Stay with me for a moment… because this story is not as simple as it seems.
When we get to Gospel of John chapter 9 and see Jesus healing a blind man with saliva and dirt, the first thing we think is: “why like this?”
But the answer isn’t only in that moment… it’s in what comes before and after.
In the previous chapter, Jesus presents Himself as the light of the world.
He is showing who He is… not just with words, but with His actions.
And right after that, He encounters someone who has never seen light in his entire life.
That’s where something deeper than a miracle begins.
Jesus stops, spits on the ground, makes mud, and places it on the blind man’s eyes. Then He gives him a simple but difficult instruction: “Go and wash.”
If you think about it… it wasn’t necessary to do it that way.
Jesus could have just spoken, and that’s it.
But He chooses to involve the man in the process.
The ground reminds us of how God formed man from the beginning, as we see in Genesis. It’s as if Jesus is showing, without saying it directly, that He still has the authority to shape, to restore, to make new what seems incomplete.
That man didn’t just need to see… he needed to be restored.
And even then, the miracle is not completed instantly.
He has to walk, with mud on his eyes, seeing nothing, trusting the voice that spoke to him.
He has to obey before he understands.
That’s the point we often overlook.
While that man is moving step by step, something else is happening around him.
The Pharisees, who can see, begin to analyze everything.
Not the miracle… but the method.
They focus on the fact that it was the Sabbath.
That mud was made.
That it doesn’t fit their rules.
And little by little, without realizing it… they begin to close themselves off.
The contrast is powerful.
The one who could not see begins to see more and more clearly, even recognizing who Jesus is.
Those who could see end up rejecting Him completely.
Jesus healed in a visible, concrete, and controversial way, so that the miracle would not only open the eyes of the blind man, but also expose the hardness of heart of the Pharisees.
The problem of the Pharisees was not a lack of evidence. The problem was that they saw the mud, they saw the Sabbath, they saw the method… but they did not want to see Christ. The same thing happens today: a person can analyze so much how God works that they end up missing the miracle right in front of them.
And then we understand that this story was never only about physical eyes.
It was about the heart.
There is a detail here that many people overlook…
Jesus does not appear again until after the man can already see.
First He sends him… and then He finds him.
In other words, the healing came before the full encounter.
The man receives the miracle… but he still doesn’t truly know Jesus.
And when he finally sees Him again, Jesus asks him a direct question:
“Do you believe in the Son of God?”
That’s where everything changes.
Because the greatest miracle was not opening his eyes…
it was revealing Himself to his life.
And the man responds, “I believe, Lord”… and worships Him.
That is no longer just healing… it is transformation.
Meanwhile, the Pharisees keep questioning, doubting, rejecting…
until Jesus tells them something that confronts them deeply:
“If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”
This is no longer about one blind man…
It’s about all of us.
Later, in the same Gospel of John chapter 10, Jesus speaks about the Good Shepherd and says that His sheep hear His voice and follow Him.
That is exactly what that man did.
He didn’t understand the process.
He didn’t question the method.
He simply obeyed.
And he ended up seeing.
The others heard the same words… but they did not recognize who was speaking.
And this is where the story stops being something from the past and becomes something very present.
Because sometimes God begins to work in our lives in ways that don’t match what we expected.
He doesn’t follow our order, our ideas, or our timing.
And in that moment, without realizing it, we can react like the Pharisees…
or like the blind man.
One analyzes so much that they miss what God is doing.
The other moves forward, even without understanding, and ends up experiencing something real.
Let me leave you with this reflection to meditate on in your heart…
Not everything God does will make sense at the beginning.
There are processes that feel uncomfortable, confusing, and that break our way of seeing things.
But it may be that in that very process… God is not only fixing something in your life, but transforming you completely.
Sometimes what you need most is not a quick answer…
but an encounter that changes the way you see.
If you’d like, join me in this prayer…
Lord, help me trust You when I don’t understand what You are doing.
Give me a heart willing to obey, even when the path doesn’t make sense to me.
I don’t want to be trapped in my own logic… I want to learn to hear You and follow You.
Open my eyes, but also my heart, so I can recognize Your work in my life. Amen.
Somos Cristianos, connecting hearts with Christ.
