The Power of the King over Blindness

Introduction: Can you imagine being blind? What would it be like to miss seeing the sun rise and sun set each day? What would be it like not to see the ocean? I cannot even fathom what it would be like not to see the face of your spouse, your children, or your grandchildren. What about seeing all the animals, or great trees of the world: The Redwoods, Giant Sequoia, or the Bristlecone pine. What about the mountains, or the seeing it snow? Without sight we would miss out on so much of the wonder of being alive.

God created the eye. In Proverbs 20:12 we read,

The hearing ear and the seeing eye, The Lord has made them both.

“The retina of your eye is less than 1 square inch yet contains over 137,000,000 light sensitive cells.” (Photo-Creation Magazine March-May 1996 P.39).

The eye is amazing. It is better than any digital device mankind will ever create. Nothing can replace the human eye. Researchers estimate that most humans can see one million shades of colors. This is because a healthy human eye has three types of cone cells, each of which can register about 100 different color shades, amounting to around a million combinations. (Pantone.com)

May God help us not to take our ability to see for granted. It is one of the many blessings of being human and being alive. Thank God for the ability to see all that God has created.

In our text Jesus Christ is going to heal two blind men. It is going to be a great day for them. They are going to see perhaps for the very first time, or perhaps through disease their eyesight was taken away, but in our text, Jesus is going to touch their eyes and they are going to see again.

I. Jesus heals the Blind men – 9:27-31

In these verses before us we discover that Jesus is the great sight restorer! Jesus will restore the sight of two blind men.

William Barclay wrote, “Blindness was a distressingly common disease in Palestine. It came partly from the glare of the eastern sun on unprotected eyes, and partly because people knew nothing of the importance of cleanliness and hygiene. In particular the clouds of unclean flies carried infections which led to loss of sight.”

John MacArthur writes, “Many infants were born blind because of various diseases suffered by the mother during pregnancy, and many others became blind a few days after birth by being exposed to venereal disease, especially gonorrhea, as they passed through the birth canal.”[1]

A. Two blind men cry out to Jesus – 9:27

27 When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”

What do we have in this verse? Well, Jesus departs from the home of Jairus after raising his only daughter from the dead. Next, I notice two things in this verse:

1. They recognized Jesus as King – 9:27

These two blind men cried out,

“Son of David, have mercy on us!”

“Son of David” is the title of the Messiah, and these Blind men used those words as they recognized His rightful position as the coming Messiah.

D.A. Carson wrote, “This is the first time Jesus is called ‘Son of David’ and there can be no doubt that the blind men were confessing Jesus as Messiah.”

Their confession takes us back to Matthew 1:1,

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:

2. They requested His mercy – 9:27

If you recall from an earlier chapter Jesus told the Pharisees to go and learn “mercy” (9:13). What is mercy? Theologically the “mercy” of God keeps us from getting what we deserve. They were asking to be kept from what they deserved. They wanted God’s grace. They wanted sight. They wanted to see.

Question: Do you want what you deserve, or would you rather experience God’s mercy? Mercy wins, right? Let us be forever grateful for God’s mercy.

B. Faith is required to be healed – 9:28

28 And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”

Do these two blind men display faith? Sure, they do…

1. They had faith to follow Jesus – 9:28

When Jesus had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. They too followed Jesus. No doubt that they had become good at following voices.

2. They had faith to believe Jesus – 9:28

Jesus said to them,

“Do you believe that I am able to do this?”

Jesus was asking them about their faith. He wanted to know if they believed that He could bring their sight back. They responded with a resounding, “Yes, Lord.” They had declared their faith publicly.

The Faith of the Blind Men

Pastor David Guzik writes, “The faith of these two blind men is worthy of notice.

· They had the faith to follow Jesus; this meant forsaking other paths, other directions and deciding to follow Him.

· They had the faith to cry out, willing to put words to their desire.

· They had the faith to make some noise, and to be unafraid of embarrassment.

· They had the faith to identify Jesus as the Son of David, recognizing Him as the Messiah.

· They had the faith to ask Jesus for mercy, knowing they didn’t deserve healing.

· They had the faith to believe that Jesus was able heal them.

· They had the faith to say, “Yes, Lord.”

Two Types of Blindness

Can I remind us that in our culture we have two types of blindness. First is physical blindness. The inability to see with the human eye. Second, there is spiritual blindness. The inability to see with the human heart. We have both types of blindness in our world.

Can God heal physical blindness? I believe He can. Does He always heal physical blindness? No. Can God heal spiritual blindness? I believe He can. Does He always heal spiritual blindness? He can, but there is God’s part (the touch, or miracle), and there is man’s part in this second type of blindness (faith, or belief in Jesus Christ).

· In John 9, Jesus healed a man who was born blind from birth. He testified,

“I was blind. Now I see” (John 9:25).

