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Monday 24 August 2020

Matthew 9:27-31 - Have mercy on us, Son of David

9:27,28
Jesus moved on. He has never finished what He is doing (apart from the cross, before you question my theology!). But whatever God has done, He has more to do. Two blind men followed Him and asked Him to have mercy upon them. They called Him the Son of David, implying that they saw Him as the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. It seems that Jesus did not respond immediately, maybe, given what He said later, Jesus wanted to deal with them privately. Jesus asked if they believed He was able to heal them. If we look at the healing incidents we find many examples where faith is highlighted, but we also find others where it isn’t. We must beware of making rules about healing, otherwise we lose the faith element. We can so easily start trusting in the “rules” rather than trusting in Jesus. They replied that they did believe.

9:29-31

Jesus touched their eyes and said “according to your faith let it be done”, so if they were not telling the truth when they said they believed they would not have been healed. Their faith presumably was genuine, for they were healed immediately. Jesus gave them a stern warning, “see that no one knows about this”. Note the importance that Jesus attached to this command. However, it also seems rather odd. It makes sense that Jesus did not want people to get focused just on the healings, but people would surely notice that the previously blind men could now see! However, it was all rather irrelevant for the men, quite understandably, went out spreading the news about Jesus all over the region. We have great difficulty in the church (and in ourselves!) in motivating people to “do evangelism”. People who are willing are those who know Jesus has done something for them.

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