning to accept the inevitability of Jesus' death, they have as yet only the faintest understanding of the meaning of that death (cf. 20:28; 26:26-28). Had they perceived that Jesus would die as the sin-bearer and the object of the divine wrath, would they so quickly have affirmed their ability to drink His cup" And in the second place, the context suggests that the thrones closest to Jesus' own are reserved for those disciples whose suffering comes closest to approximating His own - i.e., whose suffering is marked by the greatest sacrifice and the greatest anguish (cf. v. 28). For James and John to make their present request intelligently, would require that they ask also for the grace needed to bear the suffering which leads to the glory (cf. 24:9; Rom 8:17; 2 Tim 2:12; Rev 3:21).

     

    c. The disciples' experience. In response to the disciples' boast (v. 22b), Jesus says, "You will drink My cup" (v. 23a, RSV). The words "My cup" show that it remains Jesus' cup even as the others drink it. NEB well renders, "You shall indeed share My cup." In fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy, James suffers martyrdom at the hands of Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:2); and John, while probably dying a natural death in old age, nonetheless suffers for Jesus' sake (Rev 1:9).

     

    2. The Father's will is decisive. "But to sit at My right or left is not for Me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by My Father" (v. 23b).

     

    a. The Father's prerogative. According to Jesus, the apostles will sit on twelve thrones alongside His own (19:28). Jesus Himself will be enthroned, because the Father has granted Him, the Son of Man, authority to execute final Judgment (see especially Jn 5:19-27). From this we might infer that the apostles' authority to judge (19:28) also comes from the Father. Mt 20:23 leaves us in no doubt that this is the case; that the Father chooses the occupants of these two thrones, indicates that He has chosen the occupants of all twelve. Jesus declares (19:28) what the Father has authorized (20:23).

     

    b. The Father's choice. The Father has prepared these two thrones for a given two apostles of His choice. The preparation presupposes the choice. Which two apostles are to occupy those thrones has not yet been disclosed. That would undermine the very reason for the choice.

     

    c. The Father's reason. Those two seats are reserved (it appears) for apostles who identify most closely with Jesus in His willingness to serve and to suffer (v. 28, and 1.b. above), and who therefore are the least self-conscious, the least calculating, and the least ambitious (cf. 25:37-39). Such persons will be astounded to learn that they have been assigned the thrones next to Jesus: they would willingly take those furthest removed from Him. Those most like Jesus shall be seated closest to Him. Cf. 1 Cor 4:9, "us apostles...at the end of the procession."

     

    II. Jesus and the Twelve. 20:24-28.

     

    A. The Reaction of the Ten. 20:24.

     

    The reason for their indignation toward James and John, has already been considered.

     

    B. Jesus' Response. 20:25-28.

     

    Having brought all twelve disciples together (v. 25a), Jesus addresses the competitive pride that infects all the disciples and threatens to tear their company asunder.

     

    1. The destructive use of power. "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them" (v. 25b). The way of the world, as typified here by Gentile rulers, is to exercise power by demanding submission and service. The rulers' power readily serves the purpose of pride, in that by asserting their power they can keep their subjects beneath them. Power is the means of continually reminding subjects just who is in charge. And since this is (by the standards of the Kingdom) a spurious power, ever more strenuous effort is needed to maintain it.

     

    2. The creative use of power. "Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant [diakonos], and whoever wants to be first must be your slave [doulos]" (20:26-27). The apostles are endowed with stupendous power and authority, that of Jesus Himself (10:1; cf. 28:18-20). Yet as those who are slaves (douloi) of Jesus and fully accountable to Him as Lord, they have no right to lord it over others or to wield power as a means of advancing themselves. On the contrary, their slavery to Jesus manifests itself as slavery to other people (vv. 26-27). As those who experience the security and freedom of the Kingdom, they have no need to lord it over others. As those who emulate Jesus, they discover that self-giving service is the very means by which God releases the true power. Accordingly, the disciples' greatness does not lie beyond the service but precisely in the service. Jesus thus drives home the lesson about true greatness in ch. 18 and the lesson about equality in 20:1-16.

     

    3. Jesus the Servant. Jesus provides the supreme example of selfless service: "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many" (v. 28).

