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Sermon
The Gospel of Matthew

Have Mercy on Us, Son of David!

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June 1, 2025
Matthew 9:27-34
Nick Whitehead

The Person of Christ

Faith

Spiritual Warfare

Transcript

0:15Good morning. If you don't know me, my name is Nick Whitehead and I serve here on our pastoral staff. And it is a joy to worship together this morning to cry out what we just sang, help us see Christ. And you might already be noticing a theme of our worship service and that's the theme of sight. So as I prepared for this sermon this week, I thought often about sight and I was thankful afresh for my eyes with them. I see all of you with them. I saw the lovely faces of my wife and children this morning with them. I followed along as we read the sermon text. It's a glorious thing. As I drove here this morning, my eyes captured thousands of pieces of data and sent them to my brain so I wouldn't hit another car or go off the road and I would make it here safely without my eyes.

1:11I could not play baseball with my son. I could not read books to my children. I could not enjoy the green color overtaking the Minnesota landscape this spring. So I thank God for my eyes and I cannot imagine my life without them. And if you're anything like me, you shudder at the horror that it would be to lose your sight. And there might even be some in this room who have lost their sight, may be listening. And yet our text this morning presents us with a far greater horror and that is the horror of spiritual blindness. What we see in our text is that as powerful and as amazing as the human eye is, if it can, it can collect all the right data, it can notice all the most accurate details and still not produce the right spiritual effect on one's soul.

2:05In fact, the narrative we just read suggests that we don't actually even need these physical eyes at all to see Jesus, but all of us have some impaired spiritual vision to some degree. And so I pray that this text might be a corrective lens to help us see our Lord more clearly this morning. So let me pray for that right now as we begin, father, we do indeed thank you for our eyes. I thank you that most of us in this room were able to read your word together this morning. But Lord, we don't want to see anything without truly seeing. We don't want physical sight without spiritual sight. Would you grant us Lord 2020 spirit empowered vision so that we might marvel afresh at the mercy and authority of Jesus Christ?

2:56We ask in His name. Amen. Keep your Bibles open to Matthew nine verses 27 through 34. Here we find ourselves in the last two miracles that close out chapters eight and nine. This is a section where Matthew has been showing us Jesus's authority through his deeds and miracles. And for the sake of simplicity, I'm gonna walk through this text in just two parts, which I'll describe this way. First the blind see, and second, the seeing are blind. The blind see Jesus for who he really is. Yet the seeing are blind to his true identity. And I think this section of Matthew's narrative is meant to draw our attention to the growing polarization of responses to Jesus.

3:47Matthew intends for us to see that Jesus is truly the merciful Messiah, yet many will despise him and slander him, and ultimately they'll nail him to a cross. So let's start with the Blind Sea. We picked that up in verse 27. Read with me as Jesus passed on from there. And there is the home of this girl that was raised to life we heard about last week as Jesus passed on. From there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, have mercy on us, son of David, the blind men's words here tell us two things that they see about Jesus. The first is that these blind men see Jesus as merciful. The first thing out of their mouths is a plea for mercy.

4:39Somehow or another, these blind men are convinced that this man who goes before them is full of mercy. What mercy is, is it's God's goodness towards those who are in misery or distress. These men have likely heard the reports of Jesus's healings and they come to understand that Jesus is willing to help the poor and the needy and the destitute that he cares about the outcast and the sick and the desperate. And what we notice about these men is not only that they believe Jesus is merciful, they also unashamedly recognize their great need for his help. They come with no pretense of self-sufficiency.

5:25The verb in verse 27 that you see there for crying aloud is used in a New Testament to describe the shrieks of demon possessed people or epileptics or the mentally disturbed. It's the word used to describe Jesus', death, cry on the cross or the shouts of the crowds who wanted to crucify him. So this crying out that these blind men are doing, it's very dramatic, it's very loud, it's bringing a lot of attention to themselves. In fact, later in Matthew, we see another healing of blind men in chapter 20. And the blind men come in the same way and the crowd is so annoyed by their obnoxious cries that they rebuke them and charge them to be silent.

