Healing Two Blind Men #22

The healing of two blind men is an account found only in Matthew 9:27-31, in which two blind men follow Jesus and call out to him as Son of David, and he restores their sight because of their faith. It comes in a run of miracles that includes Jairus’s daughter, the woman with the issue of blood, and the mute demoniac.

The Account

As Jesus left the house where he had raised Jairus’s daughter, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Thou son of David, have mercy on us.” (Matthew 9:27). Jesus did not answer them at once. When he went indoors, they came to him there, and he asked, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They replied, “Yea, Lord.” (Matthew 9:28).

He then touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith be it done to you.” Their eyes were opened (Matthew 9:29-30). Jesus sternly warned them that no one should know about it, but they went out and spread the news throughout that district (Matthew 9:30-31).

Setting and Context

The story appears in the middle of a chapter of healings in Matthew that shows Jesus’s authority over sickness, death, and evil spirits. The blind men’s title for him, “Son of David,” recognizes him as the descendant of David who would be the promised king, and Matthew has already opened his Gospel by calling Jesus the son of David (Matthew 1:1). Blindness was common in the ancient world, and blind people usually had to depend on family or begging.

Matthew tells a similar story near Jericho, in which two blind men also cry out to the “Son of David,” and Jesus, moved with compassion, touches their eyes (Matthew 20:29-34). Mark and Luke tell of the same Jericho event with one man, Bartimaeus. Some scholars think Matthew tells the same event twice, while others see two separate healings of pairs of blind men. The text of Matthew does not settle the matter, and Christian interpreters have taken different views.

What It Reveals

The story highlights the importance of faith and the paradox that the blind men see who Jesus is before others do. Jesus ties the healing to their trust, asking not only if they want to see but whether they believe he can do it. The prophets had promised that in the time of God’s salvation the eyes of the blind would be opened (Isaiah 35:5-6), and Jesus later points to the healing of the blind as evidence to John the Baptist that the promised time had come (Matthew 11:2-5).

The command to keep silent is puzzling because they disobey it. Interpreters explain it in various ways, including Jesus’s wish to avoid crowds who wanted only miracles, or a wish not to be seen as a political messiah before the right time. The passage leads straight into the next incident, in which a mute man is brought to Jesus, and the crowds and the Pharisees respond in very different ways.