First Baptist Church Litchfield
October 4, 2026

      • Psalm 65:1–5ESV

  • Firm Foundation (He Won't)
  • What A Friend We Have In Jesus
  • Great Are You Lord

      • Philippians 4:6–7ESV

  • Breathe
  • Speak O Lord

  • Looking to See

    As I have gotten older, I have learned the importance of trying to really listen when people speak. I am learning that there is a difference between looking at something or someone, and actually seeing it or them.
    I can look at Stacy every day and fail to see that she is hurting. I can look at Naomi, Ethan, Abigail, Abram, and Elias, and fail to see how much they need my attention. I can sit in church every Sunday, read my Bible, sing songs about Jesus, and know all the right theological words—and still fail to see Jesus clearly. That is the great irony of our passage this morning.
    A great crowd is walking beside Jesus. They can physically see Him, but they do not fully understand who He is or see people with His compassion. Meanwhile, two men sitting beside the road cannot see anything. They are physically blind. Yet they see Jesus more clearly than almost everyone around them.
    They cry out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” These blind men see the King. And through their story, Matthew is going to show us that,

    Jesus compassionately opens the eyes of the blind so that we may see Him as King, receive His mercy, and follow Him.

    In getting to that understanding of Jesus, we must slow down and see Jesus. We must see the compassion of the king who stops for the overlooked, see the King through the eyes of faith, and see the promised King who opens blind eyes so you can see him clearly to follow Him wherever he leads.

    I. See the Compassion of the King Who Stops for the Overlooked Matthew 20:29–31

    In verse 29, Matthew says they went out to Jericho. Jericho was about fifteen miles from Jerusalem, and the uphill climb from Jericho to Jerusalem would be over 3,300 feet. Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem to begin His final week of ministry before His crucifixion. There is a great crowd following Him, and many are anticipating what Jesus will do when He arrives in Jerusalem. That expectation will become even clearer when Jesus enters the city in Matthew 21:8–11 and the crowds cry out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
    But before Jesus reaches Jerusalem, Matthew directs our attention away from the great crowd and toward two blind men sitting beside the road.
    The crowd is eager to get to Jerusalem, but they become annoyed when these two blind men cry out for Jesus to have mercy on them. These men are interrupting their plans and their excitement about what Jesus might do in Jerusalem. Jesus needs to get to hurry up and get there. He does not have time to deal with two nobodies sitting beside the road. So verse 31 says, “The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent.” They are obviously annoyed by the nuisance of these broken men and their needs. And right away, we can see something is wrong in the cornfield.
    So much of Jesus’ ministry has been marked by compassion for the broken. He has cast out demons (Matthew 8:28–34), healed the sick (Matthew 8:14–17), cleansed lepers (Matthew 8:1–3), given sight to the blind (Matthew 9:27–30), and fed the hungry (Matthew 14:13–21; 15:32–38). Matthew has already told us that when Jesus saw the crowds, “he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).
    You would think those who are closest to Jesus would be able to see this situation more clearly through the eyes of their compassionate King. But they don’t. So what seems to be the problem?
    What if there are times in our Christian walk when we are so focused on the goal of our ministry or the goals we’ve set for our life that we lose sight of the very people we are meant to be ministering to? Is it possible to forget the compassion of Jesus toward the broken because we have somehow begun to value people according to how much they inconvenience us?
    Think about the lonely man who starts up a conversation with you and never arrives at his point. He uses up all your words for the day in a matter of fifteen minutes. Or think about the child or grandchild, or one of your students at LCS, who needs your attention when you are tired and burdened by what seem like weightier things. How about the elderly saint who moves slowly in the hallway or on the road to Hillsboro? The struggling family whose problems are complicated and require your attention at 2am? The person who repeatedly needs help over and over and over again? These are the moments when the compassion of our King needs to shape the compassion of His people.
    I don’t believe our greatest obstacle to compassion is hatred. I have seen so many of you love people well. I have seen you “weep with those who weep” and “rejoice with those who rejoice” (Romans 12:15). I have watched you “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). But I wonder if one of our greatest obstacles to compassion could simply be hurry.
    There are times when I wonder if I have rushed past an opportunity to love my neighbor because their need interrupted my plans. This text forces me to ask, “When a brother or sister in Christ, or my neighbor, is essentially crying out to me, “Have mercy on me,” do I hear them?” More than that, do I serve them with a happy heart that does not see them as an inconvenience? Paul tells us, “through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13). If I am following the compassionate King, then His compassion should increasingly shape the way I see people. Let me give you a simple picture of what I mean.
    Last week, we traveled to Decatur for a volleyball game. Just past Springfield, there was an accident on the highway. Traffic was backed up for a couple of miles, and we saw an ambulance trying to get through. Everyone began moving to get out of the way, because we know everything changes when someone needs help, especially when they need to get to the hospital.
    Traffic slows down. Cars move out of the way. Even if traffic has to come to a standstill, we do whatever it takes to make sure the hurting person gets the help they need. The normal flow of life is interrupted because a suffering person matters more than maintaining everyone else’s schedule.
    That is something like what happens here.
    Jesus is going going to Jerusalem. The cross stands before Him. He has just told His disciples that He will be “delivered over to the chief priests and scribes” and condemned to death (Matthew 20:17–19). Yet when two helpless men cry out for mercy, Jesus stops.
    The crowd is so focused on Jerusalem and seems to consider these men an inconvenience, whereas Jesus, who is just as focused on Jerusalem, considers worthy of his compassion.
    The irony I see, is the crowd can see Jesus with their eyes, yet they fail to see these men through the compassionate eyes of their King. But the two men who cannot see Jesus physically are beginning to see something about Jesus that the crowd is completley missing. Therefore, brothers and sisters, if we are going to be effective in joyfully advancing the kingdom of God by making much of Jesus in Litchfield, then we must see the overlooked through the eyes of our compassionate King, which requires us to see through the eyes of faith.

