5. Two Blind Men of
Jericho, 20:29–34
29 And
as they were going out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. 30 And
look, two blind men sitting by the wayside heard that Jesus was
passing by, and cried out, saying, “Take pity on us, Lord, Son of
David.” 31 But
the crowd admonished them so that they should be silent; but they
cried out all the more, saying, “Take pity on us, Lord, Son of
David.” 32 And
Jesus stood still and called them, and said, “What do you want me
to do for you?” 33 They
say to him, “Lord, that our eyes may be opened.” 34 And
Jesus, moved with compassion, touched their eyes, and immediately
they received sight and they followed him.
Matthew
moves on in his account of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and tells
the story of two blind men who received their sight as the Master was
leaving Jericho. There are problems in relating this to what we read
in the other Gospels. Matthew has two blind men, whereas Mark and
Luke have but one, whom Mark names as Bartimaeus. Our first two
Gospels have the miracle as Jesus was leaving Jericho, but Luke has
it as he was arriving. We may or may not be able to reconcile the
accounts, but some things should be said. If there were two men, one
of them may well have been more prominent than the other and
attracted more attention, so that it was possible to write the story
concentrating on him. It does not seem to make a great deal of
difference whether it took place as Jesus was arriving at Jericho or
leaving, and in any case there is a complication in that there were
two Jerichos (Josephus, War
4.459), the site of Old Testament Jericho, which had been overthrown,
and the site nearby of the rebuilt Herodian Jericho. It is not
impossible that the miracle was performed as Jesus was leaving one
Jericho and approaching the other. We should not miss the point that
this story follows immediately on the sayings about Jesus’ saving
death. He used his great powers, not to save himself, but to heal a
couple of apparently quite unimportant blind men.
29.
Since Matthew has given us few details of Jesus’ journey, we are
left wondering about his precise route. But at this point he is
certainly within the borders of Judea, with Jerusalem no more than
about fifteen miles away. Matthew locates the happening as they were
leaving Jericho. He says that a
great crowd
was following Jesus (usually he uses the plural “crowds,” but
here the word is singular). There would have been many pilgrims going
up to Jerusalem for the Passover, and, since Jesus was known to many
from Galilee, there is nothing surprising in their attaching
themselves to him as they all journeyed on to the same destination.
30.
Matthew’s vivid “And
look”
(see on 1:20) invites the reader to contemplate two
blind men sitting by the wayside.
It is not said that they were begging, but that is not improbable
(and Luke says that was what his blind man was doing). The blind had
no other way of earning a living, and with crowds of people going up
to Jerusalem for the feast there was always the possibility of help
coming from well-disposed worshipers. They heard
from some of the crowd that Jesus
was passing by.
Evidently they knew something of Jesus, and specifically they knew
that he had brought healing to many. So they did not waste their
opportunity—they would probably never get another. They cried
out;
there is no indication of how far they were from Jesus, and they
probably did not know. But shouting was the way to get his attention,
so that was what they did. They did not specify that they wanted him
to give them their sight, but asked him to take
pity
on them, as did the two blind men in 9:27 (which some think is a
doublet of the present story), the Canaanite woman (15:22), and the
man Jesus encountered at the foot of the mountain of the
transfiguration (17:15). It is not certain whether we should include
“Lord”
as part of the true text here (as it is in v. 31), but this seems
likely. They further greeted him as “Son
of David,”
a messianic title (see on 1:1), which Matthew records a number of
times. It is of interest that Jesus does not reject it, though it was
uttered loudly in the presence of a large crowd (earlier he had
discouraged talk of his messiahship; cf. 9:30). He was going to
Jerusalem to die, and he would die as the Messiah. The title
indicates that the blind men thought highly of Jesus and saw in him
someone who could deliver them from their blindness if he only would.
But they realized, too, their lowly place, so they asked for his
pity.
31.
But
has adversative force; it sets the unsympathetic crowd over against
the noisy blind men. The people wanted to see and hear Jesus, not to
be disturbed by these men shouting out for pity. They admonished
the blind men with a view to54
their being quiet. But they were totally unsuccessful. The blind men
were highly motivated and they were persistent. When they were
rebuked, they reacted by crying out all
the more.
