And as they went out from Jericho a great crowd followed him.
This short verse is a hinge. Jesus leaves Jericho with a crowd at His heels, and the road ahead runs to Jerusalem, where He will present Himself as King for the last time.
The starting point is not accidental. Jericho was the Canaanite stronghold that Joshua left under a curse. Now the same place becomes a showcase of mercy.
Here the Lord begins His final presentation of Himself to Jerusalem. But it starts from Jericho — the city that had once been the stronghold of Canaanite power. The Lord Jesus comes in grace. He does not seal up the curse that had been pronounced on the city. Instead He makes it the witness of His mercy toward those in Israel who believed.
The same city had already seen one life spared when everything else fell.
The royal proclamation begins at Jericho, the city of the curse. But the curse does not and cannot prevail over the blessing. Even in Joshua's day Jericho had seen Rahab saved from the city's own doom. Now it sees the grace of the Son of David.
The journey that starts here is not a bid to be welcomed.
The end of our chapter, from Matthew 20:30, is a preface to Matthew 21. There we have the last formal presentation of the King. He does not present Himself with any thought of being received. He presents Himself so that man's sin may be filled up and God's purposes carried out.
A large crowd walks with Him, yet the crowd is the obstacle in the story, not the help. It wants to keep moving; the blind men want mercy.
As the Lord goes out of Jericho, He accepts from the blind men the title He bears in relation to Israel. He is about to present Himself to Israel for the last time as having a right to that title. The world is impatient and will not concern itself with the misery of the blind men. The Lord does not give in to it. He stops to heal them, and they follow the Son of David — a clear testimony to the reality of His title. But He presents Himself here as "Lord" too, that is, as Jehovah Himself.
The pressure from the crowd turns out to serve the men who ignored it.
The crowd, irritated by their crying, want to silence them. But this only induces them to increase their crying out. Faith will not be silenced by popular opinion. In fact, the Lord waited to answer until they showed this evidence of serious concern.
Mark and Luke name one man; Matthew records two. Writing for Jewish readers, he gives the number the law required for evidence.
"Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses." So Matthew, writing for his own people the Jews, tells us of two men. The other Gospels give only one, the son of Timaeus. Giving sight was one of the things named as work the Messiah would do — "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened" (Isa. 35:5). That is in Messiah's day, so you get it fulfilled in testimony to Israel.
Blind men see what the nation misses.
What a picture! The ones who could see reject their own Messiah in the blind hardness of their hearts — the same Messiah whom Gentiles owned as the born King of the Jews. And the poor blind ones, by faith, cry out that He is the true King.
Matthew and Mark place the healing as Jesus left the city. Luke places it as He drew near. Digging at the site offers one explanation:
Archaeologists have been digging in the Jericho area. They have uncovered the foundations of two Jerichos: the old original city, and the Roman Jericho a short distance away. The blind man understood the begging business and planted himself between the two! Luke, writing for Gentiles, has the Roman Jericho in mind. The other Gospel writers are thinking of the original city.
- Curse — The last journey starts at Jericho, the city Joshua left under a curse. The King passes through and gives mercy, not judgment.
- Grace — Rahab found mercy there long before. Two blind beggars find it again in the same doomed place.
- Crowd — The great crowd follows without needing anything; it tries to hush the two who do. Jesus stops for the need the crowd wants to walk past.
- Witness — Matthew records two men, because two witnesses establish a matter. Opening blind eyes was the sign of Messiah's day.
- Reversal — The nation that can see refuses its King. The blind confess Him. That is the picture just before Jerusalem.
And lo, two blind men, sitting by the wayside, having heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out saying, Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David.
Two blind men sit by the road outside Jericho and shout for mercy, using a royal title — "Son of David." Their cry raises three questions: why Matthew counts two men, why that title, and why the people who could see were the ones who missed Him.
The healing happens at the one city in Israel that carried a curse from Joshua's day.
The royal proclamation begins at Jericho, the city of the curse; which does not and cannot, however, prevail over the blessing. Jericho, which even in Joshua's day had witnessed the salvation of Rahab from its own doom, now witnesses the grace of the Son of David. Two blind men, sitting by the wayside, cry out to Him as this, only to find the crowd rebuke them. But they cry out all the more, until He who can never turn away from the voice of need answers and heals them. The light dawns on those sightless eyes, they see their Saviour, and then they follow Him.
Matthew counts two men. That fits a rule of law Jewish readers knew well.
