Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Merciful Son of David: Blindness, Faith, and Discipleship (Matthew 20:29–34)

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The Merciful Son of David: Blindness, Faith, and Discipleship (Matthew 20:29–34) · Reformed Thinking

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Usually, if you want to figure out what is going on in a given
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situation, you ask the person who can actually see.
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Right, you naturally look for the eyewitness.
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Yeah, you rely on the person with 2020 vision to give you an
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accurate assessment of reality. That is the logical thing to do.
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But today, well, we are looking at a historical event where the
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only people who accurately perceived reality were entirely
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blind. Yeah, and the people with
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perfect physical vision were completely oblivious to what was
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actually happening. It is a wild contrast, so
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welcome to reformed thinking for this deep dive.
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We are glad you are joining the conversation.
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We are opening up the Gospel of Matthew today, specifically
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chapter 20, verses 29 through 34.
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So this is the historical account of Jesus healing 2 blind
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beggars on the road departing from Jericho.
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Right, and we are pulling from several theological commentaries
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that interpret this text from a strict historic Protestant
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perspective. Yes, specifically.
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Adhering to the Westminster Confession of Faith.
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Our goal for this deep dive is to examine the staggering irony
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of these blind men seeing the truth while the sighted crowd
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remains ignorant. And you know, we want to extract
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the theological weight of Christ's actions here and apply
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it directly to your own faith. It is a fascinating paradox to
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start. With it really is, and it sets
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up the entire their framework for how we have to read this
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narrative. Because we are not just looking
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at a neat little moral fable or a basic historical footnote.
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No, not at all. We are looking at a collision
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between divine sovereignty and absolute human bankruptcy.
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And to really grasp the gravity of that collision, I mean, we
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have to look at the ground they were standing on.
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We definitely need to look at Jericho geographically and
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historically. The context here carries immense
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weight. So Jesus is departing from the
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city of Jericho. Right.
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And in the 1st century, this was not just some dusty, forgotten
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outpost. No, this was a city heavily
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influenced by Roman culture. Yeah, and it was vastly expanded
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by Herod the Great. I mean, Herod had built massive
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winter palaces there. He even built a Hippodrome.
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Right, he did. There were elaborate aqueducts
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feeding lush gardens and palm tree grows.
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So it was an opulent location. Very opulent.
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It was characterized by worldly architectural glory and extreme
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wealth. It was basically a resort city
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for the elite. But from Jericho, the road to
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Jerusalem is a completely different story.
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Oh yeah, it is a steep, grueling and highly dangerous 18 mile
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ascent through the Jibian Wilderness.
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I want to pause on that contrast for a second because the visual
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is so striking. It is a very stark image.
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You have this massive wealthy city behind them, and then you
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have this brutal uphill road ahead of them and right at the
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edge of the city, sitting in the dirt by the side of this busy
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Rd., you have these two blind beggars.
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And we have to understand their situation.
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In the ancient world, without any modern structures of social
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care, physical blindness meant absolute economic ruin.
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There were no disability benefits or vocational training.
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None. They were socially marginalized,
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completely destitute, and, well, totally dependent on the spare
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change of passing pilgrims. Though they are the absolute
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lowest rung of society. Yes, sitting right there in the
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shadow of Herod's architectural vanity projects.
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And the timing of this is critical.
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Right. Very critical.
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Jesus is making his final progression toward Jerusalem for
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the Passover. He knows he is walking toward
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his own crucifixion. He does.
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Just a few verses prior to this scene, he explicitly told his
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disciples what was going to happen.
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Right, He told them he would be betrayed, mocked, flogged and
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crucified to act as a ransom for many.
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So this entire scene, you know, the healing of these beggars,
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unfolds under the looming shadow of the cross.
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That is the essential backdrop here.
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Jesus is walking to his death to secure redemption.
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And the first thing he encounters on that final March
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is a picture of the exact human condition he is dying to redeem.
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Precisely these two blind men physically illustrate a highly
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specific spiritual reality. Okay, let us break that down for
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the listener. Well, we hold to the doctrine of
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total depravity, which is a core tenet of Reformed theology.
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But we need to explain what that actually means, because people
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often misunderstand the term. They do.
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Total depravity does not mean that every human being is as
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thoroughly evil as they could possibly be.
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Right. It means that the fall into sin
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has affected every single part of our nature.
