Hear now the Word of the Lord from Matthew 9:27–34:

[27] And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” [28] When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” [29] Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” [30] And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.” [31] But they went away and spread his fame through all that district. Jesus Heals a Man Unable to Speak [32] As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. [33] And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.” [34] But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.” (ESV)

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.

Introduction

In 1968, two social psychologists, John Darley and Bib Latinate, published some very surprising and counterintuitive research about the dynamics of how people act when they are in groups. They found that, when individuals are in groups, they are less likely to help in an emergency situation than when they are on alone. The basic idea runs like this: If an individual comes across an emergency situation, and they know that they're the only one around who can provide help, that individual feels a high level of responsibility. “I've got to do something! It rests on me.” So, if someone is alone, there is a high likelihood that they will call for help and they offer any assistance they can. But, if you take lots of individuals who are likely to help when they are alone, and then you put them into a crowd, so that this crowd of helpful individuals is together watching an emergency situation unfold, each of those individuals is less likely to act within the crowd than if he or she were there alone.

Now, usually if you have a large enough crowd, someone is willing to act—to do something to help. But if you've ever taken CPR training, this is why one of the first steps after determining that there is an actual emergency is that you must point to someone say, “You! Call 911!” You must give someone that individual responsibility to do something, or the chances are that everyone will stay in shock, all of them thinking that someone else is going to take care of it, and no one will actually call 911. This phenomenon, where a crowd hesitates to act, came to be called the “Bystander Effect.” Everyone hesitates, thinking that someone else is going to rise to the occasion.

Often when we hear something like that, the key question we may be thinking is, “Well, what happens if I'm in trouble? Who do I actually want to come find me? Do I want just one person? Do I want to take my chances on a group? Who's going to help me when I need it?” The Bible, however, asks a very different question. If you are in an emergency situation—if you are in need of help—the question is not so much, Will someone help you? Rather, the question is, Are you willing to ask the One who can help you, to help you? Are you willing to ask the Son of David for the mercy that you need? Or not?

It seems like that would be a simple question. “Of course, if I need help, I'll ask for the help!” But in our own lives and on the pages of Scripture, we often discover that this question is not as simple as we think it is. Our big idea today this morning is going to focus on the source of our help, that Jesus is the merciful son of David. Earlier this morning, we sang “I lift my eyes up to the hills; from where does my help come?” Our help is in Jesus. Jesus is the merciful son of David. Then, as we consider this big idea that Jesus and the merciful son of David, we're going to look at three reactions to that fact, three reactions to that reality that we see in this passage:

1. Realizing the Significance of Jesus' Power (Matt. 9:27–31)
2. Recognizing the Singularity of Jesus' Power (Matt. 9:32–33)
3. Rejecting the Source of Jesus' Power (Matt. 9:34)

1.     Realizing the Significance of Jesus' Power (Matt. 9:27–31)

First, we must realize the significance of Jesus’ power in this magnificent story of these two blind men. We read in verse 27, and as Jesus passed on from there, Jesus is always going or going to or from someplace. Here he is again, going on his way. “And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him crying aloud, ‘Have mercy on us, Son of David.” This title, “Son of David,” is interesting. This is not the first time in the gospel of Matthew that we have seen Jesus called the Son of David. In fact, if you remember, the very first verse of Matthew begins on that note: “This is the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, and the son of Abraham.” So we've known from the very beginning of Matthew’s Gospel that Jesus is the Son of David. I was once in a conversation with a Jewish rabbi at an airport and was asking him spiritual questions. I asked him, “Why do you not believe in Jesus?” And he said, “Well, he's not the son of David.” And I said, “You've got to read the Gospel of Matthew! You've got to go right into the very first words of the very first verse of the very first book of the New Testament, that Jesus is the Son of David.” He was surprised by this, and told me that no one had ever told him that Jesus was the Son of David.

Whether Jesus is the Son of David may not be a big question on your mind, but I guarantee you it is a big question on Jewish minds, because for the Jews, the title Son of David talks about the Messiah, the one who is to come, and the son of David is the heir to the throne of David. And as these two blind men realized the Messiah, the Son of David to come means that he would bring great power. He would bring the power of God, the Kingdom of God, including opening the eyes of the blind. Now we're going to see the Jewish people wrestling with this statement, “son of David,” throughout the rest of this gospel. Later in Matthew 21:15–16, when Jesus is again hailed as the Son of David, the chief priests, and the scribes are going to try to stop people from calling Jesus by this title. But the very first people to call Jesus are right here, when these two blind men acknowledge that Jesus is the son of David. By this, these two blind men see more clearly than anyone else so far in this gospel. That's not by mistake that Matthew wants us to see this because they see not with their eyes, their physical eyes, but they see by faith.

