"As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing."
John 9:1-7
On any interpretation this is a masterpiece of a story. Yet, though simple in its outline and language, it has many undertones which have a real significance, and as we remember John's concern with the symbolic we shall the better be able to grasp them. The context is still the Feast of Tabernacles: 5 simply reiterates 8:12 which, as we have seen, echoes the theme of light and illumination in the ritual of the Feast; while the sending of the blind man to Siloam becomes a very eloquent symbol when we remember that at the Feast the priests went to the Pool there to bring water for their ritual. It was as if Jesus was investing the Siloam ritual with the true meaning it was meant to have, in much the same way as the lame man at the temple gate in Acts 3 was healed. The temple was meant to stand for life, but he was sitting impotent at its gate; and the Feast of Tabernacles had become an empty ritual instead of a message of hope to men. And Christ was to change all that. In this connection we should note what is said about Siloam in 7: by interpretation it means 'Sent'. This interpretation has its symbolic associations also: the man is being sent to Siloam for healing, and Jesus Himself is the 'Sent One', the One who has been sent into the world by the Father to be the light of the world. This means that there is an implicit claim in the symbolism that Jesus is the fulfilment of all the symbols of the Old Covenant. 'Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened' said Isaiah of the time of Messiah's coming. Such is the symbolism of the healing of the man; it was not simply a miracle, it was a sign.