As
they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. Behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!” The multitude rebuked them, telling them that they should be quiet, but they cried out even more, “Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!” Jesus stood still, and called them, and asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” They told him, “Lord, that our eyes may be opened.” Jesus, being moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received their sight, and they followed him.
Matthew 20:29-34
Matthew 20 [25.] But Jesus summoned them, and said, “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever desires to be first among you shall be your bondservant, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20 [29.] As they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. Behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!” The multitude rebuked them, telling them that they should be quiet, but they cried out even more, “Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!”
Matthew 20 [32.] Jesus stood still, and called them, and asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”
Matthew 20 [33.] They told him, “Lord, that our eyes may be opened.”
Matthew 20 [34.] Jesus, being moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received their sight, and they followed him.
Matthew 21 [1.] When they came near to Jerusalem, and came to Bethsphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village that is opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them, and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and immediately he will send them.”
Meaning:
Jesus had just taught his disciples that “the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). Now, on the last stage of the journey to Jerusalem, he shows what that means by stopping for two blind beggars whom everyone else wanted to silence. Mark and Luke also tell this story; Mark names one of the men, Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46).
- “As they went out from Jericho”
Jericho lay in the Jordan valley, about fifteen miles from Jerusalem and some three thousand feet lower. It was the last town on the pilgrim road from Galilee through Perea, and crowds were travelling up for the Passover. From Jericho the road climbed steeply through the desert to the Mount of Olives. Luke places the meeting with Zacchaeus in the same town (Luke 19:2-6).
- “Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!”
Blind men could do little but beg by the roadside, where the pilgrim traffic passed. These two could not see Jesus, but they had heard about him, and they called him by a royal title. God had promised David, “I will set up your offspring after you, who will proceed out of your body, and I will establish his kingdom” (2 Samuel 7:12). By calling Jesus “son of David” they declared that he was the promised Messiah, the King. A few days later the crowds in Jerusalem would shout the same title (Matthew 21:9).
Matthew records a similar healing in Galilee, when “two blind men followed him, calling out and saying, ‘Have mercy on us, son of David!’” (Matthew 9:27).
- “The multitude rebuked them... but they cried out even more”
The crowd treated the beggars as a nuisance. But the men would not be silenced. Their persistence was an expression of faith: they knew that Jesus could help them, and this might be their only chance.
- “What do you want me to do for you?”
“Jesus stood still.” On his way to the cross, with a great multitude around him, he stopped for two men whom others ignored. His question was not because he did not know. It invited them to state their need and their faith. Only a little earlier the same question had brought a very different request from the mother of James and John, who asked for honor (Matthew 20:20-21). The blind men simply asked, “Lord, that our eyes may be opened.”
- “Being moved with compassion, touched their eyes”
Matthew alone mentions both the compassion of Jesus and his touch. His heart was moved, as it had been for the harassed crowds who were “like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). The healing fulfilled the prophecy that the Servant of the Lord would come “to open the blind eyes” (Isaiah 42:7), and Isaiah’s promise that “the eyes of the blind will be opened” (Isaiah 35:5).
- “And they followed him”
The healed men did not go home. They joined Jesus on the road up to Jerusalem. Their new sight became the beginning of discipleship.
The Significance of Matthew 20:29-34
- Do not be silenced
When others discourage us from calling on Jesus, persistent prayer is a sign of faith, not a nuisance to him.
- Jesus stops for the overlooked
No one is too poor or unimportant for his attention. His compassion is personal and practical.
- Healing leads to following
Those whose eyes are opened by Jesus are called to follow him, even on the road to the cross.
Cross-References:
Mark 10:52: "Immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus on the way." Mark’s account of the same healing.
Isaiah 42:7: "to open the blind eyes," The Servant’s mission fulfilled.
2 Samuel 7:12: "I will establish his kingdom." The promise behind the title “son of David.”
Conclusion: As Jesus left Jericho with a great crowd, two blind men by the road cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!” The crowd told them to be quiet, but they cried all the more. Jesus stood still, asked what they wanted, and, moved with compassion, touched their eyes. They received their sight at once and followed him. The passage shows the compassion of the Messiah for the overlooked, the value of persistent faith, and the call to follow him.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible