Mat 20:29-34 29 Now as they went out of Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. 30 And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!” 31 Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!” 32 So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” 33 They said to Him, “Lord, that our eyes may be opened.” 34 So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.
Though this seems like a regular story of Jesus’ healings, what gives the powerful, impactful truth to the story is the context at which the Holy Spirit made Matthew place this. Matthew tells us that there were two blind men, while Mark and Luke only mention one. But there’s no contradiction to be found in the various accounts. Mark and Luke must be focusing on only one for their purposes.
Matthew records this as the last miracle of Jesus before going into Jerusalem as a terrible rebuke to the Jewish nation. Even men who didn’t have eyes knew Jesus as the Messiah because they called him “Son of David,” but the whole nation, though they had eyes, was so blind. The testimony of the blind is a rebuke to the whole nation. For Jews, according to Deuteronomy 19:15, for any truth there must be two witnesses. So Matthew talks about two blind men who were there. Mark, writing to Roman Gentiles, talks about one blind man and even gives his name as Bartimaeus because he wrote the gospel account as preached by Peter; and because Bartimaeus may have been a particularly well-known disciple in Peter’s circle of ministry, he was an eyewitness among them. Luke simply follows Mark’s account and refers to him as “a certain blind man.”
Let us understand this miracle in three headings:
- Circumstance.
- State of the two blind men.
- Their encounter with Jesus and the great lessons of this incident of opening eyes.
1. The Circumstance of the Miracle
There are children’s Bible videos called Superbook, where they make the children actually dive into the Superbook; it takes them back in time to Bible times, to live with those characters, and experience what happened. If we have to understand the spirit of the Bible, we need to use our imagination and thinking and jump into the story; create a picture using the words in the Bible. It will help us to understand the text and meaning. Let us jump into the circumstance.
Verse 29: “Now as they went out of Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.”
As we have been making our way through the Gospel of Matthew, we have found that the tone has been growing increasingly sober. Jesus was on the pathway that would eventually bring Him to the cross—and to His sacrifice for you and me. After this miracle, when we come to Chapter 21, we find Jesus’ triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem. Verse 29 tells He and His disciples were going out of Jericho, about ten to fifteen miles away from Jerusalem; and that a great crowd was following Him (v. 29).
In just a day or so, the long-awaited King of the Jews would finally come to His people as the Scriptures promised He would—that is, “gentle, and sitting on a donkey.” The excited multitudes would greet Him with palm branches in hand, and would spread their cloaks before Him, shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!” (v. 9).
And just a few days after that, those same crowds would cry out, “Let Him be crucified!” (27:22); and He would hang on a cross beneath an inscription that read, “THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS” (v. 37); and He Himself would cry out with a loud voice and yield up His spirit as a sacrifice for sinners (v. 50). The precious body of Jesus would be laid in a tomb (v. 60). And in just a few days more, He would be gloriously raised from the dead—forever our mighty Victor over the grave! He would fulfill all that is written in the scriptures.
We need to keep these imminent events in mind when we read our passage this morning. Jesus was walking out of Jericho, going towards the city of Jerusalem. It’s hard for us—in our frail minds—to comprehend the magnitude of the great work He was on His way to accomplish for us. There really couldn’t be anything more important. There really couldn’t be anything more solemn or serious.
And yet, it’s this unique context that makes this morning’s passage stand out remarkably. It shines the glory of the Son of God. It highlights for us just how wonderfully merciful and compassionate our Savior is. Our Savior was on His way at that very moment to accomplish the most momentous work of service in all of history—His sacrifice on the cross for our sins, and His resurrection from the dead for our justification. And yet—even at such an important moment as that—Jesus willingly stopped on His course to the city to respond to the pleas of two poor, beggar, miserable, blind men whom the rest of the world had largely ignored.
What an encouragement this ought to be to us to cry out to the Savior! He is never too busy to minister to those who genuinely trust Him and who cry out to Him in sincere faith.
