Lord, I want to see(Luke 18c)*

Lord, I want to see

Luke 18:31-43

Key Verse Luke 18:41-42 "What do you want me to do for you?" "Lord, I want to see," he replied. Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you."

Introduction: Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection constitute the message of salvation. This was the final measure that God took in order to save men from their pathetic predicament of living under the shadow of sin and death.

In today’s passage, we will learn about Jesus’ third announcement concerning his passion (i.e. his suffering, death, and resurrection. This was a difficult message for his followers to accept and is still difficult for people today; however, in it, is the heart of the message of salvation. God mandated this as the way of salvation and we have no other way to know the truth for eternal life, except for the way of the cross. How can we come to know and believe the message of the cross of Jesus? Jesus answered this question through what he did for a blind man. I pray that God may guide us to know and believe the message of the cross.

A.    The third announcement of Jesus’ passion (Luke 18:31-34).

Jesus had been on his final journey to Jerusalem for quite a while. When they got near to Jericho, he said this to his disciples:

“Jesus took the twelve aside and told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again." (Luke 18:31-33).

Jericho was only 18 miles away from Jerusalem, which meant that they would arrive in Jerusalem in a matter of days. At this time, Jesus called his disciples aside and taught them for the third time about his upcoming suffering, death, and resurrection. This was exclusive information meant only for the disciples, which implies that, in order to dwell in the kingdom of God with Jesus, they must first know and accept his work of salvation.

Jesus had spoken about this before. The first time was immediately after Peter’s confession that he was the Messiah. Several days after Peter’s confession, Jesus took the three disciples to the Mount of Transfiguration and showed them a glimpse of the kingdom of God. On returning to the foot of the mountain, he taught them the second time that the Son of Man must suffer, die, and then resurrect (Luke 9:22). Not long after the second announcement, Jesus set off on a journey to Jerusalem. On the way, he taught mainly about the kingdom of God. He also taught that his death was in due course to his establishment of the kingdom (Luke 17:25). So by this time, Jesus had explicitly mentioned and explained his suffering, death, and resurrection twice, along with the necessity that these events occur within the context of God’s plan to restore the kingdom.

In other words, Jesus’ passion was one of the key themes of their journey to Jerusalem so that they might have the right perspective when it came to pass. What is the right perspective of the things that Jesus was about to do in Jerusalem?

It was to fulfill all that the prophets had said about the Son of Man. What Jesus was about to take up was not of his own plan or wisdom, but what God had planned long before. This included his suffering, humiliation, and death at the hands of the Gentiles. Under the pagan authorities, Jesus would suffer utter humiliation and mockery, as well as physical abuse, leading to his death. Why should the Holy One of Israel suffer by sinful and ungodly Gentiles? The disciples knew how brutal the Romans were; they had seen such inhumane treatment of people numerous times. It was too gruesome to look at and caused much anguish and pain to watch. Yet Jesus, the Son of God, holy and righteous, said that he would go through such suffering to the point of death.

Once before, Jesus had taught them the basic principle of discipleship:

“if anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23).

The disciples needed to discover what this meant, particularly in regards to Jesus’ restoration of the kingdom of God, their Lord and King. In their minds, two conflicting desires fought against each other - suffering to death and resurrection in glory. This was because they had seen many times how Romans killed people in inhumane ways; suffering and death were the very things they wanted to escape. Yet, in order to follow Jesus and enter the kingdom of God, these two were the very things that they had to confront.

We are no different; we are all reluctant to talk about suffering, death, and beyond. We like to put it off as long as possible, and make efforts to escape any suffering and pain, not to mention death. However, over the course of time, we come to know that, the more we put it off, the more quickly we will be forced to come back to the same questions we left unanswered, being reminded again and again. Jesus’ suffering and death force us to face our own, long before death becomes real in our lives, and lets us set a clear resolution for the remainder of our lives.

Nevertheless, the disciples had to accept Jesus’ plan as real, whether they understood it or not. They were forced to think, reason, and consider all the ramifications of Jesus’ fast-approaching suffering, death, and resurrection. In addition to this, the disciples needed to see God’s will in this, because He had planned this to be fulfilled in Christ. No matter how difficult it was to reason and accept this concept, they had to accept one thing - Jesus’ suffering on the cross derived its origin from God’s will. So whoever looks at the cross of Jesus must see or seek God’s will, purpose, and message. Yet, did the disciples understand this and embrace it as the only way to be saved? The author Luke commented on this:

“The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.” (Luke 18:34).

