We are finishing up Matthew 20 today and we come to the end of a section of Matthew. In the next chapter we will begin what the church has traditionally called Holy Week. The last week of Jesus’ life. Matthew has been building the tension as Jesus gets closer and closer to Jerusalem. They are now leaving Jericho and just fifteen miles from Jerusalem. Jesus has been showing more and more about who he is and what he is going to do, but also just how little the people around him understood this. And this includes Matthew himself since he was one of those people. 

And it’s not because the disciples were idiots, I believe they were interpreting the events as best they could with the information they had…even though it seems so obvious to us as readers. Last fall, I was driving my family on a Friday night to a high school football game in Jacksonville. There are not a ton of schools to play in the 8 on 8 Christian school football league, so we might play football in Jacksonville one Friday and Key West the next. So we’re driving and I’m exhausted and I stopped to get a coffee and I bought an energy drink called C4 instead. Never had one. Well, we get back in the car and I’m driving and my head starts to tingle, and then my neck, my back, my feet. Then the tingle starts to hurt and it feels like ants are biting me all over my body. 

As I’m driving, I called my brother who is a doctor and he explained what he thought was happening. Something called a niacin flush. But he asked my daughter to read the can to him just in case. She started at the top and read, “Ultimate Energy for Athletes.” Then without any hesitation, my 9 year old son, James, says, “That’s the problem, dad. This drink is for athletes!” 

Now, whether or not I qualify as an athlete is not necessarily something I’d like to argue. Partly because I’m afraid of the answer, but mainly because it had nothing to do with my stinging. The stinging came from ingredients that I can’t even pronounce. James was working with the information he had as he understood it which led him to conclude that my lack of athletic ability was what was causing the stinging. 

A similar thing is going on with the disciples and the crowd. They are processing the information they have through some faulty paradigms and they haven’t yet understood what was going to happen in Jerusalem or why. But, there is something these blind men see in Jesus that so many others did not and that’s the string I want to pull on this morning. What these blind men got right and what we can learn from it. 

1. Why these blind men got right. 

I want to point out three. First, they knew their plight. Their plight was grave. They were blind and could not survive on their own. Sight is something most of us take for granted. Some years ago, Angela’s parents gave her lasek laser surgery for her birthday to make her very poor eyesight virtually perfect. She says her parents literally gave her the gift of sight. But, after the surgery she had to keep her eyes completely shut and wrapped for two days. There was pretty much nothing she could do by herself. And this was the daily reality for these two blind men. 

Fortunately, Jewish law gave provisions for people in need like this to be provided for. They were required to give alms for the poor and afflicted. So, these blind men had very strategically placed themselves on the road leading out of Jericho toward Jerusalem right as the masses are making the same trek for Passover. 

I have vivid memories growing up of the intersection of I4 and Michigan and there was always someone there asking for money. As a kid I never understood why they were always at that location and not others, but later it made sense to me. It’s a strategic location in a few ways. This was drilled home when the Orlando Sentinel reported that a beggar at this location could make $200K a year. 

These men knew that their plight was desperate. They knew Jesus being on the road they were sitting on was a once in a lifetime opportunity and there was no amount of pride and nobody who was going to keep them from him. But, when so many people misunderstood Jesus, rejected Jesus, and even conspired to kill him, how did these two blind men see Jesus differently? 

This is the second thing they got right. They understood he was the Messiah. We know this by the name they are calling Jesus: The Son of David. I think this fact is something Matthew wants us to see even more than Jesus’ supernatural healing. It appears two times in five verses. Jesus healed two other blind men in chapter 9 and they called Jesus by the same title. By Jesus’ day, the title Son of David and Messiah had become synonymous. In the very next chapter we are going to see that the chief priests became incensed when the people began to cheer Jesus on by calling him the Son of David. 

And we have to remember that one of the core questions that Matthew is wanting his reader to understand is who is Jesus? Who do the people say the Son of Man is? And the answer twice in this chapter, twice in chapter 21, and once more in chapter 22 is The Son of David. The Messiah. 

Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that these blind men knew what all that title entailed, but they were clearly calling Jesus the Messiah. It’s well known that when someone loses the ability to see, their other senses begin to grow and compensate. These men would have been doing a lot of listening. I have to imagine that they had heard much of the chatter about Jesus and had much time sitting by the side of the road to process what they heard. 