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Yes, our mind, our will, our affections, everything.
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We often talk about spiritual inability, but here in this text
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you have a physical manifestation of it.
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That is a great way to put it. A blind man cannot simply choose
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to see. Right.
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His physical will is bound by his biological brokenness.
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Just like the these men cannot will their retinas to heal or
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manufacture their own sight, the natural man cannot manufacture
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his own salvation. They require an external divine
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intervention. They.
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Absolutely. Do their physical blindness and
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extreme poverty mirror the complete and total bankruptcy of
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the human soul apart from the sovereign grace of God?
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That really brings the theological concept out of the
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clouds and right down to the dirt Rd.
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It really is where the rubber meets the road with total
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depravity. Think about the magnificent
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architecture of Herod's Jericho compared to those beggars
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sitting in the dirt. It is quite the contrast.
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In our modern lives, we often build massive, impressive
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structures for ourselves to hide our own bankruptcy.
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All constantly. We build towering careers,
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pristine reputations, heavily diversified financial
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portfolios. And highly curated social media
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presences. Yeah, exactly.
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We construct these modern Herodian palaces to convince
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ourselves and everyone else that we are entirely self-sufficient.
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We assume that because we have money in the bank or a respected
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position in society, we possess spiritual sight.
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We think our moral resume gives us leverage with God.
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But the text forces us to look at these beggars and realize
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that fallen humanity is not merely sick or slightly
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inconvenienced. Right.
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Fallen humanity is helpless and ruined.
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Totally ruined. I want to ask you, the listener,
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to evaluate your own stance before God.
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It is a necessary evaluation. Have you ever actually
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recognized your own absolute spiritual bankruptcy?
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It is a terrifying moment when you realize that all the moral
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structures you have built are entirely useless for bridging
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the gap between you and a holy God.
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You are sitting in the dust, unable to save your.
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And it is out of that exact realization of absolute
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destitution that these two men formulate a highly specific
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plea. It is a very historically loaded
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plea. It is they hear the crowd, they
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realize Jesus is passing by and they cry out.
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Lord, have mercy on a Son of David.
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Now, to modern years, that might just sound like a desperate
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greeting. Yeah, but that phrase is a
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massive theological and political declaration.
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When they use the title Son of David, they are not simply
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identifying his hometown. No, or noting his family tree in
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a casual sense. This is an explicit royal
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Messianic title. Rooted deeply in the Davidic
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covenant found in the Old Testament, specifically Second
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Samuel Chapter 7. Right where God promised David
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that his throne would be established forever.
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By using this title, these marginalized, uneducated men are
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publicly declaring that Jesus is the prophesied king of Israel.
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The legitimate heir to the throne.
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Yes, and the one in whom God's covenant promises find their
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fulfillment. In the volatile political
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climate of 1st century Judea, which was under the iron fist of
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Roman occupation, that was a dangerous thing to say.
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Oh, declaring a passing rabbi to be the son of David was
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practically seditious. The Romans crucified people for
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lesser claims of kingship. They absolutely did that.
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Completely flips the script on who actually understands what is
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going on here. It really exposes the blindness
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of everyone else. The crowd was looking for a
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political revolutionary to overthrow Caesar.
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And the sighted disciples, James and John, had just been
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bickering with the others over who gets the best seats of honor
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in the Kingdom. The disciples have physical
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sight, yet they are blinded by carnal ambitions.
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They look at Jesus and they see a ladder they can climb to
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elevate their own status. They have proximity to him, but
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their ambition completely obscures their understanding of
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his mission. And then you have these beggars.
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Yeah, they represent true saving.
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Faith they possess 0 leverage. Not at all.
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They have zero resume to hand over to Jesus.
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They cannot offer him political alliances or financial backing.
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And look at their actual request.
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They do not demand justice. If we ask God for justice, we
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are asking for our own condemnation.
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Spot on. Instead, they plead exclusively
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for merited mercy. They bring nothing but their
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desperate need. That posture is the absolute
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essence of the doctrine of justification by faith alone.
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Faith does not rest on our own inherent righteousness or on any
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works we have done. Not at all.
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These men know they have no merit to present as a reason for
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favor. They rely entirely on the
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compassion of the King. They understand both the depth
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of their misery and the freeness of the help they require.
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This union of true self knowledge and true Christ
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knowledge is what constitutes saving faith.
