Matt. 20:29-34 – Compassion To Two Blind Men
In this narrative Jesus is approaching Jerusalem. The buzz is that the Messiah is coming, but Jesus knows that he is not coming to take the throne but to mount the cross. Because of the coming Passover Feast the roads would be swollen with fellow travelers coming to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast. In the crowd are two blind men sitting by the roadside. Whether they were begging or resting is unknown, but when they hear that Jesus is passing by they cry out for him to “have mercy on us.”
As with most crowds, they want the two to shut up and not bother their hero/celebrity. But as is consistent with his teaching on the Kingdom, Jesus stops to see what these two want. When they ask him for their sight, his heart is touched and he heals them. He steps outside the journey he is on to the cross and feels the needs of those around him. He doesn’t lecture them on the vanity of the flesh or on their need to desire more spiritual things than some bodily function. He has compassion on them and heals them. And they’re response to this act of love is they follow him. Love begets love, this is the way of the Kingdom. Even while he is on his way to die, he stops and gives his attention and love to two men that others would have ignored as being unimportant. JBB 7/20/2005
