No Hunting Part 2

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013 Nick Cirino 

What do we do when Scripture doesn’t seem to line up with itself? Here is an example:       

Luke 18:37-38 ESV
·   As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36 And
    hearing   a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant.  They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth
    is passing by." And he cried out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
    
Matthew 20:29-30 ESV ·   And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. And behold, there were two
     blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they
     cried out, "Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!" 

Did you notice the differences in the way Luke and Matthew record the same event? 

Were there two blind men or only one? Luke records only one blind man, while Matthew says there are two. Is there a contradiction? 

No. 

Luke doesn’t deny there is a second blind man. He only focuses on the one blind man. Luke was probably aware that there was a second blind man at the scene, but chose not to record that detail. He probably left out a lot of other details too. 

I’m glad Luke didn’t tell us every detail he knew. That would be quite a boring read: “Two blind men, one with a slightly darker complexion, the other with a red shirt on, were sitting on the right side of the street as Jesus came up on the left side of the street. They called out to Jesus—the one with the red shirt calling out a little louder than the other, but both were shouting quite loudly....” You get the point.  

The authors of the Bible were selective. They included the details that they felt were most necessary for us to know. Luke’s goal wasn’t to write a textbook or an investigative report. It was to tell us about who Jesus is. 

The point of the story isn’t the exact number of blind people Jesus healed in Jericho. The point is that Jesus did heal. Luke wants us to get Jesus is the Messiah and we should put our faith in. 

Lord, thank you for revealing to us who you are in your word. Help us to trust in you and believe that you are who you say you are! Amen 


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