The place is Jericho. Jesus moved from Galilee, crossed the Jordan, went to Perea beyond the Jordan, and then recrossed the Jordan River. Jericho is the first city you see when you cross the Jordan from the east. He must have gone to that city. We all know this was a city destroyed by Joshua, but now in the New Testament time, it expanded and it is a very beautiful city. Lying closer to the Jordan riverbed, it was filled with springs. Water was channeled by irrigation all through that area around Jericho so that it flourished. It was so exquisite a place that Herod built himself a wonderful fort and palace there, and that was his winter home. So Jesus comes to that town, the town of His old great-grandmother, the prostitute Rahab, who by the grace of God and by faith, rose to take a place in the Messianic genealogy. Israel, before entering Canaan, found faith in the most unusual of places, a prostitute’s house. Now Jesus, before entering Jerusalem, finds faith in an unusual place: blind beggars.
We know He went into that town and stayed in one tax collector’s house: Zacchaeus. Matthew doesn’t record this, but Luke tells us that in chapter 19. A short guy trying to see Jesus climbed a tree, and Jesus says, “Come down out of that tree; I’m coming to your house; I’m going to spend the night.” The man was totally transformed. How? This man was always crazy about money, money. After Jesus opened his eyes and he saw the glory of Christ and His salvation, he said, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” And Jesus said, “Surely salvation has come to this house.”
As the morning breaks, and Zacchaeus is running around town, settling his accounts, giving fourfold, it is a drama. This became a sensation story, and people are wondering, “all because of Jesus.” Now in verse 29, Jesus is ready to leave; He spent the night. He’s going to Jerusalem; He must move to the Passover. There is a set of His jaw, His face; resolution oozes through His personality. As He leaves Jericho to resume His trip to Jerusalem, the disciples and others are following Him. Verse 29: “Now as they went out of Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.” Many Jews who go to Jerusalem for Passover in obedience to God’s command that all males should appear before Him three times a year in those appointed feasts. Now they make that journey with Jesus with the anticipation that He is the Messiah. The crowd was so large that even the blind men became aware there was an unusual crowd passing.
And so, we pick it up in verse 30.
2. State of the Two Blind Men
Verse 30: “And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!”
Dive into the Superbook experience again. To understand their cry to Jesus, you have to appreciate the condition they were in. Physical blindness occurred quite frequently in the ancient world. Poverty, lack of medical care, unsanitary conditions, Palestinian bright sunlight, blowing sand, certain kinds of accidents, war, and fighting, all of these things could cause blindness. Some were born blind. Today, much of that is treatable. Even eyes are transplanted from one to another. But have you realized how terrible blindness is? Even today, these two men were unable to use the faculty of sight which we all take for granted. Yet, how we are horrified if for five minutes we are shut up in a room where there is absolute and total darkness. Most of us psychologically, emotionally panic. Here are two men whose world is shut up in that thick, horrible darkness of blindness.
To live as blind in that world is terrible. We can praise God that today there are medicines and other facilities for blind people, rights for the handicapped, people pity, help, training, they can study, which makes it possible for them to live somewhat. But there weren’t any such facilities in the ancient world. The blind were, for the most part, discarded by society. Very often, their blindness was caused by some infection or disease—resulting in a grotesque redness or swollenness, and a constant running of the eyes. Often, there were other physical disablements involved. People were afraid to touch them. They were usually quite helpless, rejected, and despised; and they could only survive through the occasional mercy of others.
Look at these men. Not only blind, but sitting on the wayside. Other gospels say, they were beggars. Their blindness led to having to sustain themselves in the most degrading of all positions, the position of a beggar. One who had to sit by the roadside of a large city where many were going and coming, there he would sit and cry out for alms and mercy, so he could have something to keep his life alive. It is a shameful thing to be a beggar now and even then. In one of the parables, Jesus says the unjust steward, “I am ashamed to beg.” He came up with another idea. Here are two men who not only experienced the terrible loss of sight and the suffering that brings, but this also brought them to such a state of destitution that he must sustain himself by begging. No loved ones with means cared to provide for him.
They probably had a regular place. So he goes, sits, and spreads a cloth, and cries out to passers whom he hears with his ears but cannot see, “Alms, alms… for the poor… have mercy…” Hope you see him. So sad, sitting there. You are standing before him and watching.
