After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
My initial observation is that this seems incredibly strange. It’s always seemed strange. Spitting in dirt, making mud with your spit, then putting it the guys eyes?
There’s a similar experience in Mark 8:
They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?
Bethsaida (not to be confused with the pool called Bethesda in John 5) is far north in Galilee. Here there is no indication of mud being involved. And secondly, the way in which the man is healed is in two stages.
Another story of Jesus healing two blind men can be found in Matthew 9:
And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.”And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.”But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.
Here Jesus is recorded as just touching the men’s eyes. No spit, no mud. And then finally all three synoptic gospels record the story of Bartimaeus, a blind beggar that shouts after Jesus to heal him. Luke 18 records it this way:
What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.”And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
And with this example, there is no spit, no mud, no touch, just words. So the manner in which Jesus heals blind people in the Bible is different on every occasion. There are similarities to be sure, but his manner seems person-specific.
There seems to be no small list of ideas proposed by various people as to why Jesus used spit and mud. Here’s an example:
Since the blind man was born blind, probably he had no eyeballs at all, just empty sockets
Except, the text says nothing about him not having eye balls and there’s absolutely no reason to think he wouldn’t have them. Here’s something even more ridiculous:
Jesus spat on the man’s eyes because spitting back then was a common form of insult. Jesus was insulting the works of the devil, canceling the devil’s works, thus why he formed his spit with the earth, the devil’s domain, and turning it into a miracle of God, thus trumping any works of the devil and showing he had power over this earth and God would get glory out of it.
Ambrose writes of this miracle,
“The only reason for his mixing clay with the spittle and smearing it on the eyes of the blind man was to remind you that he who restored the man to health by anointing his eyes with clay is the very one who fashioned the first man out of clay”
Another observation regarding this text is that there is no recorded interaction between Jesus and this man before Jesus puts these mud balls into the man’s eyes. Then the man is instructed to go wash to mud out in the pool of Siloam.
What was this man thinking? He allows Jesus to do this work on him and then obeys him when he instructs him to wash out the dirt. I can’t imagine what must have been going through his mind.
Had the blind man heard the question of the disciples? If so, then presumably he would have heard the answer given by Jesus. Hearing that compassionate answer could very well have been why he trusted Jesus. The blind man had probably been led to believe his entire life that he was blind because of sin. And not only had he likely been led to believe this, he most certainly would have been treated as if this is the case. The behavior of the disciples and the behavior of the religious leaders give the impression that this guy was likely despised (but perhaps tolerated).