    II. See the King Through the Eyes of Faith — Matthew 20:29–31

    What is absolutely beautiful about verse 29-31, is these men could not see Jesus with their physical eyes, but through the eyes of faith they saw something about Jesus that many in the crowd were not ready to see. How do we know this?
    First, they addressed Jesus as “Son of David.” As we have already seen in our study of Matthew, “Son of David” is a Messianic title. God had promised David that one of his descendants would sit upon his throne and establish an everlasting kingdom (2 Samuel 7:12–16). Isaiah later promised that a King would come from the line of Jesse and that “the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him” (Isaiah 11:1–2). Matthew begins his Gospel by identifying Jesus as “the son of David” (Matthew 1:1), and others have already cried out to Jesus using this same Messianic title (Matthew 9:27; 12:23; 15:22). Jesus is the Root of Jesse, the Son of David, the promised Messianic King.
    But notice that they do not merely recognize His title. They also recognize their need.
    They call Jesus “Lord,” and they cry out, “Lord, have mercy on us.” They come to Jesus the way the saints of the Old Testament cried out to the God of Israel: “Be gracious to me, O Lord” (Psalm 6:2); “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love” (Psalm 51:1); and “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for to you I call all the day” (Psalm 86:3). These men do not come demanding what they think they deserve. They come pleading for mercy from the One they believe can give it. They had eyes of faith! And Scripture repeatedly describes faith in terms of seeing what our physical eyes cannot see.
    Hebrews tells us that Moses endured “as seeing him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). The patriarchs died in faith, “having seen” God’s promises and greeted them from afar (Hebrews 11:13). Jesus told Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). Paul prayed that God would give believers “the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened” (Ephesians 1:17–18).
    That is the vision of faith. Faith sees beyond what the physical eye can see because God opens the eyes of the heart.
    Peter describes Christians in exactly these terms. He says of Jesus, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him” (1 Peter 1:8). Faith has sometimes been described as a supernatural sight because it sees beyond the eye of the body and even beyond what unaided human reason can discover. Faith sees Christ for who He truly is because God has given us eyes to see.
    We get a wonderful picture of this kind of spiritual sight in 2 Kings 6:15–17. Elisha and his servant were surrounded by the Syrian army. The servant could see the soldiers, the horses, and the danger, and he was terrified. But Elisha prayed, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” And suddenly the servant saw that “the mountain was full of heavens horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”
    Heaven’s army had been there before his eyes were opened. God’s protection had been there before his eyes were opened. What changed was not the reality surrounding him. What changed was his ability to see that reality.
    Brothers and sisters, that is something like what faith does. Faith does not make Jesus King. Faith opens our eyes to see the King who is already there.
    There is a warning in this text if you can see it. Jesus warned about this kind of spiritual blindness of the crowd when He said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind” (John 9:39). You can have perfectly functioning eyes and still be blind to the glory of Christ.
    That means the most important question is not whether you know facts about Jesus. You can know that Jesus is the Son of David. You can know the doctrines. You can know the language of justification, sanctification, and redemption. You can sit in church every Sunday and still miss the glory of the King standing right in front of you.
    The question is: Have the eyes of your heart been opened to see Him?
    Do you see Jesus as the Son of David, your promised King? Do you see Him as Lord, with the authority to rule your life? Do you see yourself as someone who has nothing to bring to Him but your need? Have you cried out with these men, “Lord, have mercy on me”?
    Because the eyes of faith do not merely see who Jesus is. They also see how desperately we need His mercy.
    And these blind men are about to discover that the One they recognize as the Son of David is not merely willing to hear their cry. He has the power to do what the prophets said only God’s promised Messiah would do: He can open the eyes of the blind.

