Matthew 9:31

But they, when they were departed, spread abroad His fame in all that country.

Jesus had taken no notice of the cries of the men on the street, either for fear of awakening false expectations, or in order to test their faith. But they were persistent with that importunity which usually conquered Jesus. When He reached His house, His lodgings, they went directly to Him. The Lord has only one question to address to them, whether they have faith in His power to help, to which they assented with a glad Yes, Lord, thus both confessing faith in His ability and giving Him the honor due Him as the Lord of heaven. Then, without further hesitation, overcome by the force of their pleading in faith, He touched their eyes and thus opened and gave sight to them. As was their faith, so was their reward. Faith is the hand which takes what God offers, the spiritual organ of appropriation, the connecting link between our emptiness and God's fullness. It is faith which opens the heart of Jesus and storms the very gates of heaven. But this trusting faith is always an outgrowth of redeeming faith, of the firm reliance in the blood and merits of Jesus the Redeemer. The Lord, in dismissing the men that had thus received His bounty, sternly enjoined them, very emphatically charged them, on pain of His displeasure, not to spread the news abroad, to let no one know of the healing. The danger of a carnal movement, by which the people of Galilee would be roused into rebellion against the Romans, made it necessary for Him to impose silence upon them. But they, believing, probably, that it was only humility that prompted the Lord to make such a demand, and full of joy over the help which they had experienced, were most active in relating their glad news in that entire country, far beyond the boundaries of Capernaum.