As Jesus walked along He saw a man who had been born blind. "Rabbi, whose sin caused this man's blindness," asked the disciples, "his own or his parents' ?" Jesus answered, "His blindness has nothing to do with his sins or his parents' sins. He is blind so that God's power might be seen at work in him. We must carry on the work of Him Who sent Me while the daylight lasts. Night is coming, when no one can work. I am the world's light as long as I am in it." Having said this, He spat on the ground and made a sort of clay with the saliva. This He applied to the man's eyes and said, "Go and wash in the pool of Siloam." (Siloam means "one who has been sent.") So the man went off and washed and came back with his sight restored. His neighbors and the people who had often seen him before as a beggar remarked, "Isn't this the man who used to sit and beg?" Some said, "He is the one," but others said, "No he isn't, he just looks like him." But he himself said, "I'm the man all right!"

   "Then how was your blindness cured?" they asked.

   "The Man called Jesus made some clay and smeared it on my eyes," he replied, "and then He said, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' So off I went and washed - and that's how I got my sight!"

   "Where is He now?" they asked. "I don't know," he returned. So they brought the man who had been blind before the Pharisees. (It should be noted that Jesus healed the man on a Sabbath day.) The Pharisees asked the question all over again as to how he had become able to see. "He put clay on my eyes; I washed it off; now I can see - that's all," he replied. Some of the Pharisees commented, "This Man cannot be from God since He does not observe the Sabbath." Others, however, said, "How could a man who is a sinner do such mighty works as these?" And there was a division among them. Finally, they asked the blind man again, "And what do you say about Him? You're the one whose sight was restored." The man replied, "He is a prophet." The Jews did not really believe that the man had been blind and then had become able to see, until they had summoned his parents and asked them, "Is this your son who you say was born blind? How does it happen that he can now see?" To be continued.

Taken from Jn. 9, The Phillips Translation, Today's English Version and
The New International Version. For free Lifescope book, write to Box 1575,
Carlsbad, NM 88221. Please send $1.00 for postage and handling.