Jesus and the Blind Men, Matthew 20:29-34
We are in the last paragraph of this section. Actually, this section began in chapter eighteen and extended down to verse 28 of chapter twenty. Then we have this section from verse 29 to verse 34, which is a hinge or transition episode that Matthew brings to light here; and there are some differences between what Matthew says and what is said in Mark and Luke. But it is an interesting transition to help us go from what we have been talking about to what is coming up.
In the previous section we saw a wrong focus by the disciples on what it would take to be great in the kingdom. We saw this by the question they were asking back in 18:1 and later on in chapter 19. Their focus was on who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom. In relation to both of those episodes Jesus uses the illustration of a child. Often this is misunderstood. We understand that the illustration is about being humble like a child, but it is not being humble like a child because children have some innate sense of humility. It had to do with the society of that time where the child had no significance, no status whatsoever.
We also saw in this section that there was a contrast between this attitude of a child and the rich young ruler. The attitude of the rich young ruler was not unlike that of the disciples in that he had an emphasis on his own status in this life and what that would mean in the next life. He was saved but did not have the right priorities. Jesus used him to further His teaching to the disciples that the person who would be great in the kingdom is the person who would be concerned with service and not status, be concerned with forgiveness and genuine humility, and not concerned with seeking position and power.
Jesus closed that section with the last two verses that serve as the backdrop for what we are going to see in the next section. In Matthew 20:27, 28 Jesus said: “and whoever wishes to be first among you [be important] shall be your slave ...” That is just not the format that we understand in any culture to the path to greatness. Yet this is the path of Jesus. The same word as used here is used in Philippians 2:5-11 to describe Jesus. He was a slave, a DOULOS. “... just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” There we have a shift in the use of the word “serve” from DOULOS to DIAKONEO, which means to be a servant. What we see here is the idea of sacrificial service as part of the path to greatness.
The episode next with the two blind men is used as an illustration of how Jesus is serving those who are in need, as He will heal the blind men of their blindness. It also is contrasting the self-serving, status-seeking attitude of the disciples with that of these two blind men. They are the lowest of the low in the culture. They are beggars, they are unkempt, their robes are tattered, they haven't been washed and they stink. Nobody wants to come close to them. But they gathered outside of the gates of cities because travellers were the ones who carried money and that was where they hoped to beg a few shekels off of those who were travelling so that they could survive.
They are usually unseen. Notice the irony: those who are blind are not seen by people going by. They represent those who have no place or significance in society. In contrast Jesus is saying that we as believers, those who are disciples, need to be serving even those who have no status and no significance in their culture.
We should also note in terms of this transition that the blind men will call out to Jesus as the Son of David. Notice that the people call Him Jesus of Nazareth (just a reference to His humanity) but the two blind men recognize that He is the Messiah. Son of David is a title that is only used three times before in Matthew, and it is repeated in this episode for emphasis.
Matthew 20:29 NASB “As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him. [30] And two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, 'Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!'
[31] The crowd sternly told them to be quiet, but they cried out all the more, 'Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!'” Whenever we see things like this repeated in Scripture, that is for emphasis. So we have this clustering that takes place right now. There are two uses of the title Son of David here, two uses of the title Son of David in another clustering that takes place in chapter 21, and then another reference to it in chapter 22.
Of the times that Matthew uses the phrase Son of David five of them come up between the end of chapter twenty and chapter 22. That ought to tell us something in terms of the emphasis that is taking place in Matthew. So we see that the use of that title here is transitioning us from what Jesus has been teaching the disciples in the previous three chapters to what is going to be the emphasis in the next several chapters, and that is on His role as the Messiah, the greater son of David who was coming to give His life to redeem those for whom He will die.
As we look at verse 28 again, “... just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many”. Son of Man is His favorite title to use for Himself. It comes from Daniel chapter seven and is clearly a messianic title. And here He connects the dots again, that the Son of Man is come to give His life a ransom for many. This phrase is really important for us for understanding the nature of what Jesus was going to do on the cross.
There are two Greek words used here that are significant. The first word, translated ransom, is LUTRON, and the second is a preposition that is used there translated in English with the word “for”. This is a preposition that indicates substitution. There are two that do this in the Greek, ANTE and HUPER, and both are used to describe the substitutionary aspect of Christ's death on the cross.