They said the same words as before (this time there is no textual
doubt about “Lord”;
REB
has “Sir,” but where the men are addressing the Son
of David
“Lord” is more likely than “Sir”); they wanted the Lord, the
Son of David, to take pity on them, so they kept repeating their
plea.
32–34.
In the end they were successful; Jesus halted his progress and called
them.
He asked them what they wanted and received the answer, “Lord,
that our eyes may be opened.”
The greatest thing that could be done for them was that they be given
sight. And Jesus responded. He was moved
with compassion
(see on 9:36 for this illuminating expression); the crowd had been
ready to silence these men and keep them out of the way, but Jesus
was too compassionate for such harsh treatment of people in need. He
has just been teaching his followers the importance of lowly service,
and he now gives an example of it. For a moment he ignores the great
crowds of people thronging around him and concentrates on two
insignificant men in need. He touched
their eyes,
as he had touched people in his healings a number of times. Thus
Matthew reports him as touching a leper (8:3), Peter’s
mother-in-law (8:15), and the eyes of blind men (9:29), in each case
with healing following. Sometimes people touched his clothes and
received healing (9:20–21; 14:36). On this occasion the immediate
sequel to the touch was that the men received
sight.
Matthew also records that they followed
him.
This may mean no more than that they joined the crowd behind Jesus as
he journeyed on, but it is more likely that Matthew uses the term
here of a more meaningful following; he sees the two as becoming
disciples. Schweizer considers this so important that he heads his
discussion of the whole story, not “Two Blind Men Receive Sight”
but “Two Blind Men Follow Jesus.” He expressly understands they
followed him
to mean “the men joined Jesus as disciples” (p. 399).
|
The
Blind Who Saw
(20:29–34)
|
23
|
And as
they were going out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. And
behold, two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was
passing by, cried out, saying, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of
David!” And the multitude sternly told them to be quiet; but they
cried out all the more, saying, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of
David!” And Jesus stopped and called them, and said, “What do you
want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Lord, we want our eyes
to be opened.” And moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes;
and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.
(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.
Their
Persistent Plea
And
as they were going out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.
And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was
passing by, cried out, saying, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of
David!” And the multitude sternly told them to be quiet; but they
cried out all the more, saying, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of
David!” (20:29–31)
As Jesus
and the disciples were
going out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.
The Lord had finished His ministry in Galilee, ministered on the east
side of the Jordan in Perea, and had now recrossed the Jordan back
into Judah, just above the Dead Sea near Jericho.
The city of
Jericho
was a jewel in the barren wilderness that surrounded the Dead Sea, an
oasis of fresh water, beautiful trees, and productive crops of figs,
citrus, and other fruit. Among other things, it was known as the city
of the palms. Herod built a fort and winter palace there, and
Josephus reports that, when there was snow in Jerusalem, only fifteen
miles away, Jericho was warm and pleasant.
Jericho
doubtlessly brought many memories to Jesus’ mind. It was there that
Rahab the harlot lived, a very special woman in Israel’s history
and in Jesus’ own ancestry. Though a prostitute and a pagan
Gentile, she trusted in the God of Israel and, with her family, was
spared when the Lord destroyed the ancient city. Along with Ruth,
another Gentile, Rahab is one of only two women named in the
genealogy of Jesus (Matt. 1:5). And it was in the wilderness hills to
the west of Jericho,
dearly visible from the city, that Jesus was tempted for forty days
by Satan.
Whereas
Matthew’s account has Jesus going
out from Jericho,
Mark reports that He was coming “to Jericho” (10:46) and Luke
that “He was approaching Jericho” (18:35). The difficulty can be
explained by the idea that Matthew was referring to the old Jericho,
some of the ruins of which are still evident today, and that the
other two writers were referring to the contemporary city. In that
case, Jesus would have been moving out of the ruins of the old city
and into the new. Or it may have been that Jesus had gone through the
city to the outskirts and was now leaving. When He responded to the
cries of the two blind men whom He had passed, He may have turned and
gone back toward the city After that He decided to go into the city
again, where He later encountered Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-2). In any
case, a
great multitude followed Him
now, as they often did.