In their dark world, where there is no difference between night and day, one day they hear a large walking sound. Luke 18:36: “Hearing a multitude going up, the blind man inquired what this meant.” Blind people’s hearing develops to a great degree; their ears kind of become their eyes. They are very keen in hearing and smelling. Apart from the normal stamp of “trump, trump” that would pass through the street, on this occasion, there was an unusually large crowd of people surrounding the Lord Jesus. So that is the circumstance and condition of the two blind men.
3. Their Encounter with Jesus and Great Lessons
Verse 30: “And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!”
The verse starts with “behold”… Can you believe this? What a wonder! Why? Is the surprise on the blind men? No, there are hundreds. But wonder of wonders, these men, when they heard Jesus was passing, cried out, “O Lord, Son of David,” which is the title for the Messiah. Can you believe this? Behold! If the entire nation who saw all the miracles and heard all the preaching cannot see Jesus as the Messiah, these two blind men who cannot see realized that Jesus is the promised Messiah.
How? Probably these two men knew the talk that was going on about Jesus. They heard the miracles that He had done, how He healed diseases, cast demons, opened eyes, made the dumb speak, even raised people from the dead, and heard some of His teachings when people discussed them. After hearing, what did they do? They didn’t have the problem we have with our eyes, living in a visually oriented society. We keep looking at TV, mobile… and do less thinking, meditation. They, though blind, they heard and deeply meditated on what they heard. That hearing and thereby deeply thinking those words, by the grace of God, created faith in their hearts.
Now, when they heard that Jesus was passing by and He was the reason for this huge crowd, hope was awakened in their hearts. Think about it: if you were in that condition and heard someone like Jesus, you would start dreaming and fantasizing how it would be if I can go to that Jesus. Now He is so close and has come to my town and is walking in my street. Oh, their hearts start beating. What would it be like if Jesus opens my eyes? He touches others and is healing everyone. Hope is awakened.
But not just hope awakened; desire expressed. They began to cry out: “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!”
Notice what they call Him. They didn’t cry, “Jesus of Nazareth, have mercy,” but cried, “Jesus, O Lord, Son of David.” Where did they get this name of Jesus? When they inquired what was going on, so many people going this way, they would have said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” But when their desire, based on awakened hope, begins to frame words, it is “O Lord, Son of David,” the Messianic title, the promised powerful king. It is a double act of faith: they have faith in His person as the Messiah, and they have faith in His power to heal.
They even believed that He had the power to give sight to the blind. Perhaps they remembered what it says in Isaiah 29:18, which said that when the Messiah comes, He would open the eyes of the blind. Interestingly, there is no account of the giving of sight to the blind in the Old Testament; no such miracle was performed by Moses or Elijah or Elisha. Nor is there any such miracle reported in the New Testament as having been performed by the apostles after Pentecost. But there are more miracles of this type—giving sight to the blind—reported among the healing miracles of the Lord than of any other type of healing miracle. Perhaps that is because in the Old Testament, giving sight to the blind was not only something that God alone could do, but further, something that the Messiah would do!
So they call Him Son of David. And for what did they cry? Many, when they are in a terrible condition, ask: “Pastor, God has given us a terrible suffering, please ask Him to set it right.” Not these men. We are creatures and sinners, and we deserve what we suffer, and God as sovereign has all the right to do with us what He wants, but we cry for mercy. “Have mercy on us,” mercy me. They ask not for silver and gold, though they were poor, but mercy, mercy. Mercy is pity joined to and expressed in appropriate action. What they are saying is, “Son of God, mercy me, exercise towards me your compassion that is in your heart in terms of the appropriate exercise of power which you have to heal my blind eyes.”
How did they express this? With a cry out. Here is krazō; it means to scream or wail. It’s used in the New Testament of the screechings and screamings of demon-possessed people, and also used of the screaming of insane people and epileptics, or the loud, anguished cry of a mother giving birth to a child. The form of the text here is that there was a constant screaming. They were yelling at the top of their voice. They knew that if Jesus gets out of the hearing of their voices, that they are doomed to blindness the rest of their life. They know this is the only one who can do this. And the desperation is powerful—the drama. You can imagine the shrieking and screaming of two men who know they’ve got one moment in time or the rest of their life they are to be blind as stones. And they scream in almost a frenzy. And they say, “Have mercy on us.” Here was desire deep, real, all-consuming, like the desire of a parent who stands in the middle of the road and, amidst all the crowd noise, all the cars honking, the screech of tires, sees his child crossing the street and then a bus coming. He screams, “John, watch out!”