There are several views that have developed over times as to why Jesus died and what was the nature of the atonement. The view that is based on the Scriptures is the view that He came to give His life as a substitute. It is depicted in the Old Testament through the sacrifices where when a lamb was brought in to the tabernacle or into the temple the worshipper would place his hand upon the lamb. As he did this he would recite his sins, and the symbolism is that the sins are transferred to the lamb. Then the lamb would be sacrificed and would be the payment for those sins.
There is only one group of people today that still practice animal sacrifice. There are only nine hundred of them; they are called Samaritans. They come together every year to have a sacrifice. They sacrifice the Passover lamb on Mount Gerizim.
It is the idea of substitution. It is not the governmental idea of the atonement put forth by a number of people, that somehow this satisfies God's righteous government. It is not a moral view of the atonement put forth by people like Anselm, that somehow we need to go and be likewise and be willing to give our lives for whatever we believe the truth to be. It is none of those; the Bible says this is a substitutionary atonement.
There are two core Greek words used to describe the atonement. There is the word AGORAZO, which refers to buying something in the market place, to purchasing something. There are a couple of different compound words with AGORAZO. Then used in parallel to it is the word LUTRON, the noun, or LUTROO the verb. This also usually has some sort of prepositional prefix with it, like ANTILUTRON, which emphasizes the substitutionary aspect. EXAGORAZO means to buy out of the market place. So there are eight different words that are used in the languages to describe redemption. Each one emphasizes a different dimension but the one thing we all ought to remember is that it is a financial term and it is talking about paying a price, purchasing something.
That price was paid when Christ died on the cross. Colossians 2:12-14 makes it clear that that certificate of debt (another financial term) was nailed to the cross in 33 AD – not when you trusted in Christ. Your sins weren't paid for and you weren't redeemed when you trusted in Christ as your savior. You were redeemed when Christ died on the cross. That is the focal point. Now that redemption is applied in terms of our regeneration when we believe in Jesus, but the redemption, the payment, is actually paid for all. It is a universal atonement, it pays the price for all sin at the instant of Christ's death but it is not universally applied; it is only applied when we trust in Christ. And at that point that redemption is applied and God regenerates us.
Redemption is paid for at the cross, and because that occurred there is one kind of forgiveness—the word “forgiveness” means to cancel a debt—but we understand that actual forgiveness occurs experientially when we trust in Jesus Christ.
At the time the Lord delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt He redeemed them from slavery. That is the parallel for understanding redemption, which we often talk about when referring to the Lord's Table. Just as they were purchased from literal slavery, so we are purchased from slavery to sin.
Exodus 6:6 NASB “Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments'.” A price was paid by the Egyptians for the deliverance or redemption of Israel.
Exodus 15:13 NASB “In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed; In Your strength You have guided {them} to Your holy habitation.”
The exodus there is the model, so by looking at that we see how God provided that redemption. And in terms of the Israelites how was that exhibited? By the death of the lamb, that sacrificial Passover lamb that was slaughtered for them on the evening before the fourteenth of Nisan.
In Matthew 20:28 we see that Jesus emphasizes service and then He says that that service is manifest, that He will give His life a ransom for many. If you were Jewish at that time and you knew the Old Testament from memory there is a passage that would come to mind because this language is similar. There is no word for service in the section of Isaiah 40-66. Although we don't have the word service in Isaiah 53 we do have similar language.
Isaiah 53:11 NASB “As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see {it and} be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.” Notice the term “many”. Jesus came to give His life a ransom for many. This word would be brought up in the thinking of anyone who had memorized Isaiah 53. This is talking about the suffering Servant.
“Righteous One”, the Hebrew word tsedaqah. “Justify” is the verb form, and so it is emphasizing the doctrines of imputation of righteousness and justification, because in just a few chapters in Isaiah 64 Isaiah says, “All of our righteousness [tsedaqah] is filthy rags.” So the problem is we have a tsedaqah deficit; we have a righteousness deficit. We can never accumulate enough righteousness so the role of the Suffering Servant was to die on the cross to pay for our sins, and on the basis of His righteousness “He shall justify [provide righteousness] for many”.
So Jesus said that he came to give His life a ransom for many. And Isaiah 53:11 goes on to say: “for He shall bear their iniquities.”
