In John 9, Jesus and His disciples passed by a blind man who was begging on the street. They asked Jesus-- who sinned, this man or his parents that he should have been born blind? Jesus answered neither one, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
The idea that bad things must happen to sinners existed in the first century, and continues to this day. But Jesus clearly refutes the idea. That man, at that moment, was about to play an important role. The magnificent work of God would be showcased in this man’s life.
This event happened during Sukkot (Feast of Booths). This is the celebration where Jesus has declared that He was the source of living water and that He was the light of the world. And here again, Jesus reiterates to His disciples that:
“While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9:5. In the next verse, Jesus, the light of the world was going to bring light into the darkness of this blind man.
Jesus spit on the ground and made clay with it. He applied the clay to the eyes of the man.
“Go, wash in the pool of Siloam,” said Jesus.
The pool of Siloam was the same water from which the priests drew water for the water libation ceremony during Sukkot. Don’t miss the significance of this. Jesus, the source of living water, made clay from the ground that He created—mixed with water from His own body. Then told the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam (considered living water-not stagnant water).
The blind man with clay caked on his eyes found his way to the pool of Siloam and washed. And suddenly, the man blind from birth could see.
When we read these verses, we skim along the familiar words without really thinking about them. Take a moment to see the enormity of this miracle. The man was totally blind from birth, then Jesus performed a miracle. Then for the very first time in his life, the man had sight. He immediately was healed and for the first time in his whole life, the man saw the faces of people, the city street, and his own hands and feet.
The Word doesn’t tell us what the man said. But can you imagine? Did he scream and cry and tell everyone he met?
He was so changed that his neighbors were not even sure it was the same man they knew as a blind beggar.
“I am the one,” he insisted.
“How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.
“The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam, and wash’; so I went away and washed, and I received sight,” the formerly blind man answered.
On this, perhaps the most important day of his life, this man landed in the very middle of a controversy. The man Jesus, a miracle worker, healed him on a Sabbath.
And the Pharisees were not happy about it.
Carla Killough McClafferty