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From: Matthew 9:27-31

The Curing of Two Blind Men. The Dumb Devil

[27] And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying
aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” [28] When he entered 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 be it done to you.” [30] And their eyes were
opened. And Jesus sternly charged them, “See that no one knows it.” [31] But
they went away and spread his fame through all that district.

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Commentary:

27-34. The evangelist shows people’s different reactions to miracles. Everyone
admits that God is at work in these events — everyone, that is, except the Phari-
sees who attribute them to the power of the devil. A pharisaical attitude so har-
dens a person’s heart that he becomes closed to any possibility of salvation.
The fact that the blind men recognize Jesus as the Messiah (they call him “Son
of David”: v. 27) may have exasperated the Pharisees. Despite Jesus’ sublime
teaching, despite his miracles, they remain entrenched in their opposition.

In the light of this episode it is easy enough to see that the paradox is true:
there are blind people who in fact see God and seers who see no trace of him.

30. Why did our Lord not want them to publicize the miracle? Because his plan
was to gradually manifest himself as the Messiah, the Son of God. He did not
want to anticipate events which would occur in their own good time; nor did he
want the crowd to start hailing him as Messiah King, because their notion of
messiah was a nationalistic, not a spiritual one. However, the crowd did in fact
proclaim him when he worked the miracles of the loaves and the fish (Jn 6:14-
15): “When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, ‘This is in-
deed the prophet who is to come into the world!’ Perceiving then that they were
about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again
to the hills by himself.”

31. St Jerome (cf. “Comm. on Matthew”, 9, 31) says that the blind men spread
the news of their cure, not out of disobedience to Jesus, but because it was the
only way they could find to express their gratitude.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States