Sight Created – Not Restored
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The Bible gives us several stories about Jesus healing blind men. John’s Gospel account of one of those healings makes an important distinction. Jesus did not simply restore the sight of the blind man, but He created sight for a blind man who had never seen before. Easter is a time when Jesus wants to create new sight for each of us. Please read more.
At first, the distinction between restoring and creating sight may seem insignificant, but it’s not. It’s also not insignificant that the Resurrection of Jesus is not just a mere historical event, rather it is a transformative reality that brings about continuous resurrection in the lives of believers. Now, during this Easter Season, Jesus is prepared to create new sight for us, if we let Him.
To make my point I want to take us back to the story of one of the blind men who was healed by Jesus. We find a story of a blind man in both Mark and John’s Gospels. However, John’s Gospel makes an important distinction.
The version of the healing of the blind man found in Mark 8:22-26 differs from the version of the story found in John 9:1-7. In both stories Jesus uses spittle, but in John’s Gospel Jesus uses the spittle to make clay. Why clay? That answer is found all the way back in Genesis. But before we look there, let’s take a look at yet another distinction between the two accounts. Mark simply tells us the man was blind. John adds the detail, “he was blind from birth.”
John is making a very important connection to Genesis with his account in this story. The man was blind from birth. Therefore, Jesus was not restoring the man’s sight, He was instead creating sight for a man who had never seen before. This critical point cannot be overlooked. John says Jesus used clay to create the man’s sight. This is a reference to Genesis 2:7 which states, “then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
In the Genesis story God used dirt to fashion man, then He blew His breath into the man’s nostrils to create life. In John’s story, Jesus created the man’s sight by spitting into dirt to make clay. In the Genesis story God creates man with dirt and breath. In John’s story Jesus creates sight with dirt and spit. Both breath and spittle came from the mouth of God, and both were combined with dirt in the creation process.
John gives us an important take-away. Spiritually speaking, we were all born blind at birth. Symbolically speaking, throughout life, Jesus periodically rubs clay into our eyes, each time creating a clearer ability to see. Our spiritual vision is created and enhanced in ongoing intervals over time. This continuously improving sight is part of our ongoing conversion process.
Last week I wrote about living with regrets in my 4th Day Letter, Elusive Happiness – Persistent Regret. Sadly, all Christians, including the saints, have had moments they can’t forget, and others that they don’t care to recall. All too often we look back at our past mistakes and say, “What was I thinking,” or “Why did I do that?” We wish we could get a do-over. But that is not how life works.
This is where the death of Jesus on Good Friday and His resurrection of Easter Sunday come into play. Each new Easter brings with it continuous resurrection in our lives. Said differently, each Easter, if we allow Him to do so, Jesus rubs a little more clay in our eyes, thus creating a clearer spiritual vision for us.
Rather than harboring old regrets, Easter grants us the opportunity to look back on our past mistakes with better vision. We can now see that at the time we made those mistakes and committed those sins we did not have the spiritual eyesight we have been given today. Perhaps, when we committed those sins, we could not see clearly enough to understand how our sins would hurt us, hurt others, and hurt Jesus.
Each passing Good Friday reminds us that Jesus took our sins to the cross. Good Friday grants us a reason to let go of past regrets. Easter opens up the gates of Heaven. It grants us the opportunity for eternal life. It gives us a reason to celebrate. It restores joy to our lives. It breathes new life into our nostrils. And finally, it graces us with new vision.
The Paschal Mystery, which we celebrated this past week, is considered the heart of the Christian faith. It signifies the accomplishment of God’s saving plan through the redemptive death of Jesus Christ. The Resurrection of Jesus is the foundation upon which the Church is built and developed. It symbolizes the transition from the old life to a new life in Christ. Each Easter, if we allow Him, Jesus will create new and clearer sight for us. He is not restoring something we lost, He is creating new sight for us that we never had before. Let’s allow Him to rub some clay in our eyes today!
Heavenly Father, during this Easter Season with joy in my heart, and with the newly created sight that Jesus gave to me on Easter, help me to go forward avoiding the mistakes of the past, with a new and stronger commitment to align my will with yours. Amen!
AMDG
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