August 18, 2024 Matthew 20:29-34
Find Mercy in Jesus.
Cry out to Jesus. (29-31)
· Cry out to Jesus for Mercy.
· Cry out to Jesus despite the push-back from others.
Talk with the Merciful Person of Jesus. (9-13)
· Bring your needs to Him.
· Trust His ability to respond.
Title: Find Mercy in Jesus.
And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”
And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.
I want to encourage you to take a page from these blind beggars wise strategy and
1. Cry out to Jesus
And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”
Jesus has crossed the Jordan river and passed through the NT city of Jericho (Not OT)
The great crowd that’s following Him is on its way to the Passover Feast in Jerusalem
Along the way they have heard Jesus teach and seen His miracles.
Two blind men are at the exit of the city (one of them is identified as Bartimaeus by Mark)
They cry out to Jesus begging for mercy (an answer to the need that they had)
They call Jesus Son of David.
We’ve seen this title pop up before in Matthew
* Matthew 12:22–23 22 Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. 23 And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?”
The Son of David was a name for the Messiah
It referred to how He would be the fulfillment of God’s promise to King David.
God promised Him that one of His descendants would be anointed as a forever king
* 2 Samuel 7:12–16 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever… 15 my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”
The term Messiah means Anointed One in Hebrew
The term Christ means Anointed One in Greek
The position that Jesus is anointed for is as the king that fulfills the forever King of David’s line.
the first detail we learn here is that we can -
1a. Cry out to Jesus for Mercy.
And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”
Mercy is different than “grace”
Grace = getting what you don’t deserve
Mercy = Not getting what you do deserve
The idea here is that they are asking for a practical response to their obvious need,
And these men were not concerned about debating whether they deserved Jesus’ help or not.
They were perfectly fine framing what they needed as “mercy”
Merciful healing was expected to be a part the Messiah’s ministry as the Son of David
You might recall how Jesus shared evidence with John’s disciples of Him being the Messiah
* Matthew 11:4–5 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.
Jesus as the healing, merciful Messiah is in fulfillment of scripture as passages like Isaiah predict
* Isaiah 35:5–6 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;
Jesus proclaimed that Isaiah 61 was fulfilled in His ministry – it reads
* Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
The other detail we see in this section is the response of these men to the resistance of the crowd
1b. Cry out to Jesus despite the push-back from others.
And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”
For one reason or another the crowd was against the beggars calling out to Jesus,
And they told them stop calling to Him – Don’t dampen our celebration
With the circumstances of Jesus traveling to Jerusalem and all the Messianic implications,
The crowd would’ve expected Jesus to present Himself there as Israel’s Savior.
They must’ve considered the needs of these two blind beggars as being below the Messiah’s attention
It’s ironic that the beggars are recognizing that Jesus would bring healing as the Son of David
But the crowd’s plans for Him were different than what the OT said He would come and do.
Our world is fine w/ us giving glory to God, but (when we recognize who Jesus is) it’s not OK to them
Return to Point - Cry out to Jesus
2. Talk with the Merciful Person of Jesus.
And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.
Hearing the blind beggars, Jesus stops (even as he’s being followed by a large crowd).
He then calls the two men to come to Him – to move from where they are to where He is – surrounded by His followers.
He’s modeling the very servanthood that He just taught His disciples about.
This is a phenomenal moment that we miss in this moment.
This is, the Messiah – descendent of David that will take the eternal throne of heaven & earth
And He’s coming to these men who society has shunned and asked, “How may I be of service?”
We can learn from this moment that talking with the merciful person of Jesus means that you -
2a. Bring your needs to Him.
And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.
The question of “why pray?”
Wayne Grudem’s – Sys. Theology
God wants us to pray because prayer expresses our trust in God,
and prayer is a way that our trust in him can increase.
Prayer brings us into deeper fellowship with God,
and he loves us and delights in our fellowship
Prayer allows us as creatures to be involved with God in His activitiesl,
and those activities are eternally important.
When you Talk with the Merciful Person of Jesus, you should
2b. Trust His ability to respond.
And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.
These men wanted what only the coming Messiah could do – to reverse their blindness.
They asked Jesus for mercy, but instead they received His compassion.
He touched their eyes, and they could see in that same moment
He didn’t send them off with magic eye drops – he restored their sight.
After being healed, these two men joined the crowd and followed Jesus.
According to Heb 4:15, Jesus is our merciful high priest who’s able to “sympathize with our weaknesses”
Knowing this, we’re encouraged to come boldly before the “throne of grace” in prayer
“that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need”
We will find the same Jesus in prayer that served these men and had pity on their condition.
We glorify God by trusting His power and wisdom as we lay our needs before Him
We also glorify God by bringing our sin before Him agreeing with Him that it’s wrong – “confessing”
Having trusted Christ as our Savior, we confess and ask that we might be so bold as to celebrate our forgiveness.
We need to be sitting down regularly and let God ask, “How are you doing?”
When we get stuck emotionally on the next disappointment with this earthly life.
And we get confused once again about what life is truly supposed to be about.
Or when we ache for those that we love and we want them to find God’s love to be a satisfying as we have
We need to hear Jesus ask “What do you want me to do for you?”
And we need to tell Him,
Or we might tell Him “I don’t know, but here’s the situation.”
Conclusion -
We’re closing our section of Matthew in which we’ve beel learning from Jesus what it means to be
Living as a Kingdom Community
It means to find the mercy of God in Jesus just as these blind beggars did.
They became a part of Jesus’ kingdom community – v. 34 “they recovered their sight and followed hi
