I would like to start with a little activity tonight and to begin I need everyone to stand up. I would like everyone to close their eyes and listen carefully to the description I am going to read and imagine living life that is being described.
Your alarm goes off at 6:00 AM as it is time to get up for school. You quickly turn over in your bed and hit your alarm clock to stop the annoying noise. You lie there on your pillow wishing it was Saturday, wishing at least just a few more moments of sleep. You drift off again but then are awoken by the snooze alarm going off. It’s time to get up. You reach over and turn your alarm clock off and open your eyes to complete darkness.
You hear the birds outside singing and you can hear your Mom getting breakfast ready downstairs in the kitchen but you can see nothing. There is no difference between having your eyes open or closed. As weird as this way seem to others, you have gotten used to it since you were born blind and have never known anything different.
You climb out of bed and slowly make your way to the bathroom and get ready for school. Over the last few years, you have been able to memorize where everything is in your house – how many steps it is from your bed to the bathroom, what corner of the sink your toothbrush is on, and where your towel is. You climb in the shower and begin to wash and realize that your younger brother didn’t put the soap back again. It takes you a few minutes but you eventually find it and finish your shower.
While you were in the shower, you heard your Mom come into your room and set out clothes for you. It’s kinda weird to think that you are almost 16 and your Mom still picks out clothes for you. You pick them up and begin to put them on wondering – What do they look like? What colors are they? You have no idea if you look good or bad or whatever.
You head down stairs, grab a quick bite to eat, say goodbye to your Mom, and head out for school which you don’t really look forward to. You hate sticking out like a sore thumb because of being blind and needing a cane to get around. Your friend greets you at the bus and helps you like they always do. You wonder again what they look like? It’s weird having friends but yet never seeing them…
That day at school is the annual art exhibit by the seniors in the art classes. The whole school is buzzing with excitement about it…an excitement that you can’t relate to because you can’t see the art. You feel left out and sort of secluded. Here is everyone else enjoying the beauty around them and you are left in darkness. Your friends are describing the pictures to you but as they explain that yellow part vs. the blue lines, you have no idea what that means or looks like. Days like this are getting more and more frustrating, “Why God,” you ask, “did you have to make me blind?”
You guys can open your eyes and take a seat. What was going through your minds as you heard this brief description being read? What do you think it would be like to really be blind for your entire life? After imagining all of that, how would you feel or act if one day you were healed by God of your blindness and were able to see for the very first time? Excited? Overwhelmed? Telling everyone? Probably all of the above.
It would be a miracle if that happened to someone. Life would never be the same – never again would you open your eyes to total and complete darkness. You could see your friends and family. You could enjoy the beauty of creation and art. It would be amazing as you saw the world for the very first time. No doubt, there wouldn’t be a single person for miles and miles that would not hear about what had happened.
Well, this is exactly what happened in the text that we are going to look at tonight, Matthew 9:27-31. Let’s open our Bibles and take a closer look at this story as we ask what this idea of being once blind and now being able to see has to do with those of us in this room.
***Read Matthew 9:27-31***
If you guys remember from two weeks ago, we talked about two miracles that Jesus preformed right before this text. One was the healing of a woman that had been suffering from constant bleeding for 12 years and the other was raising a young girl of a religious leader from the dead. Verse 26 tells us that the report of these two miracles began to sweep throughout the entire countryside.
Well, apparently word traveled really fast and as Jesus left the house of the young girl two blind men began following Jesus. We don’t know exactly how long they followed Jesus but the way that the text is worded suggests that it might have been a while. The men didn’t give up and trailed Jesus all the way to the house where He was staying. As they did this, they shouted, “Son of David, have mercy on us,” over and over again.
It is really important to understand what they were shouting and why. Some of you may have thought when you heard the text that Jesus’ father was named Joseph, so why the heck did these men call him the Son of “David?” Maybe they were just confused and got Jesus mixed up with someone else? Nope, they knew exactly what they were doing.
The Jews, for years had been awaiting the coming of the Messiah or Savior for their people. This man, when he came, would restore the people with a relationship with God and do amazing and great things. The prophets for years had written about how to recognize this Messiah when he came and one of the ways was that He would come in the family line of King David (of which both Mary and Joseph were related). By calling Jesus “Son of David” they were boldly proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah promised to come, he was the Savior they had been waiting for.
