The "Mud Thing"

When I walked into the exam room, Walter (not his real name) was sitting in the exam chair slightly slumped over.  His head came up quickly when I entered.  "I can't see!" he blurted out.  I knew Walter.  He had an interesting story.  He had been a drug dealer, done prison time for his crimes, had come to Christ in prison, and, when released from prison, had started a small church in North Bryan.  Our men's Bible study supported the church and I had visited on one occasion, attending the Sunday service.  

I greeted Walter and his wife and moved to the desk to view Walter's chart.  Indeed he could not see.  He could barely make out the 20/400 E on the eye chart.  I glanced through Walter's chart,

noting that he was an insulin dependent diabetic.  I moved over to examine him at the slit lamp.

He had dense posterior subcapsular cataracts in each eye.  I laid him back in the chair and examined his retinas with the indirect ophthalmoscope. He had no signs of diabetic retinopathy.

I sat him up and moved my stool close to him so that we could talk.  I informed him of the cataracts but assured him that I could remove them, replace them with lens implants, and fully restore his vision.  This only partially reassured him.  The idea of someone doing surgery on his eyes made his hands shake.  I did my best to increase his confidence and then left the room so that the staff could schedule his surgery.

We did Walter's surgery the following Monday.  As I entered the exam room on Tuesday morning, I noted that he had removed the bandage and protective eye shield.  Suddenly Walter jumped up from the exam chair and took 2 or 3 very fast steps toward me.  I froze.  He was a very large man and I did not know what to expect.  He took two more steps toward me, wrapped both arms around me, lifted me off my feet, held me suspended in the air for a few moments and then put me down on my feet.  He stepped back, threw both arms into the air, and exclaimed, "You're just like JESUS!!"  Greatly relieved that Walter had recovered his vision, I laughed and shook my head. "No," I said, "I can't do the mud thing."  He looked at me quizzically, then smiled knowingly and nodded his head.

So what's "the mud thing?"

John relates this story in the Ninth chapter of his Gospel.  It is a remarkable story in many ways.

Here's what he says.

"As he went along he (Jesus) saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?'  "Neither this man nor his parents sinned,' said Jesus, "but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.  As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me.  Night is coming when no one can work.  While I am in the world, I am the light of the world'.

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes.  'Go,' he told him, 'wash in the Pool of Siloam' (this means 'sent'). So the man went and washed and came home seeing."  John 9: 1-7.

The remainder of the story (verses 8 - 41), is truly remarkable.   It is dramatic in that those surrounding the man (friends, family, religious leaders) struggle with both what has occurred and how it could have occurred.  They are confronted with an astonishing miracle, a "this could never happen" kind of thing.  But it has happened.  Now they struggle with "how could this happen?" (what's the origin of the miracle).  Here the conclusion for each individual lies not in their "physical blindness" but in their "spiritual blindness"; the inability to see God at work right in front of them.  The religious leaders, at a loss to explain what has happened, repeatedly question the man who has recovered his sight.

"He answered, 'I have told you already and you did not listen.  Why do you want to hear it again?  Do you want to become his disciples too?'

Then they hurled insults at him and said, 'You are this fellow's disciple!  We are disciples of Moses!  We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from.

The man answered, 'Now that is remarkable!  You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.  We know that God does not listen to sinners.  He listens to the Godly person

who does his will.  Nobody has ever heard of a man opening the eyes of a man born blind.  If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.'

To this they replied, 'You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!  And they threw him out".   John 9: 27-34.

The contrast here is wonderful.  A man born physically blind gains his sight; religious leaders who are physically sighted, remain spiritually blind.  But the man who has gained his physical sight, is still in need of an increase of "spiritual sight."

"Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"

"Who is he, sir," the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."

Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact he is the one speaking with you."

Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshipped him.   John 9: 35-37.

Physical blindness and spiritual blindness.  The vast majority of us who fortunately don't suffer from extreme physical blindness, do have a degree of spiritual blindness.  How do we overcome it?  Where do we find a remedy for that?  Go to Jesus.  Ask Him to remove our spiritual blindness.  He may not need to do "the mud thing" to enable us to see, but he will help us to see Him.

And then we will no longer be spiritually blind.