Behold
was used to call special attention to something or someone, in this
case two
blind men
who ordinarily would have gone unnoticed. Blind people were extremely
common in the Near East, especially in the cities. Because none of
them could work and few had families who could or would support them,
the majority of blind people were beggars, as were these two (see
Mark 10:46). Like most other beggars, they congregated outside the
city gates to take advantage of travelers, who were more likely to be
carrying money than the average person on the street.
A special
balsam bush grew in Jericho from which a medicine was made to treat
blindness. Consequently, that city had an unusually large number of
blind people who came there in hope of a cure. The two blind men who
cried out to Jesus were but two among perhaps hundreds in the
vicinity.
Blindness
was common in ancient times, as it still is today in underdeveloped
areas of the world. Many people were blinded by such things as
accidents or battle wounds. But many others became blind shortly
after birth from gonorrheal infection of the eyes, contracted from
the mother during birth. Many women carried the bacterium, although
most of them were not affected by it themselves. Other infants were
blinded by trachoma, a virulent form of conjunctivitis. Although it
usually took several days or weeks for such diseases to cause total
blindness, for all practical purposes infected babies were blind from
birth. Birth eye infection is still a great danger, even in modern
societies, and doctors therefore routinely place antiseptic drops in
the eyes of newborns.
Mark and
Luke mention only one man, whom Mark identifies as “Bartimaeus, the
son of Timaeus,” and who apparently was spokesman for the two of
them (see Mark 10:46; Luke 18:35). Mark touches a distinctly human
chord by naming this man and even his father. Although Bartimaeus was
doubtlessly unknown while he was a blind beggar, it is possible that
he later became highly respected in the early church and well known
to Mark and those to whom he wrote. Mark would have been saying to
his readers, in effect, “And do you know who one of those blind men
was? Bartimaeus, our dear friend and brother in Christ!”
Hearing
that Jesus was passing by,
Bartimaeus and his friend cried
out, saying, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”
Krazō,
from which cried
out
is taken, is an onomatopoeic word that as used for any sort of
screaming or anguished shout. It was used of the rantings of insane
people and of a woman’s cries at childbirth. It was used of the
Canaanite woman near Tyre and Sidon who cried out for Jesus to heal
her daughter (Matt. 15:22), of the crowd’s shouting for Jesus’
crucifixion (Mark 15:13–14), and even of Jesus’ crying out from
the cross (Matt. 27:50).
These two
blind men were absolutely desperate, realizing that the last possible
hope of their seeing would soon depart. They could hardly have known
of Jesus’ impending crucifixion, but they seemed to sense that they
would never encounter Him again and that this was their last chance.
They were therefore shouting at the top of their voices, not caring
who else heard them as long as Jesus did.
The amazing
thing about these two men was not their physical blindness, which was
common in their day, but their spiritual sight, which is uncommon in
any day Physically they could see nothing, but spiritually they saw a
great deal.
In itself,
their addressing Jesus as Lord
does not indicate that they considered Him to be the Messiah. Lord
was a common term of honor used to address not only dignitaries but
anyone due special respect. But their asking Him for mercy,
and most certainly their calling Him by the messianic title Son
of David,
clearly shows their recognition of who He was. In announcing Jesus’
birth to Mary, the angel declared that her Son would be given “the
throne of His father David” (Luke 1:32). When a few days after this
incident in Jericho Jesus came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He was
greeted by the crowds shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David;
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the
highest!” (Matt. 21:9). It was common knowledge among all Jews that
“the Scripture said that the Christ [Messiah] comes from the
offspring of David” (John 7:42).
But the
blind men’s knowledge of Christ and their great determination were
tempered by humility. In asking for healing they acknowledged their
unworthiness of help and threw themselves entirely on Jesus’ mercy.
