Chapter 23 - The Blind Who Saw (20:29-34)

23 The Blind Who Saw (20:29-34)

And as they were going out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” And the multitude sternly told them to be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” And Jesus stopped and called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Lord, we want our eyes to be opened.” And moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him. (20:29-34)

Jesus was now on His way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover with His disciples. Infinitely more important than that, however, He was going there to suffer and die (20:18-19). He would be celebrating the Passover for the last time and then giving Himself as the one, final, perfect Passover Lamb, sacrificed for the sins of the whole world (Heb. 7:27).

His arrest, trial, and crucifixion were but a few weeks away. Why, we may wonder, did He take time to minister to two blind beggars? In light of the disciples’ slowness to learn and believe, why did He not spend the last few days alone with them, drilling into them what He so much wanted them to understand?

The reason was His compassion (v. 34). When better could Jesus have demonstrated the depth and breadth of divine compassion than while He was on the way to His crucifixion? The Twelve would one day look back on the healing in Jericho and on all His other acts of mercy and realize that their Lord was never too preoccupied to be compassionate, never in too much of a hurry to heal the afflicted, never in too much agony Himself to be insensitive to the agony of others. That realization itself would be one of the most important lessons they would learn from their Master. In these few verses is found one of the most beautiful portrayals of the loving, compassionate heart of God.

THEIR PERSISTENT PLEA

As Jesus and the disciples were going out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. The Lord had finished His ministry in Galilee, ministered on the east side of the Jordan in Perea, and had now recrossed the Jordan back into Judah, just above the Dead Sea near Jericho.

The city of Jericho was a jewel in the barren wilderness that surrounded the Dead Sea, an oasis of fresh water, beautiful trees, and productive crops of figs, citrus, and other fruit. Among other things, it was known as the city of the palms. Herod built a fort and winter palace there, and Josephus reports that, when there was snow in Jerusalem, only fifteen miles away, Jericho was warm and pleasant.

Jericho doubtlessly brought many memories to Jesus’ mind. It was there that Rahab the harlot lived, a very special woman in Israel’s history and in Jesus’ own ancestry. Though a prostitute and a pagan Gentile, she trusted in the God of Israel and, with her family, was spared when the Lord destroyed the ancient city. Along with Ruth, another Gentile, Rahab is one of only two women named in the genealogy of Jesus (Matt. 1:5). And it was in the wilderness hills to the west of Jericho, clearly visible from the city, that Jesus was tempted for forty days by Satan.

Whereas Matthew’s account has Jesus going out from Jericho, Mark reports that He was coming “to Jericho” (10:46) and Luke that “He was approaching Jericho” (18:35). The difficulty can be explained by the idea that Matthew was referring to the old Jericho, some of the ruins of which are still evident today, and that the other two writers were referring to the contemporary city. In that case, Jesus would have been moving out of the ruins of the old city and into the new. Or it may have been that Jesus had gone through the city to the outskirts and was now leaving. When He responded to the cries of the two blind men whom He had passed, He may have turned and gone back toward the city. After that He decided to go into the city again, where He later encountered Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-2). In any case, a great multitude followed Him now, as they often did.

Behold was used to call special attention to something or someone, in this case two blind men who ordinarily would have gone unnoticed. Blind people were extremely common in the Near East, especially in the cities. Because none of them could work and few had families who could or would support them, the majority of blind people were beggars, as were these two (see Mark 10:46). Like most other beggars, they congregated outside the city gates to take advantage of travelers, who were more likely to be carrying money than the average person on the street.

A special balsam bush grew in Jericho from which a medicine was made to treat blindness. Consequently, that city had an unusually large number of blind people who came there in hope of a cure. The two blind men who cried out to Jesus were but two among perhaps hundreds in the vicinity.

Blindness was common in ancient times, as it still is today in underdeveloped areas of the world. Many people were blinded by such things as accidents or battle wounds. But many others became blind shortly after birth from gonorrheal infection of the eyes, contracted from the mother during birth. Many women carried the bacterium, although most of them were not affected by it themselves. Other infants were blinded by trachoma, a virulent form of conjunctivitis. Although it usually took several days or weeks for such diseases to cause total blindness, for all practical purposes infected babies were blind from birth. Birth eye infection is still a great danger, even in modern societies, and doctors therefore routinely place antiseptic drops in the eyes of newborns.

