John 9:6

The healing of the blind man that followed shows the Light of the World dispelling darkness while it was still day. Perhaps Jesus spat on the ground so the blind man would hear what He was doing. Jesus applied His saliva directly when He healed the deaf man with the speech impediment in the Decapolis (Mark 7:33) and the blind man near Bethsaida (Mark 8:23). Here He mixed His saliva with clay. Applying the moist clay to the blind man’s eyes would have let him feel that Jesus was working for Him. Jesus may have intended these sensory aids to strengthen the man’s faith. Jesus may have varied His methods of healing so people would not think that the method was more important than the man doing the healing.

Perhaps Jesus also used saliva and clay to associate this act of healing with divine creation (Genesis 2:7). [Note: Lindars, p. 343; Blum, p. 307.] Another suggestion is that by covering the man’s eyes with mud Jesus was making his blindness even more intense to magnify the cure (cf. 1 Kings 18:33-35). [Note: Calvin, 1:241.] Some students of this passage have suggested that Jesus was using something unclean to effect a cure to show His power to overcome evil with good. [Note: D. Smith, "Jesus and the Pharisees in Socio-Anthropological Perspective," Trinity Journal 6NS:2 (Autumn 1985):151-56; cf. M. Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo.] Another view is that Jesus introduced an irritant so the man would want to irrigate his eyes. [Note: Wiersbe, 1:324.] Compare the Holy Spirit’s ministry of conviction that leads to obedience.

"The blind man, introduced as the theme of a theological debate, becomes the object of divine mercy and a place of revelation." [Note: Barrett, p. 358.]