Matthew 20:29-34 “What Do You Want Jesus To Do For You?”

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 21 Apr 2013

Translation

20:29 Now, as they were proceeding out from Jericho, a numerous crowd followed Him,

20:30 and, get this, two blind men sitting beside the road heard that Jesus was coming along [and] cried out saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

20:31 But the crowd reprimanded them in order that they might hush,
but as for them, they were crying out more, saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

20:32 Then Jesus stood [still] and whistled to them and said, “What are y’all wanting me to do for you?”

20:33 They say to Him, “Lord, that our eyes might be opened!”

20:34 And Jesus, gut-wrenched, touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes saw again!
Then they followed Him.

Introduction

Earlier this month, I received three emails from a missionary friend in Pakistan.

  1. The first one said “Shawn[1] cannot breathe. Please pray.”
  2. The next one said, “Please pray that Shawn will live, not die, and proclaim the salvation of the Lord. Please pray for Shawn’s Kidneys, breathing, and Urea level. Please pray that [he] not go into Coma. Shawn is Zoroastrian. Please pray for his salvation.”
  3. And the third read, “The Pakistani hospital says Shawn will die any minute. Shawn's kidneys have failed. He cannot breathe… Please pray that Shawn live and not die, and be healed. Please pray for his salvation.”

 

Well, I must admit that my first impulse was to wonder if my missionary friend was being overly optimistic. Pray for a pagan in a third-world country with liver failure and unable to breathe, who had rejected the gospel; isn’t that a bit presumptuous? But because my friend asked me, I prayed for Shawn that day. Then I pretty quickly forgot it because I wasn’t very hopeful.

 

A week later, I got the following email:

“Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Dear Pastor Nate, The medical science in Pakistan is primitive, BUT JESUS! Shawn is breathing on his own now. His urea level is normal. His kidneys are normal. He is talking… Praise Jesus. Glory to God. Thank you so much for praying.”

 

Wow! O me of little faith. In later reports, my friend has mentioned that Shawn is not a believer yet, but I am hopeful that God will answer that prayer as well.

 

In this sermon I want to explore a little bit about how to pray. In Matthew 20:21, we just saw James and John’s mom ask Jesus for something, and now again in v.29ff, we have someone else making a request of Jesus.

Exegesis

20:29 Now, as they were proceeding out from Jericho, a numerous crowd followed Him,

Και εκπορευομενων αυτων απο Ιεριχω ηκολουθησεν αυτῷ οχλος[3] πολυς.

 

20:30 and, get this, two blind men sitting beside the road heard that Jesus was coming along [and] cried out saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

και ιδου δυο τυφλοι καθημενοι παρα την ‘οδον ακουσαντες ‘οτι[4] Ιησους παραγει εκραξαν λεγοντες Ελεησον ‘ημας Κυριε[5] ‘Υιος Δαυιδ.[6]

 

20:31 But the crowd reprimanded them in order that they might hush,
but as for them, they were crying out more, saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

‘Ο δε οχλος επετιμησεν αυτοις ‘ινα σιωπησωσιν ‘οι δε μειζον εκραζον[8] λεγοντες Ελεησον ‘ημας Κυριε Υιος Δαυιδ.

 

20:32 Then Jesus stood [still] and whistled to them and said, “What are y’all wanting me to do for you?”

Και στας ‘ο Ιησους εφωνησεν αυτους και ειπεν Τί θελετε ποιησω ‘υμιν;

 

20:33 They say to Him, “Lord, that our eyes might be opened!”

Λεγουσιν αυτῷ Κυριε ‘ινα ανοιχθωσιν[10] ‘ημων ‘οι οφθαλμοι.

 

20:34 And Jesus, gut-wrenched, touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes saw again! Then they followed Him.

Σπλαγχνισθεις δε ‘ο Ιησους ‘ηψατο των οφθαλμων[11] αυτων και ευθεως ανεβλεψαν [αυτων ‘οι οφθαλμοι[12]] και ηκολουθησαν αυτῷ.

Conclusion: 6 Principles of Effective Prayer Drawn From 2 Blind Beggars

1. Punctuality

2. Humility

3. Faith

4. Community

5. Persistence

7. Follow-through

 

So, what is it that God would have YOU pray for?



