When God created man He gave him dominion over the earth. Adam was king of the earth, with full right to rule it under God. He was given authority to name the animals and to care for this incredibly amazing and wonderful creation of the infinite mind of God. As God presented it to Adam, it was a kingdom of great light, life, beauty, harmony, health, happiness, goodness, and glory.

But when Adam sinned and lost his innocence, he also lost his crown and his dominion. Adam’s sin allowed Satan to usurp man’s dominion and to turn the kingdom of light into a realm of darkness. The beauty of God’s creation became corrupted by ugliness, its harmony by confusion and disorder, its health by disease and decay, its happiness by sorrow and pain, its goodness by sin and evil, and its glory by guilt and shame. Sin turned man’s life into the path to death.

Yet almost as soon as man fell, God promised He would some day use man to restore the kingdom of earth to its beauty and goodness and to restore man himself to his rightful dominion over it. The Lord declared that the seed of the woman would bruise Satan’s head (Gen. 3:15), and from that point on the Old Testament is filled with increasingly more explicit promises about the Lord’s great plan of redemption and restoration.

God promised to send a King to restore the kingdom and to reestablish the rule of God and to destroy sin and its consequence, death. Disease, hardship, sorrow pain, disappointment, and every other evil would be destroyed. Again and again the prophets tell of His coming as the Anointed One, the great King of kings, the destroyer of sin and death, the Healer, and the Righteous Ruler. The Jews knew Him as the Messiah (Greek, “Christ”), who would one day establish His eternal kingdom of righteousness; and earth, like heaven, would forever be under the perfect rule of God.

The gospels present a dazzling preview of Jesus’ coming eternal kingdom. When He was transfigured on the mountain, the veil of His flesh was pulled back to reveal before the eyes of Peter, James, and John a glimpse of His divine majesty, a microcosmic display of His eternal reign in majestic glory (Matt. 17:2).

 

The climax of Jesus’ divine preview came at Pentecost, as the outpouring of His promised Holy Spirit fulfilled the prophecy of Joel that “‘it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind’” (Acts 2:16-17; cf. Joel 2:28). Throughout His entire ministry Jesus displayed a series of glimpses of the ultimate power He will demonstrate when He establishes His thousand-year rule on the present earth and then His eternal rule in the new heaven and the new earth.

As Matthew continues to present the third set of miracles that demonstrate Jesus’ claim to messiahship (begun with the dual miracles of 9:18-26), he shows Jesus’ power to restore sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf.

In raising Jairus’s daughter from the dead, the Lord demonstrated His ultimate power over death. And because death is the ultimate and inescapable penalty of sin, Jesus’ power over death also demonstrated even more than did His power to heal disease that His claim to forgive sin (9:2-6) was not empty.

In healing the woman with the hemorrhage (9:20-22), and now healing the blind and the deaf men, He continued to demonstrate His power over the physical evils and corruption that sin produces. Through the miracles of restoring sight to blind eyes and sound to deaf ears the Messiah again affirmed His ability not only to restore life to a body but also to restore life and function to any of its individual parts.

Healing the Two Blind Men

And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, and saying, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” And after He had come into the house, the blind men came up 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, “Be it done to you according to your faith.” And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, “See here, let no one know about this!” But they went out, and spread the news about Him in all that land. (9:27-32)

When He left Jairus’s house in Capernaum after raising his daughter from death, Jesus passed on from there and two blind men followed Him, seeking deliverance from their great affliction. In this brief account we are shown a number of truths about these two men: their condition, their cry, their confrontation, their conversion, the command to them, their contrariness, and their commitment.

The Condition of the Men

Blindness was common in ancient times, as it still is in most underdeveloped parts of the world. The fact that Jesus healed more cases of blindness than any other kind of disease reflects its pervasiveness. Unsanitary conditions, infectious organisms, blowing sand, accident, war, malnutrition, and excessive heat all combined to make blindness a constant danger. Many infants were born blind because of various diseases suffered by the mother during pregnancy, and many others became blind a few days after birth by being exposed to venereal disease, especially gonorrhea, as they passed through the birth canal.

It was not uncommon for blind people to associate with others who were blind, and it is possible that these two blind men had been companions in darkness for many years.

