Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!

Now as they went out of Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!" Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet, but they cried out all the more, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!" So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?" They said to Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened." So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.

- Matthew 20:29-34

In yesterday's reading, we first read that Jesus is making His way toward Jerusalem. He taught the Twelve once again what is to come, that He will be betrayed to the chief priests and scribes, condemned to death, delivered to the Gentiles, mocked and scourged and crucified, and on the third day He will rise again. Then the mother of John and James Zebedee came to Him with a request. She wanted Jesus to grant that her two sons may sit on His left and right hand in His kingdom. He said to her (and to the brothers): "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to Him, "We are able." So He said to them, "You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father." The other disciples were angry when they heard this report. Jesus said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave -- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

Now as they went out of Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!" "Son of David" is a title deeply rooted in the Messianic expectation of the time, one for a ruler in the kingly line of David. "Lord" would be the common name for God. Again we note the doubling that happens in Matthew's gospel: here there are two blind men; elsewhere (in Mark) there is only one. it suggests to me, again, that both Jew and Gentile await this arrival. We are in Jericho, the first city that fell to the Israelites returning from slavery in Egypt, after the great shout. Here the new age is inaugurated: the shout here is for the mercy of the Lord, the Son of David. According to Wikipedia, Jericho is also one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, making it even more deeply symbolic in the sense of transition from one age to another.

Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet, but they cried out all the more, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!" That the multitude shushes these blind men reminds me of the disciples rebuking those who put the little children before Christ for a blessing, in a recent reading. At that time, Jesus told the disciples, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Here in this reading, an event which occurs just before Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the blind men who sit by the side of the road crying for mercy are like a shadow of all the children of the world; that is, all of us, on the cusp of this age of the kingdom coming into the world. Indeed, their cry is the cry of the Church and all the faithful, "Have mercy on us, O Lord." In effect, they are the whole world crying out for what Christ has to offer.

So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?" Here is the question that Jesus asks so often. My study bible says, "Jesus knows beforehand what they want -- and what we want. But He calls us to ask freely that He might answer us in mercy." We note also that the question asks us to focus in on what we truly want; it also gives us a sense of what God wants for us in the response to prayer.

They said to Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened." So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him. My study bible says that this last miracle before Jesus' triumphal entrance into Jerusalem reveals the arrival of the messianic age. It is, of course, one that is part of popular expectation through the prophet Isaiah: “I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house" (42:6-7).

As the new age is inaugurated, we understand several things from this passage. First of all is the mercy of Christ: this is what He is here for. He listens to our words, our prayers, and He responds. He wants us to speak for ourselves, to engage with Him. In dialogue, we engage: indeed, the word for meditation (as in Christian contemplative prayer) in the Greek is dialogismos. Here, He opens the eyes of the blind men on the road through Jericho. What does liberation really mean? What is it to be delivered into a Kingdom, and to become a part of His followers, as these blind men do? We recall the deliverance of the Israelites into the promised land, and we have to ask ourselves again, "What is the promised land?" and what does that mean for us? Here, it is answered in this promise of a new age opening up, the age in which we currently live -- in which we make choices to engage (in dialogue and prayer) with Him, or not. We call upon His mercy, and we, too, quite obviously ask for our eyes to be opened. This isn't just a story about two blind men sitting on the side of the road, ignored and pushed aside and hushed by the crowd, but it's really the story of all of us who live in this world and who need our sight, true vision. What does Christ give you if you ask for your eyes to be opened? He is here that we may see, and be truly liberated, to enter into His Kingdom. Where does that journey of liberation start for you? What do you want Him to do for you? Whatever way a prayer is answered, it is always with the purpose to open our eyes to what is before us, and to what we can have in our lives, with what grace God wants us to be filled. This is His covenant with us, His light that shines in the darkness, for the prisoners each in our own prison, even to the Gentiles, so that we may truly see and be liberated from our blindness.