He told them, "The man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.' So I went and washed, and now I can see!" John 9:11
When we tell our stories of how God saved us, others will watch in amazement at how God has changed our lives. This was certainly the case with a man who had been blind from birth in John 9. Jesus healed this man, and everyone around him watched in amazement as he walked, clearly able to see again.
Jesus and His disciples came across this man who had been blind since he was born. Jesus' disciples asked Him a question that will seem very strange to us. Because Israelite culture believed that blindness, sickness, and diseases were often the result of punishment for sin, the disciples asked Jesus if this man was blind because of his sin or the sin of his parents. Jesus corrected their faulty line of thinking by explaining the man was born blind to demonstrate the power of God. What happened next was strange and miraculous all at once. Jesus spit on the ground, made mud, and put it on the blind man's eyes. After covering this man's eyes with mud, Jesus sent the man to wash his eyes with water. After he washed the mud off of his eyes, the man came back seeing. It was truly a miracle.
All the people who had known this man to be the blind man who they frequently saw begging on the streets could not believe that he had been healed. When these people asked this man what happened and who healed him, he told his story. He told them what Jesus had done, and God was glorified as a result.
Sharing our faith does not have to be complicated or difficult. We simply have to be faithful to share what God has done for us. Has God brought you through a really difficult trial? Has God walked with you through times of anxiety? Has He provided for you very specifically during a time of need? Tell your story to others! They will listen in amazement, and God will be glorified as you tell your story.
We have been focusing on our two-minute stories of how we came to faith in Christ. Now, it is time to practice telling these stories. Today, share your two-minute story with a friend from our church. After you are done telling your story, let your friend share their own story. The more you practice telling your story, the more comfortable you will become sharing it.
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”
“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work. But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!
His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said he was, and others said, “No, he just looks like him!”
But the beggar kept saying, “Yes, I am the same one!”
They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?”
He told them, “The man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.’ So I went and washed, and now I can see!”
“Where is he now?” they asked.
“I don’t know,” he replied.
Then they took the man who had been blind to the Pharisees, because it was on the Sabbath that Jesus had made the mud and healed him. The Pharisees asked the man all about it. So he told them, “He put the mud over my eyes, and when I washed it away, I could see!”
Some of the Pharisees said, “This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath.” Others said, “But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?” So there was a deep division of opinion among them.
Then the Pharisees again questioned the man who had been blind and demanded, “What’s your opinion about this man who healed you?”
The man replied, “I think he must be a prophet.”
The Jewish leaders still refused to believe the man had been blind and could now see, so they called in his parents. They asked them, “Is this your son? Was he born blind? If so, how can he now see?”
His parents replied, “We know this is our son and that he was born blind, but we don’t know how he can see or who healed him. Ask him. He is old enough to speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who had announced that anyone saying Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue. That’s why they said, “He is old enough. Ask him.”
So for the second time they called in the man who had been blind and told him, “God should get the glory for this, because we know this man Jesus is a sinner.”
“I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” the man replied. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!”
“But what did he do?” they asked. “How did he heal you?”
“Look!” the man exclaimed. “I told you once. Didn’t you listen? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
Then they cursed him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses! We know God spoke to Moses, but we don’t even know where this man comes from.”
“Why, that’s very strange!” the man replied. “He healed my eyes, and yet you don’t know where he comes from? We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will. Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. If this man were not from God, he couldn’t have done it.”
