The Man Born Blind

The disciples asked whose fault it was that he was born blind.

His sin or his parents' sin.

Jesus said neither.

He was born this way so that the works of God could be displayed in him.

Then he spat on the ground.

He made mud with the saliva.

He put the mud on the man's eyes.

He told him: Go wash in the pool of Siloam.

The man went.

He washed.

He came back seeing.

The neighbors and people who had seen him begging couldn't agree whether it was him.

Some said it is he. Others said no, it only looks like him.

He kept saying: I am the man.

They asked how he could see.

He said: A man called Jesus made mud and put it on my eyes and told me to wash. I went and washed and received my sight.

Where is this man, they asked.

He said: I do not know.

He had never seen Jesus.

He had followed the instructions of a voice.

A man he had never looked at had put mud on his closed eyes and sent him to a pool.

And he had gone.

And washed.

And come back with a world full of shapes and colors he had no words for.

The Pharisees questioned him twice.

They questioned his parents.

They called Jesus a sinner.

The man said something remarkable: I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know — I was blind, now I see.

Simple.

Certain.

Whatever the theology, whatever the argument — this was his experience.

He was blind.

Then he wasn't.

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