27When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, "Son of David, have mercy on us!"
28And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?"
They said to Him, "Yes, Lord."
29Then He touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith let it be to you." 30And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, "See that no one knows it." 31But when they had departed, they spread the news about Him in all that country.
These two blind men are the first ones recorded in the book of Matthew to have called Jesus the Son of David. They weren't crying out "Great healer, have mercy on us", but "Son of David, have mercy on us". Were they recognizing Jesus as the Son of David who is to be the Jewish Messiah, Savior to the race, the One who would make their enemies bow down? Why would someone cry out to a savior "have mercy on us?" I would think it would be because they didn't think they were among those who were to be saved. So once again, I believe Jesus is helping someone who He had no obligation to help. Another reminder that Jesus sees no boundaries for who is worthy of help and who is not.
It is interesting that Jesus did not stop to help them when they cried out for mercy. Instead Jesus continued on and they followed him. Jesus entered the house and it wasn't until the blind men came to Him that Jesus addressed them. These men had faith enough to continue following Him. There are times too when we cry out to Jesus for mercy. We may not get an immediate answer. We may even need to go through even more difficult times. But if we have faith, we will be given more than we ask for. These men begged for mercy. Jesus gave them their sight.
There are several interesting choices of words in this story about these two blind men. These men without sight are the first to recognize Jesus as the Son of David. They saw what others did not. These blind men followed Jesus, which would seem to be difficult for blind men to do. When Jesus entered the house, these blind men came to Jesus. Again, they weren't brought to Him, but came to Him. Jesus didn't say "tell no one", but "see that no one knows it". These men's faith was tested by their circumstances. Jesus healed them according to their faith. They were told how to use their new gift.
Unfortunately, their devotion to Jesus ended there. Do we fall into the same trap? We are all given so many gifts even though we deserve none of them. Jesus tells us how to use our gifts, but often we do the opposite. I'm sure these guys thought they were helping more people and possibly helping Jesus' cause by spreading the word of what He could do. But Jesus was very explicit of what they should do and they did the opposite. It is easy for us to accuse them of thinking they knew better than Jesus as to what they should do. We need to remind ourselves that neither do we know better than Jesus as to what we should do.
Why is it so hard to follow through? Jesus is teaching about the need for faith at this point of His ministry. I have seen a natural progression in Jesus' teaching in this book and I wonder if He is now taking us a step beyond faith. As He asked the blind men here, we need to come to and demonstrate our faith ourselves. But I don't think it is possible for us to follow through on our own. He instructed these men to let no one know even though he knew how they would make use of their new gift even before He decided to heal them. He healed them anyway. I think Jesus is teaching here how people are unable to follow through on their own. That is where the guidance of the Holy Spirit comes in. All we need is faith. We will be rewarded according to our faith. The Holy Spirit will help us to do the rest.