     

    a. The power of service. If ever one possessed power and authority, it is Jesus the Son of Man. In coming to serve, he does not abandon power, He exercises power. Cf. Phil 2:6-8.

     

    b. The sacrificial death. He comes "to serve and to give",  or better, "to serve, i.e. to give" (the "and," kai, is epexegetical; following Gundry, 404). The singular focus of this verse is Jesus' service in death. The language is rooted in Isa 53:10-12.

     

    c. The ransom for many (lutron anti poll©n].

     

    (1) Jesus' death is redemptive. He liberates the "many" from the bondage and guilt of sin, at great cost to Himself.

     

    (2) In bearing the sins of His people (1:21), He simultaneously renders both the lowliest and the noblest service ever. Moreover, as the sin-bearer He dies in the place of the many, as their substitute (note the preposition anti).

    (3) The use of the word "many" is explained both by the presence of rabim, "many," in Isa 53:11, 12, and by Jesus' purpose to save a host of people from among both Jews and Gentiles. The term "many" embraces all of those, from whatever nation, for whom Jesus dies. The contrast is drawn between the many and the few (for some interpreters, "many" is equivalent to "all"). With respect to the Gentiles, observe how this saying relates to other passages: Before Jesus' death the proclamation of the Kingdom is confined almost entirely to Jews, both in Jesus' preaching (15:24) and in that of His disciples (10:6). Two things account for the shift from those sayings to the Great Commission of 28:18-20, namely Israel's rejection of their Messiah (21:18-22:14) and Messiah's death as "a ransom for many." Before the Gospel of liberation from sin may be taken to the Gentiles, the Savior must actually accomplish their liberation from sin. The work of salvation must precede the news of salvation.

     

    The Healing of Two Blind Men. 20:29-34.

     

    I. The Place. 20:29.

     

    The last stage of the ascent to Jerusalem (cf. 20:17) was "the road from Jericho, leading up the Wadi Qelt. On either side of the lower reaches of the wadi lay NT Jericho, a new foundation built by Herod the Great as his winter residence...about a mile south of OT Jericho". OT Jericho lay about 17 miles northeast of Jerusalem, NT Jericho about 16. In Mt and Mk (10:46) the episode occurs as Jesus is leaving Jericho, whereas in Lk (18:35) Jesus is entering the town. One of the suggestions for harmonizing the accounts that Mt and Mk speak of old Jericho, and Lk of new).

     

    II. Affinities with 9:27-31.

     

    In both passages, (1) Mt speaks of two men, not just one (cf. Mk 8:22-26; 10:46-52); (2) the men confess Jesus to be "Son of David" (once there, twice here), and cry for mercy; and (3) Jesus touches their eyes, whereupon their sight is restored.

     

    III. Distinctive features of 20:29-34.

     

    Here (1) the men acclaim Jesus "Lord" (kyrios) as well as "Son of David"; and (2) Jesus includes no command to silence (here Jesus heals in public, there in private, 9:28; also, as Jesus is now much closer to the cross, there is less need to protect against the spread of false Messianism). Most significantly, while the first story places much greater stress than this one upon the blind men's faith (see 9:28-29; in 20:30-33 faith is not expressly mentioned, though it clearly underlies the men's words), the present story, in keeping with the immediately preceding verses, is concerned to present Jesus as a compassionate Servant to the needy. The verb splagchnizomai ("to show compassion") is used here (v. 34) but not there. Jesus uses His great power to heal others, not to save Himself.

     

    Matthew 20:29-34

     

    Lives are changed when they come to Jesus a He commanded: 2Th 2:10 And with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 2Th 2:11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 2Th 2:12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe (obey) the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

     

    When the truth is presented to the church people today, we will either stop, think, or reason in their minds where they stand with God. We will think deeply about where we will spend eternity and go and seek the truth at all cost. But we refuse sound doctrine, and refuse to love anything besides our own misplaced conceived notions about Jesus Christ, why He came to earth as God, and died to set us free from the bondages of sin and the corrupt ways of the world.