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They know they are ruined and they know the Son of David has
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the authority to dispense mercy. But we need to look at the
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mechanism of how this faith operates.
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Right Reformed theology insist that Christ's sovereign grace
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secretly quicken their dead hearts to cry out in the first
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place. The grace precedes the cry.
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Yes, the internal working of the Holy Spirit regenerates the
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heart, enabling the person to see their need and cry out for
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the Savior. Wait, I need to push back on
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that for a second. OK, go ahead.
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If Reformed theology insists that Christ's sovereign grace
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secretly quicken their dead hearts, well, that the grace
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came before the cry, yes. Then why do they even need to
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scream out? That is a common question.
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Doesn't that make the screaming just performative?
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I see where you're going with this.
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If God has already regenerated them, why do they have to sit in
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the dirt and beg? It almost sounds like a script
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they're being forced to read. That is the tension people
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struggle with when they encounter the doctrine of
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sovereign grace. It seems contradictory on the
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surface. But we have to understand the
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mechanism of human action inside divine sovereignty.
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How does that work? God odings the ends, which is
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their salvation and healing, but He also ordains the means, which
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is their genuine, desperate cry. OK, ends and means.
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Right. The secret work of the Spirit in
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their hearts does not bypass their human will.
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It actually frees their human will.
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Because before grace, their will was bound by spiritual
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blindness. Exactly.
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They would never desire the true Christ on their own.
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So when grace operates on the heart, it gives them a new
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nature that genuinely hungers for mercy.
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So the screaming is not performative at all.
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It is the most authentic thing they have ever done.
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It is the necessary mechanism of their faith acting out.
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The grace does not make them robots, it makes them alive.
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And living things cry out for what they need to survive.
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That is a perfect way to summarize it.
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OK, that makes sense. The grace gives them the
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capacity to recognize their need, and the cry is the
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inevitable result of that new life.
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Yes, so they realize they are bankrupt.
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They cry out for the true King, and you would think the crowd of
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God's people would cheer them on you.
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Would hope so, wouldn't you? You would think the religious
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pilgrims heading to Jerusalem for the Passover would stop and
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say, yes, the king is here, let's bring these broken men to
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him. But the exact opposite happens.
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The religious crowd turns into the villain here.
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The text says the great multitude rebuked them,
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demanding that they be signed. The crowd essentially shushes
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them. We really have to look at the
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theological assumptions of that crowd.
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What were they thinking? Well, in that era there was a
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widespread cruel and false theological assumption that
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physical disabilities like blindness were a direct curse
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from God for a specific sin. We see that false assumption
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addressed directly by Jesus in the Gospel of John Chapter 9.
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Right when the disciples ask if a man was born blind because of
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his own sin or his parents sin. So to the religious crowd, these
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beggars are not just an annoyance.
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No, they are spiritual pariahs. They are considered unclean.
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The crowd views them as a distraction, delaying a very
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solemn, very significant religious procession.
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The Greek word used for rebuke here carries a strong sense of
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hostility and censure. They are aggressively trying to
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suppress the cry of the broken. Yes, they are.
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I want to translate that feeling to a modern context because it
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is easy to judge an ancient crowd until we look at
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ourselves. That is always the danger in
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reading history. Think about the palpable awkward
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tension in a quiet, polished modern church service when
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someone's cell phone goes off loudly during the sermon.
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Everyone glares. The entire congregation just
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radiates the silent collective annoyance because they're
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peaceful environment was disrupted.
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Right, it breaks the mood. Now take that feeling and
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amplify it to a life or death scenario.
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Okay, what if that persons phone is ringing because they are
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getting a call from a hospital about a dying child and they
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collapse in the aisle weeping? That completely changes the
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dynamic. The crowd in Jericho wants
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decorum. They want a pristine environment
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that does not get interrupted by the messy, agonizing reality of
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human misery. They want the religious
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experience without the compassion.
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Have you, the listener, ever felt silenced by respectable
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religious people when your need was most desperate?
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It happens more often than we care to admit.
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Have you ever felt like your brokenness was too loud for the
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church? That analogy exposes the severe
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spiritual danger of the visible covenant community when it loses
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sight of its actual mandate. The multitude surrounding Jesus
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prefers social decorum and order over actual compassion for the
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ruined. The crowd thinks they are
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protecting Jesus, maintaining the dignity of the procession,
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but they are actually acting as a barrier to the very people he
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came to save. This segment of the text
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provides a massive correction to modern seeker sensitive church
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pragmatism. It really does.