THE CRY OF THE MEN

As they followed after Jesus, these men were continually crying out to the Lord, hoping somehow to gain His attention amidst the noise and confusion that usually accompanies a large group of people. Because they could not see Jesus, they could only guess as to how close to Him they might be.  (from which comes crying out), basically carries the idea of shouting or screaming with great intensity, and the word had a broad range of application in New Testament times.

It is used of the unintelligible babbling of a deranged person such as the demoniac of Gadara (Mark 5:5) as well of the shouts of the children in the Temple who were praising Jesus (Matt. 21:15). It is used of the Lord Himself on the cross, as He “uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last” (Mark 15:37). It is used in Revelation 12:2 of a woman screaming in the pains of childbirth.

The two blind men were crying out to Jesus in great anxiety and desperation and were determined to be heard over the hubbub of the crowd, knowing He was their only hope of deliverance from their afflictions What they said as they cried out indicates they had both the right knowledge about Jesus and the right attitude toward Him.

The right knowledge about Jesus The fact that the blind men addressed Jesus as Son of David indicates they acknowledged Him as the Messiah, because Son of David was one of the most common Jewish titles for the promised Deliverer.

It was a royal title, denoting His lineage from the family of the great King David and His right to reestablish and rule over the coming kingdom of God.

As mentioned above, the first Old Testament promise of God’s great Deliverer declared that He would be a man, the seed of woman. Later in the book of Genesis God reveals that the Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham (Gen. 12:3), specifically through his son Isaac (21:12) and his grandson Judah
(49:10).

Through the prophet Nathan, the Lord told David, “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, 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 a father to him and he will be a son to Me; … And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam. 7:12-14a, 16).

When the angel Gabriel announced Jesus’ birth to Mary, he said of Him, “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:32-33).

In his beautiful Spirit-directed song of praise and prophecy, Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, exulted, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He his visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David His servant” (Luke 1:68-69).

When he registered in Caesar’s census, Joseph took his expectant wife Mary with him “to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David” Luke 2:4.

 

Again and again the New Testament declares Jesus to be the promised descendant of David who would deliver God’s people and establish His eternal kingdom (John 7:42; Acts 2:29-30; Rom. 1:3; 2 Tim. 2:8; Rev. 5:5; 22:16).

The multitudes who threw down their garments and branches before Jesus as He made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem sang, “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest!” (Matt. 21:9). To call Jesus the Son of David was to proclaim Him the Messiah, the Christ—as the unbelieving and envious Jewish leaders well knew (See Matt. 22:42).

Every Jew who heard the blind men call Jesus the Son of David recognized it as a clear confession of their belief in His messiahship. Publicly and boldly they affirmed Jesus as the promised Deliverer of Israel, and they came to Him seeking their own deliverance.

The right attitude toward Jesus. The cry of the blind men also reveals they had the right attitude toward Jesus. They pleaded, have mercy on us, by which they may have acknowledged their need not simply for physical help but for forgiving mercy.

It seems reasonable to suggest that they felt a spiritual need that only Jesus could meet, and they came to him in hungering humility, openly throwing themselves on His grace. They knew they were undeserving of the Lord’s help, but they also must have known that “the Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger and great in lovingkindness,” that He “is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works” (Ps. 145:8-9). They heeded the call of Joel to “return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness” Joel 2:13.

These two men came to Jesus not only with a right understanding of His great worthiness but also with a right understanding of their own great unworthiness. That is the attitude of heart that the Lord honors and accepts. Again it is made clear that the person who comes before God declaring his own goodness is rejected by Him, whereas the one who mourns over his sin and humbly cries out, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” is justified by the Lord (Luke 18:10-14). The blind men came to the right person, because Jesus Christ was mercy incarnate.

Jesus was the most merciful human being who ever lived. He reached out to the sick and healed them. He reached out to the crippled and gave them legs to walk. He healed the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf, and the mouths of the dumb. He found prostitutes and tax collectors and those that were debauched and drunken, and He drew them into the circle of His love and redeemed them and set them on their feet.

