The crowd saw something only God's promised King was expected to do, and they began to wonder out loud. A man who could neither see nor speak now "both spake and saw" (Matthew 12:22). Barnes says the people knew the prophecy in Isaiah 35:5, "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened," and concluded that He must be the promised Messiah. Gill explains that "the son of David" is "a character of the Messiah," the promised King from David's line. Their question is hopeful but hesitant. They were amazed enough to ask, but not yet ready to say it outright.

No one answered the crowd directly. The Pharisees heard the question and pushed back: "This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils" (Matthew 12:24). Matthew Henry observes, "The more people magnified Christ, the more desirous the Pharisees were to vilify him." Jesus answered the Pharisees, and His words also speak to the people's question: "if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you" (Matthew 12:28).

The Greek question begins with meti, a word Thayer describes as "an interrogative expecting a negative answer." It carries the sense of "Surely this couldn't be... could it?" That is why the ESV reads, "Can this be the Son of David?" The people were half-believing and half-doubting at once. The word "amazed" (existanto) is in a tense that pictures their amazement continuing.

Gill explains that "son of David" was a title for the Messiah, and that the people's question meant, in effect, "or the Messiah." Earlier in Matthew, two blind men had already cried out to Jesus, "Thou Son of David, have mercy on us" (Matthew 9:27).

This question stands at a turning point. The crowd sees a miracle and wonders whether Jesus is the promised King. The Pharisees see the same miracle and call it the work of the devil. The same evidence led to wonder in some and to hardened opposition in others. Barnes notes that people "of plain common sense, though unlearned," often see the meaning of Scripture more clearly than those blinded by pride.

Jesus' reply shows what was really happening. He was not working with Satan but defeating him, and His power came from "the Spirit of God" (Matthew 12:28). Just before this scene, Matthew quotes Isaiah's promise that God would put His Spirit upon His chosen Servant (Matthew 12:18). The crowd's hesitant question had a true answer: the kingdom of God had come near in Jesus.