Saturday, July 12, 2025

2025.07.12 Hopewell @Home ▫ Matthew 20:29–34

Read Matthew 20:29–34

Questions from the Scripture text: Where were they going (Matthew 20:29)? Who followed Him? Who were there (Matthew 20:30)? Doing what? What did they hear? What did they do? What did they cry out for Him to do? What did they call Him? Who responded to them (Matthew 20:31)? What did they warn them? How did the blind men respond? What did they cry out? What did Jesus do in Matthew 20:32? To whom did He call? What did He ask? What did they call Him (Matthew 20:33)? For what did they ask? What did Jesus have (Matthew 20:34)? What did He do? What did they receive? When? And what did they do?

Who can truly see? Matthew 20:29–34 prepares us for the sermon in the morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these six verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the one who can see his own great need, and Jesus’s great compassion and ability for that need, is the one who sees truly.  

In this passage, there is a great multitude of blind people and two sighted men.

The great multitude (Matthew 20:29) sees Jesus according to the mindset of glory, the mindset of the nations (Matthew 20:25), but the blind men (Matthew 20:30) see Jesus according to the Scriptures. They know many things about the Son of David, including what they have sung about Him, “For He will deliver the needy when he cries, the poor also, and him who has no helper” (cf. Psalm 72:12).

They know Him to be the One Who delivers the needy, the poor, and the helperless, when they cry. And they know themselves to be needy, poor, and helperless, so they cry out. The “great multitude” don’t think the blind men are worthy to cry out (Matthew 20:31). They think the blind men are too needy, poor, and helperless. This multitude does not know themselves, so they think they are well-suited to call to Jesus, but the blind men are not.

Dear reader, know Jesus to be the One Who hears the cry of the needy.  And know yourself to be needy! These are the two great things that you see, when you have sight from the Holy Spirit. 

And the spiritually-sighted blind men are correct. In the midst of the noisy crowd, Jesus has ears for the blind men. In the midst of His going to Jerusalem to be crucified, Jesus stands still and calls to them (Matthew 20:32). When He hears their request (Matthew 20:33), Jesus has compassion upon them (Matthew 20:34). In that compassion, He even touches these unclean, “defective,” men. Perhaps the first kindly human touch they have received in years.

The Lord Jesus is the glorious King of Psalm 72. He is also the compassionate Savior of Psalm 72. The Holy Spirit grant you sight of your needy self, and sight of your compassionate Savior, dear reader.

Finally, we see what the Spirit-sighted do with the ability and healing the Lord gives them. They follow Jesus. They go with the One Who has brought them to love and serve Him. They use the abilities that He has given to serve Him. The Lord give you to do the same, dear reader.

How does the Scripture help you see your neediness? What neediness do you see? How does it help you see Jesus’s willingness and compassion to deliver you? How are you responding to Him? How is He responding to you?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for showing us the truth about ourselves in the Scripture, and especially for showing us the truth about Yourself in the Scripture. And thank You for touching us by Your Holy Spirit, to give us sight. Give us that sight, we pray. And, grant that we would use it to follow You, we ask in Your own Name, Lord Jesus, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP72B “Nomads Will Bow” or TPH282 “I Greet Thee, Who My Sure Redeemer Art”

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