The story in Matthew 9:29-30 is an important lesson that Jesus wanted us to learn from the very beginning of His ministry and mentorship to us.
“Then Jesus put his hands over their eyes and said, you will have what your faith expects! And suddenly their eyes opened – they could see!”
But this was not the first time Jesus asked His followers about their expectations when He walked the earth. In Luke 7: 24-27, Jesus spoke to those who knew John the Baptist and what they had expected John to be like as a prophet of God. Malachi had prophesied over 200 years before (Malachi 3:1) that a messenger would come and clear the way for their Savior. John was doing just that. Many recognized that he was a prophet, but many thought he was a crazy guy. They thought this messenger would be a man of influence and wealth. John certainly wasn’t that. He wasn’t rich but poor (you had to get out of town to hear his words and message). He was a recluse, and listeners might have had to do some research to find him even, and he definitely wasn’t a fashionista using animal skins for his clothing. John the Baptist wasn’t the person the people expected, but neither was Jesus.
What are your expectations of God?
Every day we hit the Google button looking for information. We are constantly searching for something and expecting immediate and accurate answers. When these two blind men came to Jesus, they couldn’t see Jesus because they were physically blind, but they “saw” Jesus and who He was from the actions He took, the love He displayed, and the wisdom and knowledge He spoke.
John the Baptist was a young man who took courageous action and spoke the truth of what God revealed to him. John was Jesus’ cousin. Had he seen and known Jesus as a child? He was the baby that leaped in Martha’s womb when Mary told her of her miraculous divine insemination. As an adult, he chose to separate himself from his family, crowds, and the religious leaders who were leading the people into the bondage of the Levitical Law and not the freedom that God intended when He laid out the Law to them. John chose to tell the truth, and it cost him his life. He chose “expressions of godliness” (Luke 7:35) that Jesus said proved the truth of God.
When the blind men came to Jesus to be healed, Jesus first covered their eyes. It appeared strange that He would cover their eyes when they were physically blind. Then He instructed them that it was their faith – what they expected, that would allow them to be healed physically. They had ignored their head knowledge and believed in their heart. Miracles happen when we get out of our head and discard mindset decisions and trust the whispers of our heart. Jesus taught the observers then and today that we must look past our physical limitations and inadequacies and rely on God’s supernatural strength and power. Challenging and impossible decisions often require us to by-step logic, and this is where we step out and trust God. Those gut decisions happen when your heart is in line with God’s heart.
Are you believing for something impossible?
We live in a visual world. Instagram pics, YouTube videos, internet pictures, movies and TV shows dominate and overwhelm our eyesight. Men are especially vulnerable. Sight is their number one portal to their decisions. But images strike at women’s emotions which is where women are most susceptible. Our social media instant internet world has upped our expectation level today. We can get just about anything we want instantaneously, and we demand responses to our needs and desires quickly.
It’s interesting to see where this story falls in the book of Matthew and where he inserted it in the timeline of Jesus. The healing of the two blind men came after Jesus has just healed the Jewish leader’s daughter and the woman with blood issues. They were some of the first miracles recorded. The healing of the two blind men is the first documentation in scripture of the authority of Jesus since the “Wise Men” had recognized Jesus’ authority as a baby. It is a lesson for us in the authority of belief.
Can we see what others are blind to before it happens? Jesus tells us that we have His authority given to us to see. When others are blind, we can believe in the impossible. Can we trust fully in that authority and the power of Jesus? Can we act, as John the Baptist did, with express actions of godliness that turn heads? Our way through difficult situations and the miraculous we are looking for will often not come from our expected place.
What you expect will affect your approach to God.
Do you see Him as the Source of your power and strength who’s able to perform the supernatural? Have you stopped expecting God to do the miracles we read about in the Bible? The interesting thing about being put in a crisis or chaotic dilemma is that we have no choice. We must believe because there is no natural answer. Yet God wants us to believe every day for those simple things. Maybe it’s a parking place (in LA or NYC, finding a spot can be miraculous!), perhaps that we will meet that deadline at work, or maybe that our kids get good grades, or our headache ceases. When we constantly are in the mindset of trusting God, we build our belief to stand confidently firm when the big stuff enters our lives. When we know God to be the Ruler of Heaven and Earth in our daily lives, we can trust Him more easily to be there to “go above and beyond all that could ask or imagine.” Ephesians 3:20.
How big is your faith?
