Matthew 9:27-38: “Jesus Heals Two Blind Men Who Cry Out For
Mercy And Also A Man Who Is Dumb / Jesus Has Compassion On The People As He
Sees They Are Like Sheep With No Shepherd”
by
1. INTRO:
1.1.
In this next section we will observe the compassion
that Jesus had for those who are hurting and downcast
1.2.
We will see this compassion of Jesus especially
through a couple of miracles which Jesus performed
1.2.1. Jesus heals
two blind men who cry out for mercy to Him
1.2.2. Jesus heals
a man who is dumb
1.3.
We will see this compassion of Jesus as He looks over
the multitide and sees that they are downcast and like sheep who have no
shepherd
1.4.
We will be challenged to allow the Lord to minister to
us out of the compassion that He has for us
1.5.
We will also be challenged to pray that the Lord
places in our hearts the compassion that He has for the souls of men
2. VS 9:27-31 - “27 And as Jesus passed on from there,
two blind men followed Him, crying out, and saying, “Have mercy on us, Son of
David!” 28 And after He had come into the house, the blind men came up to Him,
and Jesus *said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They *said
to Him, “Yes, Lord.” 29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “Be it done to you
according to your faith.” 30 And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly
warned them, saying, “See here, let no one know about this!” 31 But they went
out, and spread the news about Him in all that land.” - Jesus heals two blind men who cry out to Him to have
mercy on them
2.1.
It is interesting here that it appears that these two blind men had been
following Him for awhile crying out to Him, and that He did not stop and heal
them, but just kept on walking, thus testing their faith and perseverance (see
1.)
2.1.1. Often times in our lives,
the Lord does not answer that deep cry of our hearts to Him right away, but He
allows time to pass so that He can also test our faith and perseverance in
seeking Him
2.2.
These two blind men cry out for Jesus to have mercy on them, and in the gospels,
we will notice that the Lord never once turned down anyone who came to Him
asking for mercy, for the Lord loves showing mercy to His people, for He is a
merciful God.
2.3.
These blind men had faith in Him as the Messiah, for they even address
Him properly as the ‘Son of David’, indicating they had a knowledge about the
Messiah coming through David’s lineage
2.4.
In our study, we have already looked at one such promise made to David of
having one of his descendents sit upon the throne forever, 2 Sam. 7:12, “12 “When
your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your
descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his
kingdom””
2.5.
Jesus encourages their faith by making sure that they are trusting Him by
faith that He will heal them, for Jesus knows that what people need most of all
is to have their faith in Him strengthened
2.5.1. In the gospels, we see that
Jesus did not always require those whom He healed to have faith first, for
sometimes He healed people based upon someone else’s faith, and sometimes He
healed people just because He had compassion on them
2.5.2. As I mentioned before
‘faith’ is the conduit through which the Lord works in our lives, He requires
it of us, and His word teaches that ‘without faith it is impossible to please
Him’, and ‘whatever is not of faith is sin’, so we must always approach the
Lord in faith in Him and His Word
2.6.
Jesus heals these two blind men by touching their eyes, however we see in
the gospels that He did not follow a set pattern in the way in which He healed
people
2.6.1. I believe that one of the
reasons that He did this is so that we in the church throughout history would
not come up with the perfect formula or set of things that you must do and then
you will be healed, but rather God wants us to look to Him and what He wants to
do today when we seek Him in prayer for healings
2.7.
I believe that these two men also were saved at this moment, for they
call Him ‘Lord’, plus they are aware of Him being the Messiah, and thus they
call Him, ‘Son of David’
2.8.
Jesus here sternly warns them not to tell anyone about this miraculous
work that He has performed in healing them, however they did not obey Him in
this but instead went and published it everywhere
2.8.1. This just shows us that these
blind men were just people like us whom He reached out to and healed, and as
new believers they had weaknesses in their lives just as we have them in our
life
2.9.
It is interesting to note that it appears in the New Testament that none
of the people whom Christ told to not tell anyone about a miraculous work that
He had wrought were obedient to His command
2.10.
Healing these blind men crying out for mercy paints the picture of how
the Lord loves showing mercy to us His children and making us whole from the
effects of our sin, for He is always faithful to forgive and cleanse us from
all sin when we confess our sins (1 John 9)
3. VS 9:32-34 - “32 And as they were going out, behold,
a dumb man, demon-possessed, was brought to Him. 33 And after the demon was
cast out, the dumb man spoke; and the multitudes marveled, saying, “Nothing
like this was ever seen in
3.1.
This man was deaf and dumb most likely, since it is deafness that usually
what causes a person to not be able to speak
3.2.
