One of the most inspiring miracles recorded in Scripture is the famous healing of a man who had been blind from birth.
What’s especially interesting is the recipe Jesus used to give the man his sight. It involves putting mud on his face, specifically, his eyes.
It has been retold countless times, and featured prominently in the 2003 film, “The Gospel of John”.
But what’s the reason mud was employed as a tool in this wondrous healing?
The author of a best-selling book decoding the hidden, additional meaning behind events in Scripture explored the miracle during an episode of the popular Bible TV show, “Shabbat Night Live”.
“The Bible is very consistent in its symbols and imagery,” said Joe Kovacs, author of “Reaching God Speed: Unlocking the Secret Broadcast Revealing the Mystery of Everything.”
“Mud is the dust of the earth. It represents the flesh” on the metaphoric level of parables, because we’re all made of the dust of the earth, and Jesus only taught in parables. (Matthew 13:34)
The Bible records the event this way:
“After he said these things he spit on the ground, made some mud from the saliva, and spread the mud on his eyes.
“‘Go,’ he told him, ‘wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means “Sent”). So he left, washed, and came back seeing.
“His neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar said, ‘Isn’t this the one who used to sit begging?’
“Some said, ‘He’s the one.’ Others were saying, ‘No, but he looks like him.’
“He kept saying, ‘I’m the one.’
“So they asked him, ‘Then how were your eyes opened?’
“He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and told me, “Go to Siloam and wash.” So when I went and washed I received my sight'” (John 9:6–11 CSB).
“On the physical level, a man blind from birth has his sight restored after God puts mud on the man’s eyes and then tells him to wash it off,” Kovacs writes in “Reaching God Speed.”
“When the Bible talks about mud or clay being spread onto the man’s eyes, it’s simply referring to the flesh that covers our spirit inside of us. Remember, mankind was created from ‘the dust of the ground’ (Genesis 2:7 KJV) , the land, the dirt, the clay, the mud. Our fleshly covering is made of clay.”
Scripture notes:
“He has thrown me into the mud. I’m nothing more than dust and ashes” (Job 30:19 NLT).
“He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire” (Psalm 40:2 NLT).
Meanwhile, Kovacs explains, “eyes” in Scripture can refer to spirits, as in “seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God” (Revelation 5:6 CSB).
“So when Jesus put mud, or clay as some Bibles have it, over the man’s eyes, the meaning at God speed is that our personal spirit can’t see properly because we’re covered by the flesh, both physically and spiritually. Yes, we have skin covering our bodies, but more disturbingly, we have the lusts and works of the flesh, our personal desires and wrongful actions, blinding us from the truth.”
The author said on “Shabbat Night Live”:
“The eyes are where we see things, but when you have flesh over your eyes, as in the lusts of the flesh, the works of the flesh, and the New Testament gets into this in quite detail about what those are.”
Some Bible examples of lusts and works of the flesh include:
“Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19–21 CSB).
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16 KJV).
“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires” (Romans 8:5 NIV).
“We all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others” (Ephesians 2:3 NKJV).
Kovacs told “Shabbat” host Scott Laird: “We’re not thinking about the spirit of God. We’re thinking about all the lusts of the flesh. You can’t see properly. We’re blinded by everything else. We see it in today’s world. We’re blinded by the jobs that we do and everything that we follow except God.
“So the mud has to be washed off your spirit, off your eyes so you can see properly. The lusts of the flesh, the works of the flesh have to be washed off so you can see clearly.”
In “Reaching God Speed,” Kovacs writes: “Obviously, when we’re driven by what our flesh wants, that does not lead to eternal life. We’re soiled by our individual desires and actions that don’t agree with the Spirit of God. We have to wash our personal spirits clean of the ‘mud,’ which symbolizes the flesh. That is the precise reason Jesus tells the man to wash the mud off his eyes. He is telling mankind to remove the desires of our flesh from our spirits, our minds, so we’ll no longer be spiritually blind.”
“Also notice that the man was not healed instantly while he still had the mud on his face. God instructed him to do something, to take action, which was to go to a pool with the name of ‘Sent.’ When he obeyed God’s commandment, when he went where he was being ‘sent’ by God, it was then that he was healed. In other words, mankind gets healed and can see properly when we follow God’s commands, go to the place to which we’re being sent, and wash the desires of the flesh from our minds. In the final end, as you know, we completely get rid of our mud, our physical flesh, and will be transformed into spirit only. That’s when we have life without end and will see perfectly.”
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