Two Blind Men at Jericho
29 As they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. 30 Behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!” 31 The multitude rebuked them, telling them that they should be quiet, but they cried out even more, “Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!” 32 Jesus stood still and called them, and asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” 33 They told him, “Lord, that our eyes may be opened.” 34 Jesus, being moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received their sight, and they followed him.
The last healing before the city — two beggars the crowd tries to silence, calling him the son of David.
As they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed him.
The road from Jericho climbs steeply to Jerusalem, and this is the last thing recorded before the entry into the city. The earlier account names one of the men and his father Mark 10:32–52; Matthew counts two, as he does with the men among the tombs Matthew 8:28.
Behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!”
The title is the one the whole Gospel has been building since its first verse Matthew 1:1, and it is shouted by two beggars at a roadside days before the crowds shout it at the gate Matthew 21:9. Blind men see who he is; that irony is in the text rather than imposed on it.
The multitude rebuked them, telling them that they should be quiet, but they cried out even more, “Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!”
The crowd following him tries to silence the two people actually asking him for something. It is the same instinct that turned away the children Matthew 19:13, and it fails the same way.
Jesus stood still and called them Matthew 20:32. He stops. A procession heading for the city halts at the noise two beggars are making.
"What do you want me to do for you?" The question is the same one put to the sons of Zebedee three paragraphs earlier, word for word — and the two answers are the measure of the chapter. "Lord, that our eyes may be opened" Matthew 20:33.
Jesus, being moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received their sight, and they followed him.
He could have spoken from where he stood. He touched them, which is what he does throughout with people nobody else would touch — and the last clause says where they went. They joined the procession going up to Jerusalem.
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