6:08These guys are disturbing the peace, but they don't care. They're desperate, desperate for mercy. Now there's a second claim that these blind men make about Jesus. You see it there in verse 27. These blind men see him as the Messiah, the Christ. That's what they mean when they call him son of David. This is the first time anyone will refer to Jesus this way in the book of Matthew. But Matthew has set us up for this. If you were to look back to Matthew chapter one verse one, first verse of this book, Matthew writes the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David. The use of this title, son of David, to refer to the Messiah would've been commonplace among the Jews.

7:02The whole nation knew that God was going to redeem his people through a chosen man from the line of King David. Even the Pharisees knew this. Later in Matthew 22, Jesus will ask them, whose son do you think the Christ is? And they will say, quite matter of factly, he's the son of David. The Jewish people would've known two Samuel seven where God promised that David would have an offspring who would establish God's everlasting kingdom. They would've remembered Jeremiah 23, 5, behold the days are coming declares the Lord when I will raise up for David a righteous branch and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and execute justice and righteousness in the land.

7:47So without a doubt, these men are confessing Jesus to be the Messiah. These blind men, just like all of Israel, live an expectation of a coming king from the line of David who would redeem them and restore them. But I think these guys probably also had some specific Old Testament texts rolling around in their mind about the Messiah, maybe Isaiah 35 where I, Isaiah describes the Messianic age as a time when the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstop when the lame man leap like a deer in the tongue of the mute sing for joy. And and these guys are hearing of the miracles that this Jesus is doing and they're thinking the time has come, the long awaited Messiah is here and he can heal our blindness.

8:43And so in the midst of great swarms of people following Jesus, after he is raised this little girl from the dead, they just cry out shamelessly to the son of David, have mercy on us. And what does Jesus do? Look at verse 28. He does something kind of odd without responding to them. He turns and enters the house says in verse 28, when he entered the house, the blind men came to him and Jesus said to them, do you believe that I'm able to do this? They said to him, yes Lord. In this verse, Jesus does two things to test their faith. First he hears their cries and he immediately goes inside. I think he's testing to see if these men are just crying and out in desperation to see if it might work or if they're crying out because they really believe he's the Messiah.

9:40And how do the men respond to this test? They follow him into the house. Jesus is likely trying to escape the crowds at the end of a busy day of preaching and healing and teaching and walking. And he's just looking for a little bit of respite. But these blind men are so convinced of his mercy that they totally disregard his privacy and they follow him right on in. And if you want another demonstration of Jesus' mercy, I ask you, what would your disposition be if you were in Jesus' place end of a long day at work, dealing with the needs of many people and you go into the house looking for respite and these needy men barge in?

10:23I don't think I would've responded so kindly, but Jesus is compassionate. He receives the obnoxious and desperate intruders and he speaks with them. And here comes the second test of their faith that you see in verse 28. Jesus asks, do you believe that I'm able to do this? These men have certainly displayed their desperation. They've waltzed into the house uninvited. But with this question, Jesus seeks to draw out their faith into a verbal confession. Do you believe? Do you have faith that I have the power to do this? And their simple reply is Yes, Lord. And then Jesus responds to their faith. Look at verse 29.

11:11He touched their eyes saying, according to your faith, be it done to you. He touched their eyes. Jesus doesn't have to touch them to heal them. We've seen 10 miracles in the last two chapters of Matthew in seven out of the 10 miracles Jesus doesn't touch. But with these blind men, these outcasts of society, these beggars who cannot see his face, he goes above and beyond to display his kindness and compassion by touching them. I imagine this would've been quite meaningful for them. Jesus is indeed merciful to the needy and the destitute. And then notice his words according to your faith, be it done to you.

