Luke 18:35-43--Jesus Heals a Blind Beggar

Luke 18:35-43
English Standard Version
​
Jesus Heals a Blind Beggar
35 As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36 And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” 38 And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 39 And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 40 And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” 42 And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” 43 And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

---

This encounter with the blind man on the road near Jericho may seem like just another miracle, but it's actually a very important "sign" that Jesus was the Messiah.  This is probably one of the times where the crowds begin following Jesus really start to sense that He really is the Messiah.  There have been questions about "Could He be the One?" in the past, but Jesus fulfills one of the most important Messianic prophecies here by "giving sight to the blind."  Matthew lets us know that there were actually two blind men there, and the gospel of Mark tells us the name of one of the blind men who received their sight.  These details should be enough for anyone who thought this was a fable to go back to the place and find the people involved and those who knew these two men to verify that they had been blind and had received their sight.

Now these blind men seemed to be able to "see" with their spiritual eyes the things that the Pharisees had not been able to discern, for when they heard the crowd told them that it was Jesus that was approaching and and that was what was causing the commotion, they began shouting as loud as they could to be heard over the noisy crowd, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" We have seen very little of these words so far as they are a very specific title that would mean that these men understood Jesus to be the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant, the rightful heir to the throne, and the one who would reign over the house of Israel forever and ever.  It is an important part of this account even though Luke's Gentile audience wouldn't necessarily understand its significance and every one of the gospel accounts that talks about this healing mentions that one or both of the blind men were calling out using this name for Jesus.

It is also important to see that the blind men are crying out for mercy.  Jesus will ask them what they want from Him in a minute.  He knows, but He wants to make their request clear to the crowd.  By asking for mercy, they are asking to no receive what they do deserve, so they believe the the King is coming into His Kingdom, and that He is going to execute perfect justice and that they stand guilty and condemned.  They cry out for mercy because if they get what they deserve they would be caught up in the judgment of the wicked.  How different is their attitude than that of the Pharisees who thought they needed no confession or repentance?

Not only does Jesus offer them the mercy they ask for, but He also offers them grace by asking them what they want Him to do for them, because He wants to give them something they don't deserve because of their faith as Jesus often wanted to show the crowds that the faith of such a person had made them well on the inside.  The request of this blind man was simple yet also profound, "Lord, let me recover my sight."

There is so much faith wrapped up in this statement that Jesus was Lord, that He was able to give sight to the blind (something that no ordinary man could do).  Jesus was happy to heal this man and the man followed after Jesus giving praise to God.  Notice also that all the people who saw this started to understand better who Jesus was and this is probably one of the events that kicked off the expectation in the crowd that led up to what we know as Palm Sunday where the people were welcoming the Son of David to ride into Jerusalem and take His place on the throne of David.  They thought they were ready for their King, yet unlike this blind man, many did not see that they needed to cry out for mercy and receive both mercy and grace from Jesus.  The Triumphal entry is in the next chapter of the book of Luke, just a few verses away and this passage would leave first-century readers thinking that they finally have been told plainly who Jesus is, for only God can give sight to the blind.

The message here would be clear to any Jew, especially the Pharisees that had been following Jesus around trying to trap Him, but we will see that they will have a very different reaction to Jesus' Triumphal Entry.  They will not welcome Him with cries of "Have mercy on me" nor will they even welcome Him with cries of "Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD."  But they will tell Jesus to make His disciples and His followers be quiet.  I skipped over it in this story until this point, but Jesus originally tried to encourage the blind men to be quiet when they were making noise as He was approaching, but it was only when He couldn't quiet them because they continued to cry out to Him that He asked them what He could do for them.  We'll see Jesus' reply to the Pharisees was that it was impossible to keep these disciples and followers quiet and that even if they would be quiet that the rocks would cry out in praise.  So then we have the setup here for what is going to be happening on Palm Sunday where we see some of the first to welcome Jesus as King and sing His praises were men who were blind but saw more clearly than the Pharisees, but the Pharisees who said they could see clearly were willfully blind and worse off than the blind men, because they had eyes but could not see spiritually and had ears but could not understand the parables that Jesus was teaching.