The Compassionate Christ

Introduction: For those of you who are school teachers, this story might sound familiar to you. Back when I taught in school, there would often be those long nights grading and preparing for the next day's classroom that I would call it quits, go home, and come back to school early the following day to get some work done before the students arrived. The problem with that strategy was that other teachers would have the same idea. One teacher, in particular, was a problem for productivity. Not to say that she was the problem, but her son, who accompanied her, was.

Now, Chris was a good kid. I liked him, so the problem was not that he was a trouble maker, but instead that he always wanted to hang out in my office before school and shoot the breeze. Being the history teacher, Chris would often come and talk with me about one of his great passions - tanks and the history of warfare. On some more random occasions, he would speak with me about his second great passion - bugs bunny humor.

And so roughly fifty percent of my mornings would begin with a stack of papers to grade accompanied with a voice bouncing down the hall toward my office, "Mr. B, you are never gonna guess what I saw last night!"

Now I tend to be a perfectionist. I love checking things off of my to-do lists. So, it does not take a rocket scientist to guess how I felt on most of those mornings.

Again, the problem was not with Chris. The problem was that I felt the pressure of multiple things that I desperately needed to get done, and to my shame, I sometimes reacted in ways that were less than compassionate.

Thankfully for me, the Lord saw fit to give Chris a persistent spirit, and over the years, I learned to compassionately give Chris's need for a role model a more preferential place. I cannot say I ever perfected that relationship, but by the grace of God, I did see substantial growth.

I wonder how many of you have found yourselves in similar situations. It is not always easy to be compassionate, is it? When others come to us with significant needs, we often lack the energy, drive, or the means to meet those needs. Our capacity for compassion is limited, and we do not always dispense grace on an as-needed basis.

Yet, as we turn to our text tonight, we see that the opposite is true of our Lord and Savior.

Read Matthew 20:29-34

According to Matthew 20:17, Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover with His disciples. During that Passover celebration, Jesus would emphasize something infinitely more important than Israel's deliverance from slavery in Egypt. He would point them forward to mankind's deliverance from slavery to sin. Soon, He would celebrate Passover for the last time and then offer Himself as the final Passover Lamb.

Meanwhile, we see in v. 29 that a great crowd was following Him. Undoubtedly many in this crowd eagerly anticipated Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem. Perhaps they thought, "Corrupt Rome has met their match. They cannot stop what Jesus is here to do. The son of David has come to sit on His father's throne and usher in an era of Jewish dominance as the chosen people of God." In just a few days, they would spread their clothes on the road and cut down branches from trees to welcome in the Messiah as they declared, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"

With all of this going on, I am sure there was much on Jesus' mind. He was on the ultimate mission. The hour had come.

And it is at this moment when you would expect that Jesus has much better things to do, that Matthew focuses our attention on two blind men whose voices pierce through the hustle and bustle of that great crowd - "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!"

And, of course, our beloved Jesus stops. On His way to accomplish the most significant mission ever accomplished, He stops to show compassion to two blind beggars who just happened to be sitting by the road. In doing so, Jesus demonstrated his constant compassion for individuals.

Throughout this message, if you go home with anything, go home with this: the constant compassion of Jesus guarantees His care for you as an individual. This passage declares that truth in three stages: the blind men's desperate need for grace, the crowd's compulsion, and the Savior's compassion.

The Desperate Need for Mercy

Read Matthew 20:29-30

As is typical in Matthew's account, Matthew's record is historically accurate. Both Mark and Luke record this same incident, but they record only one blind beggar rather than two. Likely, Mark and Luke refer to the more outspoken and prominent of the two, while Matthew reports both. It is even more personal for Mark as he reveals the name of one of the blind men - Bartimaeus. Mark and his readers likely knew Bartimaeus personally, and so this was his way of saying, "Oh, by the way, Bartimaeus was one of those blind guys."

It is also typical of Matthew's account that he would record it from the Jewish perspective. Mattew and Mark state that Jesus was coming out of Jericho, while Luke states that he was coming near Jericho. While Matthew and Mark were referring to old Jericho, Luke referred to Jesus approaching new Jericho.

But regardless of their perspectives, their accounts all point to the same truth - these blind men were in desperate need.

Being blind at this time in Israel's history meant that these men could not work, and few families could or would support them. So most blind people were beggars, and like most beggars, they would gather outside of the city gates to take advantage of travelers who were more likely to be carrying money with them.

These men were also considered defective. According to Leviticus 21:18, they were disqualified from serving as priests because of their blindness, and, in typical Pharisaical fashion, the Jews thought them to be socially unclean as well. This thought process is evident in John 9:1 as Jesus passed by the man who was blind from his birth, the disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

They were in need, not just of physical help but also social interaction and acceptance. So when these men heard Jesus passing by, it is no wonder that they cried out, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David."