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So many contemporary religious movements want to Polish the
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church service, dim the lights, keep the music upbeat.
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Yeah, and make everything palatable for the respectable
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crowd. They treat the church gathering
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like a pristine theater production.
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But true faith is resilient, and true grace is entirely
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disruptive. When the crowd rebukes these
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men, they do not retreat into wounded silence.
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No, they do not assume that because the religious people are
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mean to them, Jesus must also reject them.
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The text says they cried out all the more.
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Their desperation fuels their persistence.
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They know that if the son of David passes by and they remain
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unheard, they have nowhere else to turn.
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That resilience is incredible. They just turn up the volume
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they do, and then the entire narrative pivots on one
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breathtaking action. It is an amazing moment.
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The crowd is demanding silence, pushing the procession forward,
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trying to keep the schedule intact.
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But the King of glory. Halts.
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The text simply says Jesus stopped.
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He called them and asked what do you want me to do for you?
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And then it details that he has moved with pity.
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The original Greek word used there is spleck misamai and.
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We really have to talk about that word because it is not just
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a passing feeling of sadness. No, it is far more intense than
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mere sympathy. Spleg misamai refers to the
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inward parts, the bowels. In the ancient world, the bowels
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were considered the seat of the deepest emotions, much like how
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we use the word heart today. Right.
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It describes A visceral, gut wrenching compassion.
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It is a stirring in the very depths of 1's being.
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The Creator of the universe looks at two men sitting in the
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dirt, men who've been shunned by society and silenced by the
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religious establishment. And his physical body reacts
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with intense, agonizing compassion for their misery.
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He. Does not view them as an
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interruption. He views them as the very
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purpose of his mission. And then he physically touches
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their eyes. Here is where the mechanism of
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the miracle becomes so fascinating to me.
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How so? Jesus had the sovereign ability
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to heal them with a single spoken word from 100 yards away.
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He absolutely did. He did not need to make physical
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contact, but he closes the distance.
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You gets right down there with them.
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I liken it to a highly protected head of state surrounded by a
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massive security motorcade moving down a busy Ave.,
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suddenly ordering all the vehicles to halt.
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That's a great, great image. He steps out of his armored car,
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walks right through the frustrated elite crowd, and
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kneels down in the dirt to physically embrace a homeless
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vagrant. He proves that His supreme
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Majesty is expressed perfectly through his condescension and
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mercy. And Levitical law touching an
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unclean person makes you unclean.
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But Jesus reverses the flow his. Purity cleanses their
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uncleanness. His sight destroys their
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blindness. That physical touch is a vital
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demonstration of his messianic office.
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But we must dig into the system systematic theology operating
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behind this exact moment, right? We have to look at how different
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theological frameworks handle this interaction.
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Let us compare them. If we look at the Armenian
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theological framework, it would suggest that the men's uncaused
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free will initiated the healing. That they generated the faith
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entirely on their own. Right.
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And Jesus merely responded to their autonomous choice.
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But why does that distinction matter?
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How does that change the psychological comfort of the
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believer? Well, if my my salvation relies
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on my uncaused free will, then it is fragile.
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Because you generated it, which means you can lose it.
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Exactly. My grip on Christ is the
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deciding factor. But Reformed theology insists on
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God's eternal decree and Providence.
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Yes, we look at Westminster Confession chapters 3 and 5.
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Christ passing by on this specific road at this specific
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time was no accident. It was a sovereign appointment
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decreed from all eternity for the rescue of these specific
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elect individuals. If my rescue relies on his
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sovereign appointment, I am secure.
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My grip on him might falter, but his grip on me is absolute.
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That changes everything about how you sleep at night.
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It brings massive comfort. If the mechanism of salvation
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depends on my performance or my ability to maintain perfect
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faith, I am going to live in constant anxiety.
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But if the mechanism is grounded in his unchangeable decree, you
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can rest. Now we also have to address
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another dangerous framework that tries to hijack this text.
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We definitely do. People read this story and say,
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look, Jesus healed their physical blindness because they
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had enough faith. Yes.
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Therefore, if you have enough faith, God will heal your
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cancer, fix your bank account, and give you perfect physical
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health right now. This is the core of the
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prosperity gospel. And we must firmly reject that
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narrative. Because it entirely distorts the
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mechanism and the purpose of the text.
