Link Notes for "Lord I Believe"
The immediate power of using the eyes was no small part of the miracle. When people recover sight now after surgical operations, it requires a considerable time to learn the use of the newly acquired sense.
Unless we are familiar with the Biblical languages, we could miss what this "play on the name Siloam" refers to.
In brief, the text translates the name of the pool as "sent", or, more literally, "He who was sent." So we have a Hebraism which means: He who was sent, has sent the blind man to the pool called, "He Who Was Sent" (or Siloam).
J C Ryle offers a helpful explanation.
There is undeniable difficulty about this sentence. It is naturally asked, — Why is this parenthetical explanation inserted by St. John? Why are we specially told that the word Siloam means Sent, or He that was sent? — The most probable answer seems to be, that the name of the fountain was meant to refer the blind man's mind to the Messiah, whom God had "sent." All pious Jews would understand the expression which so frequently occurs in John's Gospel, "He whom God hath sent," to point to Messiah. When therefore Jesus said, ''Go wash in Siloam " the naming of that particular fountain would be a silent hint that He who gave the command was the Sent One of God, the great Healer of all diseases. St. John's parenthesis would then mean, when expounded, "This was a most suitable and proper pool for Jesus to name. It was fitting that He who was 'Sent of God' should work a miracle in the pool called "Sent". This is the view of St Chrysostom and St Augustine……..
Another commentator has written:
"As Jesus represents himself and his Church as the real Pool of Bethseda, in chapter 5 (of John), so here he declares himself the real Sent One, or Siloam, the Fountain of Blessings".
This was not and never has been any kind of anti-Semitic expression. The writer was a devout and loyal Jew who had been chosen by another devout and loyal Jew to be his disciple. The writer, St John, is recognising in his text the status these Jewish authorities gave themselves; one of elite superiority. He is not referring to all the senior authorities, many of whom were and remained esteemed as the distinguished and holy teachers of Israel. He is referring only to those who had formed an obsession to eliminate Jesus from the scene without giving him a fair hearing.
In the final scene of this wonderful account, the Pharisees Jesus is speaking to are those who were actually listening to the spiritual message unfolding before them. The opponents of Jesus had taken off. These devout men here are open to the full message our Lord wants to share. He responds to their honesty (and perhaps their not-so-obvious humility) by "turning up the heat" a little. He knows they can take it, as they are skilled debaters whose regular method of advancing in spiritual perception requires sharp and piercing dialogue. They thrive on it and he knows some of them will "see" that they have blind spots, and will follow him.
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