Their actions were necessarily loud and obtrusive, because that was
the only way they could have been heard over the din of the
multitude. But their hearts were right, because despite their great
need, they knew they deserved nothing from the Son of David and that
only His grace could help them. One cannot be dogmatic about the
extent of their faith at this point, but they dearly recognized
Jesus’ messiahship and His supernatural power to heal.
When a
person steps out to God on all the faith he has, even if it is
incomplete and weak, the Lord will meet him at that point and lead
him to redemption. As He declared through Jeremiah, “You will seek
Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer.
29:13). Speaking of the two blind men of Jericho, Alfred Edersheim
beautifully observed that “the faith of the blind rose to the full
height of divine possibility.”
Resenting
the intrusion of the two men, the
multitude sternly told them to be quiet.
The world, and many Christians, can often be callous and cruel.
Everyone in the multitude
was doubtlessly better off physically, economically, and socially
than the two blind men, but they thought only of their own selfish
concerns, in light of which these needy men were but an annoyance.
But as F.
F. Bruce has expressed it, the two blind men “refused to be
bludgeoned into silence by the indifferent crowd,” and they
cried out all the more,
saying
again, “Lord,
have mercy on us, Son of David!”
Their
Supernatural Privilege
And
Jesus stopped and called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do
for you?” They said to Him, “Lord, we want our eyes to be
opened.” And moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and
immediately they regained their sight and followed Him. (20:32–34)
Jesus
doubtlessly heard them the first time, but for His own reasons He
waited until they cried out again before responding. He stopped
and called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
Mark says that Jesus had first sent someone else to tell them,
saying, “Take courage, arise! He is calling for you.” Bartimaeus
was so elated at hearing those words that he cast “aside his cloak,
… jumped up, and came to Jesus” (Mark 10:49–50). He apparently
was so certain of being healed that he figured he could come back
later and find his cloak by himself.
The men
answered Jesus, “Lord,
we want our eyes to be opened.”
After years of blindness their one compelling desire was to see. And
moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they
regained their sight.
As the Creator of the universe reached out to those men, He suspended
the natural laws which He Himself had made. Moved
with
infinite divine compassion,
the Son of Man, who was also the Son of God, bestowed the mercy on
the physical needs for which they pleaded.
The fact
that Matthew says they
regained their sight,
using the same verb Bartimaeus had used in his request (Mark 10:51),
suggests that these men had once been able to see. If so, they were
more keenly aware of what they were missing than if they never had
sight.
Jesus used
many different ways to perform His healing miracles. Sometimes the
afflicted person was asked to do something himself. Sometimes the
Lord simply spoke a word, and sometimes He performed some action,
such as putting His fingers in deaf ears or making salve from mud and
anointing blind eyes. In this case Jesus
touched their eyes.
His miracles were always complete, and usually, as here, they were
instantaneous, defying natural explanation.
It is
significant that among the many self-acclaimed faith healers of
history, including those in our own day, there is a marked absence of
restoring sight and raising the dead. Many other afflictions can be
faked or can be given temporary improvement by the power of
suggestion working in a desperate mind. But where are the miracles of
vision given to the blind? Where is the person whose eyes are
permanently damaged or completely missing who has regained his sight
by the laying on of a healer’s hands? And where is the person who
was dead and has been restored to life?
Even more
common and tragic than physical blindness is the spiritual blindness
the two men must have felt as they encountered the Son of God. And
the context strongly suggests that they also sought deliverance from
that kind of blindness.
Jesus was
born into a world of people who, with few exceptions, were totally
blind spiritually He “was the true light which, coming into the
world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was
made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own,
and those who were His own did not receive Him” (John 1:9–11; cf.
8:12). Men were spiritually blind then, and are spiritually blind
today, because they do not want to see God’s truth. As Jesus
explained to Nicodemus, “This is the judgment, that the light is
come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the
light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates
the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be
exposed” (John 3:19–20).
“The lamp
of the body is the eye,” Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount; “if
therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.
