And The Blind Shall See Luke 18:35-42
During Jesus ministry he healed many people of a multitude of ailments and today we see he heals a man of his blindness. This story takes place while Jesus is on his final trip to Jerusalem and he’s only a few days away from entering the city on Palm Sunday.
Verse 35 tells us this man is sitting on the side of the road and scripture only tells us two things about him. One is that he is blind. Second, we know that due to his blindness he is reduced to sitting on the side of the road to beg. We’re told the road he’s on went from Jericho to Jerusalem and that means it had lots of travelers and it was a good place to beg.
Verse 36 says, “When he heard the crowd…” Jesus had a crowd around him. These people knew Jesus was a remarkable person; he preached profound messages about God and how to enter the Kingdom of God. They were drawn to Jesus message of God’s grace and mercy that is offered to all sinners. They were aware of the miracles Jesus performed. And the crowd was following Jesus to Jerusalem believing he was going there to finally set up his kingdom and take his place as the country’s liberator and conquering Messiah.
So we have this large crowd walking by and this blind man unable to discern exactly what’s going on. In verse 37 he’s told, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” Now he could have thought, “Great, I can really make some money from such a large crowd.” But what he does do is in verse 38, “He called out…” This man saw only darkness in the physical, but what a light he could see in the spiritual. This man could see who Jesus really was; verse 38 again, “Jesus, Son of David…”
Here is the great divide between those in the crowd and this begging blind man. Remember the crowd called him Jesus of Nazareth. By referring to Jesus this way at this time they are showing that they still think of him in the natural. They still think of him as a man; a man of God, yes; a teacher, yes; a Jewish man raised by human parents, yes. And as Yeshua; Jesus name in Hebrew, is a common name; by saying Yeshua of Nazareth the people know which Yeshua is walking past.
The main theme here is the crowd still sees Jesus as a man but the blind man, he calls out “Jesus Son of David…” The title “Son of David” was familiar to the Jewish people present who were familiar with the scriptures. They told that God would send a “Son of David,” someone descended from King David to be the savior of the people.
Matthew’s gospel shows how Joseph was a direct descendent of David and as the legal father of Jesus, all the rights and royalty of that line are passed on to Jesus. Scripture tells us Mary’s father was Heli, also a descendent of King David. This gave Jesus the right to ascend the throne both through Mary and through adoption by his earthly father Joseph. By calling Jesus “Son of David” this blind man acknowledges him as the heir to the throne of David, and the savior whom God promised. We may debate whether or not this man understood Jesus to be God on earth as we do, never the less he knew this was the one God promised in scriptures to send, this was the one God sent to save mankind, this was the Messiah.
Again in verse 38, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” Once more we see a simple prayer offered up. It acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah; it admits a life of sin for if this man didn’t understand the sin in his life he would not need to ask Jesus for mercy. This man saw Jesus as the savior of sinners and by asking for mercy he is acknowledging that he cannot do anything to rectify his sin. He is acknowledging that only the one sent by God, the Messiah, could heal his sinful soul.
Glory and praise to God, one would think that’s what this crowd would be calling out. Verse 39, “Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet…” Why tell him to be quiet? Luke doesn’t tell us why they were trying to quiet this man but a few ideas came to mind. Maybe they didn’t like him calling out “Son of David” as that was reserved for the Messiah and they weren’t there yet in their understanding. Perhaps they thought this beggar on the side of the road was beneath a teacher and a man of Jesus stature; or it could be just like earlier in Luke 18 where the disciples tried to keep the children away from Jesus because they thought he shouldn’t be bothered, maybe the crowd thought Jesus was too important to be bothered by the likes of a beggar. Whatever the reason, like in Genesis 32 where Jacob would not let the Spirit of God leave without blessing him, this beggar was determined not to let the Savior of sinners leave without bestowing mercy on him.
Verse 39, “…he shouted all the louder ‘Son of David have mercy on me.” Verse 40, “Jesus stopped and ordered the man be brought to him.” As we’ve seen in other scripture, here again is Jesus waiting for someone to approach him; as always he is willing and ready to respond but we must approach him, he will not force himself into our lives. Maybe more important is Jesus is rebuking the crowd; “you’re wrong trying to keep him away, I want him here in front no matter what you may think about it.
Verse 41, “And what do you want me to do for you?” Romans 10:9 tell us that if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, you will be saved. We know this man believes in his heart, he calls out to Jesus and won’t be denied. We know this man confessed with his mouth because he asks Jesus to have mercy on him. He was well aware of his spiritual need.
This Bible says in verse 41, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” The Living Bible translates it as, “I want to see.” I like this better and let me explain why.
When we come to Christ do we want him to restore our sight; that is restore something we lost? Jesus, restore my relationship, restore my health. These may be honest prayers worthy of approaching Jesus with but “I want to see” says so much more. I want to see you Jesus, I want to see the truth of the Gospels, I want to see God’s lessons in the scripture, I want to see the salvation you offer, I want to see my future in heaven through my faith. Once you see these then you can ask for restoration.
Notice as we’ve seen in other Bible accounts this man is not named and we know what that means. (By not focusing on who he is this man can now represent all humanity.) As a blind man this man was reduced to begging in the streets to earn money. When we don’t accept Christ we are reduced to continuous work, constantly trying to earn heaven through our own efforts. Whatever this man did on his own, he would always be blind. No matter what we do without Christ, we will remain condemned.
I also think that the nameless crowd is an important character in this story. In a way it can represent God’s church on earth or at least parts of it. See how they wanted to keep this man from Jesus. Mankind worships God, we hold him as one of our own, praising him because he gifted us salvation. But men being men too many times even believers can act like this crowd.
Men can dance around Jesus like the crowd on the road but then for a multitude of reasons refuse to share Jesus with others because we feel they have reasons to be denied. You’re homeless, get your act together and then we’ll welcome you. You’re an addict, get clean then come to church. You live a life I disagree with; change, then we can talk about God. None of those things matter to Christ, in fact these reasons are just some of the reasons we need Christ. What we think matters to Jesus are not what he thinks matters; what matters to Jesus is your soul, your relationship with the Father, and your place in eternity.
My last thought is this; the blind man asking for mercy is not him just asking for sight, he was begging for salvation. People need to know what there’re asking Jesus for. We shouldn’t just see what’s at the end of our nose and ask Jesus to replace something earthly, all mankind should “see” like this blind man and beg for mercy and salvation.
Amen