As the news of Jesus raising this little girl from the dead spreads all throughout the countryside, Jesus continues on His way only to be met with another case of human suffering in verse 27…
“After Jesus left the girl’s home, two blind men followed along behind him, shouting, “Son of David, have mercy on us!” They went right into the house where he was staying, and Jesus asked them, “Do you believe I can make you see?” “Yes, Lord,” they told him, “we do.” Then he touched their eyes and said, “Because of your faith, it will happen.” ”
Right away, as we watch this scene unfold with the other disciples, we recognize familiar themes popping up. As Jesus is going about life a human need is presented to Him in a display of desperate faith. I mean did you notice how they just barged their way right into the house where Jesus was staying to make their request? Jesus also makes it a point to emphasize that it was their faith in Him that was the reason for their healing. Yet this time it wasn’t just a faith in His ability that was the focus of this display of desperate faith. They shouted in front of everyone, calling Him the Son of David. Son of David was referring to Jesus’ identity as the Messiah from the royal line of David. They connected Him being the Messiah King with being a Healer. And here we learn that Jesus heals human suffering in response to…
Desperate Faith in His Identity.
Parents, it’s like if you were out with your kids and one of them suddenly passes out in a public area. As you try to resuscitate your child, people begin to surround you out of concern. Now if after a few minutes your child hasn’t come to, you might expect for someone to cry out in desperation, “Is there a doctor in the house?”. And why are they calling for a doctor? Because we know that title identifies a person that can do something about this medical emergency. And these two blind men had the spiritual insight to know that the One with the identity of Messiah could give them their sight.
What we are discovering here is that these two blind men could see before Jesus gave them sight. Their spiritual sight into the identity of Jesus as Messiah became the precursor to their receiving physical sight by faith.
Yet because of their insight into His true identity, Jesus does something strange, that on the surface has us scratching our heads like, “I don’t get it.” Jesus sternly warns them not to make it known that He, the Messiah, had healed them. But you would think that Jesus would want people to know that He was the Messiah who came to save them, since He truly was the Messiah. However by that time, the title of Messiah had become reduced to only being seen as an earthly king that would get the Roman rule of the backs of the Jews by military force. Without giving people the fuller understanding of what it meant for Jesus to be the Messiah at that time and making this explicitly known to the public would have hastened His crucifixion before the time. Therefore, many Bible scholars call the way Jesus operated at this time in His ministry “the Messianic secret”. Yet because of the desperate faith of these two blind men in His identity as Messiah, Jesus mercifully touched their eyes and gave them sight.
Maybe what you’re needing right now is spiritual sight to see who Jesus really is. Could it be that Jesus wants to move you from merely seeking Him for what He can do for you, to seeking Him for who He is? The way you keep the identity of Jesus, who He truly is, at the front of your mind is primarily through daily reading and meditating through Scripture with the focus on God’s character of love revealed in Jesus and Him crucified. This is even more fulfilling as you do it with others, like our Sunday evening Grow Group is doing right now.
CJ Cousins
Follower of Jesus, Husband, Father, Associate Pastor for Younger Generations at Vienna SDA Church and Speaker/Author for Living For Him.