    III. See the Promised King Who Opens Blind Eyes Matthew 20:32–34

    Despite the crowd wanting to hurry Jesus along, Jesus stops. He calls the men to Himself and asks them, “What do you want me to do for you?”
    Now, Jesus is not ignorant of what these men need. Their blindness is obvious. Rather, Jesus asks the question to draw out their faith and give them an opportunity to confess their need.
    This is not the first time we see God drawing out a confession through a question. In the Garden, after Adam sinned and hid himself, God called to him, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). God knew exactly where Adam was. The question was meant to draw Adam out of hiding. Jesus often does the same thing in the Gospels. He asks His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15). He asks Bartimaeus, in Mark’s account of this same event, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51). Jesus knows the answer, but the question draws out a confession of faith. And that is exactly what happens here.
    They answer Him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.”
    Now, that is a tall ask for a normal rabbi! They are asking Him to do something they cannot do for themselves. They are asking a man they cannot physically see to give them sight.
    But these men do not believe Jesus is a normal rabbi. They have already called Him “Lord” and “Son of David” (Matthew 20:30–31). They believe He is the promised Messianic King. They believe He has the power to heal the sick and physically open blind eyes. And Jesus responds to their faith with compassion.
    Verse 34 brings Jesus’ compassion front and center once again. Verse 34 says, “Jesus in pity touched their eyes.” The word translated “pity” carries the idea of compassion. The Greek word, splanchnizomai, describes being deeply moved from within. It is more than feeling sorry for suffering people. His compassion moves Him toward them to love them and bear their burden. This is something we see over and over again in the ministry of Jesus.
    When Jesus saw the crowds who were “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd,” He “had compassion for them” (Matthew 9:36). When thousands had been with Him for three days without anything to eat, Jesus said, “I have compassion on the crowd” (Matthew 15:32). When Jesus encountered a widow grieving the death of her only son, Luke tells us, “When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her” (Luke 7:13). And when a leper came pleading to be cleansed, Jesus was “moved with pity,” stretched out His hand, touched him, and made him clean (Mark 1:40–42).
    Do you see the pattern? Jesus sees suffering. Jesus is moved with compassion, and Jesus acts. His compassion is not merely something He feels in His heart. His compassion is volitional.
    And that is exactly what happens with these two blind men. Jesus is moved with compassion, He reaches out, He touches their eyes, and Matthew says, “immediately they recovered their sight.”
    Furthermore, when you see miracles in the Bible, they often carry more than one meaning. Matthew wants us to see something special about Jesus.
    Hundreds of years earlier, Isaiah described the coming salvation of God by saying, “Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” And what will happen when He comes? “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped” (Isaiah 35:4–5). That is exactly what is happening on the road outside Jericho.
    The blind men cry out, “Son of David!” Jesus stops. They ask Him to open their eyes. Jesus touches them. And immediately the eyes of the blind are opened.
    Jesus is showing us that He is exactly who these men believe Him to be. He is the promised King. He is the Son of David. He is the Messiah Isaiah promised would come.
    We have already seen this earlier in Matthew. When John the Baptist was struggling with doubt, he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Jesus answered, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk” (Matthew 11:3–5).
    In other words, “John, look at what I am doing. Look at the evidence. Isaiah told you what the Messiah would do. The blind are seeing!”
    And now, once again, the blind see.
    Jesus touches their eyes, and immediately their eyes are opened. They once were blind, but now they see. Their faith has become sight, and the first face their newly opened eyes see is the face of the One through whom all things were made and by whom all things hold together (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16–17). What a moment that must have been.
    But brothers and sisters, the greatest miracle you need is not physical eyesight. You need God to open the eyes of your heart so that you see Jesus for who He truly is.
    Jesus is the Son of God. He is the promised Son of David. He is the one true King. He is the One who came that His sheep “may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). He is the only Savior who can reconcile sinners to God, because Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
    So, do you see Him?
    There has never been a shortage of people willing to remake Jesus into the kind of Messiah they want Him to be. Some reduce Him to a great moral teacher or a philosopher ahead of His time. Others want a Jesus who is a friend who loves you but would never confront your sin. Still others attempt to remake Jesus according to whatever political, sexual, or cultural ideology they already embrace.
    But faith does not remake Jesus in our image. Faith opens our eyes to see Jesus as He has revealed Himself to be.
    He is Lord. He is the Son of David. He is the Son of God. He is the Savior of sinners. He is the only way to the Father.
    And when Jesus truly opens your eyes to see Him as He is, you cannot remain sitting beside the road as though nothing has happened. These men received their sight, looked upon their King, and did the only thing that made sense: they got up and followed Him.

