Friday after the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on September 1, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 9:27-35 (NKJV)
9:27 When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”
28 And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”
29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.” 30 And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, “See that no one knows it.” 31 But when they had departed, they spread the news about Him in all that country.
32 As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a man, mute and demon-possessed. 33 And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. And the multitudes marveled, saying, “It was never seen like this in Israel!”
34 But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons.”
35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
Devotion
“When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, ‘Son of David, have mercy on us!’”
Two blind men cry out to Jesus. Prayer is speaking to God, so, since Jesus is God, we may rightly say that these men were praying! And what is their prayer? “Son of David, have mercy on us!” They did not pray, “Lord, heal us,” although likely they hoped for this. In their initial prayer, they do not tell Jesus what to do. They simply invoke His mercy.
We do the same thing every Sunday, right after the confession and absolution. Our biggest problem is our sin problem, so we come before God in humble repentance and get that issue addressed first. But then we pray, “Lord, have mercy upon us; Christ, have mercy upon us; Lord, have mercy upon us.” With our great big sin issue taken care of, we now implore God to regard in His mercy all our other struggles, whether that’s blindness, or other health problems, or finances, or relationships, or whatever. We do not tell the Lord what to do. We implore Him to look in mercy upon us and all our struggles. He will be merciful, and whatever form that mercy takes, it will be enough.
Prayer: Almighty and Merciful God, of Whose only gift it cometh that Thy faithful people do unto Thee true and laudable service: Grant, we beseech Thee, that we may so faithfully serve Thee in this life, that we fail not finally to attain Thy heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