     

    We love the lie, because it asks us to do nothing, to do nothing to prove our heart is real before God, not perfect, but in perfect submission to His will and word.
    But sad to say the strong delusion is everywhere today, and many of us who think are saved by some provision that was never made are still under this delusion, and refuse to examine ourselves to be sure we are in the faith, thus leading us down the wide road to destruction, loving the lie that declares us a poor, helpless sinner after we say the sinners prayer, and think we are right with God.

     

    We fall for every wind of doctrine, being led into a ditch by many well-meaning, and not so well meaning so called bible scholars who think we are safe, secure, and in the truth, when in reality we too are under the strong delusion, God promised to send to those who persist in the lie, making it virtually impossible for them to escape the snare of the father of lies!

     

    May we wake up, Come to love the truth, by counting the great cost of coming clean before God, loving His truth, and standing fast in it!

      Healing on the Way

    “They said to Him, ‘Lord, let our eyes be opened.’ And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed Him” (vv. 33–34).  

     

    Matthew 20:29–34

     

    Christ began His final trip to Jerusalem after Peter’s great confession (Matt. 16:13–23). In all likelihood, He traveled mostly along the eastern bank of the Jordan River as He and His disciples moved southward from Caesarea Philippi. This was a common route for Galilean pilgrims in His day, and the crowds that we have read about during this trip are those Jews who, while traveling to Jerusalem for the Passover, have seen the deeds of Jesus and are hoping that He is the Messiah (17:14–18; 19:1–2). These men and women are among those who will hail our Savior’s triumphal entry into the Holy City (21:1–11).

     

    Today’s passage indicates that Jesus will soon arrive in Jerusalem to complete His messianic work, for He has been in Jericho, located fifteen miles or so from the Holy City, about a day’s journey in first-century Judea. Leaving Jericho, Christ and His followers begin the ascent 3,000 feet up to Jerusalem, but they do not get very far before meeting two desperate men in need. These blind men, one of whom is named Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46), beg Jesus to heal them, confessing Him as the “Son of David” (Matt. 20:30), a title loaded with messianic assumptions. Knowing that the Messiah is present gives them hope that He will fulfill His call to work miracles and give them sight (see Isa. 35).

     

    Yet the crowd is displeased with these blind men, rebuking them as they cry out to Jesus (Matt. 20:31). They probably feel the beggars are unworthy of the Messiah’s attention since many first-century Jews thought blindness was God’s punishment for sin (John 9:1–3). It is also likely that they do not want Jesus to “waste His time” on these blind men. Those who believe Jesus might be the Christ would be looking for Him to enter Jerusalem immediately so that He might overthrow the Romans and set Israel over the world.

     

    For Jesus, however, it is not a waste of time to pause and heal the blind men, so moved is He by compassion (Matt. 20:32–34). This healing is against the people’s idea of what the Messiah should do, and it portends stronger opposition to come. The crowd that now does not want Him to help a fellow Israelite will later call for Jesus’ head when He does not live up to their expectations (27:15–23).  

      Coram Deo   When we do the work of ministry it can be easy to get so caught up in the big plans and programs we have going that we miss the needs of certain individuals among us. As followers of Jesus, we must imitate His compassion and take the time to minister to hurting individuals even if it may sometimes get in the way of our own plans and purposes. What are we doing in our churches to make sure people are shown compassion and not forgotten"

    Lessons On Seeing From A Blind Man (Matthew 20 29-34)

     

    Jesus was now on His way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover with His disciples.  Infinitely more important than that, however, He was going there to suffer and die (20:18-19).  He would be celebrating the Passover for the last time and then giving Himself as the one, final, perfect Passover Lamb, sacrificed for the sins of the whole world (Heb. 7:27).

     

    His arrest, trial, and crucifixion were but a few weeks away.  Why, we may wonder, did He take time to minister to two blind beggars"  In light of the disciples’ slowness to learn and believe, why did He not spend the last few days alone with them, drilling into them what He so much wanted them to understand"

     

    The reason was His compassion (v. 34).  When better could Jesus have demonstrated the depth and breadth of divine compassion than while He was on the way to His crucifixion"  The Twelve would one day look back on the healing in Jericho and on all His other acts of mercy and realize that their Lord was never too preoccupied to be compassionate, never in too much of a hurry to heal the afflicted, never in too much agony Himself to be insensitive to the agony of others.  That realization itself would be one of the most important lessons they would learn from their Master.  In these few verses is found one of the most beautiful portrayals of the loving, compassionate heart of God.

