A Truth So Obvious

Even A Blind Man Can See It

 

Matthew 9:27-31

27 And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us.

28 And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.

29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.

30 And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it.

31 But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country.

In this story we have the following sequence:

1. Two blind men call Jesus the “Son of David”
2. Jesus passes them by and goes into a house
3. Jesus asks if they can believe. They say they can.
4. Jesus touches them. Their eyes are opened.
5. Jesus sends them away, telling them not to say anything.

The term “Son of David” is important because it was a reference to

2 Samuel 7:12-13

12 And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

13 He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.

So to the Jews at the time of the Roman occupation, the Messiah was expected to be a direct descendant of David that would come and establish an earthly kingdom.

They expected Him to overthrow the Romans, establish and set up Israel and Judah as a united kingdom once again.

By calling Jesus, “Son of David,” the two blind men were directly calling Jesus the Messiah.

It is also interesting that people had seen 17 miracles of Jesus up to this time, yet none of them recognized Jesus for who he was.

Two blind men, who had seen nothing, recognized him.

As we know, Jesus did not come to set up a physical kingdom, but an earthly kingdom. Hence, Jesus ignores their plea for a time.

Instead He heads to a home. Once inside and away from the crowds, Jesus addresses the two men.

One of the other signs of the Messiah was that He would bring sight to the blind:

Psalms 146:8 The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:

Isaiah 29:18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.

Isaiah 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Isaiah 42:7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

So by asking the blind men if they believed that Jesus could open their blind eyes, He was really asking, “Do you really believe that I am the Messiah?”

So the key to receiving anything from God is to first understand who Jesus is!

Next Jesus touches their eyes.

This was a thing that was simply not done. Most diseases of the eye are very contagious.

I know of a place that used a retina scan device for access to a secure facility. Workers would walk up to the machine and place their eye on an eyepiece.

The machine would scan the particular arrangement of the blood vessels on the back of their eye to verify the identity of the person.

One day a person with Pink Eye used the device. Within a few days, everyone in the lab was infected with Pink Eye.

They no longer use the retina scan device.

So even today in our world of Penicillin and vaccinations, eye diseases are very contagious.

That is why it is so important to understand that when Jesus touches the eyes, He is actually breaking the Law of Moses and by law He should be unclean.

However there are several cases where something unclean and something clean come together, and the result is that both are clean.

This is usually the case with running or “living” water. Specifically when water touches stone, then when the unclean item touches the water it becomes clean through washing.

Leviticus 13:34 And in the seventh day the priest shall look on the scall: and, behold, if the scall be not spread in the skin, nor be in sight deeper than the skin; then the priest shall pronounce him clean: and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean.

Leviticus 14:9 But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.

2 Kings 5:10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.

Ezekiel 36:25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

This is one of the symbolisms of Baptism.

1. Jesus is the Rock from which living waters flow.
2. When we are buried in that water, we do not make the water dirty but rather the water makes us clean.

So here Jesus, as the Rock of Salvation, does not Himself become unclean by touching the eyes of the blind men. Rather it is their eyes, by touching Jesus, that become clean and the men are able to see again.

Lastly Jesus sends the men away and tells them not to say a word. It is my belief that He is not telling them to pretend to be blind.

It is my belief that He is referring to them calling him the Messiah.

Jesus knows that He is no there to be a physical king as they are expecting, but He is there to establish a spiritual kingdom.

He also knows that if He claims to be the Messiah, then the Romans and the Jews will likely take action.

His time for sacrifice will come, but it is not yet time. So Jesus enjoins the men to say nothing about Him being a Messiah.

The men completely ignore this advice. How often do we thwart the Will of God by pressing the issue?

God has a plan and He has a time for the plan to be implemented. How often to do force the issue of what we “know” God’s plan to be?

Isaiah 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: