Seeing and Sending

Recently I was reading in John 9 about the man who was born blind. I feel a kinship with him. Sometimes I feel like I am trying to apprehend my environment but am fundamentally incapable of really seeing and understanding what is going on. I am blind but don’t know because I am surrounded by blind people. None of us know what we are missing and just assume that life is difficult to navigate. It is not as though there is some skill we could add to make it easier for ourselves we just fumble along and wonder if there is more. We have coping mechanisms to make sense of our lives and to try to make it along as best we can. However, we were born blind. We have never had the privilege of sight. We don’t know what color, shape or size the environment around us is. We don’t know what obstacles are in our way. We don’t even know what colors, shapes, sizes or obstacles actually are.

It is challenging to live in this situation. I think a life of blindness is probably more about survival than abundance. You are trying to develop a routine that meets your needs – all the while trying not to get hurt. The world moves rapidly around you while you attempt to make a life in it. You cannot know everything that is happening around you or even really imagine possibilities so you can better your life. You rely on the sight of others and hope they are doing right by you and that they know what they are talking about.

So, Jesus enters the situation of the man born blind. Earlier in chapter 9, He calls Himself “the light of the world” and the “light that leads to life”. Now He demonstrates it powerfully. He mixes His spit with dust to make mud and puts it on the blind man’s eyes. In doing this, Jesus takes something ordinary and mixes it with His DNA changing it into something miraculous. Walking through life, especially in our blind state, everything can blend together after awhile. When I lived in Thailand, I was amazed by the beautiful, lush environment. I loved the green (having grown up in Calgary), the palm trees, the abundant plant life and fresh fruit. At first. When I had lived there for two years, I found that I didn’t notice my surroundings as much. I had to work hard to see the beauty because it had become the backdrop to my everyday routine. I’m guessing that no one who had walked that road that day in Jesus’ time would have ever thought that the dust beneath their feet had anything special about it. I’m sure that no one was clamoring to rub the dust on their ailments. It was just ordinary dust. Ordinary, that is, until Jesus mixed it with a part of himself.

This is a good metaphor for our lives. Ordinary until mixed with the DNA of Jesus. When you add Jesus to the mix then it becomes miraculous. You have the possibility of really seeing –seeing in a way that you never have before. This is not just getting perspective or trying to be thankful. It is not the restoration of something that was lost. This is something new - a gift that we were all meant to have but were born without. It changes everything. Life moves from the humdrum natural into the supernatural. When we meet Jesus and allow Him to mix His essence with our surroundings the light of the world comes on in our life – the light that leads to life.

It’s interesting that there is still another step before the blind man can see. It makes sense that he must wash off the mud that is on his eyes. If I had mud on my eyes I would not be able to see either. But it is interesting where Jesus sends him to be washed. It is not clear whether it was the closest place to wash in, but Jesus sends the blind man to wash himself in the Pool of Siloam. Siloam means “sent”. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but I think there is a truth in that name. Jesus mixes Himself with our world and sends us to wash in the “Pool of Sent” - a place of commissioning. Washing usually is related to forgiveness (our sins washed white as snow) or the Word (washing in the water of the Word). After receiving the essence of Jesus and being washed we can really see! However, it is not just for our own enjoyment. We cannot divide the experience of the healing from its missional purpose. We are given the miracle of true sight so that we can be sent to others and tell them what we see and hopefully lead them to a place of seeing for themselves.


Ben Gumienny has a heart to see people apprenticed to Christ through developing methods of turning everyday life into encounters between God and man. He loves to watch movies and is looking forward to breaking out his Christmas favorites soon.