In John 9:1-12 we are told of the curious healing of the man born blind. There are several question asked in this section:
•The disciples ask WHY
•The neighbors and Pharisees ask HOW
•Only the blind man responds with WHO.
I’m fascinated with the common ingredients that Jesus used to heal this man “dirt and spit”. In Jeremiah 8:22 We read, “Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people?”
Oh what strange balm this is! Two ingredients that we would avoid putting in our eyes is dirt and spit, isn’t it? Both are irritants, so for a man born blind Jesus made a combination of things that cause irritation and then told him to go to the pool of Siloam which means “Sent”. It seems a bit odd to use the word “anointed” with clay made with dirt and spit doesn’t it.
Think of this, Jesus was “sent” into the world to be the light of the world and He “sent” this fellow who “blindly” had to obey and go to the pool of the sent one to receive his sight. What a lesson for the disciples with regard to human need as they were wrapped up in the “cause” of this man’s blindness instead of being concerned with the “cure” for his blindness. Hey Christian, may we learn this lesson that the cause is not to be our concern, only the cure!
Ah but his illumination led to a problem of identification as four times people asked him how he was made to see. In verse 10 it is his neighbors, in verse 15 it is the Pharisees who ask him, in verse 19 the Pharisees ask his parents then in verse 26 they give him one more time to answer the “how” question. In the Greek it is worded he kept on saying, “I am he” the guy can finally see his neighbors and now none of them recognizes him, ain’t that life? Have you ever noticed that if you change the letters around in the word “HOW” you will spell “WHO”? I suggest to you that we are often misspelling the wrong question wanting to know the HOW instead of the WHO. And yet this man only answers in the WHO as he says “a man called Jesus.” Remember he had not seen the Lord, he had only heard His voice and had no idea where He had gone.
They say, “Where is He?” Now he probably gave them one of those confused looks that said, “How should I know I was blind remember?” Hey friends there is one final observation in this section and that is to be found in verse 12 where they ask the man, “Where is He” and he responds, “I don’t know.” You see he had been given the gift of sight but had not yet seen the Giver. I’m afraid that this is a fairly common condition, may the Lord grant us the gift of not losing sight of the Giver.