2021.05.27 Hopewell @Home ▫ Luke 18:35–43

Read Luke 18:35–43

Questions from the Scripture text: Near to where was Jesus coming (Luke 18:35)? Who was doing what there? What did this man hear and inquire about (Luke 18:36)? What did they tell him (Luke 18:37)? So what did the man do (Luke 18:38)? But what did he call Jesus? And for what did he ask? Who told him to do what in Luke 18:39? But how did the man respond? And what does he call Jesus now? How, now, does Jesus Himself respond (Luke 18:40)? What does He command? What does He ask (Luke 18:41)? What does the man answer? Now what does Jesus command (Luke 18:42)? Why? What happens, and when (Luke 18:43)? Where does the man go? What does the man do? Who see it? And what do they do?

Here at last is a man who knows that He is utterly needy. 

He’s not a Pharisee who is impressed with how much better grace has made him than everyone else (cf. Luke 18:9-14). He’s not an important disciple who thinks he obviously has more right to Jesus than infants (cf. Luke 18:15-17). He’s not a ruler who is pretty sure that his earthly riches just mirror his moral riches (cf. Luke 18:18-27). He’s not even Peter, who is impressed that the disciples have done what the rich young ruler couldn’t (cf. Luke 18:28-30).

He’s a blind man (Luke 18:35). He’s a beggar (verse 35). And he desperately needs not just desserts but undeserved mercy (Luke 18:38, Luke 18:39). He is “the sinner” (cf. Luke 18:13), who knows that if he’s going to come to Jesus or enter the kingdom, it’ll have to be by the effort of Another (cf. Luke 18:15a, Luke 18:17). 

This blind man can see rightly not only himself but also Jesus. He has more confidence than the crowd does that Jesus is the sort Who will care to hear and heed him (Luke 18:39a). And this is in part because he already sees Jesus as that Son of David (Luke 18:38, Luke 18:39b) Who would make the blind to see (cf. Luke 7:22, Isaiah 35:5–6). If you’re a believing blind man, this is probably a favorite Messianic passage. And he pleads to be exhibit A of Jesus’s Messianic qualifications. 

Jesus, therefore, doesn’t just heal him. He literally commands him to receive his sight (Luke 18:42a), on the basis of the fact that his faith has already saved him (verse 42b, lit.). Now, we won’t always have our most pressing earthly trouble removed upon being saved. Indeed, the believer will always continue in many ways to be needy, and ought always to go by the blind beggar’s creed, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

At bottom, a believer is someone who sees both himself and Jesus with the clarity of this blind man.

When do you usually see your neediness? When/how could you be seeing it more? When do you usually see Christ’s abundance for that need? When/how could you be seeing it more?

Suggested Songs: ARP16A “Keep Me, O God” or TPH508 “Jesus, Priceless Treasure”