Go Wash
ATP Blog #63
Go Wash
John 9:6-7
How often do we limit the methods of God, or even dictate which methods we think are best? He spoke the world into being, yet formed man with His hands out of dirt. Many of Jesus’ miracles seemed to come by just a word spoken, ‘Be healed.’ Yet, God is creative, and often thinks outside the ‘box’ of human reasoning. His ways are always good, and always have a purpose. Our job is to be detectives, and search out that purpose if we want understanding.
Desire A person cannot be helped unless they want it. So often, if the sick person was not asking Jesus for help, He would ask them if they wanted help ... and then if they believed that He could help them. In this scenario, neither happened. Jesus had just finished explaining why the man had been born blind (see verses 3-5). Next, Jesus spat on the ground, mixed the spittle and dirt to make a putty, then put that mixture on the blind man’s eyes. He then invited the man to exercise faith in His healing abilities by saying, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.’ If the man wanted to be healed and see again, then he would follow these instructions. If he believed that Jesus would heal him in this way, then he would go quickly. Notice that Jesus did not mention anything about healing in His statement.
Commitment The man, who had been blind from birth, and had never been healed before, demonstrated true commitment. First, he allowed the stranger Jesus to put mud on his face. Then, the Bible says, ‘He went, and washed, and came back seeing.’ Jesus is teaching at or close to the Temple, which is on top of the mountain. The Pool of Siloam is at the lowest gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. This man had to understand what Jesus was doing, believe what He was going to do, and commit to the walk (which he probably needed help with). He did, and came back with his sight.
Purpose We know the reason why this man was blind (so God could be glorified in his healing), but why did Jesus heal him in this way? Another occasion sees Jesus heal a group of blind men by just speaking. Would this not suffice? I believe that Jesus knows the heart of each individual, and what is needed to help that person come to truly believe in Him. This man obviously needed the prompt to demonstrate faith in order to be healed. We have a creative God, who knows our hearts better than we know ourselves. He meets us where we are, and uses methods that will best reach us, drawing us to Himself. Let us be open-minded to His creative methods as this blind man was, and demonstrate our faith in His perfect ways. Then He will bring healing to our lives. Go wash yourself, and see how God will use that to bring light into your life!!!