He took the lonely and made them feel loved. He took little children and gathered them into His arms and loved them. Never as there a person on the face of the earth with the mercy of this One. Once a funeral procession came by and He saw a mother weeping because her son was dead. She was already a widow and now she had no child to care for her. Who would care? Jesus stopped the funeral procession, put His hand on the casket, and raised the child from the dead. He cared. (Kingdom Living Here and Now [Chicago: Moody Press, 1980], p.107).

In behalf of himself and his fellow Israelites, Daniel prayed expectantly to God, “We are not presenting our supplications before Thee on account of any  merits of our own, but on account of Thy great compassion” (Dan. 9:18).

Jeremiah declared, “The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22-23).

The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was “made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest” (Heb. 2:17).

Paul reminds us of “the surpassing riches of [God’s] grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7) and that “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy” (Titus 3:5). Ours is a God of mercy, for healing and for saving.

It is interesting that Jesus at first showed no response to the pleas of the two blind men. They continued to cry out as the entire crowd moved along with Jesus and the disciples, and He let them keep pouring out their hearts as they persistently demonstrated their determination. He tested their faith, letting it run to the extremity that proved its sincerity.

Although we are not told specifically, the house to which Jesus went was possibly Peter’s, where Jesus probably made His home while He was in Capernaum (see 8:14). After a demanding day of teaching and healing, Jesus finally went to one of the two places that could be considered His earthly home after He began His ministry. The other was the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany. Our Lord endured three years of almost total lack of privacy. Not only were His disciples His constant companions, but throngs of people followed Him wherever He went.

The Confrontation of the Men

It was not until after He had come into the house that the blind men came up to Him. They somehow managed to keep up with Him and then followed Him into the house where He was staying. Each of the healings recounted in chapter 9 involved such persistence. The paralytic and his friends were so intent on getting to Jesus that they actually tore a hole in the roof of the house and lowered the afflicted man to Jesus’ feet. The synagogue official continued to seek Jesus’ help even after his daughter was dead, and the woman with the hemorrhage was determined to take hold of the tassel of His robe in order to be healed. In each case Jesus led the persistent seekers to affirm faith in Him.

Now He asks the two blind men pointedly, Do you believe that I am able to do this? The question seems strange and almost cruel in light of the obvious determination of these men, who, in spite of their great handicap, had managed to follow Jesus for a considerable distance while contending with a great multitude of sighted people who also wanted to be with Him.

 

The men had already acknowledged Jesus’ messiahship by continually addressing Him as Son of David; and because Jesus knew their hearts, He was already aware that their faith in Him was genuine. His asking them about their faith must therefore have been for the purpose of drawing out a more complete public confession.

Such a confession Jesus drew out of the blind men, and it became a public testimony to others of what is required for salvation. Yes affirmed their belief that He was able to do what they asked of Him, and Lord affirmed their belief that He was the divine Messiah, the coming Savior long promised by the prophets.

The men’s testimony also separated them from those who expected the Messiah to be a merely human political and military deliverer who would throw off the yoke of Rome and set up an earthly kingdom like that ruled by their ancient King David. Their testimony also affirmed the belief that Jesus was more than a highly competent and charismatic human leader.

More than that, their testimony pointed to His being above all a spiritual leader, whose first concern was delivering individuals from their bondage to sin. Though Jesus’ compassion for physical suffering was great, His compassion for lost souls was immeasurably greater.

His healing of diseases was first of all to demonstrate both the compassion and power of God for the purpose of establishing His divine credentials as God’s promised Messiah—in order that men might be convinced to trust in Him as their spiritual Savior. He healed bodies for the infinitely greater purpose of saving souls.

As discussed in the previous chapter, the gospels make clear that faith was not necessarily present in all cases of physical healing. The majority of Jesus’ healings were performed apart from the mention of any sort of faith. Some healings, such as that of the centurion’s slave, were performed without the afflicted person so much as seeing Jesus. Others, such as the raising of Jairus’s daughter and Lazarus, were performed on those who were already dead when Jesus’ power did its work in their bodies.

Without the fanfare or superficial drama so common with self-proclaimed faith healers, Jesus simply touched their eyes, saying, “Be it done to you according to your faith.” According to your faith signifies that the extent of Jesus ministry to these men was based on the measure of their personal faith in Him.