Mark and Luke mention only one man, whom Mark identifies as “Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus,” and who apparently was spokesman for the two of them (see Mark 10:46; Luke 18:35). Mark touches a distinctly human chord by naming this man and even his father. Although Bartimaeus was doubtlessly unknown while he was a blind beggar, it is possible that he later became highly respected in the early church and well known to Mark and those to whom he wrote. Mark would have been saying to his readers, in effect, “And do you know who one of those blind men was? Bartimaeus, our dear friend and brother in Christ!”

Hearing that Jesus was passing by, Bartimaeus and his friend cried out, saying, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” Kraz, from which cried out is taken, is an onomatopoeic word that was used for any sort of screaming or anguished shout. It was used of the rantings of insane people and of a woman’s cries at childbirth. It was used of the Canaanite woman near Tyre and Sidon who cried out for Jesus to heal her daughter (Matt. 15:22), of the crowd’s shouting for Jesus’ crucifixion (Mark 15:13-14), and even of Jesus’ crying out from the cross (Matt. 27:50).

These two blind men were absolutely desperate, realizing that the last possible hope of their seeing would soon depart. They could hardly have known of Jesus’ impending crucifixion, but they seemed to sense that they would never encounter Him again and that this was their last chance. They were therefore shouting at the top of their voices, not caring who else heard them as long as Jesus did.

The amazing thing about these two men was not their physical blindness, which was common in their day, but their spiritual sight, which is uncommon in any day. Physically they could see nothing, but spiritually they saw a great deal.

In itself, their addressing Jesus as Lord does not indicate that they considered Him to be the Messiah. Lord was a common term of honor used to address not only dignitaries but anyone due special respect. But their asking Him for mercy, and most certainly their calling Him by the messianic title Son of David, clearly shows their recognition of who He was. In announcing Jesus’ birth to Mary, the angel declared that her Son would be given “the throne of His father David” (Luke 1:32). When a few days after this incident in Jericho Jesus came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He was greeted by the crowds shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!” (Matt. 21:9). It was common knowledge among all Jews that “the Scripture said that the Christ [Messiah] comes from the offspring of David” (John 7:42).

But the blind men’s knowledge of Christ and their great determination were tempered by humility. In asking for healing they acknowledged their unworthiness of help and threw themselves entirely on Jesus’ mercy. Their actions were necessarily loud and obtrusive, because that was the only way they could have been heard over the din of the multitude. But their hearts were right, because despite their great need, they knew they deserved nothing from the Son of David and that only His grace could help them. One cannot be dogmatic about the extent of their faith at this point, but they clearly recognized Jesus’ messiahship and His supernatural power to heal.

When a person steps out to God on all the faith he has, even if it is incomplete and weak, the Lord will meet him at that point and lead him to redemption. As He declared through Jeremiah, “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13). Speaking of the two blind men of Jericho, Alfred Edersheim beautifully observed that “the faith of the blind rose to the full height of divine possibility.”

Resenting the intrusion of the two men, the multitude sternly told them to be quiet. The world, and many Christians, can often be callous and cruel. Everyone in the multitude was doubtlessly better off physically, economically, and socially than the two blind men, but they thought only of their own selfish concerns, in light of which these needy men were but an annoyance.

But as F. F. Bruce has expressed it, the two blind men “refused to be bludgeoned into silence by the indifferent crowd,” and they cried out all the more, saying again, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

THEIR SUPERNATURAL PRIVILEGE

And Jesus stopped and called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Lord, we want our eyes to be opened.” And moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him. (20:32-34)

Jesus doubtlessly heard them the first time, but for His own reasons He waited until they cried out again before responding. He stopped and called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” Mark says that Jesus had first sent someone else to tell them, saying, “Take courage, arise! He is calling for you.” Bartimaeus was so elated at hearing those words that he cast “aside his cloak, . . . jumped up, and came to Jesus” (Mark 10:49-50). He apparently was so certain of being healed that he figured he could come back later and find his cloak by himself.

The men answered Jesus, “Lord, we want our eyes to be opened.” After years of blindness their one compelling desire was to see. And moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight. As the Creator of the universe reached out to those men, He suspended the natural laws which He Himself had made. Moved with infinite divine compassion, the Son of Man, who was also the Son of God, bestowed the mercy on the physical needs for which they pleaded.

