Matthew 20

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.

Maybe you have seen the movie “Cinderella Man,” starring Russell Crowe. Crowe plays the boxer James J. Braddock, who boxed in the 1930s. One of the more powerful and moving scenes in the movie is when Braddock, working on the docks and unable to support his family, has to go and explain his desperate plight to a room full of wealthy, nicely-dressed men, literally with his hat in his hand, and ask for $18.38 so he can get his children out of the hard labor job he had to “farm them out to” when he could not pay his bills. The men in the room listen in silence to his appeal and look at his extended empty hat. Finally, a few put some money in and wish him well. A few others turn away in disgust. Many look uncomfortable and embarrassed. It is a masterfully-done scene. It highlights both the indignity of begging and the social stigma that comes with it.

I suspect that is how it has always been with beggars: some give to them, some turn away in disgust, and many are just uncomfortable. There are also a couple of different reactions in the begging scene Matthew describes in Matthew 20:29–34. Some rebuke the beggars and attempt to get them to be quiet. But there is one who hears them, one who shows them mercy, one who gives.

The intensity of the blind men.

We begin by noting the intensity with which the blind men called out for help.

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!”

These men, we are told, are blind. If this is the same episode that Mark describes with Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46–52, then these men are beggars, as indeed the picture of Matthew’s account likewise suggests. As such, they were without social clout. Craig Keener observes that “Jericho was one of the wealthiest cities of Judea and beggars there would not starve, but their vocation as beggars and dependents still marked them as poor and at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale—‘nobodies’ who were dependent on the pity of passersby.”[1]

But here we notice something interesting. This account clearly stands in contrast with what immediately precedes it: the mother of James and John asking for prominence in the Kingdom for her boys. Notice how that episode depicts the request:

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.

Now compare that with how this episode depicts the request:

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!”

It has been observed that “[t]hey, the ‘no-accounts,’ the marginal nobodies, the blind, ‘address Jesus with two titles of respect in contrast to the mother of James and John, who uses none (20:21)…’”[2] They call Jesus “Lord,” which may have been a recognition of deity but was certainly a recognition of Jesus’ power and position of authority. And they call Jesus “Son of David” which was a recognition of the fact that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel.

In other words, the outcasts offer a cry of respect and, indeed, of praise. The ones with the insider-angle, James and John and their mother, lack such verbal acknowledgments (though the mother of the sons of Zebedee does kneel and there is a degree of faith in her request). The blind men offer a reverent cry of faith!

And then the nature of their cry: “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” It is an honest, heart-felt, cry for something they do not possess, cannot earn, and, in the eyes of the world, do not deserve. Frederick Dale Bruner translates “Lord, have mercy on us” as “Have a heart for us, O Lord…” and says that “Have a heart for us!” “was the stock cry for beggars.”[3] Michael Card  observes that the men “are asking for hesed,” which he defines as, “When the person from whom I have a right to expect nothing gives me everything.”[4]

These men were crying for mercy, for pity, for healing, for grace. Their cry was shot through with desperation, with acknowledgment, and with faith.

Also with intensity!

³⁰ …they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

³¹ …they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

They cried out! When they heard that Jesus was near. They did not care anymore about their dignity or any sense of decorum. They had a need and the one who could meet it was in their presence: Jesus! So they “cried out” and then they “cried out all the more!” “It was their one opportunity,” wrote A.T. Robertson, “now or never.”[5]

It is amazing what gets stripped away when a man or woman reaches the end of himself or herself and has nothing else to lose. Something raw and something real happens when the heart’s need eclipses the natural instinct for posturing: niceties and formalities dissipate beneath the white heat of human need. And when one with power and one with a solution enters the orbit of our pain, we cannot help but cry for mercy and for help! The desperate heart does not stand on ceremony. The desperate heart cries out then cries out all the more!

Have you cried out to Jesus like that? Have I? Or is our cry of faith and need only one of religious decorum and sensibility?

The gatekeeping of the crowd.

In stark contrast, we find that “the crowd” serves the role of gatekeepers to Jesus.

^31a-b The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent…

These men are:

• rebuked
• told to be silent.

We have been here before, just earlier, in Matthew 19, in fact. There, too, a group sought to prohibit others from bothering Jesus and from bothering them.

¹³ Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, ¹⁴ but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” ¹⁵ And he laid his hands on them and went away.

There is that word again “rebuked.” There are always those who see themselves as gatekeepers for Jesus. Theirs is the assumed “gift” of the closed door, the barred way, and the turning away. Be it noisy children or noisy beggars, there will always be those who are quick to say, “Stay away! You are not wanted here!”