    We also see demonstrated in the actions of these two blind men how each of us are to approach the Lord.

    1A.      The Men (20:29-30)

    1B.      The blind men and their condition (20:29-30a)

    The crowd that followed (20:29)

    ·         Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem His disciples and are great crowd of pilgrims followed Him.

    The condition they were in (20:30a)

    ·         They were blind

    ·         They were beggars (Mark 10:46)

    This is our condition without Christ

    Revelation 3:17-18  "Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing', and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked , 18 "I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

    2 Corinthians 4:3-4  3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,  4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

    John 3:19-20 19 "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  20 "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

    We must see our true condition before we will call on Jesus!

    2B.      The blind men and their conviction (20:30-31)

    Their plea (20:30)

    ·         They were desperate.

    Cried out, (krazo); literally to cry out in anguish; it is the same word to describe the cries of a woman during childbirth

    ·         They were broken.

    ·         They cried for mercy!

    21 times the Psalmist pleads with God for mercy.

    Luke 18:13-14  13 "And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!'  14 "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

    ·         They believed

    O Lord, Son of David, this was the popular Jewish designation for the Messiah.

    Their persistence (20:31)

    ·         They would not be denied.

    ·         They would not be discouraged.

    No one had to beg these men to come to Christ!

    Why"  Because they were convinced that Jesus was who He said He was and that He alone was their hope.

    2A.      The Master (20:32-34)

    1B.      His call (20:32)

    Jesus stops for them.

    Psalm 4:1  Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness!  You have relieved me in my distress; Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer

    Jesus stoops to them.

    Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.

    Psalm 4:3   3 But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly; The Lord will hear when I call to Him.

    2B.      His compassion (20:33-34a)

    The Lord’s motive

    ·         Not the crowd

    ·         Not the worthiness or usefulness of the men.

    ·         Not the faith of the men.

    ·         His sovereign choice, His compassion!

    2 Timothy 1:9   (God) who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,

    The Lord’s method

    ·         He touched them and they were healed.

    3B.      His converts (20:34b)

    They followed Him

    ·         Though many followed Jesus without true faith these men seem a bit different.

    They had faith in Him

    Mark 10:52 Then Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.

    They glorified Him

    Luke 18:43 And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God.  And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

    Application

    We recognize our lost condition.

    We are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked…”

    We must humble ourselves before the Lord.

    James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

    We must cry out to God for mercy.

    Psalm 119:145-146 145 I cry out with my whole heart; Hear me, O Lord! I will keep Your statutes.  146 I cry out to You; Save me, and I will keep Your testimonies.

    We must trust God to save us.

    Isaiah 12:2    Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid…"

    Commentaries:

     

    I want Jesus to "open my eyes" too so that I may be closer to Him with peace.  Blessings.

     

    I want Jesus to give me wisdom & I want him to make me a better man of God!

     

    I want Jesus to draw me closer to Him. As this blessing takes its course, I want my family to experience Him and come to know him as their personnel, Lord and Savior. And I would be truly happy.

    God Bless.

     

    I hope He'll provide what's best for me! Thy will be done in my life for I know it's going to be the best!

     

    I want Jesus to make me a strong Christian. I want to be the person He wants me to be. I want to know and do His will. I want my relationship with Jesus to grow. I want to know and love Him!!!

     

    I want Jesus to make me more firm and strong in my believe and take me to the highest faith always and guide me throughout my life. I want him to provide me a man of believe (Follower of Jesus) as my life partner

     

    I want the LORD Jesus to open my eyes so that I could see Him and to open my ears so I could hear Him and to have wisdom to spread the good news.

     

    I believe Jesus knows what I need or wants Him to do for me because my thoughts and my groaning are always before Him. But as the blind men did ,I will continue to place before Him my fate as a retired public worker in need of where and how to shelter my family let alone to give them three square meals a day..

     

    I want Jesus to save me from all troubles. I pray Jesus to solve all my problems and give me strength and peace.

     

    I want JESUS to give my mother perfect healing of breast cancer, electric brain, success in my posture exam that is coming up in few days from now, and finally financial brake true.

