Why did Jesus put clay on the man's eyes instead of just saying "be healed" like he's done before?

Question

why do you need a reference, we all know the story. ^_^

Answer 1

Jesus, like we should also be able to do, was listening to the voice of his Father, who instructed him to do that. I just saw on a cable channel lately that they have discovered a clay that may be able to cure some forms of blindness. Wow, what a coinicidence?

David V- There are different accounts of the same thing. I guess Mark had an obstructed view and only heard Jesus spit but didn't see that he was spitting onto the ground. It says he sent him home but told him not to go into the village- Jesus didn't want everyone knowing that there was a healing service going on.

Answer 2

Possibly to help his faith? Just to give him a slight feeling at the intuitive sense level 'something has been applied to my eyes'. Often we don't analyze our feelings and that sense of something applied might help him maintain faith whilst he went and washed. Of course there is also the issue of why he was told to go and wash, which may be because when we do an action of that sort we are acting in faith.

Answer 3

This man was different he was blind from birth, think about it.

Edit The Bible doesn't say this is the case and I'm not going to say it is the case but it is true that this particular man was born blind. Adam was formed from clay.

Answer 4

Because He was provoking the Pharisees. The Pharisee (Jewish religious leaders) had come up with over 600 things that were sins. They kept a sharp look out for anyone who did any of these things.

One was it was forbidden to make mud on the Sabbath. Back then people mixed water and dirt to make bricks, mortar, etc. So Jesus did this on purpose to let them know that He (and He was God remember) did not recognize all their stupid rules.

Remember, we don't get to heaven by what we do or don't do -- we don't get there by keeping rules made by man. We get there only by being born again as Jesus instructed us in John 3. When asked how to get to heaven in this chapter of the Bible, Jesus didn't say "don't make mud on the Sabbath". He gave only way response - be born again (John 3:3). That is, by coming into a spiritual relationship with God through Christ.

Good question.  

Answer 5

Read the whole incident.

John 9

14Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?boo...

Jesus made several big points there for those willing to look.  

1) His blindness was not a punishment of his sin

2) He made mud to put on the eyes and making mud (for bricks) and making mud was considered work on the Sabbath..

3) It showed the hearts of the Pharisees that they were more upset he made mud than happy a blind man had been healed.

4) It required an act of faith for the man to go to the pool Jesus told him to and wash.  (See Naaman and Elisha too)

5) That man followed Jesus and in so doing was not only healed but saved.

6) That man showed great courage in front of the Pharisees and was probably a great speaker later.  Any that knew him would attest to the fact he was blind until Jesus healed him.

Amazing what you can get out of one story if you look closely. I am probably even missing a few points in this quick answer.

Todd

David V - That was a seperat incident.

That was at Bethsaida and a long way from Jerusalem and the Pool of Siloam AND he did send him home.

Mark 8:26Jesus sent him home, saying, "Don't go into the village."

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?boo...

Look here to see wher Bethsaida is.

http://www.biblemap.org/

Answer 6

To one up Criss Angel.

Answer 7

He was trying to invent Lasik surgery

Answer 8

Just to mix thing up a bit. He didn't want to be a bore

Answer 9

GOD did a lot if different things that we will never real no why until we meet him but if this is something that is nagging on ur faith u just answered ur own question the act of doing something some one tells u and believing and knowing it is going to work is called faith think about it.  if GOD told u to jump off a sky scraper to walk agian would you  

Answer 10

need a REFEREnce....where is this??

Answer 11

He did and said different things for all of his healings.  He never said (or did) the same thing twice.

As for why?  I don't know.  Sorry.

Answer 12

To test the man's faith in God's ability to heal him.

Answer 13

He might have wanted the man's eyesight to return gradually. Suddenly being able to see might not have been good for a man born blind.

Answer 14

Because the person may not have had eyes in his sockets (he'd been blind from birth), so there wasn't anything there to heal.  Jesus was actually putting clay into his eye sockets and then creating new, perfectly functioning eyes out of it.  Why not just create new eyes out of nothing?  I don't know.  But remember, when God made Adam, He formed him out of the dust of the ground, so maybe that's just how God likes to do it (and maybe creating new matter out of nothing is very loud and flashy).

Answer 15

Well,

Ge:2:7: And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

So I do not see why clay wouldn't work as a patching material.

Take care and may God bless you spiritually.

Answer 16

Depends on which account you read. In Mark 8:22, he just spat in the man's eye. No clay was involved.

But a more important question - why did he tell the healed man not to go back to his home?