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Matthew 20:29-34 – Jesus and His 12 disciples were traveling, along with them was a multitude following Jesus and being interested in what he was doing. This is just before the triumphal entry and towards the end of Jesus ministry.
The characters of this story are two blind men. Jesus mentions that he was sent to heal the blind. Often blindness was understood as a punishment for sin, there was a stigma of this attached to being blind.
Some of the people in the crowd were thinking that Jesus was probably getting close to setting up his earthly kingdom. Perhaps some of them thought they would get power.
The blind fellows called Jesus “Lord” – they recognized him with a title of respect. Up until Christ’s death and resurrection the title of “Lord” was more a common way of respecting someone. The early church took “Lord” and applied it to Jesus and it stuck as a way of referring to Jesus.
These blind men had something they were thinking about when it came to Jesus, while they weren’t seeing physically they spiritually understood that Jesus was the Messiah. The multitude tried to keep these blind men from getting to Jesus. They got annoyed at their persistence.
Jesus heard them and wanted to hear their request. They were very specific in their request and Jesus healed them. Upon being healed they followed Jesus. A very proper response!
Spiritual Applications
We are all blind to at least some extent. We are spiritually and physically limited. When we become Christians our eyes are definitely opened, and we continue to gain a clearer view of who God is and who we are.
Our view of God is often blurred by any one of many things. We probably don’t have a perfect view of who God is, we struggle to see God in a way that is 100% accurate.
We often struggle to see ourselves accurately as well. Sometimes we are far to easy on ourselves, other times we are far to hard on ourselves. We need God to show us his perspective on us and his desires and goals for us.
We are also often blind to others, we don’t see the needs of others, nor do we recognize the ways that we can be helping those around us.
God wants us to be growing and to have better, more clear spiritual vision. As we think about things that we can do to gain clearer vision we need to be clear that it is a work of God, not us, to gain more clarity in seeing properly.
1 Corinthians 13:12 – We see things in a way that is blurry. Peter was rebuked by Paul for not having clear spiritual vision. Paul and John Marks vision was different at different times during the New Testament times as well. Often spiritual vision is incremental, God gives a little direction for today… and tomorrow… and the next day… Let us be humble and sensitive enough that God may show us something else that changes the way I see things.
We need to be willing to be uncomfortable. These two blind fellows were definitely outside of their comfortable zone. They knew that if they didn’t get Jesus attention they would remain blind. We here in the USA don’t have a lot of the struggles that are very apparent in other parts of the world. Comfort is often the enemy of growth. We all like to be comfortable, it is part of our nature, but it is easy to become complacent and quit growing spiritually.
Pray in faith. These two blind men were crying out in faith, asking for mercy. God will answer our cries for spiritual vision. It doesn’t mean that he will answer over night, but God does hear and will answer. We need to pray in faith. Do we believe that God is going to answer?
Be persistent. Life is often a lesson in persistence. Faith and prayer also require persistence. Let us not grow weary in calling out to Jesus to work in our lives. Walking with God is a continual thing, not just a one time thing.
Go to Jesus. Jesus is the one that can give vision. What can we do to “come to Jesus” more than the are already doing? Coming to Jesus requires change on our part. Maybe it is removing distractions from our lives. Perhaps we need a specific time of seeking apart from the “normal” things we do to seek and draw closer to Christ.
Jesus will heal and give us vision… and then we need to follow him. Study Jesus, walk with him, listen to him, see who Jesus is and follow Him.