That is what we have here. Remember, if you are a beggar, what vocal voice you have. Oh, screaming. I am amazed at some of the vehicle shouters. Now they have recordings and bells, but in those days, it was so loud; they did it as a job. These beggars earned their living by crying out. So when they were desperate, he cried out a loud noise: “Son of David, have mercy upon me!” A deafening scream!
Discouragement and Fulfillment
Hope and Desire Discouraged
These men had to go through discouragement.
Verse 31: “Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet.”
Not just one or two, but the multitude, many people, were saying, “Hey, be quiet, be quiet.” They were rebuking, warning them, threatening them: “If you don’t stop…” We don’t know how they threatened: “We will take your money,” “throw you out of the city,” “hit you…” “Keep quiet, shut up, shut up!” Why? We don’t know. Maybe they felt it was a nuisance, “shut up!” And can you imagine what an embarrassment they were? Generally, what do we do with beggars? We kind of chase them off if they irritate us. They do get in the way, and they’re a little bit unwelcome, intrusive, obtrusive. “Why are you screaming like this? It is so awkward and irritating. The Messiah is passing to Jerusalem for Passover.” They needed to observe the proper ‘religious decorum’ at such a moment as this. They certainly didn’t care.
Hope and Desire Intensified
Verse 31: “but they cried out all the more, saying, ‘Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!'”
Hope and desire intensified. He didn’t say, “Well, I tried, but He didn’t hear, and people discouraged me.” No, no. They cried out more. It is a past continuous action; they kept on crying even more. “You think our cry was loud? Oh, you haven’t heard nothing yet!” So, more crying. For every decibel that said, “keep quiet,” they cranked up their cry more. They didn’t change the words: “Son of David, have mercy on me.”
“You can tell me to be quiet, but I am convinced Jesus is the Messianic King. I am convinced He has the power and compassion to meet my need. There is nothing you can do except slit my throat and cut my head or cut my tongue. Jesus is here, and I am determined, I shall know the touch of His power upon me. Nothing can stop me.” Imagine the scene: the crowd telling them to be quiet, and these men crying out more and more. It must have been very noisy, a major sound, a constant, irritating sound.
Hope and Desire Fulfilled
So beautiful are the words in all the Bible.
Verse 32: “So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, ‘What do you want Me to do for you?'”
Notice the amazing response of Jesus. Jesus stood still… it was their persistent, piercing, determined cry for mercy that froze the Son of God in His tracks. He who would not stop His journey for anything in the universe, knowing the rejection of leaders, suffering, scourging, and death awaited Him.
Even when His close disciple stood in His way: “No, Lord, you must not go that path,” He said, “Get behind me, Satan.” “I must go to Jerusalem, suffer to death. I must… I must drink the cup. I must be baptized.” Where all appeals to self-interest and self-preservation, self-pity could not stop our Lord on His way to Jerusalem, moving like an unstoppable bulldozer train… this cry of mercy made that train stand still. The desperate, insistent, persistent, needy blind men froze Him in His tracks.
Jesus stood still… amazing response to their cry. He is on His way to the cross to die for the sins of mankind. What could have been more important? And yet, at the cries and pleas of these two importunate blind men, He came to a complete stop. If I may say so, it was a remarkable accomplishment. These two blind men actually stopped the Son of God in His tracks when nothing in the world could do, and made Him pause to hear their cries! He was now going up to Jerusalem, and was straitened until His work there was accomplished; and yet He stood still to cure these blind men.
See His command: He called them… Luke adds a lovely little touch (18:40) that, knowing he cannot come on his own, He commanded that he be brought unto Him. He obviously said, “Take him by the hand and guide them to me.” Maybe He sent someone to bring him.
