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When my children were younger, they always seemed to have something on their faces. Usually, it was food, though there were occasions when I could not confidently identify the substance involved. Organised parents presumably carried baby wipes everywhere for precisely these moments. I was never that organised and tended to adopt a more practical approach involving whatever happened to be available at the time.
More often than I should probably admit, that meant licking my fingers and wiping their face with my hand. In my defence, it worked perfectly well, although I occasionally noticed other parents looking at me with mild horror. I suspect that if I tried the same thing with my now teenage children, the horrified looks would come from them rather than anybody else.
That memory came back to me because there is a detail in the Gospels that feels considerably more uncomfortable to modern readers.
Jesus himself used spit when he healed people. Not once, but three times.
For years, I think I simply skimmed over that detail. Jesus performs the miracle, somebody can suddenly see or hear, and naturally that is the part we remember. Yet once you notice the saliva, it becomes surprisingly difficult to ignore.
Why would Jesus do that? Surely he did not need to. In plenty of other stories, he simply speaks.