How, then, does Jesus respond to this verse 28 when he entered the house? Now, stop there for a moment. This is really interesting. If you remember what we've seen so far, and if you remember the last passage, Jesus is constantly being interrupted. And Jesus, far from seeing interruptions as something that he wants to do away with. “Oh, there they go again. I’ve got to respond to this need now, and that need again.” No! We saw in the last passage that Jesus immediately responds with a heart of compassion. Someone says and comes to him and says, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live.” And Jesus up and went with him. “He rose and followed” that man to go help that little girl. Then along the way, behold another woman comes along suffering from a discharge of blood for 12 years. This is Matthew 9:20, and she interrupts Jesus by touching the fringe of his garment so that she is healed. When she does this, Jesus doesn't turn around and say, “How dare you touch me? Don't you know that I'm on my way to help someone?” He turns around and kindly says, “Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well.” Jesus is always being interrupted and is always responding immediately. But here Jesus doesn't respond to the interruption of two blind men declaring, “Have mercy on us. Son of David.” In fact, the way Matthew writes this suggests that he ignored these two men as they chased him down the street crying out to him, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” Matthew doesn't come right out and say it, but the way this is narrated, especially in the context of all the ways that Jesus responds to these other interruptions tells us that Jesus doesn't interact with them until they go into the house.

Why is this? Probably two reasons. The first is that Jesus could not publicly claim that he was the son of David—not because he was not the son of David, he was the son of David (to straighten out that double negative). Rather, he could not publicly claim to be the son of David because people had misapprehensions and misunderstandings of who the son of David would be. The people wanted a political king, someone like David, “with a sword in his fist” (as a song I really like talks about)—that is, they wanted a really strong political leader. And I'm not talking about “politics” so much like we think about sometimes. I'm talking about politics in the sense of establishing policies at the tip of a spear by physical force. They wanted that kind of a political son of David King who would usher in a kingdom of this world. Jesus was the son of David. He is the son of David. Matthew tells us from the very first verse of his gospel that Jesus is the son of David, but he was not that kind of a son of David. So, Jesus could not publicly acknowledge, “Oh, here I am. That's me. I'm the Son of David,” because that would give all the people, all the crowds, the wrong kind of ideas. Instead, Jesus has this conversation in private.

The second thing that Jesus does notice in verse 28 that he probes their faith. He wants to see what is actually driving them. So he asks them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” He asks whether they believe that Jesus would be able to heal them. I love one commentator (Osborne) writes, that the answer is “immediate and decisive.” And that's a great way to characterize what these men say. They say, “Yes, Lord,” or, “Yes, sir.” It's an immediate and decisive answer that acknowledged that they see clearly the reality that this is truly the son of David, that this is the one who comes to bring the kingdom of God, that this man's power can heal them of their blindness.

In verse 29, Jesus touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith, be it done to you.” Now, as many commentators point out, this phrase in according to your faith does not mean in proportion to your faith, but simply in response to your faith because of your faith. Therefore, we read that in verse 30, their eyes were opened. Now we understand the connection. These are the men who see most clearly (so far) the reality of who Jesus is as the son of David. Because their eyes of faith had been open—because they saw Jesus clearly by faith. Now, their physical eyes have been opened by Jesus's healing power, according to your faith. Be it done to you. But then in verse 30, we read in Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.” This word for “sternly warned” is used twice in the Gospel of John. In John. Chapter 11, talking about Jesus's rage-filled grief over the death of his friend Lazarus. He grieves and rages against death. It's a word that carries the idea of an animal snorting, so that “sternly warned” is maybe even too weakly translated here. But Jesus is wanting to make sure doing the best he can to try to rein in the news that he is the son of David, because, again, he knows that everyone will understand that term in its mistaken sense, and it will prevent people from seeing clearly what this son of David has come to do—not to establish his kingdom at the tip of a spear, but to be pierced by that tip of a spear on a cross as he gave up his life for his people. In verse 31, we read that nevertheless, this miracle is too great.

The stern warning of Jesus notwithstanding, these men couldn't help it. They just had to tell people what Jesus had done for them. And they spread his fame everywhere. Now we must see what's happening here. These men both recognized that Jesus had power and they realize the significance of his power, that he was able to help them. That's Jesus’ “Son of David” nature, in that he was able to help them. More than that, they realized that the Son of David would be merciful to them: “Have mercy on us. Son of David.” He was not only able, he was willing to help them.