Why did they do this? We cannot say for certain. It seems reasonable to assume that some of this had to do with their lowly status as beggars. It seems reasonable to assume that some of this had to do with their (assumed!) burdensome status as blind men. It seems reasonable to assume that some of this had to do with their undignified status as men “crying out” and being a nuisance.

There may be another factor. The Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary observes:

Jesus leaves Jericho for the final approach to Jerusalem, which lies ahead on a winding road for fifteen miles as it ascends three thousand feet through dry desert. It would take some six to eight hours of uphill walking, so he and the disciples are naturally eager to make it to their destination before nightfall, because the road was infamous for highway robberies (cf. Luke 10:30ff.).[6]

Part of this may be, in other words, that they are in a hurry! If this is the case, then, interestingly, the crowd is seeking to make Jesus like the first two passersby in the story of the good Samaritan from Luke 10!

³⁰ Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. ³¹ Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. ³² So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

That is most interesting, of course, because in that story the man is going from Jerusalem to Jericho whereas here Jesus is going from Jericho to Jerusalem. Suffice it to say, however, Jesus is neither the priest of the Levite of Luke 10:20–32! He will prove to be the good Samaritan! Regardless, the crowd seeks to be gatekeepers, to keep these men from Jesus. They, in other words, are the blind ones whereas the blind men are the ones who can see!

The pity and mercy of the Savior.

Finally we see the Savior, Jesus, and His offer of pity and of mercy to these two men.

^32a And stopping…

These words strike terror in the hearts of the too-busy, the do-not-want-to-be-bothered, and the in-a-hurry. It is just like Jesus to stop and engage the lowly. It is just like “the crowd,” even the crowd around Jesus, to walk right past. Again, they were tempting Jesus to be the priest or the Levite from the good Samaritan story, to walk on by. But, no, Jesus stopped. And might I say it is good that He did, for if Jesus stopped for these men, that means He might just stop for me as well. And He will, church, He will! Jesus will stop when you cry out to Him in faith. He is not too busy for you.

³² And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?”

Why the question? Did He not know what they wanted? Surely He did, and I do not only mean that he knew because He is the Son of God. In this case, everybody knew, right? These men want to see! So why the question? It is because Jesus approaches us relationally. He desires a relationship. He wants us to share with Him the burdens of our hearts. We can see this dynamic at work from the beginning of scripture. In Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve had disobeyed God, we read:

⁹ But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

That divine “Where are you?” is the same as this divine “What do you want me to do for you?” God desires a relationship with us.

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.

It is so simply presented, but there is such stupefying and mind-boggling power here! Jesus touches their eyes and immediately they can see. Let us not miss this: there is no challenge you face that Jesus can’t get you through or over. There is no obstacle He cannot handle. He is the God who heals and there is power in His touch!

Note, too, the quality of His response: “And Jesus in pity touched their eyes…” Let us thank God for the pity of Jesus! I need His pity. So do you. He does not look at us with eyes of cold indifference or eyes of hostile rejection. No, Jesus looks at us with pity, with mercy, with grace, with hesed.

And see their response: “…and followed him.” But of course they did. One does not begrudge a fifteen mile uphill walk when one walks with a Savior like this! What is more, one fears no darkness or robbers in the shadows when one walks with a Savior like this!

There is a gloriously awkward and funny thought here that should not be missed. These blind men are themselves now part of “the crowd”…and how awkward that must have been for those in the crowd who had previously “shushed” them?! After all, those who “rebuked them” in no way could have conceived that the blind men they rebuked would soon be walking beside them staring them right in their red faces while they grinned and laughed and praised the Lord! What a glorious thought!

But this is what Jesus does, is it not? He changes the crowd by bringing the truly rejoicing among the truly smarmy and changes the whole complexion. And, of course, there is a final irony here. Who, after all, really were the blind ones in this story? We see it now: the crowd was blind but the blind could see! Such is the nature of the Kingdom. Such is the power of the King. He makes the blind to see and makes those who assume they can see to realize that they have been blind all along. Yet, to all, He offers hesed: “When the person from whom I have a right to expect nothing gives me everything.”

 

[1] Keener, Craig. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993) p.100.

[2] Dvořáček, Jiří. The Son of David in Matthew’s Gospel in the Light of the Solomon as Exorcist Tradition. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament 2.Reihe. 415 (Tübingen: Mohre Siebeck, 2016), p.184.

[3] Bruner, Frederick Dale. Matthew. Volume 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1990), p.349.

[4] Card, Michael. Matthew. Biblical Imagination Series. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2013), p.181, 90.

[5] Robertson, Archibald Thomas. The Gospel According to Matthew, The Gospel According to Mark. Word Pictures in the New Testament. Volume 1 (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1930), p.163.

[6] Wilkins, Michael J. “Matthew.” Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. Gen. Ed. Clinton E. Arnold. Volume 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), p.125.