Isaiah 53:12 NASB “Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself [His life] to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.” So the term “many” isn't limiting this. Those who hold to limited atonement try to say He died for the many, not the all. If you do a word study on this, many is referring to the all. So Jesus is illustrating the concept of service specifically through these allusions to the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53.
Then He is going to demonstrate this kind of service and this kind of humility as He enters into Jericho.
Geographically what has happened is that Jesus has been down in the Jordan area and crossing over from Perea into the area of Judea, and He has come up from the Dead Sea to Jericho. Jericho at this time was a beautiful city. It was not on the exact location of ancient Jericho. The new city had been built a couple of centuries earlier but it had really been transformed under Herod.
Remember this is one week from Passover. Those who are travelling with Jesus or those who are making their religious pilgrimage have come down from Galilee and coming up from the Jordan up to Jerusalem. This was the last place they would stop.
We read [v. 29], “As they went out of Jericho ...” There is a lot of debate over this because there are two different phrases that are used in these accounts. There are two different ways to handle this. One way is that when they went out of Jericho it is talking about Jesus having passed by the old city and is headed to the new city. So this would have taken place between the two, depending on what you are talking about. Either out of or into would be valid. Mark 10:46: “When they came to Jericho”. Luke says it happened as He was coming near Jericho. There are different ways that this could be resolved without thinking that there is some sort of contradiction here.
As Mark tells us, there is a large multitude with Him. But Mark and Luke just talk about one blind man. Mark names him; the other two accounts do not. Most believe that the reason Mark names him is because some people in the early church would know him. He is identified because this is a real person who lived and breathed and was known by people who lived in the area and were familiar with his testimony.
As we read the account the blind men begin to cry out to Jesus. Luke uses the word BOAO, which means to cry out. It is a synonym of the other word that is used, and it is used in places like Mark 1:3 where it describes John the Baptist, the one crying out in the wilderness. But it is also used of Jesus when He creams out on the cross, in Mark 15:34. KRAZO is the word that is used in Matthew. It is used of those who are in a desperate situation or screaming out. For example, in relation to Peter when all of a sudden he takes his eyes off the Lord and starts to sink into the water. In Matthew 15:22 we have the episode of the Canaanite woman, the Gentile who is crying out to be heard above the crowd so that the Lord would deliver her demon possessed daughter. Matthew 21:9, the crowds that are proclaiming Jesus' entry into Jerusalem are crying out with a loud voice.
What is important is what they are screaming. They are calling out to Jesus as the Son of David. They say: “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” This is one of Jesus' titles and is the one that emphasizes His royal descent and His claim as Messiah to be a descendant of David. It is used 15 times in the Gospels as a specific title for Jesus, and it is used 10 times by Matthew. It is used three times by Mark; two of them are in Mark's account of this episode. It is used three times by Luke, also two times in this episode; each use it one other time towards the end. It is a title that emphasizes His royalty and that He has a legitimate claim to be the King of the Jews and that He is the messianic descendant of David. It relates Him to the Davidic covenant: that he is the one through whom the promises will come of the kingship and of the kingdom. It connects Him to Isaiah 9:6, 7 and Jeremiah 3:5, 6 which connects the Messiah to the Davidic covenant.
The first significant use of this title for Jesus in Matthew occurred in 9:27 where two blind men came to Jesus to be healed. And that is the first time they say, “Have mercy on us, Son of David”. These are two different situations. That event occurred up in Galilee; this event occurs here. In both cases there were two people. Why did Matthew emphasize two and the other two Gospel writers only emphasize one?
There are a couple of answers suggested. One is that Matthew just increases the number for effect. That's from people who don't believe in inspiration and inerrancy of the Scriptures. They suggest Matthew is just emphasizing something, and usually the reason is because the Law said that two witnesses confirm something, and therefore Matthew wants to inflate the number to have this legal witness. Another suggestion is that he is just inflating the account from the previous event to this event. In other words, Matthew is not real sure about the facts and is not clear, so he is making mistakes. Neither of those two options is valid.
The most likely explanation is that both here as in Matthew 9:32, 33 Matthew is giving the full account to fit the purposes for his writing the Gospel. Luke and Mark tell the story a little differently to fit theirs and they just focus on one event. But Matthew is speaking of two men both times, and he speaks, I think, of both events because both events serve as two witnesses to this truth about Jesus.
