Two Blind Men

In our study this morning I want us to think about living compassionately.
We’ve considered the compassionate heart of God and how God suffers with those who suffer. We’ve considered Jesus motivation for imploring workers to go into the harvest and show the compassion of God and today I want us to consider the lifestyle of compassion.
How do we live as compassionate people?
How do we reflect the compassion of God and draw others to the God of compassion?
To do this we are going to look at one of the many stories in which Jesus is said to have compassion on someone who is in great need.
The story is told of two blind men on the road near Jericho

Two Blind Men Receive Sight

29As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. 30Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!"
31The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!"
32Jesus stopped and called them. "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.
33"Lord," they answered, "we want our sight."
34Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.

This is a typical healing story as found in the synoptic gospels. Matthews main point is to show that Jesus is the Son of David that is the promised Messiah who comes to heal he may have in mind some of the prophecies from the book of Isaiah.


29:18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

35:5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Being blind must have been one of the most debilitating challenges of Jesus time.
You couldn’t work, you were cut off from society, you weren’t allowed to worship in the temple, you were socially outcast, economically deprived, uneducated, probably had other health issue due to poverty and the inevitability of accidents – to be blind was to be in a pitiful state.

Physical blindness is also quite commonly used as a metaphor for spiritual blindness that which cuts one off from seeing the world as it really is, from seeing the true value of people, of seeing God not as a justifier of our depraved social structures but as the one who challenges us to live justly and compassionately.

So while this story serves to show Jesus as a healer of the physically blind we may also see in it Jesus offering us a way to overcome our own spiritual blindness.
Let’s unpack the story and look at it a bit at a time.
The first part of the story sets the scene.

Jesus and his friends are on a journey somewhere near Jericho but that details need not concern us.
Jesus has a crowd with him he’s at the height of his popularity. Everyone is having a good time with Jesus – but something threatens to rock the boat and spoil the party.
Two unkempt, unwashed, unwelcome beggars start making a racket and interrupt the genial conversation among the happy travellers.

Jesus friends try to bring back order by telling the blind men to shut their faces.
So here we have a situation with many parallels in our world today an oppressed minority is silenced. Two men who represent all those cut off from society and privilege by no fault of their own are denied access to their only source of hope.

A double evil is being committed the first evil is systemic and has denied these men justice and mercy for many years the next act is deliberate and reactive, the crowd try to put these men back in their place. Maybe it’s because they have been conditioned to believe that the blind men are an abomination to God cursed with blindness for some sin they have committed. Maybe they think they are doing God’s business in supporting the system of oppression. It reminds me of those who supported apartheid in South Africa believing that Black people were inferior to white people cursed by God for some some sin of one of their ancient forebears. It’s abhorrent to us that some could believe like that – however people are capable of justifying incredible evil with their diabolic theology.

Alternatively the crowd might have been afraid to confront the system that they know to be evil afraid that such confrontation would put the spotlight on their own complicity.
Thankfully our blind heroes are men of great courage and they refuse to be silenced, they cling to the hope that they have and the shout even louder for Jesus to intervene. Somehow they knew this Rabbi was different and would not be complicit with the evil system that was oppressing them.

So that is the situation. The blind men take this great risk, no one else is standing up for them they must do it themselves – how will Jesus react?
We can skip to the end of the story and see what we’ve come to expect from Jesus for we think we know Jesus well enough.

Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes

Fantastic of course.

Fantastic that Jesus touched them – he put his own spiritual holiness at risk by touching men who were by law unclean.

Fantastic that He put his popularity at risk by standing up to the crowd and defying their expectations.

Fantastic for these blind men who received back their sight and were welcomed into the fold.

They were now part of society again, in fact they joined the crowd and followed Jesus.

And we have this word compassion again this feeling of deep pain within as one identifies strongly with the suffering of another.
We’ve come to expect that from Jesus too really but I was interested to note that Jesus had compassion on them at that moment as though it came upon him suddenly when he engaged with them.

So what does this mean for us who want to be like Jesus and live a life of compassion?

