The two blind men (Matthew 20:29-34)

This incident follows the occasion in Jericho, recorded by Luke, when Zacchaeus the tax-collector became a follower of Jesus. One departing from Jericho, Mark and Luke describe how Jesus healed a blind man called Bartimaeus. We may wonder why Matthew says that there were two blind men when Mark and Luke focus on one blind man. Two options can be given in reply.

One is that the two men whom Matthew describes are a separate incident from that of Bartimaeus, although this seems unlikely. Another is that Mark and Luke mention Bartimaeus because later on he became known in the church as a consequence of his healing and therefore focussed on him. If this is the reason, then we have an example in the other blind man of how those whom Jesus helped can be forgotten very quickly, an outcome that is not limited to back then.

The fact that Mark and Luke do not mention the other blind man is not that different from how the Gospel writers describe other incidents. For example, they all indicate different people were present at the cross when Jesus died and with regard to those accounts we combine the references to work out who was there. And we can do the same with the accounts of the blind men. There is nothing unusual in Mark and Luke only mentioning one of them.

It would have been common to meet people with eyesight problems in the vicinity of Jericho. They would have gone there because a certain balm was produced nearby that helped those suffering from problems with their sight.

Why is the account of their healing recorded? I would suggest that readers are being asked to consider which disciples knew best who Jesus was at that time. There are three kinds of disciples in this passage. One group are not named and they are the twelve disciples, but we know that they were with Jesus as he moved through the country. A second group are the crowd and here they are described as having the postures of disciples in that they are following Jesus as he moves along. The third group are the two men and they engage in a conversation with Jesus and receive help from him.

Back at the beginning of his Gospel Matthew had stated that Jesus was the Son of David. One appropriate response by readers would be to look for occasions when Jesus would be called by this title. In the Gospel, the first to describe Jesus in this way is the angel sent to speak to Joseph (Matt. 1:20), and we can say that him doing so is not surprising. The next reference occurs in Matthew 9:27 when two blind men call Jesus by this title. A crowd referred to in Matthew 12:23 ask one another if Jesus can be the Son of David, but they have not yet believed in him. A Canaanite woman calls him by this title in Matthew 15:22. The next to do so are the blind men in our passage. Later on the crowd, including children, will sing about him being the Son of David (Matt. 21:9, 15). A striking feature of the use of this title by both sets of blind men and the Canaanite woman is that they link the title with mercy.

The two men

It is obvious that these two blind men know who Jesus is, but I would say that we should not regard this incident as their conversion or when they realised that Jesus was the Messiah. There is no hint in the account that this is when they came to have faith in Jesus for the first time, although they clearly exercised faith in Jesus for their healing. Rather they came to have that trust in him at an earlier stage in their lives. This is a reminder that people came to trust in Jesus without a note being recorded of when it first happened. That experience could have happened before they became blind or afterwards.

What we are told about them is what they knew of Jesus. They knew two things about him – they knew he was divine and they knew that he was the Messiah. We can see their knowledge of his deity when they address him as Lord and we can see their awareness that he was the Messiah when they call him the Son of David. How did they know that this was who Jesus is? They came to understand it through the same way as Peter and the other disciples of Jesus had done, by divine teaching. It is a great blessing to have the true knowledge of Jesus – it is infallible knowledge, not dependant on our own abilities to work out who he is. God can reveal this information to the most unexpected of people.

The two men also model discipleship in the way they respond to discovering that Jesus is close to them. First, they are not put off by the crowd. Of course, they did not know how big the crowd was because they could not see it. They would have realised from the crowd’s response and attempts to keep them quiet that there was a lot of people around them. Yet the number of the crowd made no difference to the two blind men. Getting what Jesus could give them was far more important to them than what the crowd thought about them. In this, the blind men were a challenge to the main disciples, and they are a challenge to us not to be put off from pursuing Jesus when others disapprove or hinder.

Second, the blind men persevered in their request. They kept on with their crying. Initially Jesus does not stop at their request, but continues on with his journey, which could have been deliberate in order to test their determination to pursue him for a blessing. They persevered because they wanted to get a blessing from Jesus. Often we miss out on receiving blessings because we fail to continue in our requests. Sometimes, it is hard to know when we should stop asking for something from the Lord. I suppose an answer to that question is to keep going for as long as we sense that Jesus is close to us. But sometimes we should keep going even although we cannot sense him.

