PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Matthew 20:29-34
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet.” (Matthew 20:31)
“Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes.” (Matthew 20:34)
The first thing I notice is the different response to these blind men.
The crowds see them as an interruption, imposition or annoyance.
Jesus sees them with a heart of compassion, knowing their struggle and suffering.
I’m reminded of a time when a single mom was in church with her noisy toddler.
It was her first time, she was nervous about church and leaving her child in nursery.
She sat at the back, and the crowds would often look back at her with a scowl.
The person beside her felt the rebuke, and felt awful for this struggling seeker.
When the mom finally walked out to leave, she followed her with compassion.
The member of our church talked with her, but the woman would not stay.
How would Jesus have looked at this woman, what would he have done?
Did the silent but clear rebuke of the crowd keep this woman from being healed?
I’m not sure, but I do know I’d rather be like Jesus than like the crowd.
I want to have compassion for strugglers and seekers, and not hinder them from Jesus.
PRAYER
Lord, forgive me when I am more like the crowd than like you. Fill my heart with compassion like yours, and use me to help and heal those who need to know you!
There are so many suffering people in the world – I find it difficult to pass people who are caught up in addiction, who have messed up lives – it is hard to pass them by. I have compassion and I wonder what more can I do? Helping out at Urban hope helps. Giving to programs that help respond to disasters and provide relief – is important – it is a response. Help me to have compassion and to find ways of expressing that compassion by what I do and how I give! My assets or not mine – help me to use them to bless, I pray!
Am I a stepping stone or a stumbling block?
In my relationship to others, do I encourage or discourage? I need to be an instrument of His peace being like Jesus unto others. Others need to see Christ living in me. When that happens I am not a stumbling block bringing others to Christ.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.