Jesus heals two blind men
Mt 9:27-31 27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" 28 When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to Him, "Yes, Lord." 29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, "It shall be done to you according to your faith." 30 And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them: "See that no one knows about this!" 31 But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land.
Jesus’ miracle of giving sight to the blind symbolizes His desire and ability to bring spiritually sight to the spiritually blind. Many professing Christians are spiritually blind, and most of the time, they don’t even realize it.
Spiritual blindness occurs in many ways: For one, we are spiritually blind when we are unable to see our own sinfulness. We take great steps forward as we realize more and more of how sinful we are. As a result, we become smaller in our own eyes, and judge others lesser and lesser.
We take another great step when we realize that only God (and not our pastor or seminary teacher) is able to see spiritual truth clearly. As a result, we more and more begin to rely on God (and only God) for spiritual truth. We use His pattern to build His kingdom, rather than using our own ideas. We let Him direct our ways and our thoughts and our attitudes and our values. We give importance to what He gives importance to and ignore what He ignores.
We take another great step forward when we realize that our theologians and church leadership are compromised and, sometimes intentionally and sometimes ignorantly, are working under the direction of Satan. As a result, we begin to trust them less, and go to God and His word for spiritual truth and direction. If a blind man leads another blind man, both will fall into the ditch (Mt 15:1-14, Lk 6:39).
We take another great step when we begin to read and study and meditate upon and remember God’s word (i.e. the Bible). A blind man in a new environment doesn’t know the layout around him. If there are obstacles in his path, he is unaware. He bumps into them to learn of their existence. If someone approaches him with harmful intent, he is unaware. He only realizes the danger when the harm begins. God’s word tells us about all the spiritual obstacles and harm that can befall us, and it allows us to avoid those obstacles and the harm.
We take another great step when we boldly believe that God, in His mercy, is able and willing to make us see spiritual truth clearly, and we begin to earnestly ask Him to remove our own spiritual blindness.
Sometimes, God wants us to keep what He does for us a secret. Let me tell you what did for me once…oops, never mind, its to be kept secret. I say this so that my humor will help you remember that there are some things that God tells you and does for you are not meant for public consumption, and you need to discern which is which.
Why did Jesus ask the two blind men whether they believed that He was able to heal them?
For God to do anything for us, we need to believe that He is able and willing. He blesses us according to our faith. That is why Jesus asks, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" If you recognize that you are spiritually blind, ask God to give you spiritual sight. Those who think that they aren’t blind remain blind for the rest of their lives.
In this story, there were two blind men? Why two?
Every often, we are blind, and our brothers and sisters around us are blind too. Just like the two blind men who went together to Jesus to get healed, we all can go to Jesus together to get our blindness removed. We don’t have to do it alone.
|