John 9:11

The previously blind but now sighted man continues, “A man called Jesus made some clayish ointment and rubbed it on my eyes. He then told me, ‘Go to the Pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went just like he told me and, lo and behold, as you can see, I can see as well!” John 9:11 EFP 

That pretty well sums up what happened to the man that day.  He knows the man’s name is Jesus, but he cannot identify him if he saw him for obvious reasons. He did not see him make the ointment. It’s very possible he heard Jesus spit into his hand, and possibly surmised he had mixed it with some dirt to make the concoction he had placed on his eyes. Did Jesus place the mixture in his eyes or his eyelids? Hmmm.

He does not have much detail, but what he knows he shares. He did as Jesus told him to do—he went and washed. He did not question the order. He did not make a suggestion regarding a closer option. He simply does it. In other words, he believes Jesus. And because he believes Jesus he is healed—his eyesight is granted him. I do not know what his expectations may have been when Jesus found him or when Jesus did the strange act followed by an even stranger request. He simply believed.

Simple faith is hard to come by nowadays. I have often forgotten the practical meaning of faith—to believe with total certainty in something or someone without tangible and palpable evidence to support the belief. Faith seems to me to be so dated and archaic at times. It can’t be measured or charted or placed under a microscope as can an object or measurable concept. But as the Book of Hebrews states, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because it is necessary to believe that God exists in order to approach him and furthermore to believe he holds in his hands the reward for all who have sought to know him.” (Hebrews 11:6) That is the faith required of me.