The word that Matthew uses here for cried out is from the word κράζω. We have seen this word before. It is a word of desperation. The woman with the demon-possessed daughter in Matthew 15:23 cried out in the same way for Jesus to show mercy, and Peter cried out in Matthew 14:30 when he took his eyes off of Jesus and began to sink - "Lord, save me!" This word is used in the Greek for any sort of desperate screaming. It is used to describe people either in desperate need or anguish - or totally insane, as is the case with the maniac of Gadara in Mark 5.

These men were desperate, and they knew exactly what their need was - mercy from the Lord.

Transition: These men had a desperate need for mercy from the Lord, and so they unapologetically cried out for it, but it wasn't long before the crowd tried to silence them.

The Compulsion of the Crowd

Read Matthew 20:31

This behavior is oh so typically as well, isn't it? Here you have two guys that, from all outward appearances, need Jesus more than anybody, and they are told to just shut up.

The word used here for "warned" is ἐπετίμησεν which means to command with the implication of a threat. The crowd is not just telling these men to be quiet, but to be quiet "or else." The last time we saw this word used was in Matthew 19:13 when the little children were brought to Jesus, and the disciples rebuked them. One reason for the disciples' rebuke was that they wanted nothing to delay Jesus' journey to Jerusalem. Maybe they even told the parents, "Don't you realize that Jesus has more important things to do." By all indications, this crowd had the same motives, maybe even to a greater degree. Jesus was so close to Jerusalem, and they anticipated what he would do for them politically. Perhaps they thought, "Jesus will deliver us from the Romans at Passover." And so so they warned these blind men, "Leave Jesus alone! Don't you know He has more important things to do than waste His time and energy with two random blind guys!"

However, this did not deter these men. As John MacArthur put it, "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." Despite the crowd's warnings, they knew that if they were to be made whole, this was their only chance. Even the blind could see the plain truth that many in their day could not - this was the Messiah, the Son of David, and so they cried out all the more, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!"

Transition: I am sure the crowd was amazed at what happened next. Amid the crowd and despite all the noise and in the middle of the mission, Jesus stops. On full display for all to see, front and center, Jesus, who is literally carrying the weight of the world, stops and calls attention to two seemingly random blind men.

The Compassion of Christ

Read Matthew 20:32-34

He stood still and called them. Mark records that messengers came to them and told them, "Be of good cheer. Rise, He is calling you."

I have no idea how strong their faith was at this point. Maybe they were thinking, "We know Jesus can heal us, but will He?" Perhaps you have felt that way at points in your life as well. "God can hear me, but will He do anything?" How comforting it must have been for these two seemingly insignificant blind men to hear those words, "Jesus wants you."

We know from Marks's account that that is all Bartimaeus needed to hear. He threw aside His garment, rose, and came to Jesus. As if to say, "When Jesus restores my sight, it'll be a piece of cake for me to come back and find my coat on my own. Just get me to Jesus."

So, they came to Jesus, and Jesus asked them, "What do you want me to do for you?"

Pause

Remember the last time Jesus asked someone that question. In v. 21 of this same chapter, He asked James and John's mother that same question, but the contrast couldn't be more drastic. She asked for glory on behalf of her sons, but these two men only wanted mercy. The crowds and even the disciples often wanted to bask in Jesus' glory, but these men knew their greatest need was compassion from the Lord.

So, they said to Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened." Can you imagine their anticipation? These two random men, who nobody else noticed, were noticed by the Lord. They knew He could heal them, and now they knew that He would.

In typical fashion, Jesus not only healed these outcast individuals but touched them. He identified with them and cared for them, and immediately their eyes received sight. Not only was his touch an act of kindness, but it was also a declaration of His authority. Psalm 146:8 states explicitly, "The Lord opens the eyes of the blind." It was only fitting that right before Jesus entered Jerusalem; His final act of compassion would simultaneously display his authority. He is the Lord who opens the eyes of the blind. Just as he opens the physical eyes of these two men, He will soon go to the cross to open the spiritually blind eyes of sinners.

We do not know how strong their faith was before they encountered Jesus on that day, but we know that these men followed Him after their healing. Mark gives us some further insight in Mark 10:52. After Jesus healed them, he said to them, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." They cried out for mercy, and they received it, both physically as well as spiritually.

Conclusion: Now, here we are at the end of 2020, and perhaps you have encountered situations this year where you find yourself in desperate need of mercy. At the same time, you wonder, "I know God can help me, but will He? While the world is spinning out of control with COVID, corruption, and causes, does God have the time to care for me? When the needs of our time seem global, does He have time for my illness, or my failing relationship, or my mourning heart? Does He see me?" At that moment, remember these two blind men and their encounter with the compassionate Christ. There is no cause more significant or more global than the redemption of all people for all time, but yet, Jesus stopped for two random blind guys. The overwhelming compassion of Christ guarantees his care for you as an individual.

Perhaps what you need is not physical but spiritual. In a world filled with turmoil, maybe you have begun to realize that your deepest need is salvation from sin, which has gotten this world into this mess in the first place. Even amid a chaotic world, call out to Him; He will save you.

Cry out for His mercy! He's listening for you.