They had very likely heard what Matthew recorded in chapter 15. And great crowds came to him,bringing with them uthe lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and manyothers, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, 31 vso that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, wthe crippled healthy, the lamewalking, and the blind seeing. And xthey glorified ythe God of Israel. - Matthew 15:30,31 But, I think they knew more. I wonder if they heard about John the Baptist in prison sending his men to go to Jesus to ask if he was the promised one or if they should await another. And what was Jesus’ response?  “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 kthe blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers1 are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and lthe poor have good news preached to them. - Matthew 11:4b,5

This is what Isaiah said about the Messiah. It wasn’t just that Jesus could heal, it wasn’t just that he was the wisest teacher they had ever known, and it wasn’t just that Jesus could be the greatest prophet yet to come. Jesus was the Son of David. He was the Messiah and somehow the blind men put this together. Even though they were blind, they somehow see Jesus more clearly than even the disciples. 

And because of this, thirdly, they believed. If they didn’t believe what they heard, they would have asked for alms, but they cried out for mercy instead. It’s interesting that when they responded to Jesus in the most accurate and appropriate way, the crowd rebuked them. And in Mark’s account of a healing at Jericho (whether it is the same or another one), it’s the disciples who rebuke the blind for calling out to Jesus. Maybe they were in a hurry to get to Jerusalem because they still tasted victory. Remember we are still just on the heels of the disciples arguing who is going to sit shotgun in the kingdom. 

And we have yet another account of people the disciples did not think should have access to Jesus. This is when we begin to see that the crowd is more blind to who Jesus was than those who could not physically see. No one but Jesus was going to help these men. The religious leaders were offended that they would declare Jesus the Messiah. The disciples were opposing any access to Jesus and what do these two men do? They cry out all the more. There is no mediary for them. The Son of David himself was their only hope for the mercy they sought. 

So, Jesus stopped and called to them asking what do you want me to do for you? Do you realize that in just asking this question, Jesus is confirming that they are right to call him the Son of David, the Messiah. Through most of Jesus’ ministry he has been instructing people not to tell others who he is or what he can do. This is what we called veiled disclosure. He has been disclosing who he is in a veiled way. But now that they are on the final stretch to Jerusalem and about to begin the last week of Jesus’ life, there is no more veiled disclosure, but full disclosure. 

And Matthew says that Jesus touched their eyes and immediately and in front of everyone, they could see. Luke uses the same word ‘immediately.’ And I love how Matthew adds that Jesus’ heart was full of pity as he healed them. The burden on Jesus’ shoulders right now was massive. He’s entering a city that will kill him. He will take on the wrath of God in our place. And even his own disciples fail to understand what is going on and themselves will abandon Jesus. With all that on his shoulders, he still has compassion on those in need. He is serving rather than being served exactly as he said just a few verses earlier. And Matthew wants us to see that. 

And as a result of knowing who Jesus is, believing in him, and being healed, these two men followed Jesus. They could have run back excited for their new lives, but they instead devote their lives and their new sight to Jesus and his ministry. 

So, what does this story have to do with us and our pursuit of Jesus? Second part. 

1. What can we learn from this story? 

This story is a picture of all of us who are healed by faith. We are as spiritually blind as these men are physically blind. They are a picture of our spiritual condition. Our plight is just as bad. Just as grave. Sin has blinded us even worse. At least these blind men knew they were blind, but we are so blind to our spiritual reality that we can’t even see our blindness.

I saw a show once that I can’t in good conscience recommend, but in that show, a pandemic has wiped out all but 2,000,000 humans. And the humans who lived through it and their children were permanently blinded. After 300 years, the idea of sight had become a myth. Many people didn’t even believe sight ever existed. They were blind and didn’t even know what they lacked. This is probably an even better picture of our spiritual reality than even the two blind men. 

Sin is a disease that affects our bodies, our wills, our emotions, our souls, and our minds. We don’t even have the ability to see Jesus as our only hope unless something supernatural happens. Even more miraculous than physical sight being restored. No one is smart enough, wise enough, moral enough, or spiritual enough to make their way to Jesus. We are as hopeless as the blind men unless he comes to us. 

