The blind man is at a disadvantage, right? He can’t just get up and follow.  He can’t see where to go.  Crying out and carrying on are his only hope of getting Jesus’ attention.  And the crowd is appalled. They tell him to hush.  He did not.  He shouted all the louder…like someone at the end of their rope, knowing this is the moment.  “Lord let me see again.”  This man knows what he’s lost…he hasn’t always been blind…and he needs Jesus.  And the crowd tried to shush him.  

It’s hard though, is it not, to let ourselves be shushed by the crowd…not to let ourselves be defined by what the crowd grumbles about us?  But the blind man was relentless in his pursuit of Jesus.  And, as the blind man sat yelling, as the crowd continued to move Jesus forward, Jesus stood still…I imagine Jesus holding a finger to his lips quietening down the crowd…looking around as the words “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me,” began to sink in. He ordered that the man be brought to him.  He wanted to see the blind man. Wanted to know what the blind man needed. Wanted to restore unto him what he had lost.  Jesus saw him.  And when the blind man regained his sight he followed Jesus, glorifying God – maybe just as loudly as when he desperately sought Jesus’ attention.