John 9:1-12
Jesus Heals a Blind Man
The famous agnostic Thomas Huxley was once lovingly confronted by a very sincere Christian. This believer stressed to Huxley that he was not in any way doubting Huxley's sincerity. Nevertheless, might it not be possible that mentally the great scientist was color blind? That is, some people cannot see traces of green where other people cannot help but see it. Could it be that this was Huxley's problem--that he was simply blind to truth that was quite evident to others? Huxley, being a man of integrity, admitted that this was possible, and added that if it were, he himself, of course, could not know or recognize it.
Jesus has been making the truth quite evident for 8 chapters - that is that He is who He said He is and He can do what He says He can do. But the Jews have demonstrated that they are blind. They cannot recognize their own Messiah and they are blind to the truth of Jesus’ identity. So when Jesus heals a man who was blind from birth it was more than a kind act to an otherwise helpless man – it was a living parable of the spiritual blindness of mankind and that Jesus only has the ability as the Son of God to give spiritual sight.
This is the 6th miracle in John’s gospel. Apart from Jesus Christ’s resurrection, John has chosen 8 other miracles to record for us. And he hasn’t picked them randomly. At the end of his gospel in the very last verse he says, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, John chose 9 miracles and each one is very important in demonstrating who Jesus is and the salvation He was accomplishing.
Now, in the healing of this blind man in chapter 9, the question before us is: what are we supposed to see? What does John want us to see as Jesus helps this blind man to see?
It is this: until a man has Jesus Christ a man is blind. He has no spiritual sight; he is in darkness; he can’t understand or perceive or comprehend the things that are truly spiritual. He may have eyes to see the setting sun, but, he is utterly blind to the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, is the only way he will ever see salvation.
Notice that this miracle is appropriately placed. In chapter 8 we saw Jesus declare that He is the Light of the world, and if a man follows Him he will never walk in darkness. Who knows darkness more than the blind? Who knows the limitation of blindness more than those whose eyes cannot see? The Bible says that every man and every woman are born spiritually blind. They cannot see when it comes to spiritual things. They are in total darkness until they see Jesus Christ. The question is before you today: can you see? Do you see the truth in Jesus Christ?
We can break this passage into 5.5 sections.
Condition (v1)
In verse 1 we see the Condition: “As He went along He saw a man blind from birth.” This man has been blind his whole life. He has never seen anything with his eyes. He has never seen the sun set or rise. He has never seen the faces of his loved ones. He has never known what love at first sight is because he has never seen the beauty of a woman’s face. His whole life is one of darkness. Furthermore, his handicap meant he couldn’t do any work so he was reduced to begging. He couldn’t get around on his own. He couldn’t take care of himself without help. Blindness is a terrible condition.
And, yet, blindness is all he knew. Maybe he didn’t have the bitterness and the pain of losing something so valuable because he never had it in the first place. Listen, he couldn’t even imagine what seeing was like. He never before had sight, and, so, he didn’t have anything to compare blindness to. He had no visual references to keep in his memory because he has never seen anything except darkness.
We would look upon this man with great pity. But the condition of this man is a physical reminder of the spiritual reality of every man and woman. The Bible says people are born blind. They are born spiritually blind. We have no ability to see or understand spiritual things. Our eyes are darkened to spiritual reality. These things become visible to us through faith in Jesus Christ. He is the One by whom we see spiritual reality.
But, for many people, their blindness becomes like the blindness of this man in chapter 9 - it’s all they’re familiar with. They wouldn’t know what seeing is like because they’ve never seen before. They even actually begin to think that they can see and may even resist any notion that they have any kind of blindness at all. So when Jesus comes along and says He is the light of the world and that he can give them sight it is something so offensive that they reject it.
Blindness is the condition. Before a man can see he has to see his own blindness.
Confusion (v2)
In verse 2 we see the disciples’ Confusion: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind.” The disciples thought that sin was the cause of this man’s blindness. Why would they even ask this question? They wanted to discuss theology - what was the theological reason for this man’s condition? And they would have been happy walking right on by him discussing the man but paying no attention to him. While their focus was on the cause of this man’s blindness, Jesus was focused on the purpose.
Let’s observe two points here. First is one of theology: Discussing theology is of utmost importance, Paul said to watch our lives and our doctrines closely. They go hand in hand. But, when a man becomes bloated with biblical knowledge but is empty of love Paul says he is nothing. He is noisy and arrogant and puffed up with knowledge. Translation: He is useless. A right learning of theology produces a right love in us - a right love for God and a right love for His people.
