{"id":810,"date":"2023-12-29T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-29T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/?p=810&2023"},"modified":"2023-12-26T17:00:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-27T00:00:11","slug":"seeing-with-cloudy-eyes-matthew-9-27-34","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/seeing-with-cloudy-eyes-matthew-9-27-34\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing with Cloudy Eyes: Matthew 9:27-34"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"spoiler spoiler-style-2\"><div class=\"spoiler-title\">Focus Passage: Matthew 9:27-34 (NASB)<\/div><div class=\"spoiler-content\" style=\"display: none;\"><p><sup>27<\/sup>\u00a0As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, &#8220;Have mercy on us, Son of David!&#8221; <sup>28<\/sup>\u00a0When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus <span class=\"tooltiptrigger\">*<\/span><span class=\"tooltip\">This word is present tense in the Greek, but it has been translated as past tense to conform to modern usage.<\/span>said to them, <span class=\"red-letter\">&#8220;Do you believe that I am able to do this?&#8221;<\/span> They <span class=\"tooltiptrigger\">*<\/span><span class=\"tooltip\">This word is present tense in the Greek, but it has been translated as past tense to conform to modern usage.<\/span>said to Him, &#8220;Yes, Lord.&#8221; <sup>29<\/sup>\u00a0Then He touched their eyes, saying, <span class=\"red-letter\">&#8220;It shall be done to you according to your faith.&#8221;<\/span> <sup>30<\/sup>\u00a0And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them: <span class=\"red-letter\">&#8220;See that no one knows <em>about this!<\/em>&#8221;<\/span> <sup>31<\/sup>\u00a0But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land. <\/p><p><sup>32<\/sup>\u00a0As they were going out, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to Him. <sup>33<\/sup>\u00a0After the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke; and the crowds were amazed, <em>and were<\/em> saying, &#8220;Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.&#8221; <sup>34<\/sup>\u00a0But the Pharisees were saying, &#8220;He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.&#8221; <\/p><p class=\"passage-read-more\">Read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=matthew 9:27-34&amp;version=NASB\" title=\"Read the passage on BibleGateway.com\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"hyperlink-underlined\">Matthew 9:27-34<\/a> in context and\/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!<\/p><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>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.<\/p>\r\n<p>Depending on one\u2019s worldview will determine how they interpret an event that happens. One example of this from within the gospels is shared in Matthew\u2019s record of Jesus\u2019 life. Matthew describes one of Jesus\u2019 miracle-healings and he then shares what the crowd\u2019s response was to this miracle. \u201c<strong>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, \u2018Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.\u2019 But the Pharisees were saying, \u2018He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.\u2019<\/strong>\u201d (v. 32-34)<\/p>\r\n<p>The crowds were amazed by what they were seeing Jesus do. They search their memories and what they had been told about Israel\u2019s history, and they were not coming up with any true comparison. This in itself made Jesus special, significant, and worthy of their attention.<\/p>\r\n<p>But the Pharisees saw Jesus\u2019 miracles differently. They told themselves that Jesus \u201c<strong>casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.<\/strong>\u201d (v. 34)<\/p>\r\n<p>These two groups of people saw the same set of actions and they had two completely opposite responses.<\/p>\r\n<p>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.<\/p>\r\n<p>In this passage are the two extremes people can take regarding Jesus. Either Jesus was God\u2019s 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.<\/p>\r\n<p><em>Was Jesus a great teacher?<\/em> Absolutely \u2013 if you believe that He was God\u2019s Son. If Jesus was the trickster, then everything He taught would be up for debate, and none of it should be trusted.<\/p>\r\n<p>When we look at Jesus\u2019 ministry, there isn\u2019t 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\u2019t look deeper at His life.<\/p>\r\n<p>But every one of us must make a decision in our own lives: <strong>Was Jesus simply a man who came to deceive people and trick a generation of people in the first century, or was Jesus God\u2019s own Son who came to show us what God is like \u2013 and who came to give His life for us? This is something everyone will be expected to answer when history comes to a close.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<div id=\"aj-wrap-up--810\" class=\"aj-wrap-up\"><p><em>This thought was inspired by studying the <strong>Walking With Jesus<\/strong> \u201cReflective Bible Study\u201d package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, <a class=\"underline\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/\" title=\"Check out Reflective Bible Study!\">click here<\/a> and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!<\/em><\/p><p><em><a class=\"underline\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\" onClick=\"rbs_aj_inline_subscribe(this, '810');\">Subscribe<\/a> to this blog and never miss an insight.<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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. [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text"],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[2],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Seeing with Cloudy Eyes: Matthew 9:27-34 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/seeing-with-cloudy-eyes-matthew-9-27-34\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seeing with Cloudy Eyes: Matthew 9:27-34 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When we look out at the world today, there are about as many perspectives as there are people alive. 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