After Jesus spreads mud on the blind mans eyes, he tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam (John 9:7) No one knows exactly when the man was healed. Was it the moment Jesus' touched him applying the mud to his eyes? Was it the washing in the pool of Siloam? Did it happen as the blind man was walking back to Jesus after washing?
In reflecting on this part of the text, I have been thinking a lot about Baptism... as evidence by the picture of my churches portable (well, supposedly) baptismal pool. There are many theological positions on what happens at Baptism. Is it simply an outward human act symbolizing what God has already done for us and in our individual lives? Does it have any salvific powers at all? Does God do something special during baptism? Is the Holy Spirit present in some unique way?
I don't actually have a good answer to any of those questions... except to say this... it is something that God commanded and so I have to believe that something significant happens in the act. I don't know exactly when a person gets saved. Is it the moment they are touched by Jesus? Is it during baptism? Is it when they walk into their faith after baptism? Is it the act of obedience in responding to Jesus' command to "go" in the first place?
Perhaps its does not actually matter. I don't think the blind man cared when exactly he was healed. All that mattered to him was that he was healed and Jesus was the one who healed him. And it isn't even the act of healing that is significant. It is the fact that now he can see!
Perhaps more important than the exact moment we were saved is the fact that we were saved. That Christ offered salvation to us in a muddy mix of his body and blood. That once touched by the mud of the cross, we are washed clean from our sin. And now that we have been cleansed, we are righteous... called to live not as those who walk in the dark, but as those who can see.
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