Scripture: vs. 30-34
[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.
Observation:
The two blind men called out – they had faith. In spite of what others were saying (the crowd), hey relied entirely on the Lord.
The crowd rebuked the blind men – why?
The Lord is good – He had mercy on the blind men and healed them.
The men recognized what Jesus did for them and followed Him, ready to spread the word of what the Lord had done for them.
Application:
Why did the crowd rebuke the men? It seems like we, with our sin nature, care more about ourselves than others. What wold it have hurt the crowd for Jesus to heal the blind men? There was only upside, no downside. Two men could be healed and they could help spread the gospel. Maybe much of the crowd didn’t really believe. Maybe they were following Jesus not because they had faith, but because a crowd was following Jesus. The crowd was in a crowd mentality. Probably one person rebuked the men and then the others joined in. It doesn’t make sense but that’s what we do. March on, go along with the crowd, ignore others in need, care about ourselves.
The two blind men had total faith in Jesus. They KNEW He had the power to heal them as nobody else could. They didn’t let the crowd influence them. In their faith, they shamelessly and earnestly cried out to Him.
How many times have we seen healing, or seen good things happen that have no other explanation than it being the work of the Lord? How many times have we seen something miraculous and attributed it to some worldly explanation, or we knew it was the Lord and yet, we still didn’t follow Him as we should have. We’re still not all-in with Him. We try to use Him as our insurance policy or go go Him when we are seeing the results of bad decisions. We turn to Him, He gives us grace and mercy and then we forget about it when we should give Him the glory, follow Him, and tell the world of what He has done for us.
Prayer:
Lord I love You. Thank You for reminding me daily of your grace. Thank You for the miracles You’ve shown me. There is no other explanation than the fact that You are showing Your omnipotence and that You are always in control. Let me always have unhindered faith in You even when faith is weak in much of the world around me. In Jesus’ mighty name, amen.