Matthew 20:29-34
29 And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. 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!” 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!” 32 And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” 33 They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” 34 And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him. [i]
Despite God’s repeated demands that no one who is not small, not humble, not one of the last, the lost, the least, the little, and the dead, can get through the tiny narrow entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus’ disciples continue to maneuver their way into what they consider to be greatness. They continue to quest for human power, props, and praise.
In 20:17-28, the quest for props and praise rears its ugly head again. We especially see it in the sons of Zebedee with their mother acting as their publicist. Remember verses 20, 21.
20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. …She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.”
Does Jesus roll his eyes in disgust? Probably not, he loved these flawed men who didn’t quite yet understand his upside-down Kingdom. He brought these Sons of Thunder down to earth with his question about the cup he must drink. The cup question is not so much about the bravery of these two young men. They have none yet. It is to remind them that before glory comes suffering. They have to learn to limbo. They don’t yet know how low they can go.
With this next pericope, this section of Matthew, we need to stay low. We need to be low to the ground so we can see those sightless men who see the spiritual things not even the disciples yet understand. As Jesus, his disciples, and a large crowd traveled from Jericho, heading up to Jerusalem 15 miles away, sitting by the side of the road were two blind men. Matthew writes, “30 And look, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside….” We are going to sit down with them and watch them as they look to Jesus.
THE CROWD
But before we look at them and then with them to Jesus, let’s first look at the crowd. Jesus and the two blind men are the major characters, but the minor character is the crowd. It is helpful for us to see the crowd first.
Matthew often contrasts different reactions to Jesus. Earlier in 9:27-34 Jesus heals two blind men and a mute man who was demon-possessed. Matthew then records two reactions to those two miracles. First is the crowd. They are struck with awe, proclaiming, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel” (9:33). That is a good and accurate response. Then the Pharisees responded, saying, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons” (9:34). That is a bad and inaccurate response.
Matthew does not mention the Pharisees in this text. But we know enough about them to assume their response. They are likely there and traveling with this great crowd of pilgrims on their way to Passover. We’ve seen the veil over their eyes. We know the seven woes of chapter 23 are on the horizon. Jesus will call out their spiritual blindness, calling them blind guides, blind fools, blind men, and blind Pharisees (23:16-26).
But here, before and after the miracle, we have only two reactions. After the blind men “recovered their sight” (20:34), they “followed him.” The blind men followed Jesus. The great crowd followed him. In Matthew’s Gospel, the crowd is not always a good thing; but following Jesus is always a good thing. So, in this case, we can give props to the crowd.
But there is one detail about the crowd we should not applaud. First, they followed Jesus. But second, they “rebuked” the two blind men (20:31), as those blind men were screaming out the greatest profession of faith in Matthew’s Gospel: “Lord, have mercy on us, son of David!” (20: 30c). Matthew writes, “The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent” (21:31a).
The crowd’s rebuke is significant. It is symbolic of their faith, a semi-faith that likes Jesus as mighty king, but not Jesus as merciful king, a king who came not to be served but to serve, a king who came to live and die and live again for the outcasts of society, the last, the lost, the least, the little, and the dead – even desperate, blind beggars. The crowd is not looking for a king of the outcasts.
Jesus was intentionally traveling the same route of Joshua’s conquest of the promised land. Remember that the Greek name “Jesus” is equivalent to the Hebrew name “Joshua.” So as he is coming through and out of Jericho up to Jerusalem, this crowd likes what it sees. But we should not lose the irony of the short, significant phrase “followed him.” We could appropriately add the phrase “for now.” They followed him in that moment. While Jesus entered Jerusalem with a great and enthusiastic entourage, he would leave the holy city a week later, dead and buried, alone in a borrowed tomb.
Notice that the crowd is following the right Jesus in the wrong way. The lesson for us is to not follow them in the way they followed him. He did not come to be the solution to their politics. He did not come to stamp his approval on their wants and desires and felt needs. He came to meet a need not one of them truly understood that they had.
It’s only natural, and therefore very tempting, to follow the crowd. All of us remember being kids and asking our parents to go do something really cool with the crowd. You may recall your brilliant retort when one of your parents said no, “But everybody is doing it!” This brilliant retort was always met with the old parental cliche, “If everyone jumped off a cliff, would you jump off a cliff?” Of course my unspoken reply was always “Yes! That’s why I’m asking!” We will always be tempted to follow the crowd. And here we should learn there are plenty of people who follow the right Jesus in the wrong way and for the wrong reasons.