But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If
therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the
darkness!” (Matt. 6:22–23). To man’s natural spiritual
blindness, Satan adds his own. “The god of this world has blinded
the minds of the unbelieving,” Paul declares, “that they might
not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the
image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4). And to that double blindness, God may
add still more. When men persistently refuse to hear His Word and
believe in Him, God may choose to judicially reinforce their willing
hardness of heart. To Isaiah, the Lord gave the unenviable task of
telling his fellow Israelites, “Keep on listening, but do not
perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand.” He was, in fact,
told to “render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears
dull, and their eyes dim, lest they see with their eyes, hear with
their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed”
(Isa. 6:9–10).
The minds
of unbelieving Jews were blinded to the full meaning of God’s Word
because “their minds were hardened; for until this very day,”
Paul said, “at the reading of the old covenant the same veil
remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ” (2 Cor. 3:14;
cf. Rom. 11:25). The epitome of the spiritually blind were the
hypocritical, unbelieving scribes and Pharisees, the leading
religionists of Israel whom Jesus called “blind guides” (Matt.
23:16, 24).
Further
evidence of the former blind men’s desire for spiritual as well as
physical sight is the fact that, after Jesus restored their sight,
they followed
Him.
It is true that many, and probably most, of the multitude who were
following Him (v. 29) were not true disciples. But the fact that Luke
says Bartimaeus, and presumably his friend, not only followed Jesus
but were “glorifying God” (18:43) gives good reason to believe
the men were restored spiritually as well as physically.
In addition
to that, Mark reports that Jesus said to them, “Go your way; your
faith has made you well” (Mark 10:52). “Made … well” is from
sōz̄,
which referred to any kind of rescue or deliverance, including
deliverance from physical affliction or peril (see Matt. 8:25; Mark
13:20; Luke 23:35). But it is also the most common New Testament term
for salvation, the deliverance from sin through Christ, and that
would seem to be its meaning in Jesus’ final words to these men.
Faith was
not a requirement for Jesus’ healings. He healed many people at the
request of someone else, as in the case of the centurion who pleaded
for the healing of his paralyzed servant (Matt. 8:5–13). The
infants He healed and those He raised from the dead obviously were
not able to exercise any sort of faith. Whereas the New Testament
tells of countless people who were healed without faith, it reports
none who were saved without faith, because it is only by God’s
grace working through faith that a person can be saved (Eph. 2:8). It
therefore seems that inherent in Jesus’ declaration “faith has
made you well”His assurance of the men’s salvation. He spoke
exactly the same words to the single leper who glorified God for his
healing and came back to give Jesus thanks (Luke 17:12–19). All ten
lepers had been healed physically, but only this man was “made …
well” because of his faith, strongly suggesting that, whereas his
cleansing (v. 14) was physical, his being made well (v. 19) was
spiritual.
Three
features of Jesus’ healing of physical afflictions become clear in
this story. First, this powerful, dramatic demonstration of God’s
compassion for men was a proof of Jesus’ messiahship. Second, it
was a preview of the millennial kingdom, when there will be a
thousand-year age of freedom from sickness, disease, and other
physical affliction. Third, His healings were symbolic. His healing
of blindness was a picture of His immeasurably more wonderful healing
of spiritual blindness. What He did for blind eyes was a vivid
portrayal of what He desires to do for blind sou1
JESUS HEALS TWO BLIND MEN
And as
they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him [Matt.
20:29].
Jesus
and His disciples are going from Jericho to Jerusalem, which is the
opposite direction from the man who went down from Jerusalem to
Jericho and fell among thieves. The Lord is going from Jericho up to
Jerusalem to die
with thieves. That’s on the other side of the freeway, and on that
side you and I can never go. We can only come to Him in faith, for He
died in our stead.
By the way,
some folk think that because at His trial He did not defend Himself,
He never
defended Himself, and that Christians should follow the same policy.
However, at other times He did defend Himself. When He went to
Jerusalem to die, He did not defend Himself because He was taking my
place, and I’m guilty. Believe me, there was no defense! That is
the reason He did not open His mouth at that time. He was bearing my
sin, and He was bearing your sin at that time.
And,
behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that
Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou
son of David [Matt. 20:30].
I
love these two fellows—no one could keep them quiet!
