Lord, that our eyes may be opened

 

 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 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify.  And the third day He will rise again."    Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him.  And He said to her, "What do you wish?"  She said to Him, "Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom."  But Jesus answered and said, "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."  And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers.  But Jesus called them to Himself and 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!"  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.  My study Bible remarks that the two blind men greet Jesus as Lord, which is the common title for God, and Son of David, which is a title deeply associated with the Messiah.  It notes that even though Jesus knows what we want before we ask, He calls us to ask freely so that we might learn of His mercy.  Additionally, there is a spiritual interpretation to this miracle in the patristic literature of the Church.  In that perspective, the blind men symbolize future generations who would come to faith only by hearing, without the benefit of seeing Christ in person (see John 20:29).  Those who tried to silence the blind men represent oppressive persecutors and tyrants who, in every generation, try to silence the Church.  Nonetheless, under persecution, the Church all the more confesses Jesus Christ.

Traditionally, blindness in Scripture often represents sin in a certain perspective.  That is, sin as ignorance of the things of God, as blindness to understanding or receiving the things of God in the heart.  It symbolizes a lack of insight, an inability to perceive.  In chapter 13 of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus begun preaching in parables.  Quoting from Isaiah, He explained His use of parables to His disciples, using metaphors of seeing and  hearing:  "Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:  'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull.  Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.'  But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it" (Matthew 13:13-17, Isaiah 6:9-10).  St. Paul uses the same quotation in Acts 28:23-29.  We also note that Jesus is passing out of Jericho in today's reading.  In Scripture, Jericho was also a town symbolic of sin; in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the man who is later helped by the Samaritan is attacked by robbers and left for dead in this same road between Jerusalem and Jericho (see Luke 10:25-37).  So, we can read this story also as a parable, and understand that the gift of Christ -- and especially through the Holy Spirit which will be given to the world -- is a gift of sight to those who truly desire it.  Let us note how these blind men pray, with humility and faith.  They ask for mercy; they understand that they ask for a gift, not an entitlement.  They understand that Christ's mercy is a gift of compassion; they recognize the Giver in their prayer, and the immense goodness of God who gives life and meaning to the world.  As my study Bible has pointed out, they call Him Lord, a title for God, in recognition of the real majesty of the Person standing in front of them.  And they call Him Son of David, a title for the Messiah.  Their prayer for mercy is the prayer of a heart which has come to recognize the true weight and value of God in one's life, to understand and depend upon God's love and how precious that is to life.  And the gift of their sight opens them up to a life in front of them, to that road leading to Jerusalem on which Jesus travels, and they can now travel with Him.  The gift of sight, then, is the gift of life, and this is how we should understand the precious gift of spiritual sight, which gives meaning to the rest of our lives and guides us in what we will do.  The psalmist declares, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Psalm 119:105).  Christ the Word is the lamp to our feet and the light to our path, and the gift of sight enables these men to follow that lamp and that light on the path to Jerusalem with Him.  Let us pray for our eyes to be opened, as they did, for Christ illumines our whole world, and makes our path straight so we can see our best way forward.