Third, and connected to the previous point, is that the blind men challenge us to grab the moment when it occurs. Jesus would never be in Jericho again and if the blind men did not seize this moment it soon would be gone forever. There are occasions in the Christian life which are not repeated. We may be at a conference and the Spirit speaks to our hearts about something and challenges us to dedicate ourselves to the Lord, and we delay, and the moment is gone. Or we can sense an urge to speak to a contact about the gospel and we dither doing so and before we know it the opportunity has gone. The two blind men challenge us regarding the necessity of seizing the moment.

Fourth, the blind men realised what the basis was of them receiving any help from Jesus. They appealed to his mercy, which is another way of saying that they realised that they did not deserve any help that he might give to them. Any blessing that they would receive would come through his grace. They did not deserve a blessing merely because they were destitute. In prayer, we must first appeal to what is in Jesus and not what is in ourselves.

Fifth, when they spoke to Jesus they did so in a manner that was appropriate for the time. The lesson for us from this incident is not that we should expect Jesus today to heal every blind person, although there is no reason why a blind person cannot ask Jesus to give them sight. It was appropriate at the time to ask Jesus for this blessing because giving sight to the blind was one of the evidences of the arrival of the Messiah and the blind men spoke to him in this way because they realised that is who he was and what he was doing. It is appropriate for us now to ask Jesus to forgive us our sins, a blessing that we all need and which we can all have, and to bring us into his heavenly family.

Sixth, the blind men, having experienced the power of the Lord, did what all healthy disciples do, which is to follow the Lord. Of course, they did so in a literal sense. They also did so among those who had previously tried to hinder them from following, which is a good picture of not holding a grudge, to say the least. It is hard to imagine that the blind men, now able to see, would not have engaged in a ministry of encouragement towards those they interacted with.

Seventh, Matthew stresses the way that the two blind men were concerned for one another. They did no say, ‘Have mercy on me,’ but ‘Have mercy on us.’ Their united desire was for each of them to enjoy the blessing of Jesus. As Matthew Henry put it, ‘the joint-sufferers were joint-suiters.’ Sometimes two together can experience divine answers simultaneously.

Jesus, the Saviour

What does this passage tell us about Jesus? The items that shall be highlighted may have been mentioned already except that now we will consider them from the point of view of Jesus rather than that of the blind men.

The first detail to observe is that Jesus is following the Father’s plan. As he moves away from Jericho, he is not engaged in mere rambling through the countryside. Rather he is on the road to Jerusalem, travelling to a specific destination, which is the cross at Calvary. Jesus was determined to be the Saviour and Matthew is pointing out that detail to us.

The second detail is that Jesus responds to pleas for mercy. We know that there are topics that we delight to hear, and in a far higher sense Jesus delighted to hear people asking him for mercy. If I asked a car salesman for some food rather than a car, he would be insulted and would not appreciate my request because I was misusing him. I should ask him for what he is set aside to give me and when I do so he is pleased. Jesus’ purpose in one way or another is to dispense mercy and he is delighted when people ask him for mercy.

A third detail is that Jesus wants us to be specific when we ask him for his help. We can see that was the case when he asked the blind men what they wanted. Jesus already knew what they desired, but he did not give it until they stated exactly what they wanted. Someone once said that general prayers get general answers and specific prayers usually get specific answers.

The fourth detail to note is the manner in which Jesus provided the answer. Although the power to heal came through the hands with which he touched their eyes, the answer came from his heart because the manner was expressive of pity. He felt for those he was providing the miracle of healing for. How else would we have expected the Saviour to work! He responds with love, but it is love that is full of mercy for those in need of his help.

There is a fifth detail about Jesus in this passage and that is that he has time for those others may regard as unimportant. It is obvious that the crowd thought that the blind men were not significant and did not understand that Jesus would want to have anything to do with them. The crowd learned that they were wrong and that Jesus has time for those who seem to be of little significance. Here we have an example of how he elevates the poor and needy and brings them into his company.