Due to sanitary conditions and diseases, deafness was very very common in
3.3.
It is interesting in this story here as well as others in the gospels
that the Pharisees and Jewish leaders did not question whether or not Jesus had
performed a great miracle, for this was evident
3.4.
Since the Pharisees couldn’t dispute that this miracle had been performed
by Jesus, they instead attack His character and attribute the miracle to His
being demon-possessed Himself
3.4.1. In Luke 11:17-22, Jesus
gives a very good argument Himself against this logic on another occasion , “17
But He knew their thoughts, and said to them, “Any kingdom divided against
itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls. 18 “And if
Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? For you say
that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. 19 “And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons,
by whom do your sons cast them out? Consequently they shall be your judges. 20
“But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the
3.5.
The Pharisees should have had more discernment and even listened to the
multitudes for they were coming to some correct and logical conclusions when
they say that even with all of the prophets that lived throughout the history
of
3.6.
In Matthew 12:30-32, Jesus taught that there was an “unpardonable sin”
when the Pharisees were accusing Him of doing miracles through the power of the
devil, “30 “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather
with Me scatters. 31 “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be
forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 32 “And
whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him;
but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him,
either in this age, or in the age to come””.
3.6.1. This sin is not something
that a person says once or twice and then they can never be forgiven, rather it
is an alienation of God that happens when a person over many years continues to
harden his heart toward God even going to the point of attributing the works of
God to the devil
3.6.2. This sin cannot be forgiven
because it cannot be repented from, for the person has finally driven the Lord
away from him
4. VS 9:35 - “35 And Jesus was going about all the
cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the
gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of
sickness.” - Jesus went
all about the cities and villages of
4.1.
What is the ‘gospel of the kingdom’ that Jesus proclaimed?
4.1.1. The word ‘gospel’ in the
Greek means ‘Good News’, and Jesus preached the new covenant which He was
inaugurating at this time as well as the Kingdom which God was establishing for
all eternity
4.1.2. There are various aspects to
the ‘gospel’, and in the New Testament we see this phrase used referring to
various things
4.1.2.1. Jesus surely brought out
different aspects of the good news than the apostles later brought out when they
preached
4.1.2.2. Paul preached the gospel
that he had received by special revelation from God
4.2.
Matthew tells us in this verse, that any and every kind of disease and
sickness was being healed by Jesus at this time, being God there was nothing
that He could not heal
5. VS 9:36 - “36 And seeing the multitudes, He felt
compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep
without a shepherd.” - When Jesus
looked over the multitudes He felt compassion for them
5.1.
In the gospels we find many incidents where the compassion of Jesus for
humanity is evident, for He was moved by the hurting and needs of everyone
around Him at every moment
5.2.
This is a very remarkable word used for ‘compassion’ here, for it is not
found anywhere in classic Greek, it isn’t found even in the Septuagint, for it
was coined by the gospel writers themselves in order to describe the compassion
that only Jesus had
5.2.1. The compassion of Jesus
starkly stands out in comparison even in regard to that of the best of men and
prophets who have ever lived upon the earth
5.2.2. Strong’s Greek Dictionary
has the following entry for this word translated as ‘compassion’ here, “4697 splagchnizomai {
splangkh-nid’-zom-ahee} middle
voice from 4698; TDNT - 7:548,1067; v AV - have compassion 7, be moved
with compassion 5; 12 GK - 5072 { splagcnivzomai
} 1) to be moved as to one’s bowels, hence to
be moved with compassion, have compassion (for the bowels were thought to be
the seat of love and pity)
5.2.3. The word refers to the
internal reaction that a person has to events, and thus it is similar to the
way that the phrase “bowels were moved” expresses, for it describes that
physical sensation of having your insides torn inside-out down
5.2.4. The word is used a total of
12 times by the gospel writers when expressing what Jesus felt towards people
in various situations
5.2.5. Concerning this compassion
which Christ felt for the multitude, Spurgeon comments on the use of this word
used for compassion, “The sight that Christ saw with His eye, deeply
affected His heart: ‘He was moved with
compassion on them’. The expression is a
very strong one indicating that His whole being was stirred with an emotion
which put every faculty into forceful movement”
5.3.
‘Compassion’ is perhaps the characteristic of Christ’s that is most often
seen in the gospels, for He never turned away anyone who came to Him asking for
mercy, and even when people did not come to Him with requests for mercy, when
He crossed their path He was moved by compassion and ministers to them. The following verses from the gospels reveal
Christ’s compassion:
5.3.1. Matthew 20:31 records, “31 And
the multitude sternly told them to be quiet; but they cried out all the more,
saying, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”, and after Jesus determined
from the men that they had faith to believe that He could heal them, verse 34
tells us, “34 And moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately
they regained their sight and followed Him”.