The second point concerns suffering. Not all suffering is caused by sin. But, there are times when suffering is caused by sin. We saw in chapter 5 that Jesus healed a man who was paralyzed and Jesus warned him to stop sinning or something worse may end up happening to him. But, as we see in this passage this man’s blindness is not a result of some specific sin in his life. Sometimes sin is the cause of physical problems, sometimes it is not. We will do well to accept that. What’s more, we will do better to refrain from evaluating our physical conditions and determining whether we or others are suffering due to sin. God is sovereign.
Now notice that Jesus doesn’t say the blind man and his parents have never sinned; He says their sin is not why the man is blind. Certainly this man and his parents were sinners. The Bible tells us that all have sinned. But Jesus says here that sin is not the cause of this man’s blindness.
However, there seems to be a great deal of absurdity in the question the disciples asked. If the man was born blind, how could he have sinned before he was born to cause his blindness?! There are two possible reasons why the disciple’s taught this. First, it was common for rabbi’s of the day to teach that an unborn baby still in the mother’s womb could somehow sin, and, sin badly enough to be born with some lifelong defect as a punishment.
Secondly, there were rabbi’s that also taught the pre-existence of the soul. They had been influenced by Greek philosophy enough to believe that somehow the soul existed before it had a body, and, in the womb the soul was joined to the body. Completely unbiblical no matter how you try to make sense of it, but, these rabbi’s would argue that the soul sinned before it had a body and therefore the punishment was to be born into a body with a handicap.
There was a great deal of confusion over the blind man. There was a great deal of confusion over the sovereignty of God and human suffering as well.
Commission (v3-5)
In verses 3-5 Jesus responds to His disciples. Jesus clarifies for them that this man’s condition is related to His Commission: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world I am the light of the world.” This man is in this condition so that the work of God could be revealed in Him.
Work is mentioned 4 times in these 2 verses here. Work in this context refers to the miracles that God was doing through Jesus. I want you to notice two things about the works of God here.
First, notice the purpose of God’s works. This man wasn’t blind because of sin, this man was blind “so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. When Jesus healed it wasn’t the healing that was the ultimate objective. Through the demonstration of the power of God He was manifesting the glory of God. This power that He demonstrated was tangible; in other words, when Jesus did miracles they were real, they were evident, they were undeniable. They were not invisible or psychosomatic. People who had shriveled hands regained their hand. People who had leprosy were cleansed. People who were crippled walked. People who were blind saw. People who had bent backs, who had uncontrollable bleeding, who were demon-possessed all were healed. When Jesus healed it was real, tangible, obvious and undeniable. You don’t see that today and you won’t. You haven’t seen it since the Apostles were alive.
Now, if I saw the miraculous works that Jesus performed I was supposed to be convinced that He had the power of God. Now, if He had the power of God, then God had given it to Him, and that means God sent Him and He had the authority of God with Him and He was to be listened to. In John 14:10-11, Jesus says, “The words I say to you are not my own. Rather, it is the Father living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I tell you that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe in the miracles themselves.”
God was attesting to the Jews that Jesus was from God by giving Him the power to do the miracles. That’s the purpose of miracles; they were to get the people’s attention. Seeing miracles with their eyes was to open their ears so they could hear the message. And if the power of Jesus that performed the works of miracles was from God then so too the words of His message were from God. You can’t credit Jesus’ power from God and His message from Satan.
Second, notice the people who are working the works of God. “We must work…” Jesus is referring to Himself and His 12 disciples that were with Him. Jesus came and did works of power, and, He gave the disciples power to do miracles as well. In Matthew 10 we see them go out to preach and do miracles during Jesus earthly ministry. Then, again, when the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost, their apostolic ministry and the performing of miracles continued.
The gifts that enabled people to do miracles have passed away with the Apostles. But, the work of God is still being done today. The preaching and teaching of the Word of God; the building up of the Church of Jesus Christ, the loving one another as Christ has loved us, the encouraging of one another in the faith, the praying for one another, the turning away from sin and helping others do the same. All this and more is going on and is to be labored in until the Lord returns for us.
Third, notice the period of time to work the works of God. “As long as it is day we must do the work of Him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work.” This is urgency. The time to work is right now, but, the time is coming when no one can work. When Jesus says this He was referring to His death. Only a few more months and He would be crucified. The shepherd would be struck and the sheep would scatter. As John 12:35 says the darkness will overtake them.
