Jesus Muddies The Water To Heal! - John 9:1-7

John 9:1-7 Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

9 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

After Jesus' nasty encounter with the Jews and Pharisees, he moves back into ministry, as he encounters a man, who is born blind from birth. Jesus does not seem ruffled by his latest "dust up" with the leaders. The first reaction of the disciples was that somehow the man's genetic blindness was the result of sin. Either his, or his parents. This was a common sentiment held amoung Jewish people of that day.

“It was widely held that suffering, and especially such a disaster as blindness, was due to sin. The general principle was laid down by Rabbi Ammi: ‘There is no death without sin, and there is no suffering without iniquity.’” (Morris)

Sometimes today some assume a person brought on their own sickness by their lifestyle choices. In some cases this may be true. But if it isn't we do a grave injustice to people to assume their sickness is a result of their own choices.  

Jesus quickly dismisses their notion saying it was not a result of the man or his parent's sin, but this was an opportunity for God to show his power and glory. 

Consider these thoughts given by noted NT Commentator F.F. Bruce,  

"This does not mean that God deliberately caused the child to be born blind in order that, after many years, his glory should be displayed in the removal of the blindness; to think so would again be aspersion on the character of God. It does mean that God overruled the disaster of the child’s blindness so that, when the child grew to manhood, he might, by the recovering of his sight, see the glory of God in the face of Christ, and others, seeing the work of God, might turn to the true Light of the World.” (Bruce)

Jesus knew his days were limited, so everyone he ran into became an opportunity to show the power and authority the Father had given him over sickness and disease. 

“Whenever you see a man in sorrow and trouble, the way to look at it is, not to blame him and inquire how he came there, but to say, ‘Here is an opening for God’s almighty love. Here is an occasion for the display of the grace and goodness of the Lord.’” (Spurgeon)

Jesus refers to himself as the "light of the world".  No other normal human being would claim this. If someone said, "I am the light of the world", we might think they were delusional or insane. 

Jesus then uses a very unorthodox method to heal the man. He creates some mud with saliva and puts it on the man's eyes. We can look back to Genesis to see that God made man out of the dust of the ground. So surely God can heal a man through the mud of the ground. The important thing as Guzik says is, "The power was in God not in the method". Perhaps this is why he used such an unusual method of healing the man to show the power was from God. 

The pool of Siloam had a lot of history in the Jewish faith. The water came from a tunnel built in King Hezekiah's reign and was seen as quite an architectural feat. It was also the water that was poured out at the Feast of Taberacles over the altar, which was regarded by the Rabbi's as a sign of the coming of the Spirit (Guzik)

Finally, the word Siloam means "sent". As Jesus was sent by the Father to meet the man, Jesus sent the man to receive healing through the water, which was sent by God. The blind man went which showed his deep faith in Jesus. He went there obviously with others who led him there and down into the pool, who also demonstrated faith in Jesus. 

Their faith was rewarded, as the man's sight was recovered. The word "recovered" is important because he recovered the sight. Though he was recovering something he never had, the deprivation or loss of sight at birth was replaced by receiving it. Like all of our sicknesses and maladies physical or psychological, Jesus' healing restores back to us God's intention when were created in His image.

The reality is all healing in this life is temporary, because we will all still die. But in heaven our healing will be permanent as we are given a new body free of sickness and disease and presumably one that will never die. 

Why do you think Jesus used this unorthodox method of healing the man? How does Jesus being the light of the world relate to the man's healing? How do you see the negative things that have happened to you in your life, as ways God's glory can be revealed in you? How does realizing the bad things that happen to us can be used for God's glory change the way you might look at those bad things?