Friday in the First Week of Advent, December 2, 2022

Matthew 9, 27-31

As Jesus passed by, two blind men followed him, crying out, “Son of David, have pity on us!” When he entered the house, the blind men approached him and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I can do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they said to him. Then he touched their eyes and said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.” And their eyes were opened. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” But they went out and spread word of him through all that land.

One way to read this account is as a summary of the Lord’s mission on earth.  Thus, the two blind men signify the Jews and the Gentiles.  They are both blind because neither knows the Son of God or they way to eternal life.  They cry out to him in earthly terms, “the Son of David”.  Since they can do no better, he accepts this.  They cry out for mercy, as condemned prisoners to a king: “Have pity on us!”  The Lord goes into house and the two blind men grope along in order to follow him, signifying how the Jews stumbled along forming their conception of the Messiah from the words of the Prophets before he came, and how the Romans and the Greeks departed from logic in their understanding of God, which led them to idolatry and immorality (cf. Romans 1, 18-32).  As they have followed the Lord as far as they were able, he asked them, “Do you believe that I can do this?”  The Lord offers these two blind men — these two peoples — the gift of faith.  Their reply, “Yes, Lord”, states their willingness to receive this gift.  “Then he touched their eyes.”  The touching of the eyes by the priest formed an important part of rite of Baptism.  It “opens” the child’s eyes to the truth of the Gospel. The Lord consummates this opening on these two peoples who came to him by saying, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.”  The seed of faith that urged these peoples to go to him in the first place and to acknowledge him as “the Son of David” now sprouts: “Their eyes were opened.”  They knew now that Jesus was the Lord of heaven and earth.

“See that no one knows about this.” The Lord “urged” (from the Greek word) them strongly not to preach about him yet, for they were not ready.  They had not been sealed with the Holy Spirit, nor ordained to the preaching ministry.  “But they went out and spread word of him through all that land.”  Shortly after they had heard the Lord’s urging, they disobeyed it, reminding us of the fact that baptism does not make a person impervious to temptation.  And yet the Lord, who knew they would repay his generosity with disobedience, loved them anyway.  This is an important lesson for us, to know that our Lord loves us like this, and it also provokes the thought: What if these men, these peoples, had done as they were told?  How much more open to grace they would have been, how deep their faith would have become, so that in future times in history it would not fall away.