     

    Respectfully, I'd like for JESUS to continue to help me in many ways. Most importantly, growing closer to him and always tailoring my life and the way I conduct myself as JESUS did. Secondly, to continue to bless me with the HOLY SPIRIT so that I may always be led by the SPIRIT and not by human nature. Finally, I continue to thirst in many ways and would like to drink from the water that JESUS provides. The water that when consumed, you never thirst again. For this I pray is JESUS' name. AMEN.

     

    On this weekend of Pentecost I'd like to ask God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit to let the power of The Holy Spirit be at work in the Pope who is the head of the Catholic Church.

    That we can all ask Jesus to "OPEN OUR EYES" so we can all listen and give more attention to the Pope's teachings since he is guided by God's word. That before making choices we may all consider what Jesus would do. Especially in politics what would Jesus say about our choices (Keeping in mind God's 10 Commandments).That we all may find joy from reading and understanding the bible. Also for us to all ask the Holy Spirit to touch us and enter into our hearts. For us to all become instruments of Peace, Love and Joy. See God in even person we interact with and most of all keep Jesus Christ in everything we do and say. Amen.

     

    When we do not know which decision to make that we may Open the Bible and re-read the 10 Commandments and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us because he will :)

     

    I want Jesus to protect my three sons and to guide me in following Him so I will never fail in my belief in Him. Blessings.

     

    To love like he does.

     

    From today Jesus to inspire every move I make. I want to feel His presence

     

    I want Gods presence at all time to be filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom that I would make the right choose

     

    I want my Lord Jesus to open my eye spiritually and provide light to the path that I walk, so that I never stumble and fall into the pit of darkness. I want Him to be my shepherd so that I as His humble sheep, walk in His guidance and do not get lost in sin.

     

    Jesus know the blind man what he is going to ask Jesus but Jesus is testing his faith Jesus never leave me always I want to follow him I need His strength to do good things for others the Holy Spirit always guiding to me.

     

    I want Jesus that he should fill me afresh with the Holy Spirit and be with me now and forever.  Jesus should protect me and guide and guard me always.

     

    I think firstly I want to ask him for forgiveness and for him to completely purify me and make me clean once again. I also want him to open the eyes of my heart so that I may see more things through his eyes. I would also want him to give me wisdom and understanding to better serve him. I also want him to show me what he wants me to do for him and also to give me a bigger heart that loving and forgiving. I would also like to be filled with more of the Holy Spirit.

     

    To get rid of my evil things, open my eyes so I can see the truth and open my ears so I can hear the word of God and keep the word forever.

     

    I want Jesus to keep me in His sight, help me overcome my sins and follow Him always. I love you Jesus. Blessings.

     

    l want Jesus to increase my faith and help me to be a person who is helpful to the society and to have the fruits of the holy spirit which are love, joy, peace, humility, kindness, tolerance, a forgiving heart and to be the best mother for my kids and husband.

     

    I want Jesus to increase my faith in Him, and to trust in His love, and know that if I lean on Him, He will take care of my needs. To help me to be patient and tolerant of others. To give me a forgiving heart, that I may learn to forgive and forget; and to forgive me my sins, and help me to live a life that is pleasing to Him.

     

    I would like to first Thank Jesus for all of the blessings he has given to me.  I would like to ask and invite God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to purify me and come live in my heart, to speak with me and guide me.  

     

    I would like to ask Jesus to give me the wisdom to understand his teachings.  Just like the blind men, I would like to ask Jesus for a kind heart (to open my Heart and give me eyes to see his truth) so that I could see Jesus in everyone I encounter and that I may treat others as he commanded we should with love, respect and less judgment.

     

    I would like to ask Jesus for inner peace, courage and a strong, clear voice so that I may do his will and help others.   Amen

     

    Ps. I would like to ask God to teach the world how to choose Love every minute of today in everything we do. Choose to love instead of war, unkindness or greed. Choose Love with our families and always turn the other cheek. Choose to love even when driving in our cars, have patients in traffic. Let us all who claim to love Jesus be that example of Love :) every moment every day.


    By: Gregorio Magdaleno - September 22, 2015 - Public
    Category: Two Blind Men Receive Sight
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