Day 5 – Jesus cures a blind man (part 1)

Bible reading: John 9:1–15

Jesus makes a blind man able to see

1 While Jesus was walking along, he saw a certain man. This man had been blind since he was born. 2 Jesus' disciples asked him, ‘Teacher, why was this man blind when he was born? Was it because he himself did something wrong? Or was it because his parents did something wrong?’ 3 Jesus answered, ‘It was not because either this man or his parents did something wrong. It happened so that God could show his great work in this man. 4 While it is still day, we must continue to work. God has sent me and we must do his work. We must work now because it will be night soon. Then nobody can work. 5 While I am still here in the world, I am the world's light.’

6 When Jesus had finished speaking, he spat on the ground. He mixed it with dirt on the ground so that he made mud. Then he put some of the mud on the eyes of the blind man. 7 Jesus said to him, ‘Go and wash in the Siloam pool.’ (The name Siloam means ‘Sent’.) So the man went there and he washed himself. When he returned, now he could see.

8 People began to talk about him. Some of these people lived near him. Others had seen him when he was asking for money. They said, ‘This is the man who sat here. He asked people to give him money. Isn't that right?’ 9 Some people said, ‘Yes, it is him.’ But other people said, ‘No, it is someone who seems to be like him.’ But the man himself said, ‘I am that man.’

10 They asked him, ‘How did your eyes now become able to see?’ 11 He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made some mud. He put the mud on my eyes. Then he sent me to wash in the Siloam pool. So I went there and I washed. Then I could see.’

12 They asked him, ‘Where is this man?’ He replied, ‘I do not know.’

The Pharisees talk to the man who had been blind

13 The people brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. 14 It was a Jewish day for rest when Jesus had done this. He had used mud to make the man's eyes able to see. 15 So the Pharisees asked the man again, ‘How did you become able to see?’ The man replied, ‘Jesus put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I can see.’

John 9:1-15 EasyEnglish Bible (EASY)

Reflection

This amazing Jesus, who can walk on water and feed 5000 hungry people in the desert, now heals a man born blind. This fulfils what the ancient holy books had said the coming Saviour would do. It is not only a wonderful act of kindness, but it also demonstrates the bold claim he makes, ‘I am the light of the world.’

We see a variety of reactions. Some thought it really was the blind man who used to sit and beg. Some said, ‘No, but it’s rather like him…’ Others simply did not know.

I am that man

But the more they asked him the more he replied, ‘Yes, I am that man.’

Of course, they could not understand it at all. ‘How were your eyes opened?’ is what they wanted to know.

And he tells them the little he knows, ‘The man called Jesus made a mixture with mud and put it on my eyes.’ He doesn’t say that he knows more than that.

When they ask, ‘Where is he?’, he replies, ‘I do not know.’

There is another meaning to all this

At the end of the previous chapter, the religious leaders refuse to admit who Jesus is and try to kill him. Here, the uneducated blind beggar understands more than all of them. They are the blind ones. He is beginning to trust the man Jesus who is ‘the light of the world’.