Contrary to Jesus’ plan, the disciples thought that the fulfillment of God’s plan was to be the time of the full consummation for all the hope that the prophets promised would be fulfilled. Jesus, the king, would assume full power as the Lord and King; this would be a time of exhilaration, unsurpassed joy, and victory for his followers (Luke 19:11). To such a mindset, Jesus’ suffering and death was understood as a great roadblock to that glory being accomplished. Along this line of thinking, these questions lingered and demanded answers; why must Jesus the king suffer and die? If this must be, then how can he be the King and Messiah? Why was this necessary? Is Jesus the true king and Messiah? They had no glimpse of an idea; such unwilling and ignorant hearts sprang up at the first announcement of Christ’s passion. On hearing Jesus’ passion announcement, Peter retorted:

“He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.” (Mark 8:32 NIV).

Immediately after returning from the transfiguration, Jesus gave the second announcement about his suffering, death, and resurrection. His disciples responded:

"Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men." But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it. An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest.” (Luke 9:44-46 NIV).

The meaning of Jesus’ passion was hidden from them, but they were afraid to ask about it. Here, Jesus presented them with a third announcement, yet there was no change or progress in their understanding. It was obvious that they carried what Jesus said in their hearts; however, there was no understanding, only fear and uncertainty. They simply didn’t know what to do with these announcements. This was a big problem, because such indecisive minds will become victims of all kinds of worldly doubts and skeptic ideas.

Like these disciples, many people today know the language of the Gospel but do not know its power, authority, value, or true significance for their lives. Why? Suffering and death are not considered to be God’s will for them. Reluctance to accept or complete rejection of this message comes from deep within one’s heart. At the time of the third announcement, things had not changed; they remained the same with no understanding or progress in the disciples’ understanding. They were totally unaware of any truth regarding Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection.

This was serious because they were in Jericho, just a few days away from Jerusalem. There, they would face Jesus’ arrest, suffering, and death; they did not understand and serious doubts about Jesus’ kingship and true identity as Lord and King remained in their minds.  This would make them fall when real  hardship strikes them.

What does this mean for us? We also do not want to face such issues now. Underneath our fear is a desire to keep this feel-good condition for as long as we can. Nonetheless, we are pounded by the message of the cross. As with the disciples, many of us are going through the same emotions because it is not clear what Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection means for our personal lives. Unless we have a clear understanding of these events, we have not known life and are still living under the dark shadow of death. In fear, we entrench ourselves in a deep dugout, thinking that, for now or as long as we can, we want to enjoy what we have. What could Jesus do about this?

B.     Jesus opened a blind man’s eyes.

Even with the third announcement of Jesus’ passion and other various teachings about his suffering, death, and resurrection, the disciples did not understand the true significance of it. There was a disconnection or chasm between Jesus and his disciples. In this situation, Jesus healed a blind man to reveal what was yet to come and how it would come.  

A blind man in Jericho

As Jesus was approaching Jericho, there was a blind man  sitting by the side of the road,de begging. He heard a crowd passing by, so he asked who they were. He was told that it was Jesus of Nazareth that was passing by with his followers. The moment he heard this, he called out loudly:

“They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." He called out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Luke 18:37-38).

First, the blind man acknowledged Jesus as the Son of David.

What did he mean by ‘Son of David’? In Luke, reference to ‘the Son of David’ appears only two times,  once here and again in 20:23, where Jesus was asking the Pharisees why the Messiah was called the Son of David. Though no one else recognized this or explicitly called Jesus the Son of David, only this blind man called him by this title. For the author Luke, this was very important because Jesus was going to Jerusalem as the king of Jews! In addition to this, the blind man demanded healing from Jesus. This was not a king’s work, but the work of the promised Messiah or Savior. In this way, this blind man combined these two titles into one, King and Savior! This man had the kind of faith that Jesus wanted all of his disciples to have, in spite of the fact that Jesus was going to suffer and die soon! Later, in Jerusalem, Jesus asked a Pharisee how the Messiah could be called the Son of David (Luke 18:20:41). The Pharisee failed to understand this, but this man accepted and believed!

Second, the blind man had an unyielding and decisive faith as he tried to get help from Jesus.

“Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Luke 18:39).

When he called out in a loud voice, he was told to be quiet, but he shouted all the more; he would not let this chance slip away, because, for him, this might be the one and only chance for him to get to the Son of David, the Savior. So with all his might he shouted and demanded God’s mercy, acknowledging his hopeless and helpless situation.