Lets pay a little more attention to what Jesus does in this story – “God is in the detail”
Jesus had compassion on these men once he had engaged with them. Here is a point that I want to emphasise and make clear.

Compassion is a relational term.

You can’t have compassion in general. To say I am compassionate in general I think is an airy fairy woolly thing to say. Compassion is always about being connected to real people in real situations. Anything else is pointless sentimentalism.

I think it is humanly impossible to be compassionate all the time to feel compassion for all the suffering people of the world consistently. We can’t bear thinking about all the problems of the world let alone engage at that deep gut level identification with the suffering of countless millions. We can only do it one person or one situation at a time. It’s about living in the moment and responding appropriately to the place and time you find yourself in. There is a time to celebrate a time to praise, a time to build up a time to plant, and there is a time to engage with the suffering and that is the time to be compassionate.

As Jesus left Jericho on that day he would have been aware at one level that there were beggars and blind people in need of his touch. They were after all everywhere as they are today. Yet he was engaged in another task travelling with his friend to their next port of call which was probably Jerusalem. I imagine he was fielding their questions as they explored what he had been saying earlier about the kingdom of God. Jesus was engaged with his companions giving them the attention that they needed yet he was also aware of what else might have been going on around him His peripheral vision was being employed his cocktail ears were in tune, so that when he hears the two men crying out he responds and he diverts his attention.

Jesus stops and he listens.

Here I think is the beginning of the compassionate life - it is allowing yourself to stop and listen. Are you in tune enough with the world around you to know when it is good to stop and listen?
When a cry for help is heard are you too busy to stop and listen? One of the neighbours of Chin Chin the wee 5 years old girl kidnapped in Albany was devastated because she had heard a little girl scream for help but had ignored her.

Maybe you can’t respond to every need you see or hear, but are you too busy to stop and listen?
Having paused to hear the cry of the blind men Jesus asks what seems an obvious question.

"What do you want me to do for you?"

It seems obvious to us that they wanted their sight back; but Jesus makes no such assumption.

It has been a common mistake for philanthropists and aid workers, church community ministries to assume they know the needs of those they work with. That is quite a presumption!
It is estimated that billions of dollars of aid has been wasted in the last 50 years or so by well meaning charities who assume that they know what the “poor people in Africa really need”. And so because people have not taken the time to stop to listen to ask the right questions, the poor people of Africa or Papua New Guinea have found themselves with a brand new irrigation system when what they wanted was to get back on their ancestral land and when that opportunity arises they abandon the generous gift of the west.

Following Jesus example we can live the compassionate life by developing openness to what is going on around us, taking time to stop and listen to the cries of the hurting and engaging where we can with people as real people and asking the right questions.

I know many of you do this quite naturally and instinctively, you’ve learned to listen to that still small voice of the spirit which helps you discern the right steps to take at the right time.
Some of you need to hear that you are trying to do too much and I’m not picking on anyone that’s just the way the pendulum swings. Others of you will need to hear that you are not taking enough time to listen to the cries of the hurting – probably because your life is too busy, maybe because it’s too scary to even think about other people’s problems when you are troubled yourself. If that’s you - consider the prayer of St Francis, it is in giving that we receive and by taking time to stop and listen to others you may find that you receive that wonderful gift of a listening ear for yourself.

At times some of us need to hear Jesus saying: Are you asking the right questions or are you ploughing on doing your good deeds without checking as to whether they are wanted or needed? Remember real compassion comes by engaging with people as people where they are and not assuming you know their needs anything else is what we used to call works-righteousness an attempt to make yourself look good by doing good for others.

Jesus calls us to live lightly and freely. We don’t need to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders that is his job.

Our call is walk with him each day responding in Christ-like ways to the people and situations that we encounter.

That is why it is important to nurture your own soul Guard your heart wrote the psalmist for it is the wellspring of life.

A well nurtured soul will be able to listen to that still small voice within guiding ones footsteps long the way
A well nurtured soul will be able to listen to what is going on in the outside world and will take the time to gracefully stop listen engage and respond with compassion.

God of all compassion so grant that we might live compassionately AMEN