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This physical healing was a specific historical
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authentication of his messianic office.
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It was fulfilling the specific prophecies of Isaiah which
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stated that when the Messiah comes, he will open the eyes of
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the blind. The miracles in the Gospels are
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signs pointing to the identity of the King.
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They are not a blank check promising universal physical
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health and wealth for every believer in the modern era.
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To teach that is to completely miss the reality of the road
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Jesus is walking on. He is walking to the cross to
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suffer. He guarantees that his followers
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will also face tribulation and suffering in this life.
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The. Healing in Jericho proves he has
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the authority to defeat the curse of sin.
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Which will culminate in the resurrection of the body at the
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last day. But it does not guarantee a life
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free from physical ailments today.
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The proof of what this grace is meant to accomplish is found in
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the immediate aftermath of the miracle.
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Let us look at what they do next.
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Jesus touches their eyes and the narrative says that immediately
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they received their sight and followed him.
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They do not just say thank you and go back to a comfortable
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life in Jericho. They do not run off to start a
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lucrative business now that they can see.
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They do not sit down and write a memoir about their experience.
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The goal of the grace they received was immediate
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discipleship. There is a human tendency in all
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of us to want the fix without the following.
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We want the Savior to intervene, solve our immediate financial
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crisis, heal our sickness, or fix our marriage.
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So that we can go right back to running our own lives according
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to our own plans. We treat God like a cosmic
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vending machine or a supernatural mechanic.
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But that is not how sovereign grace operates.
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No, it is not. In Reformed theology, we refer
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to this concept through the lens of the third use of the moral
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law, which focuses on gratitude. The law does not justify us.
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Right. But for the justified believer,
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it acts as a guide for grateful obedience.
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Grace that is truly received requires and produces obedience.
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Saving faith is never static, it acts.
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The text says they follow Jesus and we must remember the
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geography we established at the beginning.
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Where is Jesus walking? He is on the steep, dangerous
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ascent to Jerusalem. That means these men are now
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following the suffering King toward the cross.
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They are walking into the epicenter of the greatest
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conflict in human history. The grace they received
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radically reoriented the entirety of their existence
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around the lordship of Christ. True sight is not fully
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understood until it results in discipleship.
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The mercy of Christ calls individuals into fellowship with
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Himself. And fellowship with him includes
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walking his Rd., bearing the cross and facing the hostility
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of the world. This provides a severe
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correction to any shallow view of grace that assumes God just
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wants to make us comfortable. So I have to ask you, the
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listener, a hard question. This is where we examine
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ourselves. If you claim that your spiritual
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eyes have been opened by Christ, are you still sitting by the
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roadside in a state of spiritual lethargy?
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Are you just enjoying the view or are you actively walking the
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narrow Rd. of obedience behind him?
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Because if there is no following, we have to question
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if there was ever any actual healing of your spiritual sight.
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Which brings us to a highly practical consideration.
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This event happened 2000 years ago on a dusty Rd. in the Middle
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East. Christ is ascended.
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He is seated at the right hand of the Father.
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He is not physically walking down the highway outside your
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city today. So how do we experience?
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Yeah, how do we, the modern listeners, experience the same
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sovereign touch from the Son of David right now?
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We encounter him through the instituted means of grace within
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the corporate worship of the Church.
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The historical event directly shapes historic Protestant
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liturgy. We do not invent ways to
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interact with God based on our own psychological preferences.
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No, we use the specific means he provided in Scripture.
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This is why historically Reformed congregations sing the
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inspired Psalms. When we sing Psalm 146, which
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explicitly declares that the Lord opens the eyes of the
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blind, we are not just reciting ancient poetry.
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We are participating in the exact same reality as the men on
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the Jericho Rd. Furthermore, we participate in
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corporate confession. For centuries the Church has
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prayed the Kairi Alaison. Lord, have mercy.
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When a congregation prays that together we are deliberately
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echoing the exact cry of those beggars.
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We are collectively acknowledging our own spiritual
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poverty before the King. We are admitting that we bring
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no resume, no leverage, and no inherent righteousness to the
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gathering. But the absolute climax of this
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interaction is found in the administration of the Lord's
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Supper. In our tradition, the sacrament
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is referred to as the visible word.
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Let us flesh that out. I want to use an analogy to
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explain the mechanism of how this work because it is crucial.