Although Jesus is no longer in the world His Spirit is. He said that He must go in order for the Holy Spirit to come. The Holy Spirit lives in all of us who believe, and, according to Colossians 4 we are all to “make the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil”.
We live right now with the knowledge that just as certain as Jesus left the world He is coming back. There is an urgency upon His Church to be pre-occupied with His work until He returns for us. I read a quote by an old puritan pastor this past week. His name was Richard Baxter. I like what he described as his sense of urgency, “I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.” We do not know when the Lord will come. It is truly imminent, “at any moment” He could be here. But, until He comes, let us be busy working the works that Ephesians 2:10 says have been prepared in advance for us.
Cure (v 6-7)
In verses 6-7 we see the Cure: “Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ‘Go,’ he told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.”
The method here that Jesus uses to heal this man is strange to us. Good scholars have come up several meanings for making mud. But, if we look for clues in the context of this chapter, we can begin to see Jesus’ motive.
You’ll notice that in verse 14 it was a Sabbath day when Jesus healed the man. How many of you think Jesus didn’t know that it was the Sabbath? He knew. He is always well aware of the timetable He is on. The One who is the Creator of time knows what time it is.
The Law said there was no work to be done on the Sabbath. The regular work that was done throughout the week was not to be done on the Sabbath. It was a separate and holy day. However, the traditions of the elders were man-made rules. Now, even though long ago they first concocted to help people follow God’s law, over time they became so vast and so complicated that they became a whole other set of laws themselves. The Law of God became buried under the traditions of the elders and very often God’s Law was contradicted by those traditions.
Here’s 4 ways Jesus was breaking the rules:
1) could not spit on a Sabbath day as this would be considered cultivating the ground, 2) making mud would also have been considered kneading, 3) anointing the eyes with a salve for healing purposes was directly forbidden, 4) walking more than 1,000 yards on the Sabbath was forbidden, and it was probably more than that from where the man was to the Pool of Siloam and back.
So the question is this: Why, when He could heal this man on any other day, and in any number of different ways, would He choose to make mud on a Sabbath to do it?
The reason is that He is not under man’s rule. He is not governed by or subject to man’s religious laws. He is not under the authority of man - man is under His authority. He certainly will not bow to the requirements of men who have arrogantly mishandled the requirements of God’s Law. What’s more, He will not only refuse to carry out man’s law, but, He will violate them intentionally to show man the inferiority of his little laws.
Jesus does not take orders from men. He gives the orders. He gives this man orders, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam”. This is interesting. Other times Jesus healed it was simply by speaking, or, by touching. This time He does something different. The word Siloam was a transliteration of a Hebrew word into the Greek, and John explained that the word means, “Sent”.
We were introduced to this pool in chapter 7 when every morning during the Feast of Tabernacles the priests would scoop water up from this pool and parade back up to the temple to continue their morning ritual. This pool was supplied by an aqueduct that was built by king Hezekiah. The aqueduct was fed by the Gihon Spring up on the temple hill. This was built to make sure that if Jerusalem was besieged the water supply would not be cut off.
Watch this: the temple hill was where God was represented, and so the water that came from there and filled the pool of Siloam was “sent” from God. The man was told by Jesus to go and wash there at the waters sent by God and he would receive his sight. Jesus has been sent by God and all who would go to Him will be washed, and be cured of their spiritual blindness, and be able to see.
Commotion (v8-11)
A man’s new condition causes quite a commotion. Notice verses 8-11,
There is a similarity here in how the crowd reacts to this man and how the crowds have reacted to Jesus. The crowds are in confusion over their identity. They disagreed over who Jesus was: He’s demon-possessed, he’s the Christ, he’s a prophet, he’s a deceiver. And now they are disagreeing over who this man is: he’s the same blind beggar we saw before, no he’s not the same one.
When a man sees Christ and believes in Him, He is changed. “Therefore, anyone who is in Christ is a brand new creation; the old is gone and the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). He is changed from the inside out. It is obvious to other people around that something is different. It’s not the same man anymore. People who knew the old man don’t recognize the new man and this makes them curious: Where is he?
I’ll conclude with this. They asked the man where Jesus was and he didn’t know; he would find out later in the chapter. But we know where He is now. Jesus is alive and at the Father’s right hand. But, just as important, we know where we are. We are in Christ. The Bible has promised us in the book of Romans chapter 8: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Are you in Christ Jesus? You can be by placing your faith in Him as your Savior. Do you see Him as such? He can heal your spiritual blindness and take away your sin when you trust in Him. Do that today and you can escape out of condemnation and into Jesus Christ.
