Do You Believe?
Read Matthew 9:18-38.
Don't you wish Jesus had chosen just one way to heal people and had stuck to that? Then we would have a formula we could follow. Just do this - A, B, C - and boom, we'll be able to heal people. Some people do pick their favorite way of healing and act as if that is the only way Jesus will heal. But it's not. His methods in these stories are as varied as the people he encounters.
Some he touches and they are healed.
Some touch him (sometimes without permission) and they are healed.
Some he doesn't go anywhere near and they are healed.
Some he heals in response to a request and others he heals without them asking for it.
And most of the time, he doesn't inquire about the person's individual faith. To those who seem to think, "If I just have enough faith, I will be healed," Jesus stands in contrast. He doesn't ask or comment on their level of faith. He simply offers healing to all who are willing.
Except that one time. Two blind men meet him along the road. In fact, they are following him. Someone has tipped them off as to who is passing by, so they get in line behind the crowd and make a ruckus. "Have mercy on us, Son of David," they cry out. Over and over again. Jesus doesn't even seem to acknowledge them until they follow him indoors. Only then, away from the crowd, does he talk to them, and the question he asks is one we would have expected him to ask all of the others. Except he hasn't. He asks only these two.
"Do you believe?" Do you believe I can do this?
I don't know the motive behind Jesus' question and I'm reluctant to guess. But I wonder if he wasn't testing whether they were looking for a show or for the savior. It's interesting he asks in front of only a few others (and not the crowd) because we're told over and over again in the Gospels that Jesus knows the hearts of people. We can assume he knew the hearts of these two blind men. Why would he need to ask them in particular?
My guess is he's helping them sort out their own motives. The question is really not for him as much as it is for them. "Do you believe, or are you just trying to grab some attention for yourself?" Because the way he responds is deeply fascinating: "According to your faith let it be done to you" (9:29). That's sort of like the prayer I used to offer when youth in my youth group would ask me to pray for a test they had coming up: "May you succeed up to the level you have prepared." (They didn't much like that prayer.)
Well, as I said, I wish Jesus had picked only one way to heal. It would make it much easier (on us). But he doesn't. His ways of healing are wide and varied, which ought to stop us from trying to shoehorn Jesus into the way we think he ought to heal. It also ought to caution us against judging someone else's experience just because it's not ours. Jesus can do whatever he wants.
But this thing seems certain: he's not interested in turning his healing power into a show. He simply wants to heal hearts and lives so we can follow him.
Don't you wish Jesus had chosen just one way to heal people and had stuck to that? Then we would have a formula we could follow. Just do this - A, B, C - and boom, we'll be able to heal people. Some people do pick their favorite way of healing and act as if that is the only way Jesus will heal. But it's not. His methods in these stories are as varied as the people he encounters.
Some he touches and they are healed.
Some touch him (sometimes without permission) and they are healed.
Some he doesn't go anywhere near and they are healed.
Some he heals in response to a request and others he heals without them asking for it.
And most of the time, he doesn't inquire about the person's individual faith. To those who seem to think, "If I just have enough faith, I will be healed," Jesus stands in contrast. He doesn't ask or comment on their level of faith. He simply offers healing to all who are willing.
Except that one time. Two blind men meet him along the road. In fact, they are following him. Someone has tipped them off as to who is passing by, so they get in line behind the crowd and make a ruckus. "Have mercy on us, Son of David," they cry out. Over and over again. Jesus doesn't even seem to acknowledge them until they follow him indoors. Only then, away from the crowd, does he talk to them, and the question he asks is one we would have expected him to ask all of the others. Except he hasn't. He asks only these two.
"Do you believe?" Do you believe I can do this?
I don't know the motive behind Jesus' question and I'm reluctant to guess. But I wonder if he wasn't testing whether they were looking for a show or for the savior. It's interesting he asks in front of only a few others (and not the crowd) because we're told over and over again in the Gospels that Jesus knows the hearts of people. We can assume he knew the hearts of these two blind men. Why would he need to ask them in particular?
My guess is he's helping them sort out their own motives. The question is really not for him as much as it is for them. "Do you believe, or are you just trying to grab some attention for yourself?" Because the way he responds is deeply fascinating: "According to your faith let it be done to you" (9:29). That's sort of like the prayer I used to offer when youth in my youth group would ask me to pray for a test they had coming up: "May you succeed up to the level you have prepared." (They didn't much like that prayer.)
Well, as I said, I wish Jesus had picked only one way to heal. It would make it much easier (on us). But he doesn't. His ways of healing are wide and varied, which ought to stop us from trying to shoehorn Jesus into the way we think he ought to heal. It also ought to caution us against judging someone else's experience just because it's not ours. Jesus can do whatever he wants.
But this thing seems certain: he's not interested in turning his healing power into a show. He simply wants to heal hearts and lives so we can follow him.
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