Mark says (10:48): “Then they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Be of good cheer. Rise, He is calling you.’” Verse 50: “And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus.”
Suddenly, he threw his garment, which he must have been wrapped in. Maybe they put coins on that. And he springs up. As soon as the word comes: “He is calling you,” that word reaches him quick as a flash. He wriggles out of that garment. He cast away his garment; he didn’t fold it, or carefully keep and tuck the coins. He was casting away the garment. Maybe he figured he’d come back and be able to see enough to find it again. He sprang up on his feet. The language is so vivid! “Sprang up in feet.” I begin to picture him running here and there, and people grasp him and say, “Hey, hey, this way, not that side.”
His interaction with Jesus. Imagine, now he stands before Jesus, but he cannot see Him, but can hear. For the first time, the blind man hears the gracious words of the Savior. There is a pointed question from the Lord: “What do you want Me to do for you?” “You stopped me when nothing else could; what do you want?”
Jesus knows what they want. For the strengthening of their faith and the testimony and witness all around, He asks, “What do you want Me to do?” Can you imagine what it must have meant? For these men who heard for months about Jesus, hope had been kindled. When he heard the tramp of the crowds, upon inquiry he finds Jesus is going. His heart rises in hope. Though he has not witnessed one of His miracles, but heard all that, faith is growing. Now he is standing in His very presence, and this One says, “What do you want from Me?”
His clear response: no beating around the bush, no mock humility.
Verse 33: “They said to Him, ‘Lord, that our eyes may be opened.'”
How I wish our prayers were so straight, but came with deep desire and faith. Instead, there is no deep desire and faith, but so many words, decorations. Sometimes the Lord Himself must be wondering what he wants. See here, simple and specific: “Lord, our eyes may be opened.”
Verse 34: “So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.”
Jesus had compassion… Others may have wanted Jesus to hurry up and heal them so they’d shut up and go away. But that was not our wonderful Savior’s motive. He loved these two men. It was a deep feeling that moved His bowels, very painful. Seeing their condition, His heart and stomach melted. In His compassion, He actually touched their eyes—something that no one would have ever expected the Messiah to do to poor, miserable, blind beggars like them.
Immediately their eyes received sight, right there, in front of all those people who had been telling them to be quiet! And then, we’re told that “they followed Him.”
And what makes it especially beautiful is when they were healed, Mark says, “Jesus said to them, ‘Go your way. Go your way.’” Well, you know what their way was? When He said, “Go your way,” what way did they go? Their way was His way from now on. They followed Jesus. They got their eyes; they were not interested in going and seeing the relatives or family who left them to beg, or seeing Herod’s palace, or staying and sight-seeing Jericho’s beauty. No. Jesus’ way has become their way, so it says they followed Him. One of them, Bartimaeus, followed and even became a member of the first-century church under Peter. Mark writes his name.
The Lord says, “Go your way,” but they say, “Your way is our way, so we follow.” The way you go, we go. Maybe in the triumphant entry, when shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David,” there were two men screaming and leading the chorus with a loud voice. They don’t need a microphone; our men’s voices cannot be heard, but these big throats, trained in begging, maybe we should send some of our men for training by the wayside, so they sing better. Now these two men not only physically see, but are able to see the spiritual beauty of the Son of God with the eyes of his soul. May the triumphant entry shout: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!”
Applications – Lessons for Us
1. Passage Reveals the Glory of Our Christ
The passage reveals the glory of our Christ—it shows the deep compassion and infinite power of the Son of God. See His compassion… with all the weight of the world’s redemption upon His shoulders, with the awareness of the cup and baptism that is waiting for Him in Jerusalem, all the agonies of Gethsemane and Golgotha casting a shadow over His back, just a few days away. Lord Jesus stopped in His tracks by the cry of needy blind men who begged for His mercy. Jesus’ heart was so big… though it was full of the pressures of the salvation of all His people, there was room for the cry of the neediest, most insignificant sinner, who cries, “Son of David, have mercy.”