And the
multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace: but
they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of
David [Matt. 20:31].
Notice
that they addressed Him accurately—“O Lord, thou son of David.”
They acknowledged His kingship. The Syrophoenician at first called
Him the son of David, but the Lord reminded her that she had no claim
on Him in this way. These men, however, were Jews and did have a
claim on Him, and they exercised their claim!
And
Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I
shall do unto you?
They say
unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened [Matt. 20:32–33].
The
problem of these men seemed so obvious. Why did the Lord ask what He
could do for them? My friend, when you come to the Lord Jesus Christ,
you must tell Him your need. If you are coming to Him for salvation,
you must tell Him that you are a sinner and need His salvation. If
you don’t, you will not be saved. That’s the offense of the
Cross. Everybody would like to come to the Cross if they could bring
along the perfume of their self–righteousness and good deeds. But,
my friend, you and I haven’t any goodness at all, none whatsoever,
to present to God. You can no more sweeten human character with
training and psychology and education than you can sweeten a pile of
fertilizer out in the barnyard with Chanel No. 5. We have to come to
Him as sinners and receive Him as our Savior. And the blind men came
to the Lord Jesus with their need, “Lord, that our eyes may be
opened”!
So Jesus
had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their
eyes received sight, and they followed him [Matt. 20:34].
Our
Lord healed them, and they followed Him. Remember where He is
going—He is on His way to the Cross.2
The healing of two blind
men (20:29–34)
Leaving
Jericho, on their way to Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples, followed
by a large crowd, passed two blind men on the road side. Mark’s
account of this event records only one man, whom he identifies as
Bartimaeus. Perhaps Bartimaeus went on to become a disciple of
Christ, known to readers of Mark’s account, and so Mark omits any
mention of his companion so as to concentrate on the experience of
the familiar Bartimaeus, whereas Matthew tells the story of both men,
neither of whom he names. These two men cried out to Jesus for mercy.
The crowd
rebuked them for their impertinence, but they shouted all the louder,
‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us.’ Jesus stopped and asked
them a question that sounds a little strange, ‘What do you want me
to do for you?’ One might have thought that an unnecessary
question, for the answer should be obvious. But it is of course a
good question. It is possible to be wanting Jesus to do far less than
his purpose would be. These blind men had asked for mercy many times
from many people. If asked, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’
they might reply, ‘I want some bread’, ‘Give me a blanket to
keep myself warm at night’, ‘May I have a cushion to make my
begging more comfortable’, ‘I need some cold water to quench my
thirst’, and all of those things may be legitimate. It is possible
to ask God for lots of legitimate things which never deal with the
fundamental need of our lives, that we might be whole again!
Jesus
Christ did not come into the world to deal with the symptoms of
people’s alienation from God, merely to cleanse them of their
guilt, be on hand to answer their prayers for help in times of
difficulty, or even to provide security for their future. He came to
make people complete, as God intended them to be when he first
created them. He came to reconcile us to God, to restore his life
into human experience. At the source of all else that may be wrong in
the human condition is our alienation from God, ‘separated from the
life of God’ (Eph. 4:18). Whatever other pressing needs appear in
our lives, this is their source, and to be reconciled to God is what
it takes to be complete again. The two blind men answered the
question, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ by saying, ‘We
want our sight.’ We want the fundamental problem that has made our
begging necessary to be dealt with, so Jesus touched their eyes, and
‘immediately they received their sight and followed him’.
This is
getting priorities right, the theme of Chapter 20! The economics of
the kingdom have to do with faithfulness to God, not external profile
(20:1–16). Greatness in the kingdom is found through servanthood
not status (20:17–28). Satisfaction in the kingdom is found by
allowing God to deal with the fundamental needs in our lives, not
just their symptoms (20:29–34).3
2
McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru
the Bible commentary: The Gospels (Matthew 14-28)
(electronic ed., Vol. 35, pp. 90–91). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
3
Price, C. (1998). Matthew:
Can Anything Good Come Out of Nazareth? (pp.
255–256). Fearn, Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications.
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