Dr Paul Allen

Jesus Christ in Capernaum (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Matthew 9:27 –31 “As Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, ‘Have mercy on us, Son of David ’” (v. 27). News of Jesus’ raising of Jairus’ daughter to life spreads quickly throughout the region of Capernaum after Christ touches her hand and performs the miracle (Matt. 9:25–26). Consequently, He is not able to get very far away from the synagogue ruler’s home before some more needy people seek Him out. In this passage, two blind men beg the “son of David” for mercy (v. 27). Blindness in Jesus’ day was a common ailment in the Middle East and created all sorts of religious hurdles for its victims. No son of Aaron with a defect in his sight could offer up the bread of God (Lev. 21:16–21). Devotional writings — not Scripture — found among the Dead Sea Scrolls prohibited blind men from entering Jerusalem. Since God sometimes blinded His enemies in the  Old Testament (G...

Image via Wikipedia “Hear, you deaf ; and look, you blind, that you may see. Who is blind but My servant, or deaf as My messenger whom I send?” ( Isa. 42:18–19a) Isaiah refers to two kinds of blindness in the passage before us. He speaks first of the blindness of those who are in the midst of persecution and tribulation. There are times in our lives when we can’t see what the next day holds. We make plans, but we have no idea what God is going to do with them. We have suspicions about what the next year will hold, but we can’t be sure because things change so quickly in the world around us. Our families might break up, we might suddenly lose a job, or we might be told that we have some chronic illness . These are things we never expect, and, when they happen, they make us uncertain of the future in a more poignant way than before. During such times, we might be described as blind in a very real and disconcerting sense. The Jews were certainly this way after having spent 70 ...