Dear people, it is just the same today. The heart of our Lord is the heart that carries the concern of all His people. Read John 17; He prays for those who heard Him and those yet to be gathered in. Ephesians 1 says His heart is full of the administration of the entire universe with a view of the well-being of His people. His heart and mind are full of the great concerns of the full accomplishment of the redemption of the universe.
But in the midst of all that, every true cry of mercy that pierces His ears will find there is room in His heart for the neediest, most insignificant sinner who cries, “Son of David, have mercy.” Praise God that is how I and you found mercy in the midst of my terrible vanity and sin. Today you and I stand as a testimony for that. The heart of Jesus is now as it was then; this passage wonderfully demonstrates the largeness of His heart.
He called them, not because He could not cure them at a distance, but because He would do it in the most obliging and instructive way, and would countenance weak but willing patients and petitioners.
It says He has compassion… a deep word. What we have here is not mere human pity, but infinite divine compassion for troubled people filling a human heart. I told you, it must have terribly affected Jesus’ body to feel the infinite compassion of God. When as a man in weakness, if He had so much compassion, how much more now must He feel? Do we understand Christ’s compassion? Beloved, that Christ not only knows what pain we endure, He feels it. That’s right. He not only knows it, it is not just cognition, it is not Christ in heaven saying, “Oh, I understand. So-and-so is suffering.” It isn’t just that. It’s the feeling of that suffering, sympathizing. In fact, He suffers with much more because of His love and union with us. I was very discouraged last week… nobody would understand that pain… what comfort to know Christ fully felt that.
He feels our pain much more than us, like parents suffer more than children. Think about it: if sovereign Christ allows you and me to suffer, He allows Himself to suffer as well. And if He has to allow that suffering to us and Him, He must have a great purpose and plan for that suffering in our life. It is all for our sanctification and increase of faith, just like these two beggars. If they didn’t suffer so much, they would not have grown so much in faith and experienced God’s grace. Never doubt the compassion of Christ. He has a purpose for all sufferings and discouragements in our life. He continues to suffer with you and must, therefore, have some great purpose in mind, that is why allows or for He Himself could eliminate His own suffering as well.
Further, it illustrates His infinite power. Imagine, He just touched the eyes; the eyes were created! Imagine, now it is medical science; we can transplant eyes with a lot of money and greatly controlled circumstances, with an operation. There has to be another eye, instruments, and years of delicate training. But Jesus touches His eyes; out of nothing, there comes new eyes. Power exerted gives life to a dead optic nerve, reconstructs retinas, whatever was wrong with the eye. With just His word and touch, He brought it to full health and vigor again.
Oh, little comfort can come if Jesus had a large heart but weak arms. The Bible says we as sinners are dead and blind. We are in such a state, we need more than a large-hearted, compassionate Savior, full of pity. We need the arm of omnipotence that can meet us where we are, raise us from the death of sin, and open our blind eyes, and deliver us from the chain that binds us. Jesus Christ is such a Savior.
That is Jesus who went to Jerusalem and died for sinners and was raised from the dead. That is Jesus who went to the Father, and who is alive today, ready to stop at His tracks when you cry to Him for mercy.
You will find Him with a large heart and a mighty arm.
A Beautiful Picture of Salvation: Five Steps
This passage gives us a beautiful picture of how a person is saved, summarized in five steps:
First Step of Salvation: Unashamedly Realize Your Spiritual Condition
Salvation comes when by the Holy Spirit you unashamedly realize your spiritual condition. We should never be ashamed to admit how desperately we need Jesus. Learn from these men. In spite of the crowd stopping them, they were not ashamed. Those of you who are not saved, see these beggars were in deep need; your condition spiritually is a thousand times worse. This is the desperate condition you and I are in before God by nature. We may go along in life thinking that we’re just fine, here and there sometimes we do wrong, but never realize how totally depraved our hearts are, our entire being infected with sin.
One of the great effects of depravity is that we are spiritually blind. Blind to God who created us from our mother’s womb, sustains us from birth, gives life, breath, and all things; “in Him, we live, move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28), but we are totally blind and dead to Him. We don’t realize that we’re blind. We don’t realize that our sin has separated us from God. Our blindness is not ordinary blindness. The Bible says we are triple blind: blinded by nature because of the Fall; 2 Corinthians says the God of this world has blinded us; and then the love of sin blinds us. If we keep rejecting God, the Bible also warns of judicial blindness where God in His judgment permanently blinds us; that is terrible.
