Q. In the Bible, in chapter 9 of the Gospel of John we read how Jesus healed a man who was born blind—by applying clay to his eyes from spit mixed with dust from the ground, and then telling him to wash it off in the pool of Siloam (see John 9:1–7). I often wonder what we are to make of the fact of Jesus’ physical treatment. It runs counter to the fact that in a great majority of Jesus’ healings there was no material procedure at all.
—A reader in Michigan, US
A. When Jesus spat on the dust, made clay, and then wiped the clay on the man’s eyes, I believe that this was a symbolic act. He may have done it, in fact, to make a point to the people watching that day. Jesus was familiar with the Bible’s allegory in Genesis of man made, not with the substance of divine Spirit, but of dust (see Gen. 2:7). Was he possibly showing his aversion to this notion by spitting on the whole illusion that man is sculpted of and sees with clay?
If so, we have grounds for stating for ourselves that we weren’t created of dust any more than Jesus or his patient was. Following Jesus’ example, we can spurn the myth that we’re created in and by matter, and embrace how we’re at one with God—and therefore always beautifully, permanently spiritual. While there is no way to know exactly how Jesus was inspired to pray in that moment, I believe that God and God’s goodness, not blindness, was the focus of Jesus’ attention. No wonder he observed that not physical, dusty limitations, but “the works of God should be made manifest” in that man (see John 9:3). “The works of God”—God’s perfection and essence—are expressed in and through each of us as well.