[1] Names are changed to protect privacy.

[2] Jericho was rebuilt after Joshua’s time by Chaiel under the reign of Ahab (1Kings 16:34), and by Jesus’ time was, accord­ing to William Hendricksen, “a little paradise” with palm trees and rose gardens. Josephus mentions that Mark Antony gave it to Cleopatra as a token of his affection, and that Herod the Great and his son built a theater, an amphitheater, villas, and Roman baths in it to make it even more attractive. But it was to a tax-collector’s house that Jesus was headed.

[3] Some early manuscripts (P45, D, Γ, and most pre-Vulgate italic versions) read “crowds” (plural - ochloi polloi), but it doesn’t make a difference in English.

[4] Vincent (echoed by A.T. Robertson), tags this hoti as introducing a direct quote, as the crowd says, “Jesus is passing by!” This accounts for the Present tense of paragei, which has to be thrown into a Past tense otherwise. So a good alternate trans­lation would be “…two blind men sitting beside the road, when they heard [the crowd say,] ‘Jesus is coming along!’ cried...”

[5] The word “Jesus” is substituted for “Lord” in some early manuscripts (א, Θ, and f13. Furthermore, neither occurs in D, and L has both “Jesus” and “Lord”), so some early critical editions of the GNT don’t put either “Jesus” or “Lord” here. A significant number of early manuscripts (P45, א, C, D, L, N, Θ, f1, and f13) also spell “Son” in the Vocative case (‘uie), which makes no difference in an English translation, but surprisingly, the Critical editions follow the majority of manuscripts with the Nominative (‘uios). A smaller number of manuscripts (C, D, L, and N) do the same thing in v.31 using Vocative case (while א, curiously, changes to Genitive – ‘uiou).

[6] The Textus Receptus editions of the GNT spell this word δαβιδ – same in v.31, but variance in the spelling of names which have been transliterated from another language is common and does not affect meaning.

[7] The alternate explanation (viz. Calvin) that Jesus encountered blind beggars both upon entering Jericho and upon exiting Jericho a day or so later and actually healed them on the way out, runs aground on Luke’s sequence, which has Jesus entering Jericho to stay with Zaccheus after healing the beggars, unless we take Hendrickson’s suggestion that Jesus stayed in Jericho, then made to leave, and then met Zaccheus, returning to Jericho to stay with him. That might explain Mark’s account better, but such a flip-flop seems to me to be out-of-character with the way Christ conducted Himself.

[8] A couple of the earliest Greek manuscripts (P45, Θ, f13) use a synonym (kraugazw), which doesn’t have a different meaning. The more interesting thing is that there is a significant disagreement among Greek manuscripts over whether the tense should be Imperfect “were crying” (Majority, including Θ, f1, and f13) or Aorist “cried” (P45, א, B, D, L, Z). Critical editions go with the latter (which only speaks of them crying out once), while the Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority go with the former (which indicates that they cried out repeatedly).

[9] Whether they mean that He is God or that He is merely a master is not clear.

[10] This is the spelling of the Majority of Greek Manuscripts and the Patristic and T.R. editions. Critical editions use a more standard spelling ανοιγωσιν which is merely a difference in spelling, not in parsing or meaning.

[11] This is the reading of the Majority of Greek manuscripts as well as the Textus Receptus. However, the Critical editions read ομματων, following B, Θ, D, L, Z, f13. I find it curious that the Critical editors opted for the more properly-spelled word in the previous verse and the less properly-spelled one in this verse whereas the majority did it vice versa.

[12] This is the reading of the Majority (including C, K, N, W, Γ, and Δ) and thus the Patristic and Textus Receptus editions. The Critical editions omit this phrase. The only difference is whether the emphasis was on the persons receiving sight or the persons’ eyes receiving sight, which is not a significant difference in meaning.

[13] Henry goes on to say, “These blind men were sitting by the way-side, as blind beggars used to do. Note, Those that would receive mercy from Christ, must place themselves there where his out-goings are; where he manifests himself to those that seek him. It is good thus to way-lay Christ, to be in his road…”