Matthew 20:34

“Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes.  Immediately they received their sight and followed him.”

Heavy  with the weight of the looming cross, Jesus, passing through Jericho on his way to Jerusalem, heard the heart-rending cry of two blind men, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us.”  v 30 The crowd surrounding Jesus told the fellows to stop it. Maybe because they, especially the disciples, knew that great things are going to happen when Jesus gets to Jerusalem so they had no time for these two anonymous blind men.  The disciples pushed the blind men aside because they thought Jesus had greater things to do.

Jesus heard the the cry of these two men of faith who were in a pit of darkness.  Jesus stopped!  He may have been struck by what they called him, “Son of David,” for that surely was what he was.  In any case, on his way to culminating his calling as God’s Lamb about to be slain for the salvation of all mankind he was touched by the faith of the two blind men, so much so that he stopped everything and cured their blindness.

This healing must have impressed Matthew so he felt moved to record it. There was no way Matthew could tell but a fraction of Jesus’ many healings. This healing was significant for Matthew.

I suppose he had been among the crowd who wanted the desperate blind men to be quiet. Not Jesus.  He wanted to hear and to heal.  I love Matthew’s candidness. He was an impressive learner. Are we?

This is the last of Jesus’ healings before he entered Jerusalem as the sacrifice for sin.