A Study of Matthew: What the Blind Men Saw

Matthew 9:27–38 ESV

And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” When he entered 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.” Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.” But they went away and spread his fame through all that district. As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.” And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

We are continuing our look at the book of Matthew, particularly Matthew Chapter 9. Jesus has been creating quite a stir in this chapter. First, some people bring a paralyzed man to Jesus; instead of healing the guy, Jesus tells him that his sins are forgiven. Jesus eventually does heal the guy just to prove he has the authority to forgive sins.

Then Jesus is walking by the workplace of a tax collector—someone hated by the Jews because he’s cheating the people AND he works for their enemies the Romans. This guy just so happens to be the author of this book. Jesus invites this low-life scum to be a disciple! Matthew ends up going to a dinner party with Jesus and the disciples, and a bunch of his other scumbag buddies show up. The religious leaders who were already upset because Jesus was forgiving sins, are even more upset that he’s hanging out with all the wrong people.

Then, last week, we saw some of the disciples of John the Baptist get their feathers ruffled because Jesus isn’t making his disciples practice ritual fasting. Jesus tries to explain to them that something new is going on, something that goes beyond rituals and ceremony, a kingdom that is build on genuine relationship with God the Father.

Jesus keeps on demonstrating this new thing with new rules. A woman who is ritually unclean dares to sneak up behind Jesus to steal a healing by brushing against his clothes unnoticed. Jesus DOES notice, and instead of Jesus becoming unclean through contact with the woman, the woman becomes healed and clean because of Jesus. From there, Jesus goes to a man’s house where the man’s daughter has died. Jesus chases the professional mourners away, takes the girl’s hand—again, breaking the rules about clean and unclean—and brings her back to life.

Today, we witness Jesus perform two more miracles. First, we meet two blind men who have heard about what Jesus is doing and that he is in town. So they go pursuing him, shouting, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” Jesus does nothing at the time, going back home. But the blind men follow him home. So Jesus asks, “Do you believe I am able to do this?” to which they both reply, “Yes, Lord.” So he heals them and tells them NOT to tell anyone, which they totally disobeyed.

No sooner do the formerly blind men leave, than a demon-oppressed man is brought to Jesus. The demon was making the man mute. Jesus performs a double miracle, casting out the demon and giving the man the ability to speak. While everyone else is marvelling and praising God, the local religious leaders accuse Jesus of being in league with the devil.

In spite of the Pharisee’s accusations, Jesus continues traveling, teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the gospel, and healing every affliction brought to him. We read about Jesus’ compassion for the people. The chapter ends with Jesus telling the disciples

Matthew 9:37–38 ESV

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

What I want to look at is something we have talked about before. One of the recurring themes in Matthew is that Jesus is the Messiah everyone has been waiting for, but that everyone who SHOULD have recognized him didn’t. Instead, it’s the ones you wouldn’t expect. In chapter 2, it was the wise men, foreign astronomers, who recognized him. In chapter 8, while the disciples were wondering who Jesus is that he can command nature, demons call Jesus Son of God right in front of everyone.

Today, two blind men come looking for him. As they call out to him, begging him to have mercy, they use a certain title. Are they calling him Jesus of Nazareth? Are they calling him teacher or rabbi? No. They are calling him Son of David. This is a title of the promised Messiah, in accordance with the prophecy God himself made to King David

2 Samuel 7:12–16 ESV

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”

God promised David that, even though the nation of Israel will falter, God will set one of David’s descendents on the throne, and that this descendent will rule forever.

So here we are. All these Jews following Jesus around, marveling at his teaching and miracles—but it’s two blind men who actually see Jesus for who he is. He’s the Son of David, the promised savior.

Contrast these men to the religious leaders. When Jesus sets a man free from demon possession, the religious leaders decide that Jesus is getting his power from the devil!

How is it that these experts in everything pertaining to scripture and God could be blinder than two blind men?

It’s like we’ve said before. These men studied religion. To be fair, we have to remember what the Jews had gone through in the last several hundred years.

Let’s go back to when David was king. He drew up plans for a temple for God. Up til then, there had only been the tabernacle—a tent where people went to worship and make sacrifices to God. But David was passionate about building the temple. God came to David and spoke to him. He told David that the job of building the temple would fall to Solomon. But that is when God made the promise to David about the Messiah. After David’s passing, Solomon becomes king. He builds the temple, and do you remember what happens when they have the dedication ceremony? The presence of God comes down like a thick smoke. God’s presence is so intense that nobody can even go near the temple for awhile.

Jump ahead a couple centuries. When the Babylonians invaded Israel and Judah, they carried off the people into slavery and destroyed the beautiful temple Solomon had built. More time passes, and God hears the cries of his people. God causes the Persians to conquer the Babylonians. The Persian king is sympathetic to the Jews. He allows them to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. He gives them money and resources, but what they build doesn’t compare to the original. But they get it done, and they have another dedication ceremony.

They follow the ceremony instructions perfectly, doing it exactly as their ancestors had. They wait for God to come down in a cloud again like he did before, but it doesn’t happen. Over the next several centuries, they don’t see any miracles like they used to. It’s like God stopped talking to them.

So all the religious leaders had were the laws to depend on. We will show God that we are his children. We will keep his laws. We will prove ourselves worthy.

For centuries, the Pharisees have been the experts on what is Godly and what is not. The Jews needed them to keep everyone on the right path. But they couldn’t do miracles.

Now Jesus shows up. He’s preaching different things than they are. He’s saying that what is going on in your heart is more important than all the religious things you do. He’s pointing out the flaws of the religious leaders. He’s forgiving sins, as though he’s the one that they sinned against. Now, they have seen him have authority over demons.

But, again, what he is teaching is different from what they teach. He is telling people to go directly to God. If people start following Jesus, they will stop following the Pharisees, which means the Pharisees will lose their credibility, the power they have over everyone. And they are the experts, so obviously Jesus must be wrong. Right?

God wants to do a new thing in this church. If we are going to reach this community for Jesus, we have to be willing to let go of the past. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were blinded by their traditions and their fear of losing their position of power.

We can be just as blinded. We can be blinded by negative attitudes, fear of this church turning into something we don’t recognize and have no control over. We have to remember that this isn’t OUR church. It’s God’s. We can be blinded by attitudes we have about others in this community. There may be people who used to go here, people that you hope NEVER come back, but God may have different plans. If we have been reconciled with God, then we should be reconciled with each other. We can be blinded by our own busy-ness. We can be blinded by our own insecurities about sharing our faith with others. Samson was self-obsessed, egotistic, and irreverent to the things of God, yet God used him to deliver his people. Peter was a coward who denied even knowing Jesus, yet God made him the leader of the church. I mean, God literally used a donkey to preach to Balaam! So why would you think God can’t use you? I don’t want to be so caught up in my own issues that I fail to see what God is doing now, all around me. I don’t want to miss out on the blessing of being used by God to lead others into the kingdom.

We can also be blinded by the memories of this church’s heyday, thinking that we have to find the formula that made us so successful in the past.

But we don’t want to go backward. We want to go forward. We need a new vision of what God wants to do TODAY. Open our eyes, Lord, to see the need, to see your path, to see YOU.