I have a good friend whose son is a 12. My boy is 11. Anytime we are together, there is going to be wrestling and…spitting. We went to Disney together and they walked through The Magic Kingdom trying to spit on each other. It is disgusting!
Be honest. You cringe when you read the story of the healing of the blind man in John 9. Jesus meets a man born blind and instead of simply placing his hands on the guy’s eyes to heal him (or just speaking the word for that matter) he spits on the ground, makes a little mud and puts it on the man’s eyes. Then, he sends the blind man across town to go wash it off.
There is a lot to the story and maybe we will dig into later but here is today’s question for you-
Did you know saliva was considered a common remedy for eye ailments at the time of Christ?
As a matter of fact, it was classified as an actual “remedy” which is why the application of it on the Sabbath was expressly forbidden. So…Jesus broke the Sabbath law in his healing of the man before he ever made the clay. Which, of course, is when he broke it again.
But that is another post entirely.
So, weigh in…were you always a little grossed out by the spit and clay? What do you think now that you know Jesus was operating within the cultural parameters of his time?
Maybe it’s not a miracle story. Maybe he was healing the blind man in the way others healed blind people and in effect labeled what other healers did as doing God’s work. The concern about HOW the blind man was healed, maybe that was addressing the sin of making mud on the Sabbath. Did Jesus break the Sabbath law of not working, again?
Yep. He did! I believe it was a miracle but that his point was to confront all the ways the religious leaders of his time had lost perspective on what was important. They loved their rules. God values people.