This is a crowd you should not follow. Don’t jump off that cliff! There are always large crowds to be followed. Many go to large churches to worship a very small Jesus, if he is worshipped at all. There are always large crowds looking for an earthly messiah to lead them in their political or social cause. And if we are drawn to that cause as something we are certain will make us so much happier as the cause is achieved, We have followed the crowd into worshipping the wrong messiah.
In Matthew 27, we will encounter another crowd for whom Pilot will offer to release either Jesus or Barabbas. The crowd will scream for Barabbas to be released. The crowd will scream that Jesus should be crucified. When Pilot asks why, the crowd will shout all the more to crucify the one, true Messiah. So Pilot ordered Barabbas to be released and had Jesus whipped and delivered over to be crucified (27:17-26).
If the crowd was wrong then, the crowd can be wrong now. In the Gospels, as it often is in modern life, the crowd is usually going in the wrong direction. Don’t follow them. The crowd here followed the right Jesus in the wrong way and for the wrong reasons.
THE BLIND MEN
Next let’s look at the blind man. Notice how the blind “see” before they receive their sight. Look at verses 30-32:
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!” 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!” 32 And stopping, Jesus called them….
Jesus does something new and different here. He does not rebuke these men for revealing who he is as he had done in 9:30. He doesn’t tell them that his time is not yet at hand. He doesn’t rebuke them because his time IS at hand (20:18, 19). He is going up to Jerusalem to go up on a cross. In fact, his refusal to denounce such titles will be the motive for him to be cursed upon a tree.
32 And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” What do these men want? Are they looking for money? They are seated outside the gates of Jericho begging passersby for a few coins to feed themselves for another day. Jesus knows what they need, but he wants the crowd to hear from these blind men who Jesus really is and what he can truly and immediately do. “33 They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened” (20:33). These blind men “see” Jesus as the Davidic King and the Lord God. They get his identity. Of all people, they see him for who he is!
Let’s see what they see. First, they see Jesus as the Davidic King. If I were to ask you what you consider to be some of the most important passages in the Old Testament, You could come up with a list of four or five. Certainly, the creation account in Genesis 1 through 3 qualifies, as does God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12, 15, 17. You might also pick the 10 commandments from Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5. Jesus has been identifying himself with the Suffering Servant passage of Isaiah 53.
But for our purposes in examining this passage, we need to add 2nd Samuel 7 to our list. In second Samuel 7, God promised David an eternal King and Kingdom through David’s physical offspring, his seed. Here is a relevant section from that chapter:
…the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12 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. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.[ii]
Remember how Matthew’s Gospel begins? “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David…” (1:1). In 12:23, after a great miracle, the crowd asks, “Can this be the Son of David?” The question is answered by three unlikely candidates: children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” (21:15); a Canaanite woman (a female gentile), “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David” (15:22); and two sets of blind men, who shared the chorus, “Have mercy on us, Son of David (9:27; 20: 30, 31).
The final time we hear the name “Son of David” is in Christ’s dialogue with the Pharisees. In his complex question to them he asks:
“What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “the son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, ‘the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son? (22:42-45).
The Pharisees were silent (22:46). But we who trust into him should never be silenced. With those Jewish children, that gentile woman, and these two blind men, we shout, “Jesus, you are the son of David! You are the promised King, who came from David’s line to rule an everlasting Kingdom.” We may shout with Paul, “Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David” (2nd Timothy 2:8).
As Jesus connects the terms “Lord” and “Son of David” in 22:41-45, so these blind men make the same connection. These two men give eyewitness testimony (minus the literal eyesight) to the person of the Christ. He is both the human “Son of David” and the divine YHWH. Three times they called Jesus “Lord.” Each time they open their mouths, that is the first word out.
The term “Lord” (kyrios) can simply be translated as “Sir,” as a simple term of respect. But in Matthew’s Gospel, when used as an address to Jesus, only true believers call Jesus “Lord.” These blind men ask Jesus and him alone (they don’t ask him to ask God) to do what only God does in the Old Testament and what Isaiah’s Servant will do when he comes — open the eyes of the blind. Why? Because Jesus alone is the divine Son of God.
Throughout the Gospel of Matthew the constant underlying question is, who is Jesus? Matthews answer is that Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us” (1:23). This transition passage, 20:29-34, and all of chapter 21 form a summary of Christology. All that Jesus is and has shown himself to be so far in this story is summarized in a comprehensive way. Our section this morning sets up the Jesus we will see in chapter 21: merciful Lord, modest King, and mighty Prophet. Our transition passage this morning shows us sightless men “see” Jesus as the Son of David (the promised King) and Jesus as YHWH (the merciful and powerful God of Israel).
