Two blind men follow Jesus down the road, crying out words no one has said to his face before. 27"Have mercy on us, Son of David." Matthew has used the title in his genealogy and in the angel's word to Joseph, but this is the first time a person calls it to Jesus himself, and it comes as a plea. Men who cannot see him at all are the first in this Gospel to name who he is.
The title carried risk. Most who heard "Son of David" pictured a king who would raise an army and throw off Rome. These men attach the royal name to mercy, and Jesus tests the connection before he acts on it. 28"Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They answer, "Yes, Lord." He touches their eyes. 29"According to your faith let it be done to you." 30"And their eyes were opened." Faith here is the open hand that receives what only he can give.
Then Jesus warns them sternly, 30"See that no one knows about it." The reason is not hard to guess. If word spreads that a healer who answers to that title is loose in Galilee, expectations of a political king will ignite before his mission is understood. The men disobey: 31"they went away and spread his fame through all that district." Their joy runs ahead of his instructions, and the thing he hoped to slow starts to spread.
On the heels of that, a mute man who is oppressed by a demon is brought to him. 33"And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke." The crowds react with wonder: "Never was anything like this seen in Israel." The Pharisees watch the same event and reach for the darkest reading they can find. 34"He casts out demons by the prince of demons."
The same evidence yields two conclusions that cannot both be true. The accusation will return later in this Gospel with more deliberation (Matthew 12:24), and then Jesus will tie it to the one sin he says cannot be forgiven. Mercy has no ceiling here. The limit is a door that a person can shut from the inside by calling the Spirit's work evil on purpose, and it starts with a habit of looking at good and choosing a different word for it.
Two blind men saw clearly enough to ask, and sighted experts looked at the same healing and called it darkness. Whatever else this scene teaches, it warns that eyesight was never the same as sight. The blind men had nothing to lose by asking. The Pharisees had a reputation to protect, and a reputation can hold a mind shut tighter than blindness.
Ask today where you are looking at a mercy of God and reaching for a smaller explanation. Ask for the honesty of the two men, who called out for mercy exactly where they needed it.
Prayer
Father, thank you for faith that can see you clearly without needing eyes to do it. Give us the honesty of the two blind men, calling for mercy exactly where we need it. Protect us from the Pharisees' danger of staring at your work and naming it something else because we have already decided what conclusion we prefer. Keep our hearts soft enough to call your goodness good. In Jesus' name, amen.