Again, their actions seem perfectly obvious. If you were blind and Jesus was here, wouldn't you go to Jesus? Isn't this obvious? What blind person wouldn't ask Jesus for sight. But as we are going to see in the rest of the reactions in this story, their action may be correct, but it is far from universal. These two men had a disability, to be sure. But they also had three advantages that are not shared by the other people who are reacting to them. First, they knew that they needed Jesus to help them. Second, they wanted Jesus to help them. Third, they believed that Jesus wanted to help them. As John Calvin writes, “Our knowledge of Christ's power will be cold and unprofitable if we are not convinced of his willingness.” It's one thing to acknowledge that Jesus can do something. It's an entirely different thing to trust that He wants to do it for you. As we're going to see, that's the problem in the next reaction and the next section: the crowds may realize there's something extraordinary about this Jesus, that his power is singular—that is, it is unprecedented and without parallel. But, they're don’t act on the basis of their knowledge.

2.     Recognizing the Singularity of Jesus’ Power (Matt. 9:32–33)

We read in 32 as they were going away again. Jesus is on his way, moving here and there as they were going away. “Behold”: another interruption! A demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. Now, this demon oppressed man is mute, or you might translate this as deaf—or, maybe it means both. But, the cause of his deafness or muteness was that he was afflicted by a demon. We don't have any sense that this is something that was from birth. It seems directly tied to his being afflicted by the demon. But then look at verse 33 How does Jesus respond? And the answer is, we're not told in verse 33, it says, And when the demon had been cast out, who did it? Well, Matthew doesn't actually even tell us.

Now we know, based on the reaction, that Jesus is the one who has cast the demon out. That's exactly what Matthew wants us to know. But notice that Matthew doesn't say a word about this. If you remember when Jesus cast out the demons in the Gadarenes who then entered the pigs, who then and crashed into the sea, we didn't hear much there about Jesus’ casting out those demons. We heard one word from Jesus. Jesus only said, “Go”—and they went. There, that one word underscored the great power of Jesus. Here, Matthew again does not give us a story of Jesus waving his hands or saying some magic words or doing some great act to perform this exorcism of casting out the demon. The reason that Matthew tells us almost nothing about this is that he wants the spotlight cast not on what Jesus has done so much as on the reaction to what Jesus had done. So, look at what the crowds did at the end of 33. “And the crowds marveled, saying never was anything like this seen in Israel.” In other words, “This is unprecedented.”

Now, probably this reaction is meant to not only talk about the healing of this particular demoniac, but all the healings in this section. Within the Book of Matthew, we're coming to the end of a major section. This is the very end of a cycle of healings. If you've been paying attention, we've seen Jesus healing a number of people: raising a little girl from the dead, healing someone with a discharge of blood, healing demoniacs, healing the paralytic, and on and on and on. But now we’re coming to the end of this series of healings. And now we're getting the reaction to all of those healings together. This is similar to the ending of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5–7, which concluded with the crowd’s reaction. In Matthew 5:28–29, we read “and when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching. For he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes.” Well, here at the end of this series of healings, we get almost a similar reaction. The crowds marveled, and they said, never was anything like this seen in Israel. They acknowledge that Jesus is not only teaching, but now his healing power is singular. It is unprecedented. It is without parallel.

But notice what's lacking. They don't confess. Jesus is the son of David. They don't ask Jesus for mercy. They've seen Jesus extend mercy. They know that he is able and that he is willing, but they don't want it and they don't ask for it. Why not? Theologians speak of three parts to saving faith. When we talk about faith, it's important that we understand what we're talking about when we talk about faith. The first part of saving faith is knowledge. You have to know something. Again, these blind men knew something. They knew that Jesus was the Son of David. Second, faith requires you to assent to that knowledge. You recognize this is more than a myth or some kind of made-up story. You recognize this as God's truth. You agree that it's true, but even that’s not enough. It's not enough just to have knowledge and to have assent to the truth, because, as James writes in James 2:19, even the demons believe in this sense and they shudder. In a similar way, the crowd recognizes they have knowledge, and they ascent to that knowledge; “Never was anything like this before seen in Israel!” But what they don't have is a third part of true saving genuine faith. They don't trust him. Whereas the blind men were crying out. “Have mercy on us. Son of David,” the crowd marvels at what Jesus does, but they don't ask him to show them mercy.

