JESUS ADDRESSES MY WIFE'S DISABILITY Part 1

"As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. ² And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” ³ Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. ⁴ We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work." John 9:1-4 ESV

 I have a wife who suffers from a serious disability. Living day in day out with her suffering has raised serious questions within my soul. One of the hardest things in life is suffering that we both experience and see in those we love both in terms of intensity and duration. The suffering I observe in my wife has brought her many sorrows and has turned her past four years into loss of career, uprooted her life, financially drained her with her massive doctor bills and tests, emotionally taken its toll, and has turned her life into what she never dreamed or planned it would be. Her life will never be the same again unless the Lord heals her. As a pastor and her husband I have frequently been asked by Terri in tears "why?' What would I do as a pastor and her husband if I had to face that question without a Bible that said nothing about it? What if all I could do is think up ideas on my own about her suffering and disability? What if all I had was my or other human opinions? My wife has had plenty of that and neither mine nor others opinions have helped.

 One of the reasons I believe the Bible and love the Bible is because it deals with the hardest issues in life like my wife's suffering. It doesn’t sweep painful things under the rug, or complex things or confusing things or provoking things or shocking things or controversial things. The Bible is permeated with suffering and sorrow. This is one of the things that make it so believable. It is filled with things that God has said and done to shed light on these sufferings and sorrows. In this story, Jesus meets a blind man and sheds light on his and our suffering.

 I. The Reality of Real Suffering and Disability

 “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.” (John 9:1)

 We meet a man who was born blind and life has not gone easily for him. We meet his parents later in verse 18, and learn that they were not able to care for him any longer. So he was a beggar. We know that because of verse 8, “The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’”So he was blind and he was desperately poor. Life for him had been very hard.

 Verse 1 says Jesus saw him as he passed by. Oh how I love that word "saw". Jesus sees. He sees you, me, and our pain. He is aware, He notices, and He is attentive to our personal,individual suffering and pain. notice that the disciples saw that he saw the blind man. Verse 2 says, “And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’” The disciples look at Jesus and ask Him a theological question. That question is crucial. But notice, the story did not begin with the disciples’ question, or with the disciples seeing the blind man. The story begins with Jesus seeing the man: “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.” The disciples are engaged because Jesus is engaged. It challenges me to see people who suffer. Oh I want the "seeing" of Jesus stir and touch my own heart to see, to be aware, to be alive to the suffering and needs of those all around me.

These past three years in my own life I have been seen and touched in all my brokenness by an attentive, merciful Savior. It has caused me to "see" my wife in her sufferings with an awareness and attentiveness and compassion that I have never known before. If you want to be like Jesus, open your eyes and see people who suffer. See them and move toward them.

 II. Jesus Redeems Awkward Moments

 When the disciples saw Jesus’ attention to the blind man, they asked for an explanation of his blindness. Verse 2, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
So Jesus is gazing at the blind man and the disciples look at Jesus provokes them to ask a most uncompassionate question. How does Jesus answer it? He answers their question but not in the categories that they are using. They want an explanation for this man’s blindness and he gives it to them. But they ask for the explanation in the categories of cause. What is it in the past that caused the blindness? Who's fault is it? But Jesus says that won’t work, and he gives them an explanation in the category of purpose. Not what’s the cause of the blindness, but what’s the purpose of the blindness?

III. For Jesus, the Real Issue of Suffering That He Addresses Are Not Cause But Purpose

They say in verse 2, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” In other words, what is the cause of this blindness? The man’s sin? Or the parents’ sin? Is this blindness a punishment for the parents’ sin or a punishment for his own sin, some kind of inherited sinfulness already in the womb? I have heard this addressed in terms of some kind of generational cursing passed through the bloodline that has to be broken in some circles. The disciples assume a direct correlation between a specific sin and the man’s disability. Either he sinned in the womb of his mother, or his parents sinned. In short, the reason he suffers is because of his or someone else in his families sin. The disciples have reduced his suffering to two possible options. In logic we call it a false dilemma, an either /or proposition Those are the two explanations the disciples can think of. The notion that sin is the cause of suffering has been perpetuated through the years in many segments of the church. Even if this is not taught directly by the church, those who suffer often feel it is projected upon them by other Christians who delight in identifying the cause of their affliction. And even if we don’t hear this view from others it is a perspective that we hear continually from within ourselves. This kind of thinking is not unlike the way Job’s three friends thought about suffering. Jesus rejects both of them.

Jesus answers their question, but the answer he gives is not about the human who the blindness came from, but what it isleading to. This is of paramount importance. In other words, Jesus says the cause of this disability is not past sin, but future effects. The decisive explanation for this blindness is not found by looking for its cause but by looking for its purpose. Verse 3,Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him."

Ponder a moment the words, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents.” That is very significant. The point Jesus is making is not that suffering didn’t come into the world because of sin. Clearly, the bible says that it did. That’s plain from Genesis 3 and Romans 5:12-14; 8:18–25. If there never had been sin, there never would have been suffering. All suffering in one sense is owing to sin and part of the meaning of the physical horrors of suffering is to reveal the moral horrors of sin. But that is not what Jesus is saying here. Nor is he not denying it. What he is saying here is: Specific suffering is often, and in my humble opinion I would say most of the time, not owing to specific sin.

IV. Jesus Gives An Explanation in the Purposes of God

That is what Jesus is saying here in verse 3, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents.” In other words, this blindness, this specific suffering, is not owing to the specific sins of the parents or the man himself. Don’t look there for the explanation. There are no pat answers to the question of human suffering. Then he tells them where to look.

Look for an explanation of this blindness in the purposes of God. Look for an explanation to your own disability, hardship, and suffering in the purposes of God.

Verse 3, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

There is much to say and discuss on that statement and we will unpack this next week.

Pastor Bill