Realizing that Jesus was the Son of God and the prophesied Messiah, they knew they were not “good” enough and were not worthy to stand before God. Because of this, the two blind men humbly cried out for mercy, “Son of David, have mercy on us!” In other words, the men were saying, “Allow us to have a right relationship with God.”
As they got into the house where Jesus was staying, it is only then that Jesus turns around and speaks to the two men asking them if they believe he could make them see. The writing and prophecies of Isaiah would have flooded into their minds as Jesus asked this question. Three times, as Isaiah writes about the coming Messiah, he declares that the eyes of the blind will be opened and healed (29:18, 35:5, 42:7). “Yes, Lord,” the two men told Jesus, “we do.”
At this, Jesus reaches out, touches their eyes and declares that because of their faith, it will happen. Immediately their eyes were opened and they could see for the first time in their lives. The colors, the beauty, the people; they could see everything clearly. As the two men were taking everything in, Jesus sternly warned them not to tell anyone about what had happened. Jesus did this for the same reasons why he didn’t talk to the men until they were inside the house where He was staying.
First, Jesus didn’t want to get the reputation for a miracle worker who merely fixed everyone’s problems because His purpose was so much bigger than that – to save the world and restore us with a relationship with God. Second, it wasn’t the right time to declare being the Messiah. Jesus knew that when that happened, He would be killed by the religious leaders for being a heretic. That would come later on as we all know but now was not the right time.
Despite Jesus’ warning to these two men, they couldn’t hide their excitement or the physical fact of being healed and they “went out and spread his fame all over the region.”
So, as we talk about miracles and the blind being able to see for the first time, we need to ask what this text has to do with us. As we think about the life of Christ and His mission to restore our ability to have a relationship with God we need to understand that in the Bible this process has been compared to being spiritually blind and then being able to see. It’s this idea of living in darkness, away from God and disobeying him, and being introduced to the light where our lives are exposed to the Truth of God.
In John 9:39, Jesus is speaking with a man who he has just healed of his blindness. Jesus claims, “I entered this world to render judgment - to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.” He was speaking of the Pharisees when he said this because they claimed to have all the right answers, they knew how to have a “right” relationship with God, and they claimed they could see truth. But, as we have talked about before, the Truth of Life was staring them in the face and they completely missed Him because they were spiritually blind.
As Jesus healed these two men, he had compassion on them because they understood the truth of who He was but I think he also healed them as an analogy. These two men arguably didn’t ask to be healed of their blindness, they simply recognized Christ for who He was and asked for mercy – to have a right relationship with God. The men had seen Christ and God, even though they physically could not see, and that was what was most important to them. Really, within in these few verses, there are two miracles.
Yes, these men were physically healed of being blind but the more amazing and wonderful miracle was that these men were healed of a spiritual blindness and saw God for themselves for the first time. This is a miracle that can and is happening in our lives on a daily basis.
When Christ came down from heaven as fully God and fully man, He took our punishment that we deserved because of our disobedience. He died the death on the cross that was meant for us because we had turned our backs on God and become blind to the light and truth through Him. It is only through His death that we can have a relationship with God. When we jump into that relationship and begin to get to know Him more and more each glimpse, each baby step, is another miracle in our lives. It is our spiritual blindness disappearing and slowly getting better. That is something to rejoice about and proclaim.
Notice verse 31, where it says that the men “went out and spread his fame all over the region.” I think it is significant to realize that the text does not say that “they went and told everyone they were healed,” but instead that they “spread his fame all over the region.” No doubt, they went out and proclaimed to everyone, “Look at what the Son of David, the Messiah, GOD HIMSELF, did for us. Look at how he has changed my life and brought me into a relationship with him.”
Guys, maybe you are here tonight and you are beginning to see Jesus for who He is – God and the loving friend who gave us His life for you. I urge you tonight that you can begin a relationship with Him here and now just by praying and asking God to forgive you for your disobedience and telling him that you want to jump into a relationship with him.
The question I want to leave us with tonight is, “what is God showing you in your life today? What is He doing? How are you growing?” Every small step and every small glimpse of God in your life is a miracle that deserves to be proclaimed all over the region. God declares that once you were blind, but now you shall see!
