Summary of passage: Jesus and his disciples come upon a blind man. His disciples wonder who sinner that this man was born blind (a commonly held belief of the times). Jesus said neither and is the result of God’s work. He put mud on the man’s eyes made with spit and told him to wash in the Pool of Siloam and he could see. Still, no one believed he was the same man.
Questions:
3) The Old Testament teaches that God punishes the children for the sin of the fathers for multiple generations. Jesus says, “Neither, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”
4) Part personal Question. My answer: The man was blinded since birth and as far as we know this was the first time a man was healed who has been born blind. No other prophet has done so. According to Isaiah 35:5, this is a sign of the Messiah. I learn Jesus can do anything and that he is more concerned about helping people now than anything else.
5) Personal Question. My answer: He gives me the strength to overcome, knowing he is there with me.
Conclusions: Weak. Very. Please see End Notes for much more meaning.
End Notes: In this story, Jesus corrects a commonly held notion that suffering comes because of sin. The healed man became a loyal spokesman for Jesus. His testimony, however, failed to convince the Pharisees , who also rejected Jesus’ teaching about why the man had been born blind.
This continues right from the moment he was about to be stoned. Jesus was not ruffled by them.
The disciples were more interested in discussing the man’s case rather than helping him. Jesus does not care; he will be more practical as we are to be.
They thought the man’s blindness was due to a previous sin. Some Jews even thought babies could sin in the womb or some were punished for a sin they would commit in the future.
Jesus says right away that no specific sin caused this man’s blindness. Most often birth defects are the result of Adam’s sin when he brought death into this world and our fallen condition. Because we are to die our bodies die and this comes out in different conditions.
However, Jesus says there is always a purpose in such conditions so God’s work can be displayed. In this blind man’s case, the purpose was so Jesus can heal him and be a testimony for him. That doesn’t mean God made him born blind to show His character. It means God overruled his blindness so that man could see the light. In other cases, it’s to test someone through suffering. Nothing happens by accident in God’s world.
Jesus worked like we all must work. He saw the need and felt the urgency to help the man before his time on this earth was up. We all must be thus. Despite the fact Jesus knew he’d get in trouble for healing on the Sabbath, his compassion for man overrode that concern. Can we say the same thing?
Why mud and spit? He used dirt as God used dirt to make man. Also, the emphasis was not on the method but the result. He didn’t want anyone to believe he has a magic formula for healing that was outside of God. Furthermore, spitting on the eyes was a common thing in ancient times to either remove dirt or as a cure. Mark records two other healings where Jesus used his saliva (Mark 7:33 & 8:23).
Even though in this miracle Jesus approached the blind man, the blind man still had to show faith in Jesus to be healed. Jesus asked him to go the Pool of Siloam and wash. Siloam meant ‘sent’ because the water from the pool was sent through a conduit to the city and came through Hezekiah’s tunnel, a remarkable engineering feat built in Old Testament times. This water was used at the altar of the Feast of Tabernacles and today is still used to represent the pouring out of The Spirit.
Pool of Siloam
Again and again John refers to Jesus as having been ‘sent’ by the Father. So now blindness is removed with the aid of the ‘sent’.
Acting in faith, the man went and washed his eyes despite not being promised he’d be healed if he did. He had to have had help down there since he was still blind.
Fun Fact: This is the first time in the Bible a man born blind has been healed. This is the work of God. Thus, Jesus is God. Isaiah prophesied this to be a sign of the Messiah (Isaiah 29:18; 35:5 42:7).
Fun Fact: Jesus performed more miracles of this kind than of any other.
Some scholars speculate this as a foreshadowing of Jesus helping the Gentiles. They see the man in Chapter 5 as the archetype Jew to be healed and this man as the archetype Gentile to be healed. Again, we are not told if his man is Jew or Gentile.
The one sent by God uses the pool of sent to prove he is God and the light of the world, offering the greatest gift–the living waters–to all who have faith.
History of Pool of Siloam HERE