The fact that Matthew says they regained their sight, using the same verb Bartimaeus had used in his request (Mark 10:51), suggests that these men had once been able to see. If so, they were more keenly aware of what they were missing than if they never had sight.

Jesus used many different ways to perform His healing miracles. Sometimes the afflicted person was asked to do something himself. Sometimes the Lord simply spoke a word, and sometimes He performed some action, such as putting His fingers in deaf ears or making salve from mud and anointing blind eyes. In this case Jesus touched their eyes. His miracles were always complete, and usually, as here, they were instantaneous, defying natural explanation.

It is significant that among the many self-acclaimed faith healers of history, including those in our own day, there is a marked absence of restoring sight and raising the dead. Many other afflictions can be faked or can be given temporary improvement by the power of suggestion working in a desperate mind. But where are the miracles of vision given to the blind? Where is the person whose eyes are permanently damaged or completely missing who has regained his sight by the laying on of a healer’s hands? And where is the person who was dead and has been restored to life?

Even more common and tragic than physical blindness is the spiritual blindness the two men must have felt as they encountered the Son of God. And the context strongly suggests that they also sought deliverance from that kind of blindness.

Jesus was born into a world of people who, with few exceptions, were totally blind spiritually. He “was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him” (John 1:9-11; cf. 8:12). Men were spiritually blind then, and are spiritually blind today, because they do not want to see God’s truth. As Jesus explained to Nicodemus, “This is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (John 3:19-20).

“The lamp of the body is the eye,” Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount; “if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matt. 6:22-23). To man’s natural spiritual blindness, Satan adds his own. “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving,” Paul declares, “that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4). And to that double blindness, God may add still more. When men persistently refuse to hear His Word and believe in Him, God may choose to judicially reinforce their willing hardness of heart. To Isaiah, the Lord gave the unenviable task of telling his fellow Israelites, “Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand.” He was, in fact, told to “render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed” (Isa. 6:9-10).

The minds of unbelieving Jews were blinded to the full meaning of God’s Word because “their minds were hardened; for until this very day,” Paul said, “at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ” (2 Cor. 3:14; cf. Rom. 11:25). The epitome of the spiritually blind were the hypocritical, unbelieving scribes and Pharisees, the leading religionists of Israel whom Jesus called “blind guides” (Matt. 23:16, 24).

Further evidence of the former blind men’s desire for spiritual as well as physical sight is the fact that, after Jesus restored their sight, they followed Him. It is true that many, and probably most, of the multitude who were following Him (v. 29) were not true disciples. But the fact that Luke says Bartimaeus, and presumably his friend, not only followed Jesus but were “glorifying God” (18:43) gives good reason to believe the men were restored spiritually as well as physically.

In addition to that, Mark reports that Jesus said to them, “Go your way; your faith has made you well” (Mark 10:52). “Made . . . well” is from sz, which referred to any kind of rescue or deliverance, including deliverance from physical affliction or peril (see Matt. 8:25; Mark 13:20; Luke 23:35). But it is also the most common New Testament term for salvation, the deliverance from sin through Christ, and that would seem to be its meaning in Jesus’ final words to these men.

Faith was not a requirement for Jesus’ healings. He healed many people at the request of someone else, as in the case of the centurion who pleaded for the healing of his paralyzed servant (Matt. 8:5-13). The infants He healed and those He raised from the dead obviously were not able to exercise any sort of faith. Whereas the New Testament tells of countless people who were healed without faith, it reports none who were saved without faith, because it is only by God’s grace working through faith that a person can be saved (Eph. 2:8). It therefore seems that inherent in Jesus’ declaration “your faith has made you well” was His assurance of the men’s salvation. He spoke exactly the same words to the single leper who glorified God for his healing and came back to give Jesus thanks (Luke 17:12-19). All ten lepers had been healed physically, but only this man was “made . . . well” because of his faith, strongly suggesting that, whereas his cleansing (v. 14) was physical, his being made well (v. 19) was spiritual.

Three features of Jesus’ healing of physical afflictions become clear in this story. First, this powerful, dramatic demonstration of God’s compassion for men was a proof of Jesus’ messiahship. Second, it was a preview of the millennial kingdom, when there will be a thousand-year age of freedom from sickness, disease, and other physical affliction. Third, His healings were symbolic. His healing of blindness was a picture of His immeasurably more wonderful healing of spiritual blindness. What He did for blind eyes was a vivid portrayal of what He desires to do for blind souls.