The Compassion Of Jesus.

THE COMPASSION OF JESUS.

Matthew 9:27-38.

MATTHEW 9:27. As Jesus left the ruler’s house, two blind men followed Him. We are not told that they were bidden, like Matthew (cf. Matthew 9:9). But they were relentless, like the men who had carried the paralysed man into Jesus’ presence earlier (cf. Matthew 9:2).

They could not see with their eyes, but their spiritual eyes were open to the fact that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. They addressed Him by His Royal title: “Son of David.” They could also perceive, and no doubt had heard about Jesus’ authority to heal, so they cried out in faith, “have mercy on us.”

I say these two men were relentless, because they continued to follow Jesus all the way back to His home. It is like Jacob, wrestling all night with the Angel of the LORD, and then saying at daybreak, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me’ (cf. Genesis 32:26). Jacob was persistent in prayer, refusing to let his opponent go until he procured the desired blessing. Such outpouring of ourselves, painful perseverance, tenacity in prayer - will cause us also to prevail.

MATTHEW 9:28. For all their crying after Jesus, He still needed to check the basis of the blind men’s faith. When He got home, He said to them, “Do you (plural) believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” acknowledged the two men, addressing Him with the equivalent of the divine title.

MATTHEW 9:29. As Jesus touched their eyes, He pronounced: “According to your faith be it unto you.” This tells me that we have a responsibility to believe for the right things. Whatever their faith was reaching for, however much or as little, they received it all.

MATTHEW 9:30. These men had received the touch of Jesus, and their eyes were opened. We can imagine how thrilled they were, and how they longed to share their good news with others: but Jesus did not court popularity, and had good reasons to enjoin them to silence. They received just one instruction: “See that no man know it.”

MATTHEW 9:31. These men had received the touch of Jesus, and receiving just one instruction, they disobeyed. They spread abroad His fame when He enjoined silence. They could never imagine what inconvenience this may have caused to Jesus and to His ministry at that time.

MATTHEW 9:32. There is a certain irony in the fact that, just as two formerly blind men who had so recently been ENJOINED to SILENCE went out only to broadcast it abroad, so there was brought to Jesus a DUMB man, possessed by a devil. This man had to be brought, but unlike the paralysed man (cf. Matthew 9:2), he would not be coming voluntarily. The devil within him would never desire that!

MATTHEW 9:33. So Jesus dealt not with the dumbness of the man, but with the malignant spirit. The Great Physician deals with the cause: and when He does that the symptom is alleviated. The man spoke, and the multitudes marvelled saying, “It was never so seen in Israel.”

MATTHEW 9:34. Inevitably, as ever, the Pharisees put another spin on what had happened, wanting people to believe anything but good of Jesus. What blindness on their part, to blasphemously suggest in the face of all these proofs of Jesus’ Messiahship, “He casts out devils through the prince of the devils!”

MATTHEW 9:35. All true Christian mission is based in the teaching and the example of our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Matthew 4:23). Jesus was no stranger to the ills of the people and ministered accordingly. Furthermore He knew their much deeper spiritual needs and preached the glad tidings of the kingdom to them (cf. Matthew 11:5).

MATTHEW 9:36. Here we see Jesus’ compassion. The word translated “compassion” is a deep, almost gut-wrenching, expression of emotion. As Jesus looked at the crowds, his heart was thus moved within Him. He saw them as “wearied and cast away, as sheep not having a shepherd.”

The shepherd motif is interesting. Without a shepherd, sheep are prone to wander, or to follow one another into all sorts of difficulties (cf. Ezekiel 34:5-6). But Jesus comes as the good shepherd (cf. John 10:27).

MATTHEW 9:37-38. In a change of analogy, Jesus speaks of a plenteous harvest, ripe for the picking. And yet few labourers to gather it. Mission commences with prayer; and our attitude to mission should be to show at least a willingness to become the answer to our own prayers (cf. Isaiah 6:8).