SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/19/2023 9:20 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “Intro to
Matthew 20:29-34”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
20:29-34
Message of the verses: “29 As they were
leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him. 30 And two blind men sitting by the
road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, "Lord, have mercy on
us, Son of David!" 31 The crowd sternly told them to be quiet, but they
cried out all the more, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!" 32 And
Jesus stopped and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for
you?" 33 They said to Him, "Lord, we want our eyes to be
opened." 34 Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and
immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.”
This is going to be a very short SD, as all I plan
on doing is to just write about the introduction to these verses, and then Lord
willing will begin to at the first main section from verses 29-31 in our next
SD.
This
is a very interesting section from Matthew’s gospel which also Mark and Luke
look at too. When one reads these verses
and then compares them with the other writers they may think that there are
some great differences in them.
“46
Then they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and
a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was
sitting by the road. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began
to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 48 Many
were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more,
"Son of David, have mercy on me!" 49 And Jesus stopped and said,
"Call him here." So they *called the blind man, saying to him,
"Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you." 50 Throwing aside
his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus. 51 And answering him, Jesus said,
"What do you want Me to do for you?" And the blind man said to Him,
"Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!" 52 And Jesus said to
him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his
sight and began following Him on the road” (Mark 10:46-52).
35 As Jesus was approaching Jericho, a blind man was
sitting by the road begging.
36 Now hearing a crowd going by, he began to inquire
what this was. 37 They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. 38 And
he called out, saying, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 39 Those
who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet; but he kept crying out
all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" 40 And Jesus stopped
and commanded that he be brought to Him; and when he came near, He questioned
him, 41 "What do you want Me to do
for you?" And he said, "Lord, I want to regain my sight!"
42 And Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has made you
well." 43 Immediately he regained his sight and began following
Him, glorifying God; and when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God”
(Luke 18:35-43).
Take
the time to read over these different verses to see the differences that are in
them. For one thing Matthew talks about
two blind men and Mark and Luke only one blind man. Mark and Luke talk about coming to Jericho,
while Matthew talks about leaving Jericho.
I think that what I will do is to copy and paste from MacArthur’s sermon
as he gives his opinion on the differences between these gospel writings. So much for a short SD today.
“Now
people say, “How do you harmonize this? Isn’t this a biblical error? Two have
Him leaving, one has Him coming. And some say, “Well, if you remember that
there was Old Testament Jericho and New Testament Jericho, it’s possible that
He was leaving Old Testament and entering into New Testament Jericho; but why
would He stay overnight in the ruins?”I don’t know, maybe Zacchaeus lived over
there; it’s possible. We don’t know the explanation, but I’m wonderfully
content with the fact that there is an explanation.
“And
I have my own personal explanation. I believe beggars, from my experience of
studying the Bible, usually hung around the thoroughfares where the people
were. And if you’ve ever been to Jerusalem, you know where they hang around. In
fact, I ran into the same beggars, almost every day, just outside the city
gate. And that seems to be the rather traditional place for them. And so, I guess, perhaps one explanation of
what might have happened is this: that as Jesus is moving with this mob, and
they come to the gate, and the crowd and the noise and all that’s going on, and
they pass out the gate, then all of a sudden the cries of these blind men are
brought to His attention, at which point he turns to return into the city to
confront them and meet them and find their need. Certainly a possible
explanation.
“But I think it’s really
wonderful to note that each Gospel writer is not intimidated by what the other
says; therefore, they’re not copying some extraneous source. They are, rather,
writing from their own heart under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And when
you pull it all together, it makes wonderful and beautiful sense.”
I
guess that I will look at the introduction in my next SD.
5/19/2023 9:47 AM
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