Jesus Heals a Blind Man
The famous agnostic Thomas Huxley was once lovingly confronted by a very sincere Christian. This believer stressed to Huxley that he was not in any way doubting Huxley's sincerity. Nevertheless, might it not be possible that mentally the great scientist was color blind? That is, some people cannot see traces of green where other people cannot help but see it. Could it be that this was Huxley's problem--that he was simply blind to truth that was quite evident to others? Huxley, being a man of integrity, admitted that this was possible, and added that if it were, he himself, of course, could not know or recognize it.
Jesus has been making the truth quite evident for 8 chapters - that is that He is who He said He is and He can do what He says He can do. But the Jews have demonstrated that they are blind. They cannot recognize their own Messiah and they are blind to the truth of Jesus’ identity. So when Jesus heals a man who was blind from birth it was more than a kind act to an otherwise helpless man – it was a living parable of the spiritual blindness of mankind and that Jesus only has the ability as the Son of God to give spiritual sight.
This is the 6th miracle in John’s gospel. Apart from Jesus Christ’s resurrection, John has chosen 8 other miracles to record for us. And he hasn’t picked them randomly. At the end of his gospel in the very last verse he says, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, John chose 9 miracles and each one is very important in demonstrating who Jesus is and the salvation He was accomplishing.
Now, in the healing of this blind man in chapter 9, the question before us is: what are we supposed to see? What does John want us to see as Jesus helps this blind man to see?
It is this: until a man has Jesus Christ a man is blind. He has no spiritual sight; he is in darkness; he can’t understand or perceive or comprehend the things that are truly spiritual. He may have eyes to see the setting sun, but, he is utterly blind to the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, is the only way he will ever see salvation.
Notice that this miracle is appropriately placed. In chapter 8 we saw Jesus declare that He is the Light of the world, and if a man follows Him he will never walk in darkness. Who knows darkness more than the blind? Who knows the limitation of blindness more than those whose eyes cannot see? The Bible says that every man and every woman are born spiritually blind. They cannot see when it comes to spiritual things. They are in total darkness until they see Jesus Christ. The question is before you today: can you see? Do you see the truth in Jesus Christ?
We can break this passage into 5.5 sections.
Condition (v1)
In verse 1 we see the Condition: “As He went along He saw a man blind from birth.” This man has been blind his whole life. He has never seen anything with his eyes. He has never seen the sun set or rise. He has never seen the faces of his loved ones. He has never known what love at first sight is because he has never seen the beauty of a woman’s face. His whole life is one of darkness. Furthermore, his handicap meant he couldn’t do any work so he was reduced to begging. He couldn’t get around on his own. He couldn’t take care of himself without help. Blindness is a terrible condition.
And, yet, blindness is all he knew. Maybe he didn’t have the bitterness and the pain of losing something so valuable because he never had it in the first place. Listen, he couldn’t even imagine what seeing was like. He never before had sight, and, so, he didn’t have anything to compare blindness to. He had no visual references to keep in his memory because he has never seen anything except darkness.
We would look upon this man with great pity. But the condition of this man is a physical reminder of the spiritual reality of every man and woman. The Bible says people are born blind. They are born spiritually blind. We have no ability to see or understand spiritual things. Our eyes are darkened to spiritual reality. These things become visible to us through faith in Jesus Christ. He is the One by whom we see spiritual reality.
But, for many people, their blindness becomes like the blindness of this man in chapter 9 - it’s all they’re familiar with. They wouldn’t know what seeing is like because they’ve never seen before. They even actually begin to think that they can see and may even resist any notion that they have any kind of blindness at all. So when Jesus comes along and says He is the light of the world and that he can give them sight it is something so offensive that they reject it.
Blindness is the condition. Before a man can see he has to see his own blindness.
Confusion (v2)
In verse 2 we see the disciples’ Confusion: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind.” The disciples thought that sin was the cause of this man’s blindness. Why would they even ask this question? They wanted to discuss theology - what was the theological reason for this man’s condition? And they would have been happy walking right on by him discussing the man but paying no attention to him. While their focus was on the cause of this man’s blindness, Jesus was focused on the purpose.
Let’s observe two points here. First is one of theology: Discussing theology is of utmost importance, Paul said to watch our lives and our doctrines closely. They go hand in hand. But, when a man becomes bloated with biblical knowledge but is empty of love Paul says he is nothing. He is noisy and arrogant and puffed up with knowledge. Translation: He is useless. A right learning of theology produces a right love in us - a right love for God and a right love for His people.