12:01Or in other words, let your eyes be opened in accordance with the genuineness of your faith. Let your healing be evidence that your faith is real. And then what happens in verse 30, their eyes were opened confirming that indeed the faith of these blind men in their Messiah is genuine. And let's be clear, their faith has no power in and of itself. Faith is simply the God-given means by which we receive his abundant mercy. It's the connecting point between our insufficiency and his infinite fullness. And before we move on to what follows the healing, I hope you're seeing what these blind men saw about Jesus.

12:45Not only is he the Messiah, the unique agent of God's grace who would redeem God's people, not only is he the Messiah, he is merciful. He's not just a king who reigns, who's sovereign, who's above all things. He is merciful. He allows the poor and the destitute and the needy and the blind to barge into his house with obnoxious cries and ask him for his help. And not only is he willing to heal and willing to save, he is able believe at church, whatever your situation, whatever your plight, whatever your need, he's able. Yeah, We don't grope around in the dark blind to the fact that we have a powerful savior who hears our cries.

13:36He's merciful and able. So astonishingly Jesus opens their eyes and then Jesus does something else that's kind of odd. He's kind of on a roll here with the odd things continuing in verse 30. Jesus sternly warned them, see that no one knows about it. Why does Jesus give them this warning? Our initial expectation is that Jesus would want these miracles to be seen and known by as many people as possible. But here are two possible reasons for this warning, and it's probably a mix of both. First, Jesus warned the blind men not to tell anyone about this because he knew that increasing fame would hinder his ability to minister effectively and certain areas.

14:21So we get a picture of this in Mark chapter one and Mark one, Jesus heals a man of leprosy. He warns him not to tell anyone and the man disobeys. And what is the result? Mark one verse 45. Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but he was out in the desolate places and people were coming to him from every quarter. So I think Jesus is trying to keep things on the down low simply because of how crazy the crowds will become and how limiting this would be on his travel and on his ministry. But there's another possible reason Jesus warned these guys not to talk. I think it's because he wanted to mitigate the spread of premature information or misinformation about his identity.

15:07These blind men are the first ones in Matthew's gospel to claim that Jesus is the Christ the Davidic king. But at this point, no one, not even the disciples understand the true thrust of Jesus's Messianic mission, which is not to conquer the Roman government and free the Jews from political persecution and oppression, but rather it's to lay down his life as a ransom for sinners. And nobody gets that yet. And so Jesus is likely trying to avoid a premature following of people who want to entro him as king immediately or who merely want to be a part of this circus atmosphere. I also think he recognizes that these claims of his own Messiah ship will increase the hostility against him, which we'll see in just a few verses.

15:59So Jesus warns them, but they disregard his command. Look at verse 31. The blind men went away and spread his fame through all that district. And at first we read this and we're like, come on guys, you just confess Jesus to be king and Lord. And then the first command he gives you, you disobey. And we might read this and be tempted to think these guys weren't real believers, that they were just moochers, that they were in it for the healing and nothing else. I'm not convinced of that. I think they really believe Jesus is the Messiah. I think they have genuine saving faith, especially because of the way Jesus tests their faith and draws out their confession.

16:44But I also think that their disobedience in some sense is understandable. Now hear me clearly, I think they sinned. But it's a sin that resulted from overflowing hearts of gratitude. I think they probably felt like Peter and John in Acts four when they're asked not to speak about Jesus and they say, we cannot but speak of what we've seen and heard. These guys can't keep it in. And if you think about it, these guys were blind. Everyone knew they were blind. And Jesus tells them not just that they shouldn't talk about it. He says, see that no one knows about it. Uh, one of our pastors, as we were reviewing this text, just said, that's kind of a tall order people are gonna see.

17:33But what happens next? Look at verse 32. It says, as they the blind men were going away, behold a demon oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. So these blind men go away spreading the famous of Jesus as the Messiah. And it may be that the people who bring these demonized mute men are some of the folks who heard the reports that they were spreading. Perhaps they saw the opened eyes of these once blind men and they begin to wonder if Jesus has opened their eyes, maybe he is the Messiah. And if he is, can he not also unstop plugged ears and loosen tame tongues? Perhaps these hearers of what the Messiah has done go and they grab their mute friend or their family member.

