Jesus, the mud, and the man born blind. And why Joaquin Phoenix doesn’t get it.

The Bible asserts that belief in God as our Creator is the front door to understanding everything else about Him (Heb. 11:6). Hollywood just gave us evidence to back that up.

After being stalled for two years, Universal Studios finally released “Mary Magdalene,” in which Rooney Mara plays the title character and Joaquin Phoenix portrays Jesus.

As far as quality goes, Richard Brody, a reviewer for The New Yorker, describes the film as “a sludgy, trivial attempt at revisionist Christian history.” The purpose of the movie is to portray Mary Magdalene as a frustrated feminist. So, don’t expect historical accuracy.

When the actors made their rounds for interviews and promotions, Phoenix explained that he refused to perform one of the miracles recorded in the Gospels. He had problems, he said, with Jesus rubbing mud in the eyes of the man born blind, who is depicted, oddly, by a woman in the movie (John 9).

“I knew about that scene from the Bible, but I guess I had never really considered it,” Phoenix told CNN. “When I got there, I thought, ‘I’m not going to rub dirt in her eyes. Who would do that?’ It doesn’t make any sense. That is a horrible introduction to seeing.”

Phoenix added an expletive for emphasis, but we don’t need it to get the point.

Rejecting what really happened, Phoenix took matters into his own hands. He licked his thumb and rubbed the woman’s eyes. The actor argued that ditching the mud doesn’t take away from the miracle Jesus performed.

His lack of grasp of Jesus’ approach is understandable. Phoenix is an atheist, so to him Jesus’ action “doesn’t make any sense.”

But when we know who Jesus is, we know that His actions not only “make sense,” they help us know God even better.

The story hinges on one key fact—this man was born blind. His eyes had never operated at all. His cornea had never captured light, and his retina had never signaled to the man’s brain details of the world around him–no images, no colors, no motion. He had never felt awe at the sight of a sunset over the Judean hills or read the etchings of the Torah for himself. And due to his disability, he had not worshipped in the temple (Lev. 21:18).

And because he was born blind Jesus’ disciples saw it as an opportunity to pose a theological question, thinking that this man made a good test case. Raised on a simplistic theological notion that one’s physical illness was due to one’s sin, and likewise good health and blessings were an indication of God’s favor, they asked Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” To them, he was an object of study, a scenario for theological reflection.

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.” That is, that’s not why he is blind. Instead, He explained, “this came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him. We must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:3-5).

Then comes the part that Phoenix doesn’t like. “After he said these things he spit on the ground, made some mud from the saliva, and spread the mud on his eyes” (9:6). And He sent the man off to wash in the pool of Siloam and enjoy his healing.

So what is that all about? Remember, Jesus could have healed the man any way He liked. But He specifically muddied up some dirt with spit and placed it on his eyes. Why?

Because Jesus wasn’t restoring eyesight. He was creating it.

Jesus intentionally connects this moment to the earliest days of creation. Just as He made Adam from the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7), the Creator stood before His flawed and broken creation and gave him what he had never had. He used the elements of the world He created to do it. He showed that this man was not a puzzle to be solved but a creation that God designed, and God wanted him to be whole and complete. He touched the man that the people said was unclean and religiously flawed, the man they thought God so disdained that He had withheld from him the physical benefit of sight.

So the Creator gave him his sight.

And then Jesus interpreted His own actions. The Creator loves His creation, and He is here to make all things new. To truly see is to see God for who He is.

It’s a tragedy that Phoenix doesn’t get it. But he can’t. Not until he acknowledges he has a Creator.

But once you do, and once you grasp that your Creator designed you and loves you, then you can get what that mud is all about.

Your problems are not because God doesn’t like you or is angry with you. He comes to you in the midst of your problems. He has come to you in Christ. Ready to make all things new.

You are not a theological object lesson. You are a person God created and Jesus came to save and the cross and His resurrection make it possible for you to have eternal life, hope, and heaven.

So meet your Maker. With mud in His hands.

Who loves you more than you can imagine.