Chapter 28
I Once Was Blind
The Reading: John 9:1-41
The Problem:
Jesus met a man who was born with a disability - blindness. He was a grown man now, but things had not been going well for him. Back then there were no Braille books for blind people, no seeing-eye-dogs, and no way for a blind person to be educated or work. And apparently his parents (vs. 18) weren’t able to care for him any longer. This man had no choice but to beg for money, as was common for people with disabilities in that day and age.
Visual impairment was the most common type of physical disability recorded in Bible times. Aside from people like Isaac (Genesis 27:1), Jacob (Genesis 48:10), Eli (1 Samuel 3:2 and 4:15), and Ahijah the Shilomite (1 Kings 14:4), whose eyesight failed in old age, natural causes of disability are not mentioned in the Bible. Blindness was usually attributed to God. The general view of the Old Testament writers was that God brings disability as punishment for transgressions for sin or as an expression of God's wrath for people's disobedience. Blindness was seen as a curse and as a result of unbelief and ignorance.
Very often sin leads to pain and suffering (Leviticus 14-16, Exodus 12:29-30). And it is true, the original sin of Adam and Eve was the beginning of all diseases that lead to death and disabilities. The disciples had been indoctrinated with this kind of thinking from childhood, and so expected Jesus to confirm that there was indeed a connection between this man’s blindness and some sin with the question, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?"
But Jesus offered a third alternative for his disciples to consider by turning their question away from the “why.” Instead encouraged His disciples to see what God could do through this man’s disability. In this man’s case, the specific work of God would soon be revealed when Jesus healed him of his blindness.
People with disabilities seemed to catch Jesus’ attention quite often. And a big part of Jesus’ ministry was to alleviate suffering when He came across someone in need. In this situation, Jesus took all the initiative. The blind man did not come to Jesus and ask to be healed, Jesus came to Him. Jesus wanted to cure the man of his blindness, and He expected the man to respond in faith with obedience to one small request.
The Turning Point:
First Jesus spit on the ground and made some mud, and then He used the mud as a salve for the man’s eyes. Now Jesus used many different methods leading to His miracles, but this was undoubtedly one of His more unusual ones. We can’t begin to imagine why He made up a batch of mud pie to spread on the man’s eyes. However, some commentaries have said that it may be that Jesus wanted to emphasize two things.
- Just as God used the dust of the ground and clay to do a work of creation in Genesis, so Jesus did a work of creation with dust and clay for this man.
- Jesus may have found it advantageous to change His methods of healing so no one could say there was a magic formula that He used. He wanted them to see the power was in God, not in His method.
Then Jesus sent the blind man off to the Pool of Siloam. As with many sites in the Holy Land, the origins of the Siloam Pool reach back at least seven centuries before the time of Jesus. King Hezekiah of Judah correctly anticipated that there was going to be a siege against Jerusalem by the Assyrian monarch, Sennacherib. To protect the city’s water supply during the siege, Hezekiah undertook a strategic engineering project that would be an impressive feat in any age, but especially for Old Testament times. He ordered the digging of a 1,750-foot tunnel under the City of David to bring water from the Gihon Spring, which lay outside the city wall, inside the city to a pool on the opposite side of the ridge. In the years that followed, “Hezekiah’s Tunnel” continued to carry fresh water to this section of Jerusalem, and different pools were built there over the centuries – including the Pool of Siloam.
The naturally flowing spring water would have qualified the Pool of Siloam for use as a mikveh for ritual bathing. In addition, it may also have been an important source of fresh water for the inhabitants in that part of the city.
The Miracle That Followed:
Then Jesus said unto him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (John 9:7). Now notice Jesus didn’t say, “Go and wash in the pool of Siloam and you will be able to see.” He just told him to go wash the mud out of his eyes in that particular pool.
Still being blind, it must have been difficult for the blind man to find his way to pool of Siloam, and then down the steps to the pool itself. He may have even needed to find someone who would lead him there. He might have been thinking of a dozen reasons why this was probably a fool’s errand. But he went and washed his eyes in that pool in faith and obedience, because Jesus had told him to do so.
And he came up out of the water seeing. I wonder if the cure was instant and complete. Or, as he washed, did he notice he was beginning to see light, and as he continued washing the light got brighter and he began to see people? The Bible doesn’t say, but we do know that when the man who had been born with congenital blindness obeyed Jesus, he was blessed with 20/20 vision.
This is the first account in the Bible where a person who was born blind had been healed of their blindness. From Genesis to John, no prophet, priest, or apostle ever gave sight to eyes born blind. But opening the eyes of the blind had been prophesied to be a work of the Messiah: “The eyes of the blind shall be opened. (Isaiah 35:5)
The Bottom Line:
Symbolically this man’s condition represents mankind’s spiritual blindness apart from salvation in Jesus. Spiritual blindness is a grievous condition experienced by those who do not believe in God, Jesus Christ, and His Word (Romans 2:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:12). Those who reject Christ are the lost (John 6:68-69). Being spiritually blind, they are perishing (2 Corinthians 4:3-4; Revelation 3:17). They choose not to accept the teachings of Christ and His authority in their lives (Matthew 28:18).
One of my favorite hymns, Amazing Grace written by John Newton, refers to this story in the verse that says, “I once was blind, but now I see” (John 9:25). The miracle of creating sight for this man is really a picture of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus. The blind beggar had no hope; he knew he was destined to spend the rest of his life in darkness. He didn’t even ask Jesus for help. Actually, Jesus Himself came to the blind man and initiated the miracle.
The same is true of regeneration in a dead sinner’s heart. God begins this miracle because dead people can’t do anything to help themselves. They are blind to the things of faith, blind to their own condition since they have never seen the light, and they are helpless to do anything to help themselves, just like the blind beggar.
Just as the blind man obeyed Jesus and then could see, our obedient response to Jesus’ invitation is required for our spiritual eyes to be opened. Jesus has given us His wonderful promise: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