Matthew names two blind men. That suited the writer whom God inspired to bear witness of Jehovah-Messiah to the Jews, for the law had a well established rule that they should look for at least two witnesses. Matthew also names two demon-possessed men in an earlier account, where Mark and Luke found it enough to dwell on the more striking of the two.
The title is a claim staked on prophecy. One writer says these men were taught by God what to say.
It was there that two blind men, sitting by the wayside, cried out, and most fittingly, "Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!" God led and taught them. This was not a matter of law; they appealed to Him strictly as Messiah. Here is something remarkable. From time to time Israel had seen signs and wonders: miraculous cures, the dead even raised to life, leprosy cleansed. Yet before the Messiah we never hear of anyone giving sight to the blind. The Rabbis held that this was reserved for the Messiah.
Their cry stacks two names together — "Lord" beside "Son of David." One writer takes the first as more than politeness.
As the Lord goes out of Jericho, He accepts from the blind men the title He bears in relation to Israel. He is about to present Himself to Israel for the last time as having a right to this title... The world was impatient and would not trouble itself with the misery of the blind men. The Lord did not give in to that. He stops to heal them, and they follow the Son of David — a clear testimony to the reality of His title. But He presents Himself here too as the "Lord," that is, as Jehovah Himself.
This cry comes just before the last public presentation of the King. The irony is sharp.
If they knew nothing of the coming crisis, they were still completely in the spirit of the scene. The Holy Spirit was acting on them so that they might bear testimony to Jesus. He was now being presented in public for the last time as Heir to the throne. What a picture! Those who could see rejected their own Messiah in the blind hardness of their hearts, even though Gentiles owned Him as the born King of the Jews. And the poor blind ones, through faith, confessed Him aloud as the true King. Perhaps their main desire, their only desire, was to have their sight back. Let that be so. God still gave their faith the proper object and the right confession for that moment, for He was guiding the scene.
One writer reads the scene as more than history.
These two blind men sit by the road, groping in the dark, crying to the Son of David to rescue them. They are a picture of the poor and weak remnant of Israel at the end of this age... That remnant of Israel will cry to Him as Son of David and call upon Him for deliverance... The cry of the blind men was the work of the Holy Spirit. In the same way, the Spirit of God will produce the seeking, the longing and the prayer of that future remnant.
- Curse. The proclamation of the King starts at Jericho, the cursed city. Grace has the last word there, not the curse.
- Cry. "Son of David" is a claim on prophecy. Israel's teachers held that opening blind eyes was the sign of the Messiah alone.
- Confession. The Spirit gave them the words. Their one wish may have been sight, but God secured the right testimony at the right moment.
- Contrast. Those with working eyes rejected their King. Two blind beggars named Him aloud, and named Him right.
- Coming. The scene previews a remnant of Israel who will one day cry to the Son of David out of darkness, moved by the same Spirit.
But the crowd rebuked them, that they might be silent. But they cried out the more, saying, Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David.
Two blind men sit by the road outside Jericho and call after Jesus. The crowd tries to silence them, and the rebuke only makes them louder. Why would a crowd following Jesus object to a cry for mercy, and what did these men see that the crowd did not?
The men do not beg for money. They call Jesus by the royal name of Israel's promised King. And they ask for the one miracle the teachers of the law expected from the Messiah alone.
It was there that two blind men, sitting by the road, cried out — and their words fit the moment: "Have mercy on us, O Lord, You Son of David!" God led them and taught them. Their appeal rested on no question of law, but on His place as Messiah, and it fit the scene exactly. They felt that the nation had no sense of its own blindness... It is remarkable that Israel had seen signs and wonders from time to time — miraculous cures, even the dead raised to life, and leprosy cleansed. Yet never, before the Messiah, do we hear of anyone restoring sight to the blind. The teachers of the law taught that only the Messiah would do this.
Matthew names two men here. One writer links that detail to the standard of evidence Israel's law required:
Matthew names two blind men. That detail suits the writer God inspired to testify of Jehovah-Messiah to the Jewish people. Their law held a well established rule: look for at least two witnesses.
The rebuke is not about noise. It is about the words they shouted, and it shows where the crowd itself stood.
They had faith in Him, that He could do it. But it was the Holy Spirit who put that confession and cry in their hearts and on their lips: "Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David." And the crowd rebuked them to make them be quiet. Surely this is proof enough of the unbelief and state of this great company of people following Him. Why would they rebuke these men and order them to be silent, if they shared the faith of these two? Calling this Jesus "Son of David" offended the crowd. But no one could silence them.
