11.11.2009

#74 – What the Gospels Teach – Jesus not Stopping - Matthew 9:27-31

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" 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." Then He touched their eyes, saying, "It shall be done to you according to your faith." And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them: "See that no one knows about this!" But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land. (Matthew 9:27-31 NASB)

This text brings forth a couple interesting points.  First, notice that the blind men were following Jesus, and followed Him all the way to a house.  The chronology of this, can be missed if we read it too quickly.  We have this assumption that Jesus sees these two blind men has mercy on them and heals them, but the passage says something altogether different than that.  Two blind men were following Jesus and crying out “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”  We have no indication of how long they followed, or how far this house was away, but we do see that at the house they caught up to Him, and then He healed them.  It is important to notice the unique nature of all of these healings.  In one case we have a woman touching the garment of Christ, another where a man calls Christ to His home to raise His daughter, some healing of the unclean, and other miracles performed for Roman leaders, the healings are all very unique.  In the case of this healing the blind men had to pursue Jesus crying out, and eventually had to catch up to Him.  This is not the typical image we get of Jesus, normally we think of Him stopping to serve all and not walking on to His next stop while people in need are crying out.  You cannot call this healing the ‘normal’ method, but at the same time you cannot call it abnormal either.  The point is that there is no standard protocol for healing.  God is not going to be manipulated or convinced to heal based on your 12 steps, or your specific program.  Healing is unique and not bound to a system.

The second point is Jesus’ stern warning. “See that no one knows about this!”  Why was Jesus stern?  Was He avoiding these people for a reason, and then giving in and healing them, but not without issuing a stern warning?  Why would He give a command He knew they wouldn’t keep?  Was it sin when they went and spread the news?  The sternness of Jesus’ warning should at least give us a clue that He meant business, this was not a trite, “let this be our little secret” type thing, but instead it was a forceful command.  This healing is enigmatic to me, the only compassion Jesus’ offers is the healing itself, but the time leading up to the healing He is walking away from them, and the time after the healing He is issuing a stern warning.  There is no forgiveness of sin mentioned, no looking upon them with compassion, it was more of a cold healing.  Did these men ‘use’ Jesus?  Did Jesus know that these men were yet unregenerate and did not want them proclaiming Christ so as to cause His name to be blasphemed?  Obviously these are questions I have no answers to, but I do think this healing deserves more than a cursory look, as its uniqueness is important to the Gospel narrative.

On a side note, I have been posting much less lately and I really miss it.  Writing has kinda fallen out of my routine as I have begun pursuing Greek.  At the same time Greek has fallen out temporarily too, and I have been wasting time laying in bed until 7 or later.  Lack of discipline leads to all sorts of malady and lack of joy so I resolve by the grace of God to shed this temporary apathy.  Not promising more posts, but hopefully that will be a result of this resolve.

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