18:23The original word translated mute could be translated deaf. And it likely refers to a combination of both of these ailments. So he is likely mute and deaf. So perhaps these people have heard the reports of the blind men. They go and they grab their mute deaf friend and they drag him to Jesus in faith. And Matthew records the healing as if Jesus does it effortless effortlessly like it's on the backhand. Verse 33 simply says, and when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And just a quick parentheses here, the New Testament does attribute various diseases to demonic activity, but it also mentions many ailments without connecting them to demonic causes.

19:07So for example, in Mark vii, that text describes the healing of a deaf man with a speech impediment and it mentions nothing about demonic activity. It would be a mistake to make a one-to-one correlation and determine that all mutants or deafness as a result of demonic forces. But sometimes that is the case as we see in this text. But the main point of this brief healing account is to once again confirm that Jesus is the Messiah that all of Israel has been waiting for. And the blind men saw it. Not only were their physical eyes opened so to the eyes of their hearts, they saw Jesus for who he really is, but others fail to see.

19:55So this is the second part of our sermon. The ones with working eyes are spiritually blind. Before we look at these final two verses, I just wanna remind you of something we've been seeing throughout chapters eight and nine. Matthew has been putting up these signposts along the way to guide the reader to see evermore clearly who Jesus is. And along the way following the miracles, Matthew has been giving us different examples of responses to who Jesus is responses to these signs. For example, after he heals the leper and the centurion servant and Peter's mother-in-law, Matthew records the responses of a couple guys who want to follow Jesus but have these other responsibilities they kind of want to attend to.

20:41That's one response. And then after calming the storm and casting out demons and healing a paralytic, Matthew records the unexpected response of a tax collector who gives up everything and follows him. Or the response of the irritated Pharisees who are irritated that he eats with sinners or the expression of confusion from John the Baptist disciples. And in this section here, this text, Matthew gives us a final set of responses to Jesus's miracles. We've already seen the one response that's the genuine, though immature faith of the blind men. But now we look at the final two responses. The first one is in verse 33 that says, the crowds marveled saying never was anything like this seen in Israel.

21:32Now we must be back outside the house again 'cause there's crowds. And they've apparently witnessed this exorcism and they're astonished, they're amazed, they're in awe. And they expressed their amazement as if they have seen a very unique display of authority. And I don't think it's because they've never seen an exorcism before. These are actually pretty commonplace in Israel at this time. Later in Matthew, Jesus will even mention that other Jewish leaders perform exorcisms. And we've already seen Jesus exercise demons way back with the pigs. So it isn't new in that sense either. Rather, I think their remark here is a cumulative response to all of Jesus's authoritative healings that we've seen in these last two chapters.

22:15This comment stands parallel to the closing words of Matthew chapter seven, after Jesus teaches the sermon on the Mount, the crowds were astonished there because his teaching was like none of the teachings of their scribes. It was unparalleled. Similarly, here the people are marveling at the unique nature of Jesus' authority. He has authority over leprosy, all manner of diseases, the winds, the waves, demons, paralysis. Not only that, he has authority to forgive sins, even to raise the dead to life. And here in this text, Jesus has just done something that no one else has done. He heals blindness and muteness, not Moses, not Elijah, not Elisha, nor anyone in the Old Testament has done that.

23:03The only one in the Old Testament who is said to have this type of power over seeing and speaking is God. Exodus four 11, who has made man's mouth, who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I the Lord? Jesus's healing and deliverance ministry is unparalleled in all of history. And this is why the crowds say never was anything like this before seen in Israel. And it may seem like the crowds here are expressing faith in Jesus. Certainly it appears that the majority are fascinated by him. But that's all that I think it is. I think it's fickle fascination. It's superficial sensationalism.

