Mt 9:27-31 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" "Yes, Lord," they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you"; and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, "See that no one knows about this." But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.

Those who came to seek out Jesus came with all sorts of ailments and all sorts of infirmities. Sometimes they came in great crowds and Jesus healed all of them. We read, “Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them.” (Mt 15:30) and “Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.” (Mt 19:2) But in the examples we are looking at, it is individuals who come. The ‘crowds' show us how popular he was and the extent of his power in that he healed them all, but the individuals show us his care and concern. Individuals are important to God. I am always amazed at the lists of names that are included in various places in the Bible, names that mostly mean nothing to us today, but they mean a lot to God; they were those He had dealings with at that particular time, and for that reason alone they have a place in the records of history.

In our next account it is two men who come to Jesus. There is an old proverb, “Birds of a feather flock together.” It simply mean that like minded people, or people of similar character of experience stick together. These two blind men came together; perhaps they are friends who had begged together and gave each other support. If you were a blind person living two thousand years ago you were utterly dependent on those around you. If your family got fed up with you and cast you out, you became a beggar; it was the only way to survive. That must have been pretty soul destroying but it was all you could do and so you had to persevere at it. That may be the reason that these two men persevered in the way they did.

What is odd about this story is that Jesus must have been aware of them for some time but did nothing about it – at least not for a while – because we read they “followed him, calling out…” and then “when he had gone indoors…” Time passed and these men persevered. So why did it happen like that? As we find so often in Scripture, we aren't told and so we are left to speculate. Two reasons come to mind why Jesus let these two men wait.

The first is that he wanted them to show that they really believed in him, that he could really heal them. For some reason faith seems bound up in healing. John Wimber used to say that in every account of healing in the New Testament, faith is observable in someone. Sometimes it was simply in Jesus himself – he sensed the Father's will. Sometimes it was in the person who was ill and who sensed that this was going to happen. Sometimes, as in the case of the four men bringing the paralytic, it was others who were convinced. Faith, the Bible tells us, comes from hearing God's word. God speaks His will to bring healing, and someone hears it. Faith is then responding to what we've just heard. Did Jesus want these two men to be utterly convinced about this? All we know is that the New Testament also shows us that on occasion healing was prevented by unbelief. In his home town we read, “And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.” (Mt 13:58)

The second reason that comes to mind, is that Jesus wanted them to follow him into somewhere private so that what he did was not seen by everyone. This seems confirmed by the fact that he went indoors and then after he healed them he told them not to tell others. Now why did he do that? I can only assume it was that he did not want to progress his ministry too quickly. It is clear that Jesus was working to his Father's agenda, the final part of which had him in Jerusalem after three years of ministry confronting the authorities with his good works, so they would take him and crucify him as the sacrifice for the sin of the world. When his mother tried to provoke him into performing a miracle, he asked, “Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come.” (Jn 2:4) When his brothers tried to provoke him into action he declared, “Jesus told them, "The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right… for me the right time has not yet come.” (Jn 7:6,8) Thus, knowing that such a miracle as a double healing of the blind would cause such excitement, Jesus tried to keep it under wraps.

Yet we have to acknowledge that Jesus who knew the minds of men, would have known that these two men would be so excited that they could not keep quiet about it so, although his greater desire was not to cause great public excitement, he seems, nevertheless, moved by the faith of these two men to heal them anyway, despite what he knew would happen. It suggests that Jesus' concern and compassion for people, overrides expediency sometimes. Love will act to meet a need, even if it knows that the end will not work out to the best. That is amazing. In both of the instances just quoted, with his mother and brothers, he actually did eventually conform to their expectations.

So, are we those who hear God and will we persevere in our faith? If He speaks a prophetic word through one of His servants and it takes a while to be fulfilled, will we persevere in faith? Will we maintain a right attitude as we ‘pursue Jesus'? These are important questions that address our spiritual maturity – or lack of it and which arise as we consider this story today.