James Henley

The Pool of Siloam: Can a place hold spiritual power/significance?

Last week, for the first of our Lab summer series on John, we explored the story of Jesus healing the man born blind from John 9v1-12 (you can listen to it here). Here’s an offshoot of my thoughts/research that didn’t make the final version of my talk.

One of the really interesting elements of the story, is that Jesus doesn’t just tell the blind man to see - instead he goes through a strange process of making mud out of the dirt on the ground, rubbing it in the bloke’s eyes, and then telling him to go and wash at a very specific place - The Pool of Siloam - which at the time was considered a ’sacred place with healing power’.

The whole encounter draws us into asking some questions: Why not just simply heal the man? What was the significance of the ‘ritual’ that Jesus seems to go through? And was there a significance to that particular pool?

Growing up, I have always been very skeptical of any kind of ritual or over-spiritual religious activities. The idea that certain words, places, or rituals hold particular spiritual power or significance was always something that certain Christians (mainly Catholics) subscribed to, but not anyone who really had a brain. However, since studying theology, researching some of Catholic and Eastern Orthodox tradition, and growing to be a bit more spiritually mature, I’ve become a lot more open to the idea that some places have a kind of spiritual significance to them and perhaps even experienced it.

Particularly spending time on retreat in a monastery, where there was such an incredible sense of God’s presence has really opened my mind to some of the more mystical aspects of Christian tradition. This was a place where Christians had been praying constantly for hundreds of years - and it felt like it as soon as you walked in.

When it comes to the story of the man born blind, there are several theological options for us to choose between:

1. Coincidence: There was no significance to the ritual Jesus went through - it’s just a coincidence or a one-off situation.
2. Intentional: The pool itself has no spiritual significance - but Jesus was intentionally pointing to the fact that even though God was doing a new thing through him, he had also done old stuff in the past.
3. Cultural Significance: Jesus wanted to use the pool’s cultural significance. It was a place for ceremonial washing - where the Jews would make themselves ceremonially clean in order to be able to worship. Jesus wanted the man to know that God had made him both physically well and spiritually clean.
4. Spiritual Significance: Jesus wanted to re-inforce the idea that the pool did have spiritual significance and was a place of healing - he wanted his disciples to know that God works through holy places.

Personally I’m probably hovering somewhere around #3, with occasional tendencies towards #4. Which option are you most inclined to go with?

Within Celtic spirituality, there is precedent for the idea that a place can be particularly spiritually important. These are called ‘thin places’:

‘In the Celtic tradition such places that give us an opening into the magnificence and wonder of that Presence are called “Thin Places.” There is a Celtic saying that heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even smaller. A thin place is where the veil that separates heaven and earth is lifted and one is able to receive a glimpse of the glory of God.’ (source)

And of course, within both Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition - religious relics, rituals and places hold incredible spiritual significance.

What do you think? Can a specific place or action hold a particular spiritual significance or power? Can heaven be ‘closer’ in one place than others?