Show Notes
“The clearest proof that man is utterly fallen is seen in the fact that they spit in Christ’s face...” –attributed to Charles Spurgeon (“Prince of Preachers”).
John 9:1-7, “As [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him... Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the spit. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.’”
Why the spit, Jesus? It’s humiliating.
In Mark 8, he actually spit directly into a blind man’s eyes....
Leviticus 15 stipulates that when someone with an “issue” (bodily discharge) spits on someone that’s clean, the spit (that issue) communicates the uncleanness, which must feel like shame. And of course, it’s unsanitary. Fluids issued from one body to another body can cause all sorts of “issues.”
Why the spit, Jesus? It’s humiliating and intimate... uncomfortably, intimate.
He put the spit/mud in his eyes and didn’t heal him right away but had him walk through the city to Siloam. It must’ve felt like a walk of shame. Jesus took a similar walk. They spit on Him, and He let them. They’d strike one cheek, and He’d turn the other. They’d nail Him to a tree in a garden, and He’d pray, “Father, forgive; they don’t know...” If you saw it, you’d think: “What’s wrong with him? Has he no pride? Has he no shame? Is he not offended?”
“He endured the cross, despising (disrespecting) the shame,” wrote the author of Hebrews. Shame was not our Lord’s master. Hurt? Yes! Angry? Maybe, (depending on how you define it). Offended? I don’t think He had an “ego” to offend... at least not one like ours.
Why the spit, Jesus? It’s humiliating, intimate, and it reminds us of creation.
John 9:7-22, “So, he went and washed and came back seeing... The neighbors were... saying, ‘Is this not the man?’... He kept saying, ‘I am’ (interesting word choice)... The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight... the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ [the anointed], he was to be put out of the synagogue.”
“Synagogue” means “gathered together.” We form groups to receive glory from men and in this way shape each other in our own image. When Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it,” He chose another word, “ecclesia.” It means “those called out.” Throughout Scripture, God will call people out of groups — which often feels like rejection — in order to send them back as individuals, in order that we would form a living body. A body is diversity in unity: diverse individuals bound together in a communion of sacrificial love called Life. It’s the seventh sign that is the substance. Remember?
John 9:24, “So for the second time [the Pharisees] called the man who had been blind and said to him, ‘Give glory to God.’”
Jesus, in the Gospel of John, says some crazy things about Glory. “The Spirit of Truth will glorify me. For he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine.” Then Jesus prays, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your son that your son may glorify you...” Then, he stood up and walked to the garden where he was betrayed with a kiss and then spit upon by Jews and Romans.
We attempt to glorify ourselves by spitting on others; Jesus is glorified by being spit upon by us. How do we explain this? Are we utterly blind to the Glory of God? Yes. . . We are blind.
Look at the man hanging on the tree in the garden. Isn’t He the Glory of God? Isaiah saw the whole earth filled with His glory. Ezekiel saw Him as a man of fire. John saw Him shining like the sun. And Adam couldn’t see Him although He was his “Helper.” Then, he could only see that “He was good for food, a delight to the eyes, and to be desired to make
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