Spit and Mud

Spit. As we get older we may have lost some of our appreciation for spit. We don't usually think of spit in positive terms. Spit is kind of, well, gross. Nobody wants to be spit on, and parents are continually telling their children not to spit in public. Maybe that's why baseball players spit so much, there is something about being around all that dirt playing a game that makes you just want to spit. And of course your momma isn't going to tell you not to spit when you're playing ball, she just wants you to get a hit regardless of how much you spit.

Spit. Even when parents tell their children to not spit, it's funny how spit is the the parents go to for all in public child cleaning. There have been many times when there has been a mysterious food stain on one of my children's face and my spit has cleaned it up. Even as they have tried to shimmy away from me I have been able to wipe my spit soaked finger across their faces to rub away what shouldn't be there. We have told our children not to spit and then we use our own spit to wipe their face.

Mud. Some of the most fun I had as a child involved mud. From making mud pies and betting a friend a quarter he wouldn't eat them (which he always did, but seeing it was worth losing a quarter bet), to having mud slides in the battles for my little plastic green army men, to soccer and football games in the mud, and transforming my BOX from a dirt bike into a mud bike, mud was always fun. As a parent, mud isn't so much fun anymore. We parents spend more time cleaning up mud than we do enjoying the fun that can be had in the mud. We worry more about the possibility of mud stained carpets than seeing the numerous adventure possibilities that mud possesses.

Spit and mud. Neither glamorous. Both sometimes kind of gross. And both were used by Jesus at times when He healed a physical condition. Now, of course Jesus didn't need to use anything to heal, but for some reason He chose to on a few occasions.

Here they are:

Mark 8:23- Jesus spit in a blind man's eyes, touched him, and the man could see, though not clearly. Then Jesus touched him again and his sight was completely restored.

Mark 7:33- A man that was deaf and had difficulty speaking was brought to Jesus to be healed. Jesus put his fingers in the man's ears, spit, and then touched his tongue and the man could see and speak plainly.

John 9:6- Jesus spit on the ground and then made mud with the dirt and saliva mixture and rubbed in on a blind man's eyes and then told him to go to the pool of Siloam and wash. When he did this he could see.

Spit and mud.

Why did Jesus do things? Why didn't he just heal these men by speaking the word for them to be healed? After all, that's all that it would have taken. It wasn't the spit that healed, it wasn't the mud that healed, it was the touch of Jesus that healed, and it’s that touch that still heals today.

Some biblical scholars think the Jesus used spit because the people of that day believed there were therapeutic healing properties in saliva. There is speculation that the mud was to remind the people watching that God had created man from the dirt if the ground. Maybe. But as I read those passages and the healing that came through the Incarnate Word made flesh in the person of Jesus the Christ, I see Jesus using some ordinary things.

Spit and mud. Not glamorous, not preferred, and not real clean. But when put in the healing hands if Jesus, they serve as an instrument to be used for His glory.

Maybe today we at being called to some spit and mud ministries. Maybe not glamorous, maybe not preferred, and maybe things where we have to get a little dirty. And maybe we are being called to put our simple ordinary efforts into the powerful hands of an almighty God as He uses our spit and mud to bring healing to the hurting, restoration to the broken, sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and salvation to anyone who in faith calls on His name.

Spit and mud. Seems ordinary but there is nothing ordinary in hands of our Extraordinary God.