In light of their confession and of Jesus’ specific mention of their faith, it seems certain that more than their eyes were opened. Their trust in Jesus Christ likely brought salvation as well as healing. He gave them spiritual life as well as physical sight.

THE COMMAND TO THE MEN

At this point Jesus sternly warned them, saying, “See here, let no one know about this!” Jesus was not simply making a suggestion. Sternly warned is an intensified form of an already strong verb and could even carry the idea of scolding (See Mark 14:5).

 

Jesus’ reason for this command was not, as some suggest, to keep His miracle-working power from becoming known. He had already performed hundreds of public miracles and had become famous for them. His miracles were meant to be publicized, because they demonstrated His divine messiahship.

Nor was the command given to keep this particular miracle from becoming known for some reason. Relatives and friends of the men would have known of the miracle the instant they saw the men. And because of His fame as a miracle worker, they would immediately have concluded that Jesus was the healer.

Obviously Jesus had another reason for commanding the men’s silence. The best explanation seems to be that He did not want His messiahship proclaimed prematurely. As already noted, the men’s calling Jesus the Son of David was a clear acknowledgment of His messiahship—and it was a title He did not reject and that His act of healing in fact confirmed.

Because Jesus did not develop His ministry through the Jewish establishment or come wielding the political-military power that many Jews associated with the Messiah, Jesus’ messiahship would not be accepted by most Jews, especially the leaders. It was the very affirmation that He was indeed the prophesied King of the Jews that ultimately brought His crucifixion. But now was not the time for that truth to be spread abroad. He did not want to stir up premature opposition or encourage revolutionary Jews to begin rallying around Him as if He were a political deliverer.

 

It may also have been that Jesus commanded the men to be quiet in order not to overemphasize the miracle-working aspect of His ministry. Although His miracles were an essential part of His divine work, many people had come to see Him only as a great human healer and nothing more. Jesus chided the multitude who searched Him out after He miraculously fed the five thousand near Tiberias, telling them plainly, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled” (John 6:26). Most people did not perceive Jesus’ miracles in their intended purpose as “signs” of His messiahship but simply as a supernatural, perhaps even magical, means of gaining a free meal or some other temporary physical benefit.

And perhaps Jesus told the two men not to broadcast their healing in order that others might draw their own conclusions about His messiahship. If they had boldly called Him by the messianic title Son of David before they were healed, how much bolder their declaration must have been after they received their sight by the touch of His hand! When John the Baptist was imprisoned and sent His disciples to ask Jesus, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” Jesus did not answer directly, but rather said, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Matt. 11:3-5). Jesus was concerned that especially the Jews, as God’s chosen people, accept His messiahship on the basis of His fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, not simply on the basis of hearsay or mere verbal claims.

The Contrariness of the Men

Despite Jesus’ strict command to the contrary, the two men immediately went out, and spread the news about Him in all that land. Most believers need to say more about the Lord, not less. But for His own important reasons at this time, Jesus had ordered these two men to say nothing about what He had done for them; and yet they disobeyed. Because it was disobedience of the Lord, what they did was wrong; but it was a kind of sin that only a grateful, overflowing heart could commit. The men could not resist the overwhelming desire to tell everyone of their wonderful deliverance and of the Lord who delivered them.

 

THE COMMITMENT OF THE MEN

The translation As they were going out, behold, a dumb man, demon-possessed, was brought to Him suggests that other people brought the dumb man to Jesus while the two former blind men were leaving. But another possible rendering is: “As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man” (KJV).
The idea is that the two men themselves came across another needy person as they were leaving and immediately brought him to Jesus for healing. If this was the case, they evidenced genuine commitment to Christ by bringing others to Him.

 

The dumb man may have been a friend of the two blind men, who perhaps had acted as their eyes while they acted as his voice. In that case, the first thing they did after being healed and saved themselves was to bring their friend to Jesus for healing and salvation.

 Dumb often included the idea of deafness (see Matt. 11:5), because inability to speak is frequently caused by inability to hear. As with blindness, deafness was common in the ancient world. Accidents and disease caused loss of hearing, and foreign matter could collect in the ear wax and
become a breeding ground for infectious organisms that eventually destroyed hearing. In this man’s case, however, dumbness was caused by being demon-possessed, and when he was delivered from the demon he was delivered from deafness.