Three miracles of healing and another blasphemous accusation: Matthew 9:27-34
Thoughts about serving others
This link includes a list of posts about Serving the Least, the Lost, and the Lonely.
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Let the Word evoke words. May your life encourage lives.
Two blind men followed Jesus, calling out to him to heal their blindness, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” They meant great honor by saying Son of David, and Jesus could see their hearts were in the right place. It’s difficult to appreciate the honor bestowed on someone in this manner, it’s not part of our current culture. King David reigned 1,000 years before Christ…one thousand years. That’s an incredibly long time! In a culture where verbal histories were carefully taught, they had to work hard to remember details. King David was one of the Patriarchs of the faith, a man after God’s own heart. To be a Son of David is to be an heir to the throne, a great honor indeed.
Another observation is that the men are working together, “have mercy on us.” We are in need of mercy and we believe you can help. The life we live on earth is one of community, it’s something we do together. They follow Jesus inside and continued their plea. Their faith made the touch of Jesus complete. No longer blind, Jesus tells them to keep it quiet, but their joy is too great to be quiet. The world must know! We were blind, but now we see! I don’t know how good their theology was when they tried to explain their belief system, but it was good enough!
In the next breath it seems another man is brought before Jesus. Apparently this man could not talk due to demon-possession, though that’s not exactly what is said in the text. The verse clearly says, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk, but given the result, it seems that there is some relationship between possession and speech. Obviously the man could answer Jesus’ question about his faith, perhaps just the look in his eyes was enough. Jesus casts out the demon and the man begins to speak.
Many marvel at these wonderful signs because they know the prophesies of old from Isaiah 35:6
The people marveled while the Pharisees trembled and criticized. They were not mere skeptics, they were actively seeking to destroy. Our Daily Bread this morning summarized a passage in Proverbs 26 with this:
The Pharisees didn’t miss this point, they got it and they saw something that would destroy their perfect little worlds. Sadly, these were the spiritual leaders in that time. God chose to send Jesus at this perfect time to change the course of history, not with a flood, but with Jesus, God in human form, to walk among us and teach us his glorious ways.