Imagine

The man known as "the man born blind" said nothing and asked for nothing as Jesus came along.  He had grown accustomed to not being seen by the seeing ones.  He  knew what it was to be ignored and overlooked.  Very likely he could not remember when he had quit expecting anything from those who only thought of him as something in the way.  The occasional gift of charity was often thrown his way without any real expression of concern.  He was just there.  Taking up space.  Breathing air.  Of no value.  He was just "the man born blind."  No one really seemed to care for him.  He was just another one living, but taken for granted. 

Imagine for a moment the hush which must have filled the air as Jesus ignored the disciples' attempt to turn a moment for compassion into a moment of theological debate.   Imagine for a moment the surprise of those who watched Jesus turn all his attention to the one they had figured for a long time to be a nobody.  When the man heard Jesus spit, he probably braced himself for it would not have been the first time someone had spit at him. Imagine what it must have been like for him when he felt fingers putting cool wet mud on his unseeing eyes.  The only words he heard were the words which told him to go and wash the mud from his eyes. 

The mud would not heal the man, but it would bring him to a place of deciding whether or not Jesus was someone to be trusted.  The Scripture speaks of his faith response as it tells us what he said to those who had ignored him, "The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' Then I went and washed and received my sight."  (John 9:11)  Imagine for a moment what would have happened had the man born blind not gone and washed mud from his eyes.  Imagine for a moment what would happen in our lives if we lived by a faith that would cause us to do that which some would regard as foolish and which might not even make any sense to us.