The Crowd

In Matthew chapter 20 we see Jesus has departed from Jericho headed to Jerusalem with a great multitude of people following Him.  It’s not long before they come upon two blind men sitting by the road. They hear a crowd coming in their direction and they understand that it is Jesus. This was their day; these two men were in the right place at the right time. They began to cry out saying “Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David.” That is when they are criticized and told to keep quiet. They cried out more saying the same thing in hope of getting Jesus’ attention. Now what I don’t understand is why this crowd doesn’t want Jesus to have anything to do with these blind men.  Could it be that these men didn’t really meet their standards? They could have been dirty. We already know they were loud maybe to the point that they were embarrassing to this fine group of men that were following Jesus. Had they forgotten what Jesus had just said?

Matthew 20:28  Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. I wonder what Jesus meant by a ransom for many? Did it include blind men that may have been dirty and loud? I know what you are going to say; you were going to say, yes, Jesus is interested in these blind men. Sure He was but this crowd sure wasn’t. Just let them stay blind was their attitude. You say how awful and I agree fully! It is an awful thing not to help others when we can. You know what, it happens in our day and right in our Churches. Right after I was saved I began working in the bus ministry; I loved it. I would go where no one else would go. I remember one night talking to a young boy about riding my bus; he took me to meet his mom and dad and they were drunk as could be. They agreed to let him ride my bus. The next morning I pull that bus up to his house and blew the horn and nothing. No one opened the door, no little boy running out to meet the bus; nothing. I got out of the bus and went and beat on the door and in a few minutes his dad opened the door. I refreshed his memory and told him I was here to pick up his son. He told me that he was still in the bed but if I wanted too I could go back and wake him. I walked down the hall to his room and when I saw him I almost cried. There he was sleeping on the floor with a blanket wrapped around him. I reached down and woke him up. When his eyes opened and he saw me he smiled. I told him to get dressed and I would be back in a few minutes to get him. When I returned he was waiting on me, his cloths were wrinkled and miss matched but his smile was from ear to ear. Off we went Church, but when we arrived he was not met with the same joy that I had. Mothers and dads made sure their child had nothing to do with him. Can I tell you that he picked up on that quick and that was the last time he ever came to Church; can you blame him? This is the way those blind men were being treated. I am afraid many have forgotten what they were before the Lord found them maybe they thought they were good sinners. What’s that? Is that just telling small lies, stealing little things, not using too many cuss words and not gossiping too much? That is ridiculous. There are those that will not have anything to do with sex offenders, alcoholics, those who abuse drugs, different color, different nationality, poor or broke. The list goes on and on and you can fill in the blanks. Jesus didn’t listen to the crowd. He stopped, stood still and asked those two men what will ye that I shall do unto you.  Jesus did what the crowd didn’t want to do. He had compassion on them and touched their eyes and they received their sight immediately.  Here is what I like, those two men after receiving their sight decided to get up and follow Jesus. Wonder what that good crowd of people thought then? Who is in your crowd or what crowd do you identity yourself with? If you follow Jesus there are going to be an assortment of different kinds of people. There will be some people who have a terrible past and others that as far as most people are concerned were fairly good people. May I remind you both kinds were on their way to a devil’s hell for without Jesus we’ll never see. Can I say, just like those two blind men I’m just happy to be in the crowd.