The Bible defines “blindness” as an inability to see God and the glory of Christ for who He is, and to see our true need for Him. How many are like that? How desperately do you realize your need? If not, it means you are blind. Spiritual Blindness is an inability to realize that we have a need of salvation, a need for Christ’s grace every day, and that only He is able to save us from our sins. When He is set before people, and they then walk away from Him—thinking that they don’t need anything from Him; believing that perhaps other people who are worse off than they are may need Jesus; but that they themselves are just fine—then they are displaying that they are spiritually “blind.”
My sinner friend, listen to me: you will never be saved and become a Christian, never know the virtue of the power of Christ, until you become honest about your sinful heart. Realize how blind you are, where you stand before God and His holy law. Don’t keep playing games with your eternal soul. You are a dead, lost, hell-deserving son of Adam, bound and enslaved in sin. You are an offense to God. If you want to know God’s mighty, powerful work in you, do what this man did: realize your sinful state and unashamedly confess your need for a Savior.
Second Step: Realize Christ is Accessible
When you realize your condition, you know what the good news is: as soon as you get to the state of a humble, poor sinner, Jesus is very near to you here. Jesus is accessible. Jesus is abundantly merciful to every one of us poor, miserable, blind, crippled souls that has ever cried out to Him. That was great news for these blind men.
The Gospel is that Jesus is accessible. You don’t need to go to Jericho or Jerusalem. You don’t even have to come to this pulpit or platform. He is so accessible. The Bible says in His word, which we preach, He is as near as the breath you breathe. Paul says, “…the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth… and in thy heart…” (Romans 10:8). The only way you will find Him accessible is when His word is preached in the Gospel. He draws near. Christ is accessible this morning with the largeness of His heart, with mighty and powerful saving omnipotence.
Third Step: Cry Out with Determination
When you acknowledge you are blind and realize Christ is accessible, you have to cry out to Him like these two beggars with a determination to have Christ meet that need. What lay behind the cry, “Son of David,” even when people scolded him? What made him cry more? It was that determination that he would have the touch of Christ at any cost. Not, “maybe next time, He is in a hurry,” no. Now is the acceptable time; no delay. I must be saved, and saved now.
Let me suggest to you that the degree to which you are willing to cry out to Jesus for mercy is determined by the degree to which your eyes have been opened, and that you see your need for what it really is. When God graciously allows you to see the truth about yourself; and when you realize that you are a lost sinner, with God’s just and righteous wrath hanging over you for your sins; and when you then discover that God has mercifully provided the righteous life of His own precious Son on the cross as the payment for your sins; and when you realize that eternal life is yours if you will only trust Him; and when you discover that now—right now—is the day of salvation, and that there may not be another; well, that’s when you let ‘decorum’ go out the window! You cry out with all your being, “O Lord, have mercy on me! Save me!”
Learn from these blind men how determined they cried to Christ. Scripture says, “…you will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). “…whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). Not just a mumble; out of the depths of your heart, cry out to Him: “Have mercy upon me,” and not rest until you have known He has touched you by His grace. So there was the accessibility of Jesus and a determined cry.
Fourth Step: Conferral of Grace
There was a conferral of grace when the cry comes from a true heart. The Lord didn’t play games. When he was determined, He gave him what he asked for. My sinner friend, Jesus doesn’t mock us. “Call upon Me, I will…” “Come to Me… I will give rest.” “Seek Me, you shall find.” He will save you. He will give you salvation grace.
Fifth Step: Fruit of that Grace—Following Jesus
There is a fruit of that grace. “Go your way,” you are a free man. No condemnation for you. “I have opened your eyes, redeemed you, go, do what you will.” What a truly saved heart says is, “Lord, what I will is to follow you.” If you are truly saved, and have seen the beauty of grace, tasted His goodness, and what Christ has done for you in all His selfless grace, your heart will say, “Jesus, I want to follow you all my life,” not for any wages, not to earn eternal life or go to heaven, but in gratitude, in love, devotion, all the days of my life, for what you have done.
