If I tell you you'd be healed if I put mud from my saliva and some dirt on you, would you let me? You wouldn't. First because I'm a total stranger to you. And even if you knew me well, you wouldn't either because we all know that saliva, no matter where it comes from, is DIRTY. Photo above by manish kumar on Unsplash.
You wouldn't, even if I were your pastor or probably a medical doctor.
But the blind guy Jesus healed with his saliva mixed with dirt did, even if he didn't know who Jesus was. Did he know it was saliva mixed with dirt that Jesus put on his eyes? Yes he did. He clearly stated that:
“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. [John 9]
How did he know there was saliva in it? He heard Jesus "spit on the ground." Spitting definitely would make a sound. Spit on the ground plus mud on your eyes and it's easy to figure out what happened--specifically, what Jesus put on your eyes. Seems more like a prank than a miracle. I would have gotten mad and protested.
Did he protest? Nope. He even followed Jesus' instruction to go to the Pool of Siloam to wash. Now, that's another wonder. Tell a blind man to go to the pool to wash? Jesus didn't bother to assist him even if he was blind. He just let him go there on his own. What would you have said if you saw someone do that to a blind man?
If you were the blind guy and this stranger told you to go to the pool to wash after putting mud in your eyes--would you do it?
Me? First, I'd ask what on earth did he put mud on my eyes for? Remember, the blind guy never asked for his help. Jesus just did what he did without asking the guy if he would allow him to do something to him.
Then tell me to go wash in the pool? I'd probably tell him to go there himself and get water to wash my eyes with--since I was blind and the whole thing was his idea anyway.
But it's a complete wonder that what took place here took place at all. And why the need to go and wash at Siloam? Couldn't the miracle happen right after the mud was put on his eyes?
And did the mud heal him because Jesus' saliva was on it?
Here's What Really Happened
It was what Jesus saw and heard exactly from the Father. Jesus earlier said he could do nothing except what he saw the Father doing. Much later, he said that "..I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me," [John 14.31]. It was how Jesus did miracles. It's also how we should do miracles.
So the saliva and mud were all the idea of the Father. Even having the blind man go to the pool unassisted. It was part of testing the man's faith. Jesus simply followed everything he heard--trusted and obeyed. He didn't question it, though it sounded weird. Foremost in the principle of miracles is hearing God's voice and obeying it without question. As long as we do as Jesus did, we enjoy "day time" and are able to do the works of HIM who sent us.
But the moment we think we're smarter and ask questions or theologize or look for logic or a sound reason before we believe or do something, then night has come. Jesus warned:
"Night is coming, when no one can work."
It's clear that God was in charge of this whole operation from start to finish. No human effort, ways, programs, human theology or human wisdom. It had been in God's agenda and time table all along as a done deal so that all that was needed was mere faithful execution by the Son to glorify the Father in the blind man.
"...but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him."
And the blind guy following all that Jesus told him even when he was a complete stranger? That says a lot about Jesus' spiritual aura, the spiritual atmosphere he carried around him. He carried the Father's very Presence--which plain, simple, ordinary believers easily appreciate but which the titled, degreed and the wise in this world readily hate, like did the Pharisees and law teachers in Jesus' day.
Because Jesus later claimed that seeing him was seeing the Father. So if you had a heart simply desiring to know and see God, you'd be sensitive to such aura. You'd easily discern what is God's and what isn't. The blind guy said:
36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
And that JESUS is 100 percent in you. We can carry that same aura and atmosphere if we believe that we are co-heirs with Christ.
In our case, if we simply execute, as a faithful son or daughter, what has been in God's plan, agenda and time table (not our own plan or program), then the Father will give us specific instructions on how to go about it. And he will give us enabling grace to hear his voice straight from his mouth, and actually see him.
It was not the saliva or mud or the Siloam Pool, but the supernatural ways and principles of God when doing a miracle. If we genuinely hear God's voice and his instructions are followed to the letter--and the recipient of the miracle has submissive faith--then God's power is released.
