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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Matthew 20:30-34 wherein we see two blind men receive their sight, enabling them all the better to follow the One who favored them.
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!” The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.
A common question that every Christian works through at some point is, “If God already knows everything, why do I need to voice any request before Him?” One quick way to answer such a question is just to pull the “Scripture rules” trump card and say, “Because the Bible says so.” And indeed the Bible does say that we should come before the Lord with the desires of our hearts. …In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God (Philippians 4:6). But apparently Jesus, who knew the hearts of all men, being fully cognizant of their needs, still valued the interaction with people regarding such subjects. In this instance especially, as Jesus responds to the call of these blind men along the road, he certainly could see that they “looked” past Him instead of at Him, displaying their physical deficiency. Yet He and the men have this interaction where Jesus asks them what they want and they responded with the obvious, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” Though it has become somewhat of a cliche among believers, God really is all about us having an interactive relationship with Him.
Now we should back up a bit and hone in on these two men. We note first that it seems they were, from their first words, operating out of faith in Jesus. In calling Him both Lord and the Son of David, they recognized Him as the Messiah come from God. Though physically blind, they had spiritual sight and are not, like many, rebuked by Jesus for their lack of faith. See also that they were persistent in expressing their desire to be near Him. Others rebuked them, thinking themselves more important or worthy of Jesus’ attention and able to better engage in what would be proper interaction. They recognized, through simple observation, how not to interrupt or bring disorder to the scene. But these men simply knew that they must have Jesus despite what others thought of their disruptive shouting. Jesus had been teaching His listeners about how the lowly, even lagging, servants would be counted the greatest in the kingdom. And so His attention given to these humble men of faith who were unable to follow Him apart from miraculous enabling should not come as a surprise.
Finally, we cannot miss what happens when these men receive pity and healing from Jesus. They had gotten the exact thing that they asked for, but this became a mere help for them to better engage in what they most wanted to do: follow Jesus. How often do we call out to the Lord for the things that we are needful of only to receive them and then pursue our own pleasures following such provision? These men serve as an example to us for they, who before were restricted in their choosing of what or who they might follow, were suddenly presented with many options before their eyes; despite any temptation they might have had to explore all that they could now see, they still followed Jesus. Let us be in this same way undistracted in our pursuit of the Lord, the Son of David, today.
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