You don’t find instances of sight to the blind in the Old Testament, and not much in the New Testament, except by Jesus. The Old Testament points to a reason for that: bringing of sight to the blind would be a sign of the presence of the Messiah.
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Isaiah 35:5
In the bringing of sight recorded here, Jesus dismissed the common assumption connecting physical circumstances with sin by saying the man was born blind so that the work of God would be seen in his life. One aspect of that work of God could be seen as the manifestation of the presence of the Messiah. But that’s just the beginning. It is now given – He says, “We must” work while it is light – for those who have life in Jesus to be lamps of transforming light in the darkness. John makes a point of indicating the meaning of the name of the pool the man is sent to wash in – “sent”. Is this another real event that is also a sign of meaning for the Christian life (like the multiplication of loaves and fish)?
As the Father sent Jesus to bring sight to the blind, so now Jesus sends his followers to let God’s everyday work of transformation be what we’re about, bringing miracles of further transformation through things like compassion, forgiveness, and hope – miraculous rays of light, considering how profound the darkness can be.
O God, how you honour me! There is so much transforming yet to be done in me and yet you call me to be light. So there must be light given not just as a result but in the very transforming. How that light must increase as we bring together our lives as they are being transformed! May it ever more be so. Because of the Light who is Jesus. Amen.
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