The second point concerns suffering. Not all suffering is caused by sin. But, there are times when suffering is caused by sin. We saw in chapter 5 that Jesus healed a man who was paralyzed and Jesus warned him to stop sinning or something worse may end up happening to him. But, as we see in this passage this man’s blindness is not a result of some specific sin in his life. Sometimes sin is the cause of physical problems, sometimes it is not. We will do well to accept that. What’s more, we will do better to refrain from evaluating our physical conditions and determining whether we or others are suffering due to sin. God is sovereign.
Now notice that Jesus doesn’t say the blind man and his parents have never sinned; He says their sin is not why the man is blind. Certainly this man and his parents were sinners. The Bible tells us that all have sinned. But Jesus says here that sin is not the cause of this man’s blindness.
However, there seems to be a great deal of absurdity in the question the disciples asked. If the man was born blind, how could he have sinned before he was born to cause his blindness?! There are two possible reasons why the disciple’s taught this. First, it was common for rabbi’s of the day to teach that an unborn baby still in the mother’s womb could somehow sin, and, sin badly enough to be born with some lifelong defect as a punishment.
Secondly, there were rabbi’s that also taught the pre-existence of the soul. They had been influenced by Greek philosophy enough to believe that somehow the soul existed before it had a body, and, in the womb the soul was joined to the body. Completely unbiblical no matter how you try to make sense of it, but, these rabbi’s would argue that the soul sinned before it had a body and therefore the punishment was to be born into a body with a handicap.
There was a great deal of confusion over the blind man. There was a great deal of confusion over the sovereignty of God and human suffering as well.
Commission (v3-5)
In verses 3-5 Jesus responds to His disciples. Jesus clarifies for them that this man’s condition is related to His Commission: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world I am the light of the world.” This man is in this condition so that the work of God could be revealed in Him.
Work is mentioned 4 times in these 2 verses here. Work in this context refers to the miracles that God was doing through Jesus. I want you to notice two things about the works of God here.
First, notice the purpose of God’s works. This man wasn’t blind because of sin, this man was blind “so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. When Jesus healed it wasn’t the healing that was the ultimate objective. Through the demonstration of the power of God He was manifesting the glory of God. This power that He demonstrated was tangible; in other words, when Jesus did miracles they were real, they were evident, they were undeniable. They were not invisible or psychosomatic. People who had shriveled hands regained their hand. People who had leprosy were cleansed. People who were crippled walked. People who were blind saw. People who had bent backs, who had uncontrollable bleeding, who were demon-possessed all were healed. When Jesus healed it was real, tangible, obvious and undeniable. You don’t see that today and you won’t. You haven’t seen it since the Apostles were alive.
Now, if I saw the miraculous works that Jesus performed I was supposed to be convinced that He had the power of God. Now, if He had the power of God, then God had given it to Him, and that means God sent Him and He had the authority of God with Him and He was to be listened to. In John 14:10-11, Jesus says, “The words I say to you are not my own. Rather, it is the Father living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I tell you that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe in the miracles themselves.”
God was attesting to the Jews that Jesus was from God by giving Him the power to do the miracles. That’s the purpose of miracles; they were to get the people’s attention. Seeing miracles with their eyes was to open their ears so they could hear the message. And if the power of Jesus that performed the works of miracles was from God then so too the words of His message were from God. You can’t credit Jesus’ power from God and His message from Satan.
Second, notice the people who are working the works of God. “We must work…” Jesus is referring to Himself and His 12 disciples that were with Him. Jesus came and did works of power, and, He gave the disciples power to do miracles as well. In Matthew 10 we see them go out to preach and do miracles during Jesus earthly ministry. Then, again, when the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost, their apostolic ministry and the performing of miracles continued.
The gifts that enabled people to do miracles have passed away with the Apostles. But, the work of God is still being done today. The preaching and teaching of the Word of God; the building up of the Church of Jesus Christ, the loving one another as Christ has loved us, the encouraging of one another in the faith, the praying for one another, the turning away from sin and helping others do the same. All this and more is going on and is to be labored in until the Lord returns for us.
Third, notice the period of time to work the works of God. “As long as it is day we must do the work of Him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work.” This is urgency. The time to work is right now, but, the time is coming when no one can work. When Jesus says this He was referring to His death. Only a few more months and He would be crucified. The shepherd would be struck and the sheep would scatter. As John 12:35 says the darkness will overtake them.
