Matthew 9.27-34

Last Friday, we saw the first of two miracle stories, concluding this entire section revealing the ministry of the King, what Jesus' ministry consists of. The first of these two picks up the theme that Jesus heals the social outcasts. This was the dead girl and the bleeding woman. Now we come to the last miracle story that helps conclude this entire section before Jesus talks one last time about discipleship. Let's read the story:

²⁷ As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
 ²⁸ When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
   “Yes, Lord,” they replied.
 ²⁹ Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you”; ³⁰ and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” ³¹ But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.
 ³² While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. ³³ And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
 ³⁴ But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”


The first thing I want you to do is read back over this passage and pick out all the characters in the story. 


Can you name the five different characters in this story?


These are the five I got:

1. Jesus
2. Blind men
3. Demon Possessed man
4. Crowd
5. Pharisees

Now out of this story, who comes out looking good besides Jesus?

Who would you have thought should have looked good?

Who ended up being the enemy, or looking bad in the story?

Look at what the blind men said in vs. 27, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

They called him "Son of David". Can you believe that!! 

But what did the Pharisees say about Jesus in vs. 34?

“It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”

Consistently throughout the Gospels, men who can't see end up seeing better than the people who can. 

The blind guys saw what Jesus truly was, the Son of David, King of the Jews. And the Pharisees called him demonic. 

These two miracle stories at the end of this section on the ministry of Jesus reveal two aspects of ministry. The first is that Jesus' ministry consists of meeting the needs of people. This means all people, not just the cool people or easy to get along with people, but the dirty, the unclean, the annoying, the social outcasts. The second aspect of Jesus' ministry is that those who you think are in, who should get it, don't and those who shouldn't get it or shouldn't be in, well they are. Jesus' ministry is so backwards to the way the world works that the most unlikely people seem to be the ones that become a part of his ministry.

You ever look around at church and think, "Wow, what a crazy group of people."

I know I do. 

Yet that is what is so great about it. The ministry of Jesus is for everyone, no matter how nerdy, athletic, smart, trendy, or poor you are. Jesus serves everyone, and to transition into the next passage for tomorrow, Jesus calls everyone to serve. 

This whole section on the ministry of Jesus has this underlying theme of discipleship, that this is the kind of ministry that Jesus is calling his disciples to. And tomorrow, we will see the conclusion of this entire section on the ministry of Jesus.