23:49By the end of Matthew, the majority will totally turn against him. Even his own disciples will abandon him. Chapter 27 of Matthew, the crowds will cry out something else about Jesus. Let him be crucified. They say. So again, what I think we are seeing here is a superficial marveling, a fickle fascination. They appreciate Jesus as a novelty, as if he's a carnival act or a circus performer. But as soon as it becomes clear to them who he really is and what he's really all about and what's at stake in following him, the masses will turn on him. What is happening here is a lot like what Jesus accuses the crowd of in John six, John six, this is when Jesus feeds the 5,000 and the stuffed crowds, the crowd.

24:39This indeed is the prophet who is to come into the world and they try to make him king by force in that moment. But Jesus sees right through these fickle crowds and he says, you're seeking me. Not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. In other words, they were intrigued. They wanted more of what he had to offer, but they were entirely missing the point of the sign. Remember a sign points to something else. You don't pull over off the interstate on a road trip and look for burgers under the sign with all the fast food listings. You will not find them there. The sign is a pointer.

25:19It is meant to show you the way the sign says the real stuff is over there. And these crowds are marveling at the sign but failing to see where it is pointing. They gawk at him from an arm's length away, but they fail to really understand who he is. And before we move on to the response of the Pharisees, I do think the point of analyzing each of these responses to Jesus is to hold up a mirror to ourselves. I actually think these verses are more about the responses than about the healings. Are you like the crowds that marvel at Jesus as a spectacle or an anomaly or a phenomenon who look at a distance with fascination, but when push comes to shove, you would abandon him?

26:06Do you enjoy the niceties about Jesus from a safe distance, the miracles, the care for the destitute, his love for the lowly, but then you move slowly away when he talks about his lordship or gives instructions on how we ought to live or addresses sin or warns about judgment. There are a lot of popular people right now there on uh, I don't know, social media, TikTok who are Christ adjacent. It's one of the ways Pastor Steven talks about this. They're standing at arms length away from him talking about things they appreciate about him. Yet I think they're in the same place as these crowds. They appreciate Jesus as an example.

26:52They think he was historically quite sensational. They're even happy to appreciate his unique contributions to history and society and culture. But they do not come to him like the blind men. They do not come to him painfully aware of their desperate condition and in full recognition that he is the long awaited Messiah, the only one who can rescue people from sin and brokenness. So the crowds see the signs, but their spiritual eyes fail to follow where the sign points, it's like trying to get a baby to look at something by pointing, where do they look? They look right there. Don't marvel at the signs.

27:34Marvel at the Savior. The Pharisees go a step further though their vision is more deeply impaired. Look at verse 34. This is remarkable. The Pharisees said he casts out demons by the Prince of demons. The Pharisees take a tragic step in their response to Jesus. We've already seen them accuse Jesus of Blas blasphemy. That's in verse three of chapter nine. They've questioned his fellowship with sinners. That's in verse 11. But here the Pharisees make an accusation that is truly hostile. They don't deny his power, okay? Their physical eyes have seen what he's done. They cannot deny what he's done, but they attribute his power to Satan instead of to God.

28:28Later in chapter 12, a very similar situation will arise and Jesus will make it clear that he casts out demons by the spirit of God. And these Pharisees are saying that this work of the spirit is actually the work of Satan. This is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. And not only is it blasphemous, this comment is just downright illogical. Why would Satan cast out demons? Satan wants demons to torment people. He wants to keep them in utter darkness. This is what he's commissioned his minions to do. And in Matthew 12, Jesus points out the foolishness of this logic. He says to the Pharisees, if Satan casts out Satan, how then will his kingdom stand?

29:14In other words, it would be self-defeating to do so. It would make as much sense as a general removing the soldiers from the enemy fortress that they've just conquered. It makes no sense. And so we, what we witness here is the Pharisees are dramatically sliding into deeper and deeper darkness and ignorance and blindness to who Jesus is. These are the Israelite men who are most familiar with the Jewish scriptures. If anyone should recognize the Messiah in this moment, it should be them. But they not only miss it, they attribute his messianic demonstration of authority to Satan. And instead it's the blind guys.

