Giving Thanks by Disobeying: Matthew 9:27-34

Perhaps it is because Jesus was humble, or maybe it is because Jesus was not interested in being praised by people, but following a number of healings, we see Jesus share some odd sounding instructions. One example of this comes immediately after Jesus had restored the sight of some formerly blind men.

Matthew’s gospel tells us that “Jesus sternly warned them: ‘See that no one knows about this!’” (v. 30b)

These men probably thought Jesus was crazy. The best thing that had ever happened to them was this miracle, but they weren’t supposed to tell anyone? That didn’t make any sense in their minds. What about the people they knew who knew them as blind. What should they say to these people when asked, “How were you healed?”

So Matthew tells us these men did the opposite of what Jesus asked. Matthew writes, “But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land.” (v. 31)

These two men give thanks to Jesus by completely disobeying His final instruction to them. This makes me wonder why Jesus gave them this instruction. Maybe it was because Jesus was humble, or maybe it was because Jesus was trying to avoid something.

From reading a number of the different healing miracles, another theme we can see in many of them is that praise is given to God. However, this characteristic is not seen in this specific healing example. I wonder if the instruction Jesus gave these men was because He did not want them spreading the idea that Jesus was a self-made miracle healer. Jesus may have wanted to avoid receiving the praise and credit for this miracle because He wanted God to get the glory.

Matthew tells us that these men ignore Jesus and that they “spread the news about Him throughout all that land.” (v. 31b)

This probably was inspired by the Holy Spirit, who wanted to glorify Jesus and point people to Him, but Jesus doesn’t want the glory to stay with Him, He wants the glory and praise to ultimately go to the Father.

In this disobedience, I see evidence of what happens when God truly does something incredible in someone’s life: They cannot help but share it with others.

I wonder if we too often discount the miracles in our lives because we are wary of sharing what God has done for us. However, it is only through our story that others can learn what God can do, and even if Jesus didn’t want the glory for this healing, He ultimately received it because God worked through Him to restore the blind men’s sight. When we share what God has done for us, we must remember that He is the hero who put the pieces back together, and that He is the One who deserves all the glory.