In Sunday school this past Sunday we read and discussed Acts chapter 9. As it happens, I’m reading the Gospel of John at home and on Monday morning I read chapter 9. Some interesting similarities between the story of Jesus giving sight to the man born blind and Paul’s encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road jumped out at me.

1. “While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” (John 9:5 NASB) As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; (Acts 9:3 NASB)
2. He answered, “The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash‘; so I went away and washed, and I received sight.” (John 9:11 NASB) And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized; (Acts 9:18 NASB)
3. and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing. (John 9:7 NASB) So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 9:17 NASB)
4. Therefore the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, “Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?” (John 9:8 NASB) and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” All those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, “Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?” (Acts 9:20-21 NASB)
5. So they said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?” And he said, “He is a prophet.” … “Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. (John 9:17, 21b-22 NASB) and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” … But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ. (Acts 9:20, 22 NASB)

Commentary:

1. Jesus is associated with light in both texts.

2. Jesus put clay (or mud) on the blind man’s eyes; scales fell from Paul’s blind eyes.  The word translated “scales” means also “flakes.” Dried mud may also resemble flakes. The sequence is different in the two verses. In Acts, the scales fell from Paul’s eyes, then he was washed (baptized). In John, the washing removed the clay from the blind man’s eyes.

3. The man born blind was sent to the pool of Siloam, which itself means “sent,” by Jesus, where he would regain his sight. Ananias was sent to Paul by Jesus so that Paul would regain his sight.

4. People who knew them both were astonished that such a change had occurred in them. The man born blind was no longer blind and Paul no longer persecuted Christians, but rather became one.

5. The man born blind, after receiving his sight, proclaimed Jesus to the Jews.  Paul, after regaining his sight, preached Jesus to the Jews in Damascus.