What is the truth about Jesus? Jesus is the Messiah who can heal the blind. In rabbinic thought at that time only the Messiah could give sight to the blind, and only the Messiah could heal lepers. When Jesus heals lepers and gives sight to the blind He is giving irrefutable proof through His miracles that He is the Messiah. So this is an indictment upon the Pharisees for their rejection of Him. I think that by using two situations that doubles the effect. In both cases he emphasizes that there are two there, two witnesses that actually confirm exactly what happened.
But we know that there were also other people who were blind and were healed. For example, in John chapter nine there is the story of a blind man that Jesus healed. So there were others who were healed, which supplied His credentials. Those credentials came out of the Old Testament In Isaiah 35:5, 6; 42:7 are two passages that show that the Messiah would do this.
Is 35:5, 6 NASB “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the Arabah.”
Isaiah 42:7 NASB “To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.” The idea is that those who are sinners are in spiritual darkness. Those who are saved, if they are not walking by the Spirit they also live in spiritual darkness; they are not walking in the light of God's Word.
As the blind men cry out to Jesus the multitude refutes them. The multitude is not very positive here, this is just a large group of people made up of some believers and some do not. Probably most of them do not because in the Luke account they simply refer to Jesus as Jesus of Nazareth. But Jesus hears the blind men.
Matthew 20:32 NASB “And Jesus stopped and called them, and said, 'What do you want Me to do for you?'”
I think that because they called upon Him as the Son of David they are not like the blind man in John. The blind man in John wasn't looking to be healed. He was an unbeliever and he was healed. Often that is used as a paradigm for people to say first of all God has to regenerate you and give you sight before you can believe. That is often a strong Calvinist position but that is a misuse of a narrative.
What we see here and in the Matthew 9 passage is that in both cases you have those whom are already believers coming to be healed of sight. The demonstration point is that Jesus is the one who gives spiritual sight, whether it is to believers or to unbelievers. He is the Light of the world; He is the one who illuminates us to spiritual truth.
Matthew 20:33, 34 NASB “They said to Him, 'Lord, {we want} our eyes to be opened.' Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.” Notice he said immediately. Jesus' miracles weren't process miracles; they didn't take two or three days or two or three weeks, they immediately received sight.
I want to plug this in to what the Bible teaches about light and life. John's Gospel could also be called the Gospel of Light because of the role that light plays in it.
John 1:1 NASB “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was in the beginning with God. [3] All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. [4] In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” Jesus' life illuminates mankind. [5] “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” It is not understood by unbelievers.
John 1:6 NASB “There came a man sent from God, whose name was John [the Baptist]. [7] He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. [8] He was not the Light, but {he came} to testify about the Light. [9] There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.” That is common grace. It is an illumination that is available to every single human being; it comes from Jesus. Jesus presence into creation, the fact that God intruded Himself into creation and became a man, illuminates all mankind.
We could spend a lot of time thinking about that. The implication of that is that the world is in darkness until Jesus came. There is a significant shift in humanity just because of the incarnation. The side effect of the incarnation is light suddenly available to all mankind as it had never been for the previous 4000 years.
John 3:19 NASB “This is the judgment [condemnation] , that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. [20] For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. [21] But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
John 12:46 NASB “I have come {as} Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.” Believing in Him is the issue, not works, not doing.
But Jesus is also the basis for illumination to believers. John 8:12 NASB “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, 'I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life'.” Following Him is discipleship terminology, not the same as believing in Him. That is what the psalmist is saying: “In God's light we see light”. This is talking about how we grow after we are saved.
Ephesians 1:16 NASB [I] do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention {of you} in my prayers; [17] that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.” Revelation is disclosing previously unknown truth that can only be learned from God. [8] {I pray that} the eyes of your heart may be enlightened …”
How many times do we pray to God to enlighten the eyes of our soul, enlighten our minds so that we can understand God's Word, enlighten our minds so that we can understand how to apply God's Word, enlighten our minds so that we can continue to grow and mature?
But it is through the Lord Jesus Christ as the Light of the world that we have that initial illumination at salvation, and then ongoing illumination through God the Holy Spirit.
Jesus came to give light. He demonstrates that by healing the blind, which demonstrates that He is who he claimed to be, the Messiah.