It really is an age old question. Jesus was preparing His disciples for a time that they would have to recognize God for who He really was. They were raised in a religious world that portrayed God as the aloof and distant caretaker. He was mad and as a result He was witholding blessing, assigning punishments, and dangling the carrot of “Messiah” to a group of people that did not quite meet the standard necessary to send their savior.
Jesus had now arrived and spent a great deal of the time unwinding the generations of misconceptions and wrong traditions that framed The Father as vindictive and uncaring. John used this story of an example of that effort. Here sat a beggar who was blind from birth. The disciples asked a question that seemed in their minds to be very legitimate; “Whose behavior resulted in this man’s blindness.”
Jesus was clear, God did not punish this man with blindness. God did not cause blindness to punish the man’s parents. That is not who God is! So instead, Jesus forms clay and places it over the man’s eyes and sends him on to the Pool of Siloam. The disciples did not need to follow the man, nor did Jesus. They knew that he would be healed.
God Loved the man. He healed the man! He gave the man new life and hope. That was the sum and total of the experience. Jesus showed these men that the true character of the Father was to heal, to love and to restore. These disciples and the rest of the world needed to stop pawning the pain and suffering in the world off on a very loving Father!
These many years later, we still find ourselves asking the same question on a perpetual basis…”Whose sin caused these problems in our lives?” Health issues, marital issues, financial issues, and world issues all are laid at God’s feet as some sort of response to His indifferent disdain.
The truth is that life happens. We see its ravages and need a place to put the blame. While God has big shoulders and can bear that burden, He does not operate in that vindictive way. We have already learned that God loves the world so much that he became a man and suffered and died to seek and save the lost. He is preparing those who would believe for a restored relationship that will last for eternity.
We cannot even imagine what a life without the pain of sin and death would look like. When we do join God; we will finally understand that He wants us to live lives of joy and purpose. It is not in His nature to play “Gotcha” and arbitrarily assign punishment for an infraction of some celestial code! Life is very hard. There are so many questions, as we journey, that are unanswered. Do not fill in those blanks with “God did this to me!” That is a lie from the world and our enemy.
God Bless You
9 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”
But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”
10 “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.
11 He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”
12 “Where is this man?” they asked him.
“I don’t know,” he said.
Walking With God 