And the multitude rebuked them, that they should hold their peace: but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, you son of David.
All Commentaries on Matthew 20:31 Go To Matthew 20
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Christ permitted the crowd to rebuke them so that their earnestness might all the more appear and that we might learn how worthily they would receive the benefits of a cure. He does not so much as ask, “Do you believe?” as he did with many. For their cry and their struggling to come to him were sufficient to make their faith evident. Learn this, beloved. Though we may be very vile and outcast, yet when we approach God with utter earnestness, we come closer to what we ask for. Just look at these men. They do not have any of the apostles to plead for them. Instead, here is the crowd trying to shut them up, telling them to be silent. Yet they were able to overcome all these obstacles and come to Jesus himself. Yet the Evangelist does not attest to any faith in them but only to their importunity. Their earnestness sufficed above all other factors. The Gospel of Matthew, Homily
