Seeing with Cloudy Eyes: Matthew 9:27-34

When we look out at the world today, there are about as many perspectives as there are people alive. Some of these perspectives are similar with one another on certain topics, while other perspectives may be polar opposite. Another way to describe the perspective we have on life is by describing it as a worldview.

Depending on one’s worldview will determine how they interpret an event that happens. One example of this from within the gospels is shared in Matthew’s record of Jesus’ life. Matthew describes one of Jesus’ miracle-healings and he then shares what the crowd’s response was to this miracle. “As they were going out, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to Him. After the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke; and the crowds were amazed, and were saying, ‘Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.’ But the Pharisees were saying, ‘He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.’” (v. 32-34)

The crowds were amazed by what they were seeing Jesus do. They search their memories and what they had been told about Israel’s history, and they were not coming up with any true comparison. This in itself made Jesus special, significant, and worthy of their attention.

But the Pharisees saw Jesus’ miracles differently. They told themselves that Jesus “casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.” (v. 34)

These two groups of people saw the same set of actions and they had two completely opposite responses.

But what is interesting in this passage is that the Pharisees actually acknowledge the miracles Jesus was doing. They just attribute the source of these miracles to be Satan rather than God. They call these miracles tricks that were meant to deceive the people, and by doing so, they try to minimize who Jesus was.

In this passage are the two extremes people can take regarding Jesus. Either Jesus was God’s Son and He gained His power from God, or Jesus was the greatest imposter or trickster ever to walk the face of the earth. When we read the gospel record, there is no room left for middle ground.

Was Jesus a great teacher? Absolutely – if you believe that He was God’s Son. If Jesus was the trickster, then everything He taught would be up for debate, and none of it should be trusted.

When we look at Jesus’ ministry, there isn’t room for Him to simply be a teacher and healer and not anything else. The only way people can have this belief is if they have never actually read the gospels themselves personally. Society has picked and chosen certain teachings of Jesus and elevated them in an attempt to make Jesus a teacher/preacher, but then it has pushed the rest of His ministry aside in hopes that people won’t look deeper at His life.

But every one of us must make a decision in our own lives: Was Jesus simply a man who came to deceive people and trick a generation of people in the first century, or was Jesus God’s own Son who came to show us what God is like – and who came to give His life for us? This is something everyone will be expected to answer when history comes to a close.