Luke 18:31-43

 Luke 18:31-43

It is no accident these two stories are placed together in the Life of Christ. Jesus is on the way to the cross He has for months been teaching and pouring His life into the 12. They, of all people, know Him and have found in Him that He is completely truthful. Jesus gives them a direct and exact description of what will happen in Jerusalem in seven words: delivered, mock, mistreated, spit, scourged, kill and rise. Jesus is truthful and makes it simple, direct, plain and clear. Luke tells us the disciples didn't get it. Their vision was blocked and while Luke doesn't say specifically why they missed it in other places Luke emphasizes that they were looking for an earthly Kingdom. 

After the disciples' failure Luke immediately points to a blind man screaming for Jesus's help. In verse 38 he is “calling” by verse 39 “crying out”.  The word and verse 38 is “the call to get someone's attention”, the crying out in verse 39 is “screaming in desperation” for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of rescue.  His cries are passionate enough to get Jesus attention and gain him an audience with the Lord. His faith in Jesus was the rescue.

So what is the contrast? How were the 12 different from the man crying for help? While we must be careful about going beyond what the Lord says or scripture declares, Jesus emphasizes the Blind Man's faith. His is a faith that is located specifically and solely on Jesus.  This is different from a “Jesus and” kind of faith. A “Jesus and faith” is when we try to add Jesus to our agenda: “Jesus and my agenda”, “Jesus and national renewal”, “Jesus and my political party”, etc. It has been said that “God is our only home when He is our only hope.” While the 12 still had visions of a great Kingdom of which Jesus would be the central part and in which they would have their own smaller parts. This blind man had nothing but one hope and that was in Jesus. The competing claims of our agendas, even good ones, will cause our faith to be perverted and distorted. We need no Kingdom of our own, we only need Jesus.

“Lord, keep me from adding anything or agenda to faith in Christ. AMEN”