Third, the blind man boldly expressed his desire for healing.

When Jesus heard this man’s cry, he called him and asked him “What do you want me to do for you?”  Practically speaking, Jesus was asking his disciples the same question, because he knew that they were like the blind man and were fearful to know and ask for help in understanding. The man answered, “Lord, I want to see”.

He had been blind for a long time. In this physical darkness, his life could not go anywhere; he could only beg for help from others. He needed help from others for every single thing. Blindness was like a prison within himself, being confined to utter darkness. He was so eager to get out of this darkness, and he wanted to see everything.  Only then could he navigate his life safely and securely and go wherever he wanted to go without the help of others. So his eyesight was important in his life; he knew it and had to have it, so he requested it. It was all too obvious that this man needed his eyesight to live a happy and productive life. While he was requesting healing for his eyes, the disciples remained blind about what Jesus had said. Unlike physical blindness, spiritual blindness is inconspicuous and yet cripples people just as much. People were living in darkness under the shadow of death.  

What did Jesus do for this man’s request?

“Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you." (Luke 18:42).

Fourthly, Jesus gave him his sight.

Jesus gave the blind man his sight. No one else could do such a thing, but Jesus could and was willing to do this because this man had expressed faith that he was the Son of David and the Messiah. It was this faith that prompted Jesus’ will and power to open the man’s eyes. After his eyes were opened and he could see everything, the man followed Jesus. Now there was no doubt or uncertainty in his mind; he was fully assured of Jesus’ Lordship as King and Messiah. As he followed Jesus to Jerusalem and saw all that happened there, what might have gone through his mind? Did he give into doubt and fear because Jesus was condemned and crucified on a cross?

Jesus’ disciples and the blind man

Before making an application from the healing of this man’s eyes, it’s good to review how other stories of Jesus healing the blind are used in the Gospels.

Healings of the blind are recorded in several places throughout the Gospels. We can divide these accounts into two groups; first, those that simply provide the fact that Jesus healed the blind, along with those suffering from other diseases and demonic possession (i.e. Luke 7:21-22; Matthew 11:5).  In these instances, the focus was to tell us that, by healing the blind, Jesus fulfilled what Isaiah had prophesied.

The second group contains accounts that describe the details behind each blind man’s healing. There are six stories about Jesus opening the eyes of the blind (Matthew 9:27-31; 20:29-34; Mark 8:22-26; 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43; John 9:1-41). Matthew 20:29-34, Mark 10:46-52, and Luke 18:35-43 are recordings of the same event. Among the rest, the healing of the blind man in Mark 8:22-26 is somewhat similar to today’s passage, and I will look into the matter of how the healing of blindness was used to illustrate Christ’s redemptive work.

Mark 8:22-26

This story is placed in between two other key events: Jesus’ feeding of 4000 people and his rebuke of his disciples’ failure to understand the significant of the feeding.

“Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?" "Twelve," they replied. "And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?" They answered, "Seven." He said to them, "Do you still not understand?" (Mark 8:18-21 NIV).

And then, he records the healing of a blind man:

“He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. (Mark 8:23-25 NIV).

Here, Jesus took a blind man out of the crowd to a place outside of the village. Out of such a personal and intimate relationship, he applied mud to the blind man’s eyes and he began to see something. Jesus did the same thing a second time, and then he was able to see very clearly. By Jesus’ repeated efforts, this man came to gain his sight. There are no other healings recorded in the Gospels where Jesus had to apply his power repeatedly so as to bring about the desired result, except for this one. So the healing of this blind man was not just to show the fact that Jesus had power and compassion to heal, but to indicate that Jesus was working to open the eyes of his blind disciples as well. In this way, Jesus was showing that, through these various miracles, he was making all efforts to open the disciples’ eyes. This was an important allusion for understanding what happened next. Jesus asked his disciples a very critical question about who he was to them; it was a test of their faith in him. Whether they understood him correctly or not was so important. As Jesus labored hard to open the eyes of this blind man, he also worked hard to open the eyes of his disciples to who he truly was. The result was remarkable; Peter confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Literally, Jesus’ disciples ‘clearly’ saw who he was, just as the blind man saw clearly after Jesus’ intense and personal efforts to heal him. If we put this in sequence: 1. feeding four thousand, 2. testing of disciples’ faith and exposing their ignorance, 3. healing a blind man, and 4. the disciples could see clearly that Jesus was the Messiah.

