John's Gospel chapter 9.

Let me read first from verses 1 through 11 and then I'll jump ahead to verses 24 and

25.

We're a little bit pressed for time.

Today's a really intense day and we have a little margin of error in terms of our scheduling.

So I'll try to keep it brief.

Famous last words, right?

This is an interesting place.

This is where Jesus heals a blind man in a most interesting way. He uses

spit. Verse 1, John 9, as he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him,

Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind.

Jesus' answer, verse 3, neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus.

But this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.

As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me.

Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

Having said this, verse six, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes.

And then he says to him, verse 7, go, he told him, wash in the pool of Silum.

This word means scent. So the man went and washed and came home seeing. It wasn't instantaneous.

His neighbors, verse 8, and those who had formally seen him begging, asked,

Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?

Some claimed that he was. Others said,

No, he only looks like him. But he himself insisted, I am the man.

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