SEEING JESUS
First, we looked at the crowd. We saw that they followed the right Jesus in the wrong way. Second, we looked at the blind men and saw that in cases like this the blind “see before they see. Now we will look at Jesus and see that Jesus acts as they ask. Listen again to verses 31-34:
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!” 32 And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” 33 They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” 34 And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.
Here Jesus acts as Lord. They ask for their site to be restored, and he restores their site. He does it immediately. He makes no magic incantation. He needs to know staff or rod. He offers no prayer to heaven. He possesses the powers and prerogatives God alone possesses. Jesus acts as God alone would and could act. They ask. He provides.
Jesus does not merely act as Lord, he acts has merciful Lord. Verse 34 is touching in both senses of the word. In pity, Jesus touched their eyes, and they recovered their site. That word “pity” can also be translated “compassion.” We could translate the blind men’s plea has “Have a heart for us, O Lord, son of David!” We can even translate Jesus’ feelings as, “Jesus’ heart went out to them.”
Jesus heals not by word but by deed and by deed alone, a mere touch. Matthew loves to show the Lord Jesus touching the untouchables. Jesus has no problem curing with a mere word from a distance (8:5-13). But whenever the disease is particularly loathsome, like leprosy or infection-related blindness with open running sores, Jesus touches it (8:3; 9:29). When others move away or move on, Jesus moves in.
In Jesus’ day beggars would congregate outside the city walls to ask travelers for money, much like you might see today and a downtown bus station or outside of the nearest icehouse. When Jesus encountered these blind beggars outside of Jericho, he encountered two men who had lost their livelihoods.
Matthew tells us they “recovered their site,” which implied they once could see. They once had a way of making a living and taking care of themselves. But now, they are like the widows, orphans, the mute, the lame. Through no fault of their own they have had to rely on the mercy of others to live. They spent their days outside the city, without shelter, sitting on the ground, calling out to passersby to please spare some change.
Imagine if that were your only means of survival. Day after day, person after person ignores you or gives you a sad smile you cannot see. Someone tosses a coin in a cup. Someone gives you a pair of old gloves or a worn out oversized or undersized garment. No one stops to talk to you. Most people just want you to shut up and let them move along their way. Certainly, nobody stops to touch you – except the King of Nobodies. He listens to their cry. He stops to talk. He stops to touch. He stopped to stop their suffering. He lifts up those who are bowed down and raises them by opening the eyes of the blind (Psalm 146:8).
With one touch these blind men see. They see the beauty of Jericho, a desert city full of life (freshwater, palm trees, fruits). They see each other for the first time. Blind Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus (Mark 10:46), now sees his unnamed companion. Both men now see Jesus. They see him spiritually and now literally. They see “The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Consider Christ’s compassion here. Coming on the heels of verses 17-28, don’t you think Jesus has enough on his mind. He knows his inhumane torture and brutal death is coming. Crucifixion was the worst way to die. And yet here he stops and reaches out in infinite compassion to these two untouchables.
Why, why did he bother with these men at the bottom of the social scale, two nobodies of Israel, two religious outcasts? Why them? Why then? Because many of the “many” he will ransom (20:28) would be (and still are) from the lowest of the low. Jesus is the compassionate King of everybody and of the nobodies. He pushes the wealthy through the eye of a needle, and he lifts up the blind and desperate who follow after him bearing their crosses.
COME TO CHRIST
Rather than summarize what we have learned, we will end with this plea. If you are not a Christian, I don’t know what you are thinking. I truly don’t. Look at this merciful man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice not only his power but his compassion. That compassion alone should be enough to soften your hard heart. Away with your excuses. Throw up your arms and surrender. The compassionate King has come to conquer your heart. He is here to break down the walls of your personal Jericho.
Come to him, to the compassionate Christ! Come as these two blind men came. They never saw his miracles (how could they?), and yet they trusted into him. “Faith comes from hearing” (Romans 10:17), not from seeing. You don’t need to see to believe. You need to hear the truth of the gospel and trust into his saving, resurrecting power alone.
And if anyone following the right Jesus in the wrong way tells you to quiet down, keep on shouting for his healing touch. Shout over the noise of hypocrisy and relative morality, “Lord! Son of David! Have mercy on me!
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”[iii]
[i] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 20:17–34.
[ii] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 2 Sa 7:11–13.
[iii] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 3:14–18.
