Second Blasphemous Rejection

But how did these men find Jesus? We do not know. Were they brought by others to Jesus? If you were blind, how would you have found Jesus? How would you have felt? If you were blind how would you know which direction to move in order to find Jesus? The answer is obvious. You would not know which way to move, except by listening or having someone guiding you. When they heard that Jesus had passed by them, they started following and shouting loudly, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” The Greek phrase translated as “crying out” starts with KRADZO. It means “to cry out loudly.” That is, they were shouting in order to be heard above the noise of the crowd. But Jesus did not stop. He kept on walking. Why did Jesus not stop? We will discover in the next verse that apparently He wanted to heal the men in a more private setting and wanted them to follow.

When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” (NASB) Matt. 9:28

His question was simple and the men’s response was simple, “Yes!” They believed that Jesus could heal them. These men may have been physically blind, but they had great spiritual sight. They knew that He was the Messiah and they believed He could heal them. So they came!

Then He touched their eyes, saying, “It shall be done to you according to your faith.” (NASB) Matt. 9:29

Some have taught that faith is required in order to be healed. But as we discovered in the last study, Jesus healed on occasions when people were dead or demon-possessed. Dead people do not have faith, and demon possessed people do not have faith. Jesus healed many times when faith was not required. But those who came to Him for healing would have had at least some faith, or they would not have come to Him. Why would anyone come if they did not believe He could heal?

If we review every passage in the gospels that refers to healing we finding an amazing truth. First, eighty-six percent of all passages that refer to faith in conjunction with healing, refer to people who have already come to faith in Jesus. That is, they were believers in Jesus Christ. Here are a few obvious examples,

And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.” (NASB) Matt. 9:2

And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (NASB) Luke 7:50

Many times the passages reveal that the one being healed already believed in Him because he or she called Jesus the “Son of David.” They believed that He was the Messiah (Matt. 9:27-29; Mark 10:48, 52) and healing followed.

Maybe one of the clearest examples is the time that Jesus healed ten lepers. Even though all ten lepers were healed, only one remained to thank Jesus. Now consider what Jesus said to him,

Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.” (NASB) Luke 17:17-19

Why is this man unique? If he is unique because he believed in Jesus, then why were the other men healed? It is obvious that the other nine men believed that Jesus could heal them or they would not have sought Him. They asked Jesus to heal them because they believed He could. In that sense, their faith enabled them to be healed.

In the remaining fourteen percent of the references to faith and healing, Jesus simply referred to the fact that they had faith or that they believed. There is no clear evidence that faith or belief was the activating ingredient for their healing (Matt. 8:10; Luke 7:9).

In fact, God wants every Christian to believe in Him and to live by faith (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38). God expects us to confidently trust Him for the things that we request (Mark 11:24; James 1:5-6). Faith is expected when we ask God for anything. If we are not sure He can answer our request, then we should not ask. Why ask if we are not sure He can fulfill our request? Yet, we cannot expect that He will grant our every wish. We must not forget the following passage which the Holy Spirit wrote,

This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. (NASB) 1 John 5:14-15

And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them: “See that no one knows about this!” (NASB) Matt. 9:30

The blind men saw because they believed; they did not believe because they saw.[1]

It is amazing that Jesus told them to not tell others. Surely, Jesus knew that people would discover that the men were no longer blind. We will discover in the next two verses that people were already present. So why did Jesus ask them to not talk about the healing? It appears that Jesus did not want these people to conclude that He was the Messiah yet. Eventually, the healing would become known. But the two men did not cooperate. They told everyone anyway.

But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land. (NASB) Matt. 9:31

As they were going out, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to Him. (NASB) Matt. 9:32

The New American Standard Bible (NASB) says that the man was “mute,” but the Greek word for “mute” is KOPHOS. It can actually mean “mute” or “deaf” and sometimes it referred to both at the same time. Therefore, it is very possible that the man was both deaf and mute. The next verse implies that at least he was not able to speak. Then Jesus healed him.

After the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke; and the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” (NASB) Matt. 9:33

2nd Blasphemous Rejection. Now we discover that some religious leaders are present. They had been there all the time, listening and watching. Previously the Pharisees had accused Jesus of performing miracles by demonic power (Matt. 12:22-45). But after seeing this miracle and hearing the response of the crowd, they did it again.

But the Pharisees were saying, “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.” (NASB) Matt. 9:34