Although Jesus is no longer in the world His Spirit is. He said that He must go in order for the Holy Spirit to come. The Holy Spirit lives in all of us who believe, and, according to Colossians 4 we are all to “make the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil”.
We live right now with the knowledge that just as certain as Jesus left the world He is coming back. There is an urgency upon His Church to be pre-occupied with His work until He returns for us. I read a quote by an old puritan pastor this past week. His name was Richard Baxter. I like what he described as his sense of urgency, “I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.” We do not know when the Lord will come. It is truly imminent, “at any moment” He could be here. But, until He comes, let us be busy working the works that Ephesians 2:10 says have been prepared in advance for us.
Cure (v 6-7)
In verses 6-7 we see the Cure: “Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ‘Go,’ he told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.”
The method here that Jesus uses to heal this man is strange to us. Good scholars have come up several meanings for making mud. But, if we look for clues in the context of this chapter, we can begin to see Jesus’ motive.
You’ll notice that in verse 14 it was a Sabbath day when Jesus healed the man. How many of you think Jesus didn’t know that it was the Sabbath? He knew. He is always well aware of the timetable He is on. The One who is the Creator of time knows what time it is.
The Law said there was no work to be done on the Sabbath. The regular work that was done throughout the week was not to be done on the Sabbath. It was a separate and holy day. However, the traditions of the elders were man-made rules. Now, even though long ago they first concocted to help people follow God’s law, over time they became so vast and so complicated that they became a whole other set of laws themselves. The Law of God became buried under the traditions of the elders and very often God’s Law was contradicted by those traditions.
Here’s 4 ways Jesus was breaking the rules:
1) could not spit on a Sabbath day as this would be considered cultivating the ground, 2) making mud would also have been considered kneading, 3) anointing the eyes with a salve for healing purposes was directly forbidden, 4) walking more than 1,000 yards on the Sabbath was forbidden, and it was probably more than that from where the man was to the Pool of Siloam and back.
So the question is this: Why, when He could heal this man on any other day, and in any number of different ways, would He choose to make mud on a Sabbath to do it?
The reason is that He is not under man’s rule. He is not governed by or subject to man’s religious laws. He is not under the authority of man - man is under His authority. He certainly will not bow to the requirements of men who have arrogantly mishandled the requirements of God’s Law. What’s more, He will not only refuse to carry out man’s law, but, He will violate them intentionally to show man the inferiority of his little laws.
Jesus does not take orders from men. He gives the orders. He gives this man orders, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam”. This is interesting. Other times Jesus healed it was simply by speaking, or, by touching. This time He does something different. The word Siloam was a transliteration of a Hebrew word into the Greek, and John explained that the word means, “Sent”.
We were introduced to this pool in chapter 7 when every morning during the Feast of Tabernacles the priests would scoop water up from this pool and parade back up to the temple to continue their morning ritual. This pool was supplied by an aqueduct that was built by king Hezekiah. The aqueduct was fed by the Gihon Spring up on the temple hill. This was built to make sure that if Jerusalem was besieged the water supply would not be cut off.
Watch this: the temple hill was where God was represented, and so the water that came from there and filled the pool of Siloam was “sent” from God. The man was told by Jesus to go and wash there at the waters sent by God and he would receive his sight. Jesus has been sent by God and all who would go to Him will be washed, and be cured of their spiritual blindness, and be able to see.
Commotion (v8-11)
A man’s new condition causes quite a commotion. Notice verses 8-11,
There is a similarity here in how the crowd reacts to this man and how the crowds have reacted to Jesus. The crowds are in confusion over their identity. They disagreed over who Jesus was: He’s demon-possessed, he’s the Christ, he’s a prophet, he’s a deceiver. And now they are disagreeing over who this man is: he’s the same blind beggar we saw before, no he’s not the same one.
When a man sees Christ and believes in Him, He is changed. “Therefore, anyone who is in Christ is a brand new creation; the old is gone and the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). He is changed from the inside out. It is obvious to other people around that something is different. It’s not the same man anymore. People who knew the old man don’t recognize the new man and this makes them curious: Where is he?
I’ll conclude with this. They asked the man where Jesus was and he didn’t know; he would find out later in the chapter. But we know where He is now. Jesus is alive and at the Father’s right hand. But, just as important, we know where we are. We are in Christ. The Bible has promised us in the book of Romans chapter 8: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Are you in Christ Jesus? You can be by placing your faith in Him as your Savior. Do you see Him as such? He can heal your spiritual blindness and take away your sin when you trust in Him. Do that today and you can escape out of condemnation and into Jesus Christ.
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