5.3.2. Mark 1:40-42 records Jesus healing
a leper because of His compassion for the man, “40 And a leper *came to Him,
beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying to Him, “If You
are willing, You can make me clean.” 41 And moved with compassion, He stretched out His hand,
and touched him, and *said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” 42 And
immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed”.
5.3.3. In Mark 5:1-18, we read of
the demoniac who lived in the tombs and who would often cut himself with
stones, and this man was so totally controlled by demons, that when Jesus
addressed the demon in the man, the demon said that his name was, “Legion”, for
many demons were present within the man.
But this man was so completely dominated by the devil, that he could not
exercize faith to be healed of himself if he wanted to, yet because of His
great compassion for the man Jesus healed him without even being asked by anyone, “5:1
And they came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes.
2 And when He had come out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with
an unclean spirit met Him, 3 and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no
one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; 4 because he had often
been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him,
and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
5 And constantly night and day, among the tombs and in the mountains, he was
crying out and gashing himself with stones. 6 And seeing Jesus from a distance,
he ran up and bowed down before Him; 7 and crying out with a loud voice, he
*said, “What do I have to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I
implore You by God, do not torment me!” 8 For He had been saying to him, “Come
out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 And He was asking him, “What is your
name?” And he *said to Him, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” 10 And he
began to entreat Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now
there was a big herd of swine feeding there on the mountain. 12 And the demons
entreated Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.” 13
And He gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the
swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand
of them; and they were drowned in the sea. 14 And their herdsmen ran away and
reported it in the city and out in the country. And the people came to see what
it was that had happened. 15 And they *came to Jesus and *observed the man who
had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very
man who had had the “legion”; and they became frightened. 16 And those who had
seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man, and
all about the swine. 17 And they began to entreat Him to depart from their
region. 18 And as He was getting into the boat, the man who had been
demon-possessed was entreating Him that he might accompany Him”.
5.3.4. Note that in Luke 7:12-15
that no one petitioned Christ for this miracle, and that He required no
conditions of believing in Him by anyone, Christ just performed it because of
His compassion for the mother of the dead man, “12 Now as He approached the
gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his
mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd from the city was with her.
13 And when the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her,
“Do not weep.” 14 And He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers came
to a halt. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” 15 And the dead man
sat up, and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother”.
5.3.5. In Luke 19:41, we read that
after Jesus had ridden into Jerusalem in His triumphal entry as the crowd
yelled, “Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord”, it is
recorded that Jesus looked over the city and because of His great compassion
for the people wept because He knew of the judgments that would fall upon them
because of rejecting Him as their Messiah
5.3.6. In Luke 13:34, Christ’s
compassion is seen for
5.3.7. Matthew 11:28-30 reveals the
heart of compassion that Christ had, “28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and
heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 “Take My yoke upon you, and learn
from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your
souls. 30 “For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.”.
5.4.
In everything that Jesus said and did we see His compassion. He had compassion for mankind before He ever
created the world. He had such
compassion He was willing to leave His office of power and glory to be born as
one of His creatures, creatures fallen into sin. His compassion is seen in that He went from
heaven’s glory and might to a horse stall and into the arms and breast of a
woman He would call mother. His
compassion is seen in all His miracles, it is seen in all of His
teachings. His compassion is seen in all
that He suffered in going to
5.5.
Jesus wants to minister to us out of His compassion if we will but just
let Him
5.5.1. There is nothing which we go
through in our lives, no grief, no fear, no sorrow, which He does not feel
5.5.2. He knows all of our imperfections
and weaknesses, and yet He is not angry with us, not impatient, instead with
gentleness and sympathy He is moved to have compassion upon us
5.5.3. It is such a comfort for us
to know that the one who has compasstion for us actually shared in flesh and
blood and in fact knows all the struggles that we go through in life. He hurts when we hurt for He sympathizes with
our infirmities as the author of Hebrews writes in Hebrews 4:15-16, “15 For
we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One
who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us
therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive
mercy and may find grace to help in time of need”.
5.5.4. He never tires of dispensing
to us mercy and grace, and in fact when He does it glorifies Him, and He loves
giving it out to weak and needy creatures as we are as often as is needed
5.5.5. We need to come to Him and
allow Him to heal our hurts, mend and straighten out all of our crooked ways,
and we can trust Him in doing this because of the compassion that He has for us
5.6.
