'As he passed by he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him. We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed, and came back able to see. His neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is,” but others said, “No, he just looks like him.” He said, “I am.” So they said to him, “[So] how were your eyes opened?” He replied, “The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went there and washed and was able to see.” And they said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I don’t know (John 9:1-12).”'
Jesus restored the sight to a man born blind and then the blind man gave witness to the Pharisees that Jesus must be ‘from God’ and not a sinner as the Jewish leaders had claimed. In OT times the Jews believed that physical illness, handicaps, or deformities resulted from sin. If the man was blind ether he or his parents sinned. The evangelist John adds that the man was blind so that the works of God may be revealed through him. Jesus told his disciples that they have work to do and that darkness would overcome the world if he, the light of the world, had not come. They are many opinions as to why Jesus spat on the ground and made clay, and Traditional OT beliefs held that spit and mud helped to cure blindness, but no one knows for sure. The blind man obeyed Jesus and washed in the pool of Siloam and his obedience to the word of Jesus cured him. The man not only received physical sight but spiritual sight so he could recognize Jesus’ divinity.
Almighty God, grant us the faith to recognize and trust you when you are trying to heal our blindness. May we be ever mindful of your goodness towards us and strive to bring to completion the work you have assigned to us. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Faculty of the University of Navarre. The Navarre Bible: New Testament Expanded Edition. Expanded Edition, Four Courts / Scepter, 2008.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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