The order to stop did not weaken the cry. It made it louder. One writer treats such rebuke as normal:
We must expect rebukes when faith is at work. To others it looks troublesome and unreasonable. Why? They do not have the same spiritual urgency — but it is true faith. "He cried out all the more." And the Lord will stop, though people would not. Their minds will change then, when they see that the Lord pays attention to the cry.
Another sees a purpose in the gap between the first cry and the answer:
Popular opinion will not silence faith. In fact, the Lord waited to answer until they showed this evidence of serious concern.
The world around Him was impatient to move on. He stopped anyway, and in stopping He owned both names the men had given Him.
As He goes out of Jericho, the Lord accepts from the blind men the title He holds in relation to Israel. He is about to present Himself to Israel for the last time as having a right to this title. "Have mercy on us, O Son of David," say the blind men. The world was impatient and would not bother itself with the misery of the blind men. The Lord would not go along with that. He stops to heal them, and they follow the Son of David — clear testimony to the reality of His title. But He presents Himself here too as the "Lord," that is, as Jehovah Himself.
One writer reads the scene forward, to a small group in Israel in the days still to come.
We have seen in the blind men here (for Matthew shows us two of them) a picture of that remnant in the last days who will have their eyes opened to see and follow Jesus as their King. They cry after Him, and the crowd in that day will indeed "rebuke them, telling them to be silent." But they will only cry to Him the louder. He finds them in the city of the curse, and He will soon lead them up to the city of blessing, and of His rest forever.
- Cry — Two men beg for mercy, not money. They call Jesus "Son of David," and ask for the one sign the teachers expected from the Messiah alone.
- Rebuke — The crowd tries to silence them, and that shows its own unbelief. What offended them was the name "Son of David."
- Louder — Expect rebuke when faith is at work. Here it only raises the cry, and the Lord waits until that earnestness shows.
- Stopped — The world was too impatient to care about two blind beggars. The Lord stopped anyway, and answered as Son of David and as Lord.
- Picture — The scene sketches a future remnant in Israel. They cry to their King while the crowd objects, and He leads them from the city of the curse to lasting blessing.
And Jesus, having stopped, called them and said, What will ye that I shall do to you?
Jesus is leaving Jericho, with Jerusalem and the cross ahead of Him. Two blind beggars shout for mercy, and the whole procession stops. The verse turns on two things: the Lord stopping, and the Lord asking men who have nothing what they want done for them.
Matthew records the halt before he records the healing. One writer sees in that pause the heart of Christ, and reads the whole scene as a picture of Israel. (Older translations of this verse read "And Jesus stood still," where the ESV has "And stopping, Jesus called them.")
"And Jesus stood still." Such is His heart of tender care for those in need that He asks them exactly what they want. They have no doubt what their most pressing need is. One day Israel will do the same: the nation will see how serious its spiritual blindness is and cry out for mercy. Right now she is blind, sad to say, but determined not to admit it. So she has found no relief.
The scale of this interruption is easy to miss.
He is on an important journey. Must the whole procession stand still for the cry of a poor beggar at the very edge of the crowd? The moment the cry for mercy reaches the ear of the Son of David, it stops Him. He does not move another step... What a sight! Look again! A poor blind beggar in the dust, and Jesus waiting on him... He does not hurry through His work of mercy; He lingers over this sacred scene... It is as if the Lord had said, "Ask what you want; I am waiting to serve you — waiting to give you what you ask."
He does not just heal. He asks. In Mark's account of the same scene, the reply the man gives settles who does the work and who receives it.
How good it is that when the Lord asks, "What do you want me to do for you?" the blind man replies, "That I might receive my sight." The Lord takes the place of the doer, and the blind man accepts the place of the receiver... He did not try to follow Jesus in order to receive his sight. He received the blessing first, and then became a follower. First we receive the blessings of salvation and forgiveness through what Christ has done. Only then can we follow Him.
The crowd told them to be quiet. The Lord answered their persistence at a moment when the nation as a whole asked Him for nothing.
Jesus does not put the blessing off until His reign... The Jews did not seek mercy and healing at His hands; but if there were any to call on Him at Jericho, the Lord would listen. Here, then, Messiah answers the cry of faith of these two blind men. When the crowd rebuked them, telling them to be quiet, they cried out all the more. The difficulties put in faith's way only increased its energy.