29:55They cannot, they could not have followed along with us as we read the scriptures this morning. They can't physically see what he does. And they walk by faith, not by sight. And here's where I want us to hold up the mirror again. Are you like the Pharisees who see the signs and the miracles, who hear Jesus teaching yet are failing to see his true identity? Are there characteristics of Jesus or attributes of Jesus that you're failing to see? Rightly? Perhaps there are hard circumstances in your life. Maybe there are idols in your life that are making your vision of him hazy. And I urge you, allow God to use this text to perform cataract surgery on the eyes of your heart so that you can trust him to be for you all that he really is.

30:48He is the messiah, the long awaited king who's ushering in a new age and making all things new who came to bind up the broken hearted and to rescue sinners who's gonna judge the living and the dead. And he's an able king who can and will accomplish all of his purposes, who does not tremble at your desperate requests. 'cause he's also merciful. Not only can he help you, he's leaning in to you North church. He wants to help his children. And this is the last thing I want you to hear this morning. I want us to really see the difference between how the Pharisees and the blind men approach Jesus. I think the key distinction is that the blind men come with desperation.

31:33While the Pharisees have no sense of need, the blind men come completely surrendering to Jesus' authority while the Pharisees judge him as if they are the true authority. The Pharisees fail to see the Messiah because they're blinded by their own pride and their own self-sufficiency. They're satisfied with themselves. I imagine that if one of them would've, they would, they would've answered like the rich young ruler. We've kept all the commands since our youth. We have no needs. We've got it all together. And so they failed to see the Messiah. And John chapter nine, Jesus says that His coming into the world will result in two things.

32:18Those who do not see would see, and those who would see would become blind. And when the Pharisees heard this in John chapter nine, they asked Jesus, are we also blind? And Jesus' response is, if you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say, we see your guilt remains. In other words, Jesus is saying this, if you would just recognize your own blindness, if you would see your own need, then you'd be on the highway to heaven. But because you are wise in your own sight, because you think you've got it all figured out, you stand condemned. I know most of us are not attributing Jesus's power to Satan if you are repent.

33:11But I think many of us can be blinded by our own pride and self-sufficiency. I know I'm guilty of this. I humanly speaking, I despise being dependent on others. I hate feeling helpless. My fleshly man finds it humiliating to express desperation. And I needed a text like this this week to remind me that that's not the posture Jesus is looking for. He's not looking for people who think they have their act together, who lean on their own understanding, who are unwilling to express their desperation. He wants us to be like these blind men. So aware of our neediness, so aware of our helplessness, our insufficiency, so aware of our plight that we cry out shamelessly to the Son of David for mercy.

33:57Is this how you approach Jesus? And not just for your salvation, but for your everyday needs. Are you willing to humble yourself before him and admit he's the Messiah, he's the savior and you are not? And do you feel this freedom? But this is, this is a great freedom to come to him with cries of desperation. And then when you see him act on your behalf, which he will do, you respond like these blind men who are so overjoyed by what Jesus had done for them, that they spread his fame throughout all the region, despite his warning. And guess what? Brothers and sisters, Jesus isn't warning us to keep quiet anymore.

34:39We live in a different era. We are not just given permission to speak of him. We are commissioned to do so. And if these guys were so giddy about healing of their physical blindness, how much more should we be about the healing of our spiritual blindness? I once was blind, but now I see. Lemme pray. Thank you Lord. Thank you for receiving desperate, helpless sinners. Thank you that we can barge into your house with confidence and you respond with mercy and grace and time of need. So have mercy on us, son of David, and protect us from spiritual blindness and pride and fickle fascination so that we can continue to run to you for help until the day that we see you fully face to face and all your unveiled glory.

35:34Amen.

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Sermon Text

Matthew 9:27-34

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