· In John 3, Jesus heals a man who was spiritually blind, Nicodemus, a religious man. Jesus said to him,

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot seethe kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

Nursing Home Ministry

When Debbie and were first married we used to do nursing home ministry. We would take some young people who would play music and sing, and then I would preach. It wasn’t an easy ministry. I clearly remember one time when I was getting ready to preach that one of the ladies in a wheelchair cried out, “Pray for me that God would allow me to see. Pray for me that God would allow me to see.” She kept repeating that over and over again. We did pray for her, and she was NOT healed. God did not give her sight back.

Now, getting back to our text we have two blind men who believed that Jesus could heal them, and we will read that He does heal them. Here we see The Power of the King over Blindness.

C. Jesus touched their eyes, and they were opened – 9:29-30

29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.” 30 And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, “See that no one knows it.”

What do we have in this verse? We have…

· Jesus’ Touch - Jesus touched their eyes.

· The Blind men’s Faith - According to your faith, let it be to you.

· Supernatural Miracle - And their eyes were opened.

· The Request of Jesus - Jesus told them to tell no one.

Now, why did Jesus tell them not to tell anyone about what He had done for them? First, many people only want to focus on the miraculous, more than the man and His message. Second, it is possible that Jesus desired to protect these two men against the opposition that He was already facing.

D. They spread the news about Him – 9:31

31 But when they had departed, they spread the news about Him in all that country.

They didn’t obey Jesus but did just the opposite of what Jesus “sternly warned them”. Why didn’t they obey? Their eyes were opened, and they could see. How can you keep a miracle of such proportions to yourself? It wasn’t possible for them. They could see, and they wanted everyone to know who it was that healed them.

They told everyone that Jesus healed them. There is a message here for all of us today. Who is it that has healed us? Who do we tell about Jesus?

God help us to tell everyone!

II. Jesus heals the mute and demon-possessed man – 9:32-34

There is a final miracle that I want us to consider – it is miracle number 10. Here In verses 32-34, we find Jesus healing a mute man who was also demon possessed. Here we are going to see Jesus’ power over the devil.

A. A mute and demon-possessed man is brought to Him – 9:32

32 As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a man, mute and demon-possessed.

Note that the man didn’t come on his own, “they brought Him a man,”. We are not told who brought him, but evidently someone who cared for him did.

The man was a mute, he was unable to speak, and he was controlled by a demon. How awful is that?

I find it interesting that depending on the translation of the Bible you are reading that you discover that this man was probably both deaf and dumb, that he could not hear, and that he could not speak. The Greek word “kōphos” means dull of hearing, deaf, dumb, deafmute. Bible teachers believe that this is the effect of the man being demon-possessed.

The Good News is that Jesus Christ specializes in providing victory over the devil, and we read about it here in our text.

B. Jesus cast out the demon and the mute spoke – 9:33

33 And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. And the multitudes marveled, saying, “It was never seen like this in Israel!”

Apparently, it was the demon that caused the man to be mute. For as soon as Jesus cast out the demon, the mute spoke. It would have been great to know what the healed man said. What were his first words? Was it, thank you, Praise God, or something else? We don’t know what he said, but we know what the multitudes said,

“It was never seen like this in Israel.”

What they saw was truly a miracle, and the multitude knew it.

C. How the Pharisees responded – 9:34

34 But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons.”

The Pharisees have a bad rap and they deserve it. In their eyes Jesus could do nothing right, but in the eyes of the common man, Jesus could do nothing wrong. The religious people saw Jesus as someone to compete with, but the common people saw Him as someone who met their deepest needs.

The Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons by the ruler of the demons. Does that even make sense? What ruler of demons would cast out his own demons from a person? They wouldn’t. These guys didn’t know their demonology (study of the demons) at all.

Over in Matthew 12, Jesus spoke about the absurdity of the statement made of the religious leaders. In Matthew 12, Jesus heals a demon-possessed man. This man was both blind and mute, and Jesus heals him, and again the Pharisees attribute the healing to the power of the devil. Let’s read the account,

22 Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. 23 And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” 24 Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” 25 But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. 28 But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. 30 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad. 31 “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. (Matthew 12:22-31).

Jesus makes certain that everyone knows that a kingdom divided against itself doesn’t make it.

This last miracle was a God thing! Everyone knew it accept the religious people. The healed man knew it, the disciples knew it, and the multitude knew it, and I hope as we have looked at this text that you and I know it too.

What we have seen in our study is the power of the King over blindness and over demon-possession.

Conclusion: As we wrap up these last two miracles found in Matthew 9, may I remind all of us that Jesus Christ has power over everything from leprosy to demon-possession, from death to blindness.

What are the take home truths from this message? They are:

1. Turn to Jesus for all healing.

2. Faith is a prerequisite for all healing.

3. Jesus specializes in opening the eyes of the blind – physical and spiritual blindness.

4. Demon possession causes maladies in the human body – i.e., being deaf and mute.

5. Jesus has authority over all demonic spirits.

6. Religious people will always criticize the work of Jesus Christ.

[1]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1985). Matthew(Vol. 2, p. 89). Moody Press.