Jericho was the city destroyed under Joshua and left under a curse.
The royal proclamation begins at Jericho, the city of the curse — which does not and cannot prevail over the blessing. Jericho, which even in Joshua's day had witnessed the rescue of Rahab from its own doom, now witnesses the grace of the Son of David.
Mark and Luke tell of one blind man; Matthew names two. One writer links the difference to the readers Matthew was writing for.
This account names two blind men, which made it very suitable for the writer whom God inspired to testify of Jehovah-Messiah to the Jewish people. Their law had a well established rule: look for at least two witnesses.
This is not just old history. What stopped Him on the road to Jerusalem still moves Him now.
That voice of need falls on the Saviour's ear and touches His heart. Scripture says, "Jesus stood still." He was on His way to Jerusalem to do the wonderful work of the cross... but the cry of need stopped Him. He is now in heaven, in glory, but the voice of need touches Him now, just as the voice of misery and need touched Him then.
- Mercy cried — The crowd told them to be quiet; they shouted louder. Opposition did not weaken their faith; it drove it.
- He stopped — One cry from the edge of the crowd stopped the Messiah on His way to the cross. Need, not rank, held Him there.
- He asked — He does not assume. He asks what they want, drawing out what they know they lack.
- He gave — He takes the place of the doer, and the needy man the place of the receiver. This grace comes in the very city marked by a curse.
- They followed — Following Him comes after the blessing, never as its price. First receive, then follow.
They say to him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened.
Two men were sitting by the road outside Jericho. They would not keep quiet, so Jesus stopped and asked them what they wanted. Their answer is short: they ask for their eyes. Commentators find in it a picture of how faith comes to Christ, and of what Israel will one day cry for.
The question comes first. A whole procession halts so that one blind beggar can name his need:
Is He any less delighted, any less overcome, by the cry for mercy of the poor blind beggar? Not at all. He is on an important journey. Must the whole procession stand still for the cry of a poor beggar at the very edge of the crowd? The moment the cry for mercy reaches the ear of the Son of David, it stops Him. He does not move another step... What a sight! A poor blind beggar in the dust, and Jesus waiting on him. He does not rush through His work of mercy; He lingers over the scene. It is as if the Lord had said, "Ask what you will, I am waiting to serve you — waiting to grant your request."
Their reply is not a plan or an offer. It puts everything on His side and nothing on theirs.
How blessed! When the Lord asks, "What do you want me to do for you?" the blind man replies, "Let me recover my sight." The Lord takes the place of the doer, and the blind man accepts the place of the receiver. At once the Lord acknowledges this simple faith. The blind man receives his sight and "followed Him on the way," from then on to be His disciple. He did not try to follow Jesus in order to receive his sight. Having received the blessing, he became a follower.
The difference between this man and the rich ruler is what each believed about himself:
It was useless for him to speak as the rich ruler had done, asking what he should do. He knew he could do nothing to give himself sight. He took his own place of helplessness, gave the Lord the supreme place of authority, and depended on His mercy.
In one breath they name Israel's King and Israel's God:
As He goes out of Jericho, the Lord accepts from the blind men the title He bears in relation to Israel. He is about to present Himself to Israel for the last time as having a right to this title... The world is impatient and would not bother itself with the misery of the blind men. The Lord does not give in to it. He stops to heal them, and they follow the Son of David. This is clear testimony to the reality of His title. But He presents Himself here as "Lord" too, that is, as Jehovah Himself.
The contrast is sharp. The men who cannot see are the ones confessing the King:
What a picture! The seeing ones, blind and hard in heart, were rejecting their own Messiah — the same One whom Gentiles owned as the born King of the Jews. And the poor blind ones, through faith, were crying out loud that He was the true King. Perhaps their main desire, their one desire, may have been to be healed of their blindness. Let that be so. But God gave their faith the right object and the right confession for that moment, for He was guiding the scene.
The men only got to ask because they ignored the crowd's rebuke. Commentators read that refusal forward into the nation's future:
We have seen in the blind men here (for Matthew shows us two of them) a picture of that remnant in the last days who will have their eyes opened to see and follow Jesus as their King. They will cry after Him, and in that day the crowd will indeed rebuke them and tell them to keep quiet. But they will only cry the louder to Him. He will find them in the city of the curse, and He will soon lead them up to the city of blessing, and of His rest forever.
People today word the complaint differently. The need underneath is the same:
People often complain of a lack of light. What they really need is spiritual eyesight — that is, faith. It would let them see the light that has shone so brightly in Him.