Indeed, we see the fruitlessness of their dead faith later on, since it'll be this same crown that later eventually demands his own crucifixion. Now, why did the crowd behave this way? If Jesus is the son of David, if he is the one who has come to save his people, why don't they trust him? It's because they don't know that they personally need Jesus's help. It's something like a reverse bystander effect. Remember the bystander effect that we talked about earlier? If suddenly I were to have a heart attack, there's a big crowd here, and a lot of you would be in shock. Maybe some of you would think to call 911, but with a big crowd, each individual is less likely to do anything. Well, this is like a reverse bystander effect. Here's a crowd and they're seeing Jesus and no one is willing to ask him to help them. No individual knows that they need his help and is willing to ask, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

You may know that one of the most dangerous, debilitating medical problems that someone can have is to suffer a stroke. You may have known someone with a stroke or strokes can have long lasting impact that can cause brain damage, body paralysis, speech inhibition, emotional and behavioral changes. These things are horrible. If you've ever met someone who has suffered a stroke, you know that they are generally not the same person ever again. With the knowledge of the danger, and with treatments available, shouldn't people jump at treatment when they have a stroke? The first 3 hours are critical! Every minute counts in preserving brain tissue by getting that blood flow back to the brain! But the astonishing thing about a stroke is that governments (not just in our country but around the world) have to pour an incredible amount of money into trying to raise awareness of a stroke—not to convince people that strokes are bad, but to help people to recognize that they are even having a stroke. You may know the FAST acronym. You're supposed to look at someone's face (F): does it droop? You're supposed to have them lift their arms (A): Does one start to slide over? That could be a sign of a stroke. What about speech (S)? Is it slurred? Then, the “T” stands for time: you need to call an ambulance ASAP. The biggest problem is not that people should get the treatment, nor that people would want the treatment, or that treatments would exist.

Instead, the biggest problem is that people don't realize that they have a problem until it's too late, until the damage is set in. Well, if that's true for our bodies in this world, which are decaying and and fading away, then how much more is this true for our eternal soul? Do we realize that we have a problem? Do we know and assent to the truth that the merciful son of David alone can help us? The response of this crowd goes so far. They acknowledge there's no one like Jesus. He is singular. While that is true, it doesn't mean that their faith is genuine and saving.

Even so, the faith of the crowd does go further than others in that crowd., because they do recognize the truth about Jesus. The Pharisees, on the other hand, do something entirely different. See, the crowds don't know that they need for help, but the Pharisees don't want Jesus’ help in the least. This brings us to the third reaction: rejecting the source of Jesus power.

3.     Rejecting the Source of Jesus’ Power (Matt. 9:34)

Look at verse 34. The Pharisees said, “he casts out demons by the Prince of Demons.” Now observe from this of the Pharisees do not question whether Jesus possesses remarkable power. Maybe the Pharisees were able to join with a crowd and saying nothing like this has ever been done in Israel, but they have an explanation for this. They don't reject whether Jesus power, they question the source of Jesus power—and, worse, they attribute the source of Jesus's power to demonic power: “He casts out demons by the Prince of demons.” Now, one commentator, Lenski, points out that later on the Pharisees are going to see the same thing again in 12:24. This seems to be their particular comeback whenever Jesus casts out demons. It was a great thing to cast out demons, and when Jesus does it, they cannot attribute that power to God and give glory to God for what Jesus has done. Rather, they contrive a twisted, demonic explanation for the salvation of God who has come into their midst. Now, it's bad not to recognize a problem. It's far worse, however, to reject help all together. But one of the effects of pride—and the Pharisees are filled with pride—is to refuse help. Even when you know that you will be destroyed without it.

Children, do some of you know the story of the ten plagues in Israel, where Moses leads the children of Israel out of Egypt? Along the way, God brings ten plagues against Egypt. After the first seven plagues, Moses goes in to warn Pharaoh about yet another plague. By this point, their livestock had already died, and there had been hail that had damaged all their crops. We read an Exodus 10:7 that Pharaoh's own servants warned Pharaoh not to mess with Moses after Moses says that locusts were going to come. Locusts are fat, grasshopper-like creatures. They eat a lot of crops, so that these servants knew that the locusts would devour everything that's left after the hail so that Egypt will have no more food. So, these servants, say to Pharaoh, “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?” Children: Do you ever get so mad that you don't want help? From your parents, from your friends or anybody else? That's how Pharaoh was, and that's how the Pharisees are. Even when God could help them, even when Jesus is the merciful Son of David, they don't want his help. To acknowledge that they need Jesus is to acknowledge weakness—and they cannot do that because they're proud. The Bible says that we must be careful not to harden our hearts against God's salvation.