Oh, why go on in sin, and depravity, and vanity? You don’t see any beauty in Christ; that is why you are blind, that is why the world is so attractive to you. Humble yourself and cry. As He stood still then, He will today, and come to you.
Oh, those who call yourselves believers, many of you just call, but none of these signs of faith are present. Are you following Jesus with gratitude and love? Is your greatest desire to glorify His name above selfishness? How is your faith revealed in actions? You claim your eyes are opened, but do you follow like these men? The best evidence of spiritual illumination is a constant, inseparable adherence to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Leader.
These blind men’s faith should put us to shame. With our eyes, modern-day spectacles when old age sets in, Bibles in our own language read with our own eyes, all the books, biographies, internet access to so much truth, lives of saints, and libraries of divinity, how few know anything of simple, child-like confidence in Christ’s mercy and Christ’s power. And even among those who are believers, the degree of faith is often strangely disproportionate to the privileges enjoyed.
Further Lessons
Wisdom in Using Every Opportunity
For another thing, let us mark what wisdom there is in using every opportunity for getting good for our souls. These men saw the opportunity and never missed that. Had they kept quiet, they would have lost this great opportunity.
Today Christ is not physically passing by, but has He not promised to be present when we use the means of grace? Let us see, in this simple fact, the importance of diligence in the use of means of grace. Let us never neglect the house of God, never forsake the assembling of ourselves with God’s people, because Christ said, “I will be there opening eyes and giving special grace.” How much you miss by not coming to church! How much we miss Christ’s grace and don’t grow in faith by omitting the reading of our Bibles and the practice of private prayer.
Importunity in Prayer
See the great lesson of importunity in prayer. Including me, how poor our prayers are! We ask for ten minutes, and get up and go. That is why we don’t receive much. Those that would prevail in prayer must stir up themselves to take hold on God in duty. When they were discouraged in it, they cried the more. This wrestling with God in prayer makes us the fitter to receive mercy; for the more it is striven for, the more it will be prized and thankfully acknowledged.
Let us mark the value of pains and perseverance in seeking Christ. These blind men were “rebuked” by the multitude that accompanied our Lord. Men told them to “hold their peace.” But they were not to be silenced in this way. They felt their need of help. “They cried the more, saying, ‘Have mercy on us, O Lord, you Son of David.'”
In following Christ with our prayers, we must expect to meet with hindrances and manifold discouragements from within and from without, something or other that bids us hold our peace. Such rebuke is permitted, that faith and fervency, patience and perseverance, may be tried.
We are not to be deterred by opposition or discouraged by difficulties when we begin to seek the salvation of our souls.
They ask not for silver and gold, though they were poor, but mercy, mercy. This is that which our hearts must be upon when we come to the throne of grace, that we may find mercy (Hebrews 4:16; Psalms 130:7).
See, our Lord loves that importunity, when we will not give up until we receive it from Him. He repeatedly encouraged it. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8). This is persistent asking, a persistent seeking, and a persistent knocking—an asking, seeking, and knocking that will not quit until it receives, or finds, or sees the door at last opened.
He spoke a parable that actually invites us and encourages us to be importunate toward His Father—teaching us that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.
We must “pray always, and not faint” (Luke 18:1). We must remember the parable of the importunate widow, and of the friend who came to borrow bread at midnight. Like them, we must press our petitions at the throne of grace, and say, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me” (Genesis 32:26).
Remember the Canaanite woman’s importunity; He healed her daughter. He said it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. And yet, she wouldn’t take no for an answer, saying, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s table” (Matthew 15:24-27). And with that, He finally turned to her and said, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire” (v. 28); and He healed her daughter.
Friends, relatives, and neighbors may say unkind things, and reprove our earnestness. We may meet with coldness and lack of sympathy where we might have looked for help. But let none of these things move us. If we feel our diseases, and want to find Jesus, the great Physician—if we know our sins, and desire to have them pardoned—let us press on. “The violent take the kingdom by force” (Matthew 11:12).
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 