Jesus Heals Josiah – the Blind Beggar 

When encountering a blind beggar named Josiah near the temple one Sabbath day, Jesus decided to give the man his sight to goad the Jewish authorities into recognizing him and his teachings. Josiah had been blind from birth, and Nathaniel and Thomas asked Jesus whether the man’s blindness had been caused by some sin that the man's father had committed. This was the prevailing view of such cases, but Jesus explained that this blindness was not the result of anyone’s antecedent sin, nor was it caused by any sin of the blind man.

When Jesus talked with his apostles, he was close enough to Josiah that the blind man heard him say, "Let us create the sight of this blind man.” Jesus made a paste from his saliva mixed with dirt on the ground and placed the paste over Josiah’s eyes. He then instructed Josiah to wash the paste off in the pool of Siloam. He told him that he would receive his sight when he did so. And when Josiah did as Jesus instructed him, his sight was restored.

This was an unusual miracle of healing because Josiah did not ask to have his sight restored, nor did he know Jesus. But he knew that the saliva of a holy man had healing powers, and from what he had heard Jesus say to his apostles, Josiah thought he must be such a holy man. So he did what Jesus asked him to do because it appealed to his sense of the mysterious and had some elements of ritual attached to it.

However, Jesus’ main reason for this display of healing power was to force the Jewish authorities to notice him and his teachings. And these authorities did notice. They brought Josiah to the synagogue and held a trial there on the Sabbath, demanding to know all the details of what had happened, questioning the man’s parents, and hoping to find any discrepancy in the story. In the end, they angrily ascribed the miracle to the work of the devil and cast Josiah out of the synagogue. But the result was just what Jesus had hoped. This open display of Jesus' powers forced the Jewish rulers to deal once again with Jesus and his teachings.

In January, 30 CE, Jesus and two of his apostles, Nathaniel and Thomas, walked into Jerusalem after having breakfast with Martha and Mary at their home in Bethany. On their way, they happened upon a blind beggar. Everyone knew this man and he was always to be seen at his usual place near the temple. He wasn’t begging on that Sabbath day, as that was forbidden, but when Jesus saw him sitting there, an idea came to him. He and everyone else knew that the man, Josiah, had been born blind; Jesus decided to help the man and by doing so, convince the Jewish rulers to again take notice of his teachings about the kingdom.

Nathaniel and Thomas asked Jesus if there was a connection between the man’s blindness and some kind of antecedent sin committed by his parents; the Jewish religion taught that this was the case in blindness from birth – that it was either the sin of his father or that even the child itself could sin while yet in the womb if the mother had committed some offense against God. There was even a prevailing opinion that blindness of this kind resulted from sins committed in a previous life. Reincarnation was still a belief of many, and this affliction was seen as a way for the afflicted to atone for past sins. But Jesus wanted his apostles to understand the true cause of disease and not to think that such maladies had spiritual causes.

Jesus told them: "Neither did this man sin nor his parents. This blindness has come upon him in the natural course of events, but we must now do the works of Him who sent me, while it is still day, for the night will certainly come when it will be impossible to do the work we are about to perform. When I am in the world, I am the light of the world, but in only a little while, I will not be with you."

Further, the Master said to Nathaniel and Thomas: "Let us create the sight of this blind man on this Sabbath day that the scribes and Pharisees may have the full occasion which they seek to accuse the Son of Man." And he said all of this within earshot of the blind man.

Jesus bent over and spat on the ground, in the dust, and mixed his saliva into a paste; as he did so, he spoke out loud so Josiah could hear what he was doing. And then he applied the paste to Josiah’s sightless eyes and said: "Go, my son, wash away this clay in the pool of Siloam, and immediately you shall receive your sight." Josiah did as Jesus told him, and he began seeing for the first time in his life. He went to his friends and family to show them. But after a while, after the shock had begun to wear off, he returned to his usual place of begging because that was all he had ever known.

People who knew him could see that he was no longer blind, yet some wondered if it was really him. But when they asked him if he was Josiah, he said: "I am he." Everyone wanted to know what had happened, and he told them about Jesus coming to him and making clay from his saliva and putting it on his eyes. He told of washing in the pool of Siloam and how he received his sight right then and there. Josiah told them he was still trying to make sense of all he was able to see. And when these people asked where they could find this man, Josiah could not tell them because he didn’t know.

There are many strange elements of this miracle: Josiah did not ask for healing of his blindness; he did not know Jesus or that he was the celebrated “prophet of Galilee,” and he did not even have much faith that he could be made to see. But there was thought given to the magical healing properties in the saliva of a holy man. From hearing the conversation between Jesus and his two apostles, Josiah assumed that he was a great man of some kind, so he did as Jesus told him, responding mainly to the ceremonial and mysterious aspects of the clay, the saliva, and the washing in the pool.

Of course, Jesus knew of this superstition. So, his plan involved using his own saliva to convince the man to go and wash in the pool of Siloam (a semi-sacred place) since it was not an act that was in response to Josiah’s faith. But in using this process of the paste and the washing in the water, he also wanted to demonstrate to believers of that day and subsequent ages that sometimes material methods are quite effective in treating disease and that miracles are not the only way to create health.

But the primary reason that Jesus worked this miracle for Josiah – on the Sabbath, and near the temple – was to attract the notice of the Sanhedrin; he wished to provoke a discussion among them and all the Jewish rulers. They would not be able to easily dismiss such a miracle of healing.

Soon after, Josiah was called before the Jerusalem ruler – ironically breaking their own rules about meeting on the Sabbath while denouncing Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. They were afraid to call Jesus before them but instead made a great show of prolonged questioning of Josiah, even going so far as to hold a trial against him. They questioned him and even his parents, trying to find some flaw in the truth of his blindness or of the cure that he experienced. Josiah patiently related all that had happened to him.

When questioning him for the second time, Josiah asked why they needed to hear the details again. He wondered aloud if maybe they really wanted to become Jesus’ disciples. This so enraged the Sanhedrin that they rushed at Josiah in fiery denial, saying that they didn’t even know who Jesus was.

But Josiah stood on a chair and proclaimed to all assembled there that it was clear that Jesus had cured him of his blindness. He told them that no one had heard of such a thing being done. Josiah exclaimed, “I tell you, if this man were not from God, he could not do this.”

But, as the so-called trial ended in anger and confusion, the enraged rulers shouted to Josiah: “You were altogether born in sin, and do you now presume to teach us? Maybe you were not really born blind, and even if your eyes were opened on the Sabbath day, this was done by the power of the prince of devils.” They proceeded to cast Josiah from the synagogue.

The event turned out just as Jesus had wished. This miraculous act of giving Josiah his sight represented an open challenge to the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, and all other Jewish rulers. These rulers were now forced to take notice of the miracle and to reckon again with Jesus and his teachings.