This history is of especial interest, because it gives us so completely the history of the spiritual progress of a man who in the day of our Lord's flesh was privileged to be brought into very near connection with Him, and who was one of the first that was permitted to suffer for His sake.
I. Observe then that the first movement of Christ towards this blind man is clearly one of free grace. There is not even so much as a prayer on the part of the blind man for the purpose of moving our Lord's compassion. So we find here an instance of that which is at the root of all true Divinity, namely, the love of God in seeking those who have no eyes to see Him, the coming of the Son of man, not to wait until the lost sheep come back of their own accord to seek Him, but Himself to seek and to save that which was lost.
II. The first step then towards the illumination of the blind man is on the part of Christ, and the second is the demand of an act of faith in return. Christ anoints the man's eyes with clay, but that does not give them sight. The outward sign of the clay is applied, and seen to be inefficient, until faith has taken the man to the pool of Siloam, when by the command of Christ, the blind man washes and remains blind no longer. The man's knowledge of Christ was eminently progressive; it began with an act of grace, even as baptism is granted us freely without our asking for it, and it was continued by an act of faith.
III. The washing in the pool of Siloam was for this man the new birth of water and the Spirit, which fitted him to go on to perfection in the knowledge of Divine mysteries; the blind man had learned by means of his healing, and had been convinced still more clearly by his arguments with the Pharisees, that his healer must be of God, or He could do nothing; he needs only one step further, namely, to be permitted to see in Jesus not merely a man sent from God, but the Son of God Himself. Jesus announced Himself as such; there was quite enough in what had already occurred to make good the assertion; faith seized with joy upon the announcement of the Son of God actually present in the flesh; "Lord, I believe," said the man to whom Christ gave sight, and he showed his faith by worship. The story shows that there is such a thing as spiritual progress; the knowledge of Christ is a growing, an increasing knowledge: to those that have, that improve what has been given to them, more will be given.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,5th series, p. 202.
References: John 9:24-38. Contemporary Pulpit,vol. i., p. 163.