    IV. See the King Clearly and Follow Him Faithfully — Matthew 20:34

    Matthew ends this story with a simple statement: “they followed him.” Interestingly, Matthew uses the same verb for the large crowd that “followed” Jesus in verse 29. So we should be careful not to make the word carry more weight than Matthew intends. It could simply mean that these men joined the crowd traveling with Jesus toward Jerusalem. Mark’s account, however, makes the connection even more striking: “Immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way” (Mark 10:52).
    But this is an unusual way for Matthew to end a healing story. These men do not simply receive their sight and go home. They receive their sight and follow Jesus. And at the very least, Matthew gives us a beautiful picture of what discipleship looks like: Jesus opens their eyes, and they use those newly opened eyes to follow Him.

    So, what does it mean to follow Jesus?

    When Jesus opens your eyes to see that He is the Messiah, the intention is not merely for you to admire Him. It is for you to follow Him. Following Jesus means a comprehensive reorientation of your life around Jesus as Lord. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24; cf. Mark 8:34). Luke adds one important word: “daily” (Luke 9:23). Following Jesus is not a decision you made twenty years ago. It is the daily surrender of your life to your King.
    And that means following Jesus will rearrange your priorities.
    Jesus made this clear when several would-be disciples offered reasons for delaying their obedience. One was concerned about where he would live. Another wanted first to bury his father. Another wanted to say farewell to those at home. But Jesus repeatedly directed their attention back to the priority of His kingdom (Luke 9:57–62). Later He said, “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).
    Jesus is not asking to become one more priority added to an already crowded life. He is King. Following Him means everything else in our lives—our families, possessions, careers, ambitions, relationships, plans, and desires—must come under His lordship.
    The King we follow is the King who gives life. Jesus said, “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). He calls the weary and burdened to Himself and says, “Come to me...and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). His disciples follow Him because they have discovered that there is nowhere better to go. As Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).
    And the more clearly we see our King, the more His life should shape ours.
    Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). John says, “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2:6). And one of the clearest ways this becomes visible is in how we love other people. Jesus told His disciples, “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34–35).
    That brings us all the way back to where this story began.
    The crowd saw two blind men as an inconvenience. Jesus saw two men worthy of compassion. The blind men saw Jesus as the Son of David, cried out for mercy, received their sight, and followed their King.
    And notice where they are following Him.
    Jesus is going to Jerusalem.
    They are following the King toward the cross.
    Just a few verses earlier Jesus told His disciples exactly what awaited Him there: “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). The compassionate King who stopped beside the road to open the eyes of two blind men is on His way to Jerusalem to give His life for spiritually blind sinners.
    Brothers and sisters, that is the Gospel. We were blind. Paul says that “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers” so that they cannot see “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4). But the same God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
    Jesus opens blind eyes. And when He opens your eyes to see the glory of the King, you get up from the side of the road and follow Him.

    So, where is your King calling you to follow Him today?

    Maybe following Him means forgiving someone you have refused to forgive. Maybe it means serving someone you have treated as an inconvenience. Maybe it means confessing a sin you have tried to hide. Maybe it means loving your family sacrificially, giving generously, serving His church, sharing the Gospel with your neighbor, or simply obeying something Christ has already made clear in His Word.
    Whatever it is, the Christian life is not seeing Jesus clearly for its own sake. It is seeing Jesus clearly and following Him faithfully.
    These men were blind. Jesus opened their eyes. And when they finally saw their King, they followed Him.
    May God give us eyes to see our King and hearts willing to follow Him wherever He leads.

      • Matthew 20:29–34ESV

  • Draw Me Close
First Baptist Church Litchfield
pastorjason.fbcl@gmail.com
217-324-4232
http://www.firstbaptistlitchfield.org/
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