Even on the way to give His life a ransom for many Jesus continued to serve, as this pericope shows. Rather than delivering Himself from the fate He foresaw, He mercifully and compassionately delivered others from their afflictions.
20:29 Jesus and His disciples left Jericho at the north end of the Dead Sea and proceeded west up the Judean wilderness toward Jerusalem for the Passover feast (cf. v. 17). Great crowds continued to follow Jesus, undoubtedly to benefit from His healing ministry. The road was probably full of Jews making their way to Jerusalem for the feast.
20:30 Probably the blind men were begging (cf. Mark 10:46).750They cried out to Jesus for help appealing to Him as the Son of David for mercy (cf. 9:27; 21:9). This title expressed their belief that Jesus was the Messiah.751They wanted Jesus to heal them (v. 33).
20:31-34 Matthew's version of this healing stresses Jesus' compassion that overcame the opposition of the crowds to provide healing for these men (cf. 19:13-15). When Jesus previously healed two blind men in Galilee, He commanded them to tell no one about the healing. He did not do that here because it was now unnecessary to conceal His identity. Jesus would soon publicly proclaim His messiahship in the Triumphal Entry (21:1-11). The healed blind men immediately followed Jesus. This was the proper response for people who had come to see who Jesus was. These believers in His messiahship became disciples.
It is significant that these men where physically blind but spiritually perceptive regarding Jesus' identity. The other disciples had recently demonstrated their own spiritual imperceptibility (vv. 17-23). Jesus had taught them that insight into messianic truth came only from divine revelation (16:17).
"The sight' of these blind men discloses the blindness' of Israel's sight."752
"The giving of sight to the blind is a dramatic miracle that points to the dawning of the era of messianic fulfillment. The Son of David is present among his people. And as he compassionately delivers them from their literal darkness, so he continues on his way to Jerusalem, where in his sacrificial death he will deliver all of humanity from an even greater darkness--that of the bondage to sin and death. . . . This healing pericope thus may be seen as the gospel in a microcosm."753
This was the last public miracle that the evangelists recorded Jesus' doing before His death. Even though the nation as a whole rejected Jesus, individuals continued to believe that He was the Messiah. The postponement of the kingdom did not rule out personal salvation for anyone who believed. They would enter the messianic kingdom by resurrection at the Second Coming (Isa. 26:19; Dan. 12:2). For this reason Jesus continued to present Himself to Israel as her Messiah in the Triumphal Entry. This miracle is a prelude to that presentation in Matthew's Gospel.
