Written by Scott Fiddler
The Word
1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”6 As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man’s eyes with the clay, 7 saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
John 9:1-7
Commentary
In approximately 78 A.D., Pliny the Elder—not to be confused with Pliny the Younger, who was not the Elder’s son but his nephew—wrote his book, Natural History. Natural History was a sort of ancient encyclopedia. In it, Pliny wrote:
“We are to believe that by continually anointing each morning with fasting saliva, inflammations of the eyes are prevented.”
Pliny, Natural History, xxviii, 7.
Natural History has survived in part because it is considered a contemporaneous, comprehensive, compilation of the scientific knowledge known in the late first century A.D.
So, when Tacitus—not to be confused with Pliny the Younger or Pliny the Elder—one of the best sources of 1st century Roman history, tells the story of a blind citizen of Alexandria (Egypt) who, seeking a cure of his blindness, petitioned emperor Vespasian (Roman Emperor, 69 A.D. to 79 A.D.) to sprinkle his cheeks and eye balls with his (Vespasian’s) spit (History, iv., 81), it is reasonable to infer there was then indeed a common belief at the time that the use of saliva had curative properties in relation to one’s eyes.
Now, Jesus could have healed the blind man in John 9 by simply speaking healing (cf. Matthew 8:5-13). After all, the Lord spoke the world into existence (Gen. 1). It would be hard to believe He could not repair by the spoken word that which He created in the same fashion. Yet, to heal people we see Jesus using spit (cf. Mark 8:23; John 9:1-7), laying His hands on the sick ((Mark 6:5, Luke 4:40), or asking if they believed He could do what He was about to do (Mark 10:46-52).
Application
The common denominator in all these methodologies is they engaged the faith of the person who needed healing. Like the cables used to jump start a car with a dead battery, they were not source of healing but a connection to the source. They were faith catalysts intended to help those who otherwise lacked the faith Jesus required of them. They are an answer to the plea, “I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:23-24).
Jesus could have simply turned such people away, rightly rejecting those who couldn’t muster enough belief that He who created them could also heal them. But the mercy and grace of Jesus is not reserved solely for our salvation. He stoops to heal just as He stoops to save.
Prayer
Lord, thank You for Your mercy and grace that not only heals us but helps us to believe You can heal us. Amen.
City Life Starter 
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