Application

Our application this morning as we think about these three reactions is to be like the two blind men. That is, we should cry out to Jesus, the Son of David, for mercy. But we need to ask, rather than crying out for Jesus’ mercy, are we instead like the Pharisees in their reaction this morning? Maybe you do reject Jesus’ power as demonic. Or, maybe you reject Jesus’ power by attributing it to something far worse: mythology or superstition, and you just dismiss it altogether. Well, this morning, as you have heard the word of God. You've been given knowledge.

But perhaps you refuse to assent to the knowledge that you have from the Bible as true. Certainly, if your heart is like the Pharisees, you're not trusting in that truth for yourself. But Jesus is calling you even this morning to repent, to swallow your pride, to submit to Him as the rightful King, the Messiah, the Lord, the Son of David—to renounce the sovereign claims that you place over your own life, and instead to bend the knee to the heir to the throne of David.

See, with this call to repentance, Jesus is offering a warning and a promise in Psalm 2. In Psalm 2:10–12a, we read, “Now, therefore O Kings be wise, be warned of rulers of the Earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the sun [That's a kiss of submission, recognizing him as lord over you] lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled. The Pharisees were those who were rulers in their day. As religious leaders, they raged and they plotted against Jesus. And, for a time it seemed that they had succeeded when they were able to crucify Jesus and to see him killed. But, they plotted in vain against the Lord and against his anointed, so that, on the third day, the Messiah, the Son of David, Jesus Christ, as King arose from the dead, conquering His enemies of sin, death and the devil forever. By this victory, he has also conquered for all time those who persist in standing in opposition against him.

Will you not repent this morning? Will you continue to set yourself against the One who is the alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come?; the Almighty, the one who died but who is now alive forever more; the one who holds the keys to death in Hades. Will you not repent and turn to him? Jesus offers you a warning, but he also offers you a promise immediately after that warning, in Psalm 2:12b: “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” All may come to him. And Jesus promises that whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. You, even you, may come today, no matter how hard your heart has been. When you come to him by repentance from your sins and faith in Jesus as your Savior, Jesus promises that you will be blessed for taking refuge in Him. And all this begins so simply by swallowing your applied by approaching him like the blind man by calling out to him. Have mercy on me, Son of David. Do you want his salvation?

But perhaps your heart is not like the Pharisees. Certainly, it's dangerous to have a heart like the Pharisees, but in some ways it's perhaps even more dangerous to have a heart like the crowds. And maybe that's where your heart is this morning. It's dangerous to have the heart like the crowds because you know that you're perhaps not in open rebellion against Jesus, but you have been deceived to believe that you are safe. The crowds believed, but only by assenting to the truth, and they did not trust in him. And so, their faith did not save them. Is your heart like the crowds? Will you continue to come near to Jesus while you keep him at arm's length? Will you continue to move with the crowd surrounding Jesus but never come to know him personally? Will you continue to watch and see all that Jesus has done in the lives of others here and marvel, saying, “I've never seen anything like this outside the church!” But, will you then refuse to seek from him the mercy that you know that you need? Again, what is it that sets the blind men apart? What makes them see clearly? The answer is that they know they need Jesus. When you're blind, you can't trick anyone. You have no appearances to keep. You can't fake it till you make it. These men simply know that they need Jesus’ mercy and they're willing to do whatever it takes. They're willing to make a scene. They're willing to chase him down the street saying, “Have mercy on us Son of David!”, in order to get that mercy from him. In other words, they trust him, knowing that he is able as the Son of David, and knowing that he is willing because he is merciful. He's the merciful son of David.

What about you? Do you trust in him? Do you believe that he is able? Are you crying out to the Son of David for mercy? Check your reaction; check your heart. Don't just follow along and nod. How are you responding to Jesus, the merciful son of David?

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for your love for your people. We thank you for your kindness. And we thank you that your son, Jesus, is the merciful Son of David, who ushers in a kingdom that cannot perish or spoil or fade away, with an inheritance laid up for all those who love Jesus. And we pray that some here, even this morning, would turn to him and repentance and faith. Not simply agreeing that he is there. But trusting in him, trusting that he will be merciful to them. We pray that you would shepherd these sinners as sheep into your kingdom forever and ever by faith. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.