And this is exactly what Paul is teaching in 2 Corinthians 4. There he writes, For what kwe proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with lourselves as your servants3 for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, m“Let light shine out of darkness,” nhas shone in our hearts to give othe light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. - 2 Cor 4:5,6

What is Paul quoting here? Genesis 1! Let there be light! That’s how the universe started. God said, “Let there be light” and the stars shone. And in just as miraculous fashion, it is God who says, “Let there be light” to our hearts and we can see for the first time, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 

This is why Paul told the Philippians that it has been granted to them to believe. This is why he wrote to the Ephesian church, 8 For zby grace you have been saved athrough faith. And this is bnot your own doing; cit is the gift of God, 9 dnot a result of works, eso that no one may boast. - Eph 2:8-10 

And everyone God speaks this word of spiritual vision to respond just like the blind men. We follow him. We give our lives to him because, in that moment, we are given free will for the very first time and everyone who can see Jesus will freely accept him as willingly as these blind men. 

And I think that both Matthew and Luke have this in mind when they use the word ‘immediately.’ I think they know that these healings are a picture of God’s supernatural healing of our spiritual blindness. In Luke’s account of a similar (and maybe the same) healing, Jesus said, “Your faith has healed you.” Both Mark and Matthew record some variation of the same words from Jesus. Jesus is making it clear that faith is the instrument of our spiritual healing. 

Many charismatics have taken these stories as prescriptive to what we should expect today in terms of physical healing. Many of you have heard that when Angela had cancer, some guy told me it was because she didn’t have enough faith. Which is a bunch of crap. I do believe that God can and does still heal people physically and that we are to pray for it, but that’s not the purpose of these stories. 

These stories are here to show us that the moment we put our faith in Jesus, we are immediately declared to be every bit as righteous as Jesus himself. There is no need for us to do anything more. There is no need for future penance, there is no need for purgatory, there is no need to do more good than bad to earn our way to heaven. It is immediately and eternally accomplished the moment we put our faith in Jesus. 

And it is only accomplished through Jesus because only Jesus can take the wrath we deserve on the cross and, in turn, give his perfect righteousness to us. This is why Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, but through me.” Just like the blind men, there is no intermediary between us and Jesus. This is why Paul wrote  5 Forcthere is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man1Christ Jesus, 6 dwho gave himself as a ransom for all. - 1 Tim 2:5,6a

But that doesn’t mean that we don’t change. Like the blind men who chose to follow Jesus AFTER they got the gift of sight, we follow Jesus AFTER we are spiritually healed. We don’t clean ourselves up before we got to Jesus anymore than we get cleaned up before we takes shower. We go to Jesus and he cleans us. And because of that we should expect three changes. First, we should be filled with the same compassion that healed us. Can you imagine these blind men who now see ever walking by a blind person and not being overcome with compassion because of the grace they have received? I mean, how crazy would it be if down the road a blind man bumped into them and they got angry at the blind man for not seeing them? 

Well, sadly, that is exactly what some Christians do when we get angry with unbelievers who make decisions that make our lives more difficult. We get angry with them when we should feel compassion. Because the compassion of Jesus is what they need. And we know that we didn’t earn that compassion, we just received it. We should be the most humble and patient of people especially with unbelievers when they don’t share our values or affirm our choices. Why would we expect them to? They haven’t received the blessing of sight that we have. 

Interestingly, in that same TV show I was talking about, hundreds of years later a few babies began to be born with sight, and when the rulers heard about it, they began to kill anyone who was rumored to have sight because it threatened their power. But the sighted generally had compassion on all those who couldn’t see. That’s a picture of our new sighted reality. 

Second, we should desire for others to see. We should desire to share the hope of spiritual sight in Jesus with others. The blind men heard about Jesus before they responded to him. Now that we know Jesus, we don’t just have the opportunity, but the mission to share this knowledge with others knowing that we are going to bring that knowledge to hearts in whom God is already working. 

Third, we should desire holiness. Again, no level of increased morality is going to make us any more saved, any more loved, any more children of the most high God. But, because of the grace we have received, we should want our lives to be worthy of the gospel. We should want to please God with the way we live our lives and the decisions we make. God has designed it so that the more our lives live in accord with his holiness, the more satisfied and joyful we will be. 

I have a number of friends, both Christian and not, who have battled addiction for years, even decades, and when they finally gain freedom, they all talk about how much more joy they feel in their lives. They finally trade numbness for life and you can see the difference! The same is true for all Christians as we let go of our old self and embrace the new creation we are. Set apart for the worship and honor of God in every aspect of our lives. 

Nowhere is the teaching in this passage more concisely and precisely shared than the old hymn Amazing Grace. It’s easy for us to sing a beautiful song and not pay attention to the words. I know that Matt goes to great lengths to lead us in songs with rich lyrics. So, I want to finish by just reading a few words of Amazing Grace. 

Amazing Grace how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!