Today’s passage shares a similar context with Mark 8:22-26.

In fact, this story is recorded in three Gospels (Matthew 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:31-43). It is recorded in the following sequence: 1. Passion announcement, 2. a note or story illustrating the disciples’ ignorance or inability to understand the announcement, and 3. the healing of a blind man. As we noted in our earlier study of Mark 8:22-26, today’s healing of a blind man follows the same sequence.

In addressing the ignorance of Jesus’ disciples, Luke made a small variation from Matthew and Mark. Unlike the other accounts, Luke made a succinct note that the disciples did not understand the passion announcement, while the other two inserted a story of John and James’ request for power in Jesus’ kingdom, which amply suggests their lack of understanding of the coming passion. So far,  Luke connected their ignorance as the key concern more explicitly than either Matthew or Mark, so as to remove any guessing or ambiguity. This concern is directly related to the next story, i.e. the healing of the blind man. So the situation of today’s passage is very similar to the one mentioned above. In both contexts, the key issue was the disciples’ failure to understand and this is immediately followed by a story about a blind man being enabled to see.

In Mark 8:22-26, healing the blind man was what Jesus did to enlighten their understanding. The result of his efforts was seen in Peter’s confession. But in today’s passage, the result of what Jesus did was not yet seen; Rather, it was yet to come. So what Jesus did to the blind man was what he also would do in the coming days so that the disciples’ eyes might be open. Then, what would be the result of Jesus’ effort to open their eyes?

Here, Jesus revealed how and to whom he would give sight.

Jesus will give sight to the one who acknowledges and accepts him as the Son of David and Messiah. The disciples accepted and believed that Jesus was the Son of the living God. If they would continue to believe, despite his suffering and death, then they would see clearly! So, the blind man’s shout was ringing in the disciples’ ears! Son of David, have mercy on me! As they approached the time of Jesus’ passion, this should have been the disciples’ cry as well; however, this was not in their vocabulary. Their minds had no reference point for accepting these events, yet, if they would hold on to the belief that Jesus was the Son of David and the Messiah, then they would surely come to see clearly, despite the fact that they had to go through the most enigmatic event in human history, the Lord’s suffering, death, and resurrection. There would be no more darkness!

Jesus gave the man his sight. This was a demonstration of Jesus’ will and  healing power! We know how utterly his disciples and many others in the crowd were blind to the truth that God had set on his suffering, death, and resurrection. Israel failed to see this and God lamented over them:

"For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways.” (Psalms 95:10).

This is reiterated in Hebrews 3:

"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'" (Hebrews 3:7-11 NIV).

Though God made every effort to reveal His ways to Israel, the outcome was dismal. They did not know His ways. This ignorance continued, until God ultimately had to do something:

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26 NIV).

In order to bring change men’s hearts, Jesus came and showed them God’s full power, love, and truth. Yet both God and he knew that these things would not change their hearts, so ensnared by deep-seated sins, resulting in death; sin and death were the foundation of men’s lives.
The disciples loved and trusted Jesus as the Lord and coming Messiah, but Jesus knew that this understanding and commitment alone could not bring about the kind of heart that God wanted; that king of radical change would require Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection. So this was God’s final effort to change their calloused, sinful, and dying hearts.

Understanding the entirety of Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection was necessary to open his disciples’ eyes to God’s truth about His judgment,  redemption, and  undying love, in order for His promise of salvation to be fulfilled.

How could the disciples get out of ‘darkness’ without knowing what Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection meant?

“And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace." (Luke 1:76-79).

As we discussed, this man’s faith stood out above all others’. Though he could not see Jesus at all, even though he had only heard about Jesus, though he never got close enough to Jesus to get familiar with what he did, though he never heard Jesus teach directly, he still believed and was convinced that Jesus was the King and Messiah!

Jesus gave this man his sight because of his faith. Likewise, Jesus will give sight to anyone who accepts him as their King and Savior. This was the faith that Jesus wanted for his disciples! Through and this faith, Jesus could impart the truth of life - the meaning of his suffering, death, and resurrection.

As we noted, to our human minds, suffering and death are not the way of life. It is not in our DNA to accept this; no understanding is possible. But God would not impart eternal life any other way, except by suffering, death, and then resurrection. The only remedy to resolve is what Jesus had to do! We are to uphold Jesus as the Son of David, the Messiah! We will surely be given eyes to see this truth that transcends all human wisdom and knowledge.

By faith we can shout, “Son of David, have mercy on me! Lord, I want to see.”