When Jesus looked over the masses, He saw first of all that they were
sheep, in all that the word ‘sheep’ entails
5.6.1. As has been pointed out,
sheep are not particularly smart, for they can starve to death just a hundred
yards for good food, if one sheep walks over a cliff they will all walk over
the cliff, etc.
5.6.2. Sheep need a shepherd in
order to survive, for they are not smart enough nor powerful enough to defend
themselves against preditors, nor do they have the wherewithalls to provide for
their bodily needs, and without a shepherd sheep are the easiest of prey to be
taken
5.7.
Secondly, Jesus had compassion for the people, for being sheep they did not have
shepherds over their souls
5.7.1. The religious leaders in
5.7.2. The strongest indictments
found in the scripture are for those who are false shepherds of God’s people
5.7.2.1. We see examples of this in
the prophet’s rebukes of the religious leaders in the Old Testament times, as
in, Exekiel 34:1-11, “34:1 Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, 2
“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to
those shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Woe, shepherds of
5.7.2.2. Jesus strongly rebuked the
Pharisees who were the corrupt shepherds of the Jewish people in Matthew
chapter 23, and Matthew records the following in Matt. 23:13, “13 “But woe
to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of
heaven from men; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who
are entering to go in””.
5.7.2.2.1.
False shepherds over God’s sheep have the greatest guilt for when they
should be leading the way for people into His kingdom, instead they are
preventing them from being able to enter in
5.8.
Jesus states here that the effect of not having godly caring shepherds
over their lives was that the people were ‘distressed and downcast’
5.8.1. They had nowhere to go to
turn for help, to get godly spiritual counsel for their lives, and though they
may desire to know the Lord and His ways in their lives, they were unable to
find Him
5.8.2. They were beaten down in
condemnation from their own sins, and were people living with no hope in this
world or the next
5.9.
We should be like our Lord in His compassion for people, yet how can we
have the same burden for souls that Jesus had?
5.9.1. First of all, lets be
certain that God does want us to have that same burden for souls which He has,
He wants to give it to us if we will be willing to receive it
5.9.2. When as Jesus did we look
out over humanity, and all of the needs that people have, we as Christians
should and surely do to some extent experience that compassion for souls which
Jesus had, and if we will but give ourselves to prayer to have the heart of
Jesus for people, then Jesus will give us more of that same deep burden for
souls which He had, however we must realize that we cannot change the whole
world, but what we can do is reach out to a person here and a person there with
compassion and lead them to the great physician who is able to bear up and care
for every need which a person shall ever have
5.9.3. Many a revival has started
because people gathered together to pray and to lay hold on the Lord until He
would have His way in their hearts, giving them that same deep compassion for
souls, and in the hearts of the people of their land, until finally a revival
broke out and multitudes came to salvation
5.9.3.1. How we need to gather
together to pray for a true revival of religion in our day
6. VS 9:37-38 - “37 Then He *said to His disciples, “The
harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 “Therefore beseech the Lord
of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”.” - Jesus instructs His disciples to pray for the Lord to
send out workers into His harvest
6.1.
We see here for the first time in Jesus’ ministry the fact that He has a
plan for reaching the world with the good news of the gospel, and that it is
the ones whom He has called as disciples through whom He is planning to carry
this out
6.2.
His goal was never to try and
reach as many people as He could in this life with the gospel, but rather to
win and train up men who will also win and train others for this work.
6.2.1. This is called spirtual
multiplication, and it is a much more efficient of a way of reaching the world
than just doing mass evangelism
6.2.2. In 2 Tim. 2:2, the apostle
Paul exhorts Timothy to follow his (and ultimately Christ’s) example and find
some faithful men that you might raise up and train in order that they might do
the same, “2 And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of
many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others
also”.
6.3.
Jesus tells His disciples that the ‘harvest is plentiful’, and I believe
that in all generations it is always the case that there are many more people
willing to accept Christ into their lives than there are people who are willing
to go and share the good news with them
6.4.
Jesus tells His disciples that they need to pray for workers to go out
into the harvest to win souls, and this is because prayer is always the first
place that we need to go when we see the spiritual needs around us in this
world
6.4.1. We need to pray that the
Lord will raise up leaders and disciplers, evangelists, and people with all of
the giftings that He desires to give
6.5.
The first verses of the next chapter show that now that Christ has told
His disciples to pray that the Lord would raise up laborers for His harvest,
that He next sends them out (those who had just been praying about the Lord
sending someone out) to go on their first missionary journey
6.5.1. Whenever we pray for the
Lord to work in a certain way, we should also realize that we need to be willing
to be the one whom the Lord chooses to meet those needs that we have been
praying about