Title: Second Sunday of Easter, May 1
Contents
light of life
John 9:1-11, Acts 26:12-18
As Jesus was going, he saw a man blind from birth. The disciples asked Jesus. "Teacher, whose sin caused this man to be born blind? Is this man's sin? Is it the sin of his parents?" (John 9:1-2)
Isn't that a really pointless question? White Sea is useless. Even if you get an answer to the question, what does that have to do with the misery of the blind and the pain they are experiencing? How might that answer affect his life, and what does it have to do with his disciples? But look. The disciples do not seem to feel any pain in their hearts when they see the misery of the blind. On the one hand, they seemed objective and reasonable, but in reality they were spectators and bystanders. This is clearly not the heart of Jesus.
“It is not that this man has sinned, nor his parents have sinned, so that the works of God may be revealed in him. (John 9:3)
The Lord's answer goes beyond the common theories of smoke and causality. To the question ‘who is it for?’, he answered ‘for what’, that is, ‘to show what God is doing’. Sometimes we also ask questions of God. ‘For what?’ But these words testify. God has already answered.
This is the story of Siloam. The blind man who went into the Pool of Siloam that day and washed his eyes was able to see again. However, there is one thing that sets this story apart from the other knights the blind see again. This is the Lord's action. He spit and mixed it with the dry soil of the ground. And he made clay and put it on his eyes. This is what God did.
The saliva is from the Lord. If it were a horse or a spirit, we could not see it, but because it was saliva, we could see what came from Him. The dry soil of the ground symbolizes man. The two were mixed and became mud. Originally, God was God, and man was human. However, through Jesus of Nazareth on the cross and the resurrected Christ, we see a completely mixed ‘God-man’. And he said that all who believed in him and participated in the resurrection become brothers and sisters.
‘Go to Siloam and wash your eyes.’ (John 9:7) The blind man washed and his eyes were opened and he went back. people asked ‘How did you get to see me again?’ the man replies. “A man named Jesus made clay and put it on my eyes and told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and I saw it."
It is not because we have done something special that we have become one with God and have His Spirit indwelt in us, that we have the evidence of Christ's resurrection, eternal life. The blind man only did what Jesus told him to do. It has done all it can afford. The Bible calls it faith. Everything is done by God. Without faith, Jesus could not have opened his eyes.