“He Hath Opened Mine Eyes”

We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth (A of F 1:7).

When Jesus Christ came to earth, he performed many miracles. Once when he was in Jerusalem on the Sabbath Day, he and his disciples came upon a man who had been blind since birth.

The Savior spat upon the ground and made mud with which he anointed the man’s eyes. He then told the man to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. The man obeyed, and when he finished washing, his eyes had been healed and he was able to see.

When the people around him realized that he could see, they wanted to know how it was done. After the young man explained, the people asked where Jesus was. The young man answered, “I know not” (John 9:12).

The crowd took the man to the Pharisees, who were responsible for explaining Jewish law. The Pharisees questioned him. When the man told his story, the Pharisees were confused and argued with each other. According to their laws, it was a sin for anyone to heal another person on the Sabbath Day, and yet they also believed that a sinner could not heal anyone. Again they asked the man what had happened, and again he told his story.

The Pharisees questioned the young man’s parents. Had the boy really been blind since birth? “Yes,” his parents answered. How had he been healed? Because the Jewish leaders had decided that anyone who said Jesus was the Christ would not be allowed to worship in the synagogues, the parents replied, “We know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself” (John 9:21).

The Pharisees told the young man that he should praise God for restoring his sight but recognize that Jesus was a sinner. They asked him again what had happened. He said, “I have told you already, and ye did not hear …

“We know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth …

“If this man [Jesus] were not of God, he could do nothing.” (John 9:27, 31, 33.)

The Pharisees became very angry and threw him out of their presence. Jesus heard what had happened to the young man and asked him, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?

“He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?

“And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.

“And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.” (John 9:35–38.)

We still worship him today and recognize the great blessings he gives to us. In a revelation given to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon in 1830, the Savior said, “I will show miracles, signs, and wonders, unto all those who believed on my name.

“And whosoever shall ask it in my name in faith, they shall cast out devils; they shall heal the sick, they shall cause the blind to receive their sight and the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk.” (D&C 35:8–9.)

Miracles of healing, whether it is our bodies or our spirits that are ill, are part of the blessings God gives to those who believe on him.

Illustrated by Shauna Mooney Kawasaki