Seeing and Believing (Chapter 9)

   Jesus and his disciples see a man born blind (the entire chapter 9). The disciples look on him as a lesson or case study on the sources of sin. Jesus looks on him with compassion and works to remedy his condition. Christ’s unusual method of healing and the subsequent actions of the no-longer-blind man, again show that the world of flesh-and-bone — and mud — is the place of God’s kingdom. Jesus’ method — mixing spit with dirt and putting it on the man’s eyes — is not madness, but a calculated echo of the creation of mankind (Genesis 2:7). In both biblical and Greek tradition, mud (pēlos) is used to describe what people are made of.  Note, for example, Job 10:9:“Remember that you fashioned me like clay; will you turn me to dust again?”[2] Jesus again shows himself to be God’s definitive agent of restoration. He is the Light of the World who shone in the beginning, and who shines still.