Mark and Luke's account of presumably the same incident records only one man. A possible explanation is that there were two, but one, Bartimaeus, was the vocal one who did all the talking. Matthew and Mark say the healing took place when they left Jericho, Luke when they approached. There were actually two Jericho's, and old and a new town.
However, leaving these details aside, let's get to the main point of the incident. It is significant that this is another incident where people tried to stop others coming to Jesus. The discipled rebuked the parents for bringing their children, here the crowd rebuke the blind men for shouting out to Jesus. In both cases Jesus welcomed those who wanted to come. Our God is a welcoming God.
They had obviously heard that Jesus was someone special, though they probably did not know the full extent of who He was. Jesus asked them what they wanted. Normally they would have asked for money, as presumably they spent most of the day begging. However, they sensed that Jesus could give them something more than money. So they asked for their sight.
Jesus touched them, they were healed, and they followed Jesus. All of us have many surface wants and needs, and God does care about these things. But He is able to do so much more, He can meet the deepest needs in our lives. So we should ask for the really important things.
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