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OK, think about someone with severe amnesia carrying around a
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wedding ring. OK, the gold ring itself did not
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create the marriage, but touching the cold metal of that
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ring is the physical mechanism that pulls their broken mind
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back to the reality of the vow. That is a helpful picture.
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The physical object anchors them to the truth they keep
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forgetting. That is what the bread and the
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wine are doing for our spiritual amnesia.
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We constantly forget our bankruptcy and we constantly
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forget His mercy. That is a highly accurate way to
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describe the mechanism of the sacrament.
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And it avoids a couple of errors, right?
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Yes, while we strictly deny the Roman Catholic doctrine of
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transubstantiation, where the bread physically turns into
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literal flesh, we also firmly reject the idea that communion
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is just an empty memorial where we simply sit and think hard
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about Jesus. Christ is spiritually present in
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the sacrament. John Calvin argued extensively
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that the Holy Spirit bridges the gap between the believer on
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earth and Christ in heaven. As the believer partakes of the
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bread and wine in faith, they spiritually taste the mercy of
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Christ. Just as the blind men felt his
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physical touch on their eyes. The physical elements are the
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mechanism through which the Spirit nourishes our faith.
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It is not magic, but it is deeply supernatural.
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I want you to envision your Sunday worship not as a concert,
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not as a lecture hall, and certainly not as a pristine
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theater performance where everyone is shushing the broken
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people. I want you to view your
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corporate worship as the Jericho Rd.
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When you gather with the Saints, the Son of David is passing by
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through the preaching of the Word and the administration of
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the sacraments. Taking the Communion elements is
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akin to receiving that same restorative touch from the king.
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It nourishes our spiritual vision week after week, keeping
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us from slipping back into the illusion that we are
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self-sufficient. This entirely safeguards the
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church from treating worship as mere entertainment.
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We are not there to be amused. We are there as desperate
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beggars, receiving the sustenance we need to survive
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the brutal uphill ascent toward the cross.
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And this raises an inevitable question about the posture of
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the modern church. It definitely does.
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If our worship services are designed only to appeal to the
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strong, the wealthy, and the put together individuals, we have
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modeled ourselves after the hostile multitude, not the
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compassionate Christ. The Church must be a refuge for
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those who know they are ruined. We must proclaim the word in
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such a way that it strips away the facade of human merit and
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drives the listener to cry out for unmerited favor.
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The allocation of this passage demands that we examine our own
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hearts as a congregation. We despise the weak.
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Do we shun the messy realities of those broken by sin?
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Do we glare at the disruptions? Or do we point them to the
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sovereign sight giver who possesses the authority to grant
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true perception? The theology we hold must
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directly translate into the compassion we exhibit.
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If our doctrine is accurate but our hearts are cold to the
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ruined, we are entirely hypocritical.
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So we have walked the road out of Jericho today.
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Examine the total bankruptcy of the human condition, looking at
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the dust of the road compared to the Herodian palaces we built.
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We have unpacked the resilient, desperate cry of true faith that
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bypasses our resumes and asks only for mercy.
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We have seen the hostility of the religious crowd that values
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decorum over deliverance. We have analyzed the staggering,
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gut wrenching compassion of the King who stops the universe to
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touch the unclean. And we have seen the inevitable
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result, which is immediate discipleship that follows the
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king straight up the hill to the cross.
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I want to leave you with a stark reality as we close this deep
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dive. Think about this carefully.
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In this historical account, there is no neutral observer.
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There is no one just casually watching from a balcony taking
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notes. You are either the desperate
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beggar sitting in the dirt, acknowledging your absolute ruin
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and receiving spiritual sight from the Son of David.
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Or you are part of the sighted religious crowd, obsessed with
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your own decorum, completely missing the king as he walks
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right past you toward his death. Which one are you?
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You cannot claim to see clearly until you first admit you are
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completely blind. We started today talking about
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the paradox of sight and the diagnostic landscape of the
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human soul. The medical X-ray might not show
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your spiritual fractures, but the Word of God diagnoses us
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perfectly. We are all born blind, sitting
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in the dust, entirely incapable of saving ourselves.
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The only cure, the only hope for our absolute ruin is the
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unmerited mercy of the passing king.
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Thank you for joining us on Reformed Thinking for this deep
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dive into the source material. Keep your eyes open.
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And keep following the king.