Today, in our weekly discipleship hour as African Scholars, we looked at Matthew 9:27-34. The passage basically is about Jesus giving a blind man sight who then goes around to broadcast his healing even when Jesus had explicitly commanded him shut up about it.
What struck me was Jesus’ question to the guy after he asks Jesus to heal him:
27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
28 When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
“Yes, Lord,” they replied.
29 Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; 30 and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” 31 But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.
It is interesting what Jesus to the man: “According to your faith let it be done to you”. Normally, the understanding is that you got to have faith for this miracle thing to work.
What if that is not what is going on here? What if, this faith thing is not about the blind man’s spiritual muscle flexing? Because, think about this: The man addresses Jesus as the “Son of David” (v 27). And then Jesus asks him: “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
Basically, “Do you think I am really the Son of David?” Jesus’ statement about the faith of the blind man is because he affirms Jesus’ identity, not his ability.
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