Continuing our journey through the gospel of John
1 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 work of God might be displayed in his life.4 As long as it is day, we must do the work 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 Having said 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.
8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?”9 Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”
But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”10 “How then were your eyes opened?” they demanded.
11 He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”
12 “Where is this man?” they asked him.
“I don’t know,” he said.
Jesus saw a blind man as he walked. How many blind, destitute, and lonely people to we come across every day, but have failed to even notice?
“As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me” – notice how he says ‘we’ must do the work, and the level of sacred urgency that ought to be in our lives.
Why go through the theatrics of spitting on mud? Walking to the pool?
Imagine encountering God and being so transformed people debate whether it is still really you?
Why didn’t Jesus tell him where he was after? Could there be a wider understanding of what it means to encounter Jesus and follow him here?
