Jesus is in the early part of of his ministry in Capernaum. Capernaum is an ancient fishing village located on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, in modern-day Israel. It is situated approximately 4.3 miles northwest of Tiberias, a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. He has been doing healings including three of the most famous. The healing of the paralytic, the woman with the haemorrhage and the raising of the young girl from the dead. It is important note how these healings take place in this chapter as they’re all displaying a different method and gravity, an expression of Jesus’ power. He is not limited in how or what he can heal.
27 And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.”
Jesus’ walks away from the district of the house of the young girl he has just raised back to life. Two blind men followed him crying to him. These men most likely heard the very public commotions of Jesus’ previous healings and are following him in the hope of being healed.
The blind men say “Have mercy on us, Son of David”. Their cries invoke the messianic title “Son of David” referencing the widely held belief that the messiah would be of David’s line. This is established in several areas in the Old Testament like 2 Samuel 7:12-16, Psalm 89:3-4, 35-36, Isaiah 9:6-7, Isaiah 11:1-10, Jeremiah 23:5-6, Ezekiel 34:23-24. This is a declaration of faith in the prophecies of the messiah who would be a descendant of David.
The Greek word for mercy is eleeō which means “mercy” or “compassion.” and in the context of the Old Testament, when God extended mercy it was to heal those in affliction, a normal man showing compassion might make you feel better emotionally but the two blind men are seeking physical healing through mercy from the messianic son of David. This is an implicit acknowledgement of divinity.
28 When he entered the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.”
Jesus entered “the house”. The fact that no other detail is given, this is most likely Jesus’ base of operations in Capernaum which would be the house of Peter. So Jesus enters Peters house and the blind men follow him in.
Jesus asks them if they “believe” he is able to heal them. The Greek word here is pisteuō. It was often used to indicate trusting in the reliability or faithfulness of a person or thing. In the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament), pisteuō translates Hebrew terms like אָמַן (aman), emphasizing firmness, reliability, and covenantal trust. The Hebrew aman is the root of Amen. The blind men are not being asked if they know something by a rational assertion but have they come to this conclusion through the virtue of faith.
The blind men respond in the affirmative and refer to Jesus as “Lord” or Kyrios in Greek. Kyrios is the word used in the Septuagint for God and has big divine implications. The blind men so far have called him Son of David, the Messianic Title, professed a supernatural faith in his ability to heal them and then implicitly called him God.
29 Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.”
Jesus touches their eyes with his hands. Jesus heals many blind people and this component of the healing varies. In some cases its done by fiat, by his simple word the blind person is healed, in Mark we have spittle and mud. Here he touches their eyes with just his hands. These are different events but a demonstration that Jesus can heal people in different ways.
Jesus says “According to your faith be it done to you”. The word “faith” is pistis in Greek, which has the same root as pisteuō, this connects us back to Jesus’ question of the blind men. “Do you believe I am able to do this?”. Even down to the etymology Jesus is directly saying “because of what you have, you receive”. They demonstrated a supernatural faith, they receive a supernatural healing.
30 And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly charged them, “See that no one knows it.”
“And their eyes were opened” Should immediately ring some bells in your head. The Greek reads kai ēneōchthēsan autōn hoi ophthalmoi which is near identical to the line in Genesis 3:7. The difference being that because an explicit agent is the cause of the opening (Jesus) the grammar changes slightly. Jesus is already undoing the events of the fall.
Even more explicitly is Psalm 146:8 where we read “the LORD opens the eyes of the blind”. When we look to the Septuagint we see Kyrios, the title the blind men called Jesus and then all the same words used in this event of Jesus ministry. As usual Jesus is fulfilling the Psalms almost like they are a script.
Jesus tells them to not tell anyone. Many commentators make weird assumptions that Jesus is doing reverse psychology but there is no evidence of this. His hour is allotted to a specific time and he must fulfil scriptures but also does not want his fame to spread to quickly because of peoples misunderstandings of who the Messiah is.
31 But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.
The men ignore Jesus warnings and spread his fame through that district. Although Jesus can minimise the spread, he can’t infract on their free will but this also does not seem to effect the timeline in any way. If he had not warned them, they may have spread it even further which could have sped up the timeline of when he was to be killed. Jesus perfectly times this despite it seeming like they ignored what he said.
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