- Cry. A crowd told these men to keep quiet. They cried louder, and that is how they were heard at all.
- Question. The whole procession stops while Christ asks a beggar what he wants. He lingers, ready to serve the one who asks.
- Ask. They ask for the one thing they cannot supply. The Lord takes the place of the doer; the blind man takes the place of the receiver.
- Title. They call Him "Son of David," His title toward Israel, and "Lord" — that is, Jehovah Himself. The blind confess the King whom the seeing nation rejects.
- Sight. What people still lack is not more light but eyesight — that is, faith. Those who receive sight follow Him on the way. It is a foretaste of the day when Israel will see and follow their King.
And Jesus, moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes had sight restored to them, and they followed him.
Matthew ends the Jericho scene in one sentence: Jesus feels, He touches, eyes open, and two men follow Him down the road. The words "in pity" render what older versions call "moved with compassion," and the whole verse flows out of that.
The Gospel writers use the same word again and again for what moved Jesus before He acted. It names the deepest kind of feeling.
We use the heart as the symbol of love. People in the East more often used the bowels as the symbol of the deepest feeling of love, pity and compassion. The Lord's compassion was truly "the love of heaven to earth come down." No love or compassion was ever so deep and real as His. How often we read, "He was moved with compassion" (Matt. 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 20:34; Mark 1:41; Luke 7:13, etc.). No one ever felt so deeply the sorrows and woes of others as He did. And He is "the same yesterday, today and forever" (Heb. 13:8).
He could have healed with a word, and elsewhere He did. Writers see meaning in the touch.
And full of compassion He touched them, and their sight was restored. We have already seen what healing by touch pictures in this Gospel. Whenever the Lord heals by touch, it points to the time of His own presence on the earth and His merciful dealing with Israel. Sometimes He heals by His Word while absent in person, as with the centurion's servant and the Canaanite woman. Sometimes someone touches Him in faith. Both point to the time when He is away from the earth, and He heals Gentiles who come to Him in faith.
The two men had called Him Son of David — a royal title tied to a kingdom that had not yet come. He did not tell them to wait for it.
What appears further here is that Jesus does not put the blessing off till His reign. The miracles He worked were samples of the power that would fill the earth with Jehovah's glory. So our Lord shows that the power was already in Himself. They did not have to go without, just because the kingdom had not yet come in its full, open sense. Still less did the blessing wait for the sons of men. Power went out at His kingly touch: this, at least, did not depend on the recognition of His claims by His people.
Mark and Luke record one blind man at Jericho; Matthew records two. One writer links it to who Matthew wrote for, and to what open eyes proved about Jesus.
Scripture says that every word is established by two or three witnesses. So Matthew, writing to his own people the Jews, tells us of two men. The other Gospels give only one, the son of Timaeus. Giving sight was one of the works named as the Messiah's own: "then the eyes of the blind shall be opened" (Isa. 35:5). It is God who is acting here: He is dealing with these blind men and ordaining a testimony to His Son.
Readers also ask whether this happened as Jesus entered Jericho or as He left it, since the accounts seem to differ. One writer points to digs that uncovered two Jerichos, the old city and the Roman one, with the beggar sitting between them.
We mention this to show how simply an objection that looks impossible disappears, once we know all the facts.
Nothing forced them to walk with Him. Writers read the last line of the verse as a picture, not just a fact.
He opens the blind eyes of His people who believe in Him and receive Him as the Messiah. That is what He truly was, even though He was rejected. They salute Him as Son of David, and He answers their faith by opening their eyes. They follow Him — a figure of the true remnant of His people, who will wait for Him.
The healing was physical. Writers apply it to a blindness that eyesight cannot cure.
People often complain that they lack light. What they really need is spiritual eyesight — that is, faith — which would let them see the light that has shone so brightly in Him.
- Compassion moves. The word means the deepest feeling of love and pity. It sets the whole verse going, and He is the same today.
- Compassion touches. His hand healed them while He was here in person, a mercy to Israel. Healing by His word at a distance pictures another time.
- Compassion gives now. He would not put the blessing off till His reign. The power was already in Himself, and it did not wait for the nation to accept His claims.
- Compassion testifies. Two men make the witness sure, and open eyes were the promised mark of the Messiah.
- Compassion draws. Sight ended in following Him. These two picture those who will yet welcome Him, and they remind us that what people lack is not light but faith to see it.