Light of the World: Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind at Siloam
In John 9, Jesus meets a man who has never seen a single sunrise. Instead of debating whose fault the blindness was, Jesus calls Himself the light of the world, puts mud on the man's eyes, and sends him to wash. The man comes back seeing.
One simple fact
John's Gospel says the man had been blind from birth (John 9:1), and that Jesus sent him to wash in the pool of Siloam, a name John explains "means Sent" (John 9:7). John also notes the healing happened on a Sabbath (John 9:14), which is why the religious leaders questioned the man so closely. Read John 9 (ESV, Bible Gateway)
The words of Jesus
"As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
John 9:5 (ESV) Bible Gateway
Then He told the man, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (John 9:7). The man's own testimony afterward is one of the simplest in Scripture: "One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see" (John 9:25).
A historical reference: the pool John named
For a long time some scholars treated John's pool as a literary symbol. Then in June 2004, while municipal workers were repairing a water pipe south of the Temple Mount in the City of David, archaeologist Eli Shukron spotted two ancient stone steps. He and Ronny Reich went on to excavate a monumental stepped pool from the late Second Temple period, the time Jesus lived, about 225 feet long. Biblical Archaeology Society: The Siloam Pool
The Los Angeles Times reported New Testament scholar James H. Charlesworth's reaction at the time: "Now we have found the Pool of Siloam ... exactly where John said it was." Los Angeles Times, 2005
Scholarship keeps moving. Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Nahshon Szanton has argued in the journal 'Atiqot that the 2004 pool is more likely Josephus's "Solomon's Pool," and that the true Siloam Pool is the smaller pool right at the outlet of Hezekiah's Tunnel a few hundred feet north. Either way, both pools sat side by side in first-century Jerusalem, fed by the waters John described. Biblical Archaeology Society: Rethinking the Pool of Siloam · Szanton, 'Atiqot (IAA)
A firsthand testimony: from blindness to the Light
In an account published by the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF), a man identified as Keith R. describes falling severely ill as a boy and waking up unable to see any detail at all, only a wash of color. In intensive care his heart stopped. As he reported it, he rose to the ceiling, saw the room and the staff working on him, and then traveled through a winding tunnel toward a small point of light:
"It was a brilliant white color, but not blinding. There was a warm, loving feeling coming from it... As I got closer to the light, a figure of a person started to emerge. The closer I got, the clearer the image got. It was Jesus Christ. As I got to the end of the tunnel, I was stopped by Jesus, who said 'It's not your time.'"
Keith R., NDERF Experience #8435
A boy who could not see the walls of his own room met a light that did not hurt his eyes, and in it he recognized Jesus. That is the same promise of John 9: the One who is the light of the world still comes to people sitting in the dark.
Today
If there is something in your life you cannot see past, you can bring it to Jesus the way the man at Siloam did: do the simple thing He says, and trust Him with the rest. "Though I was blind, now I see."