JESUS SPEAKS TO MY WIFE'S DISABILITY Part 2

"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

Last week I mentioned that I have a wife who suffers from a serious disability. I break down her daily experiences into 3 categories: really bad days, bad days, and good days. Most of her good days turn into bad days because on her good days she tries to do the things she used to do and pays the price in suffering for days. Living day in day out with her suffering has raised serious questions within my soul. Last week I wrote on what Jesus would have to say to her about her suffering.

We saw Jesus encountering a man who was blind from birth and Jesus noticed him. His disciples noticed Jesus noticing him and asked Him a question, "who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’”

How does Jesus answer it? Verse 3, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents.” 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?

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.

Let me address an objection at this point. There are some pastors and teachers who dislike intensely the idea that God might will that a child be born blind so that some purpose of God might be achieved. One of the ways they try to escape the teaching of this text is to say that Jesus is pointing to the result of the blindness, not the purpose of the blindness. When Jesus says in verse 3, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him,” he means, the result of the blindness is that God was able to use the blindness to show his work, not that he planned the blindness in order to show his work. I understand emotionally why they would want the passage to say this. But to me there are at least three reasons why that won’t work.

1.One is that The disciples are asking for an explanation of the blindness, and Jesus’ answer is given as an explanation of the blindness. But if you say God had no purpose, no plan, no design in the blindness but simply finds the blindness later and uses it, that is not an explanation of the blindness. It doesn’t answer the disciples’ question. They want to know: Why is he blind? And Jesus really does give an answer. This is why he’s blind, there is purpose in it. There is a divine design. There’s a plan. God means for his work to be displayed in him.

2.Here’s another reason that suggestion doesn’t work. God knows all things. He knows exactly what is happening in the moment of conception. When there is a defective chromosome or some genetic irregularity in the sperm that is about to fertilize an egg, God can simply say no. He commands the winds. He commands the waves. He commands the sperm and the genetic makeup of the egg. If God foresees and permits a conception that he knows will produce blindness, he has reasons for this permission and those reasons are his purposes, His designs, His plans. God never has met a child from whom he had no plan. There are no accidents in God’s mind or hands.

3.And third, Any attempt to deny God’s sovereign, wise, purposeful control over conception and birth has a head-on collision with Exodus 4:11 and Psalm 139:13 “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?’” “You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” So what does Jesus say His purpose for suffering here in John 9? The meaning of Jesus in John 9:3 is not obscure. He is saying to the disciples: Turn away from your fixation on causality as the decisive explanation of suffering and turn away from any surrender to futility, or absurdity, or chaos, or meaninglessness and turn to the purposes and plans of God. There is no child, no blind man, and no suffering outside God’s purposes. “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents.” This blindness came about “in order that that the works of God might be displayed in this man.” This is not the whole explanation of suffering in the Bible. There are dozens of other relevant passages and important points to make, but this passage and this point are massively important.

 There is one main truth in the words of verse 3,The blindness is “that the works of God might be displayed in him.” That truth is that suffering can only have ultimate meaning in relation to God. Jesus says that the purpose of the blindness is to put the work of God on display. This means that for our suffering to have ultimate meaning, God must be supremely valuable and precious to us and that the manifestation of the works of God has a value, that in this case, outweighs years and years of blindness. It is more valuable than seeing, health, and life. Psalm 63:3 says, "Your steadfast love is better than life." Being loved by God, and being with Him forever, is better than having eyes, seeing, and being alive in this world.

Many things in the Bible will make no sense until God becomes your supreme value. For Jesus, blindness from birth is sufficiently explained by saying: God intends to display some of his glory through this blindness. In this case, and many times it happens to be in healing, the glory of God’s power to heal. But there is nothing that says that it always has to be healing. This is so important for so many who suffer and for whatever reason God chooses not to heal.

 

Let me say that I joyfully, passionately, prayerfully, and expectantly believe in the healing power of God like we see in our story. I pray for my wife Terri every day for Jesus to heal her and regularly am expectant for it to come, yet still no healing. I have already prayed twice today for her healing.

 

When Paul cried out three times for his thorn in the flesh to be healed, Jesus said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). I will put my power on display, not by healing you, but by sustaining you. Same power, but different manifestation. In other words, healing grace displays the works of God in John 9, and sustaining grace displays the works of God in 2 Corinthians 12. What is common in the two cases is the supreme value of the glory of God. The blindness is for the glory of God; the thorn in the flesh is for the glory of God. The healing is for his glory, and the non-healing is for his glory.

 

Suffering can only have ultimate meaning in relation to God. If we don't believe that, then saying God has good and wise purposes in Terri's suffering will bring her no comfort. But if we believe it , not only will God's purposes comfort and strengthen us in all our pain, loss, and sorrows, but they will make us able to patiently and gently help others through their own times of darkness. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen god display His grace in and through Terri in sustaining her in her pain. I have seen my wife in some of lowest moments manifest the works of God as she would minister to others going through dramatically lessor pain and suffering than her and bring them strength and comfort.

 

Only God knows why we go through what we go through, but the promise is that He brings good out of everything that befalls us (Romans 8:28) and uses the worst pain, the worst suffering, the most confusing events of our lives to bring about ultimately, His glory whether in healing or sustaining. The blind man's life is a classic illustration of days, months, and years going by until it finally resulted in glory! (Romans 8:18, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.")

 One last observation. Verse 4, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.” This means two things: One is that the works of God referred to in verse 3, “that the works of God might be displayed”, these works of God will be done through the hands of Jesus. Jesus is going to heal this man’s blindness. The works of God are the works of Jesus.

Second, he must do this quickly, because night is coming, and his work will be over. Jesus will turn from a ministry of healing to a ministry of dying. He will turn from the day-work of relieving suffering, and do the night-work of suffering himself. He will finally submit totally to the plan of his Father that the Son be swallowed up by the sin and suffering of the world. And if you join the disciples in asking: Why? Who sinned that this man must suffer like this? The answer would certainly be: Not him. We did. That is the cause of his suffering. But it’s not the decisive explanation. The decisive explanation is: He is suffering that the works of God might be displayed in him. The works of wrath-bearing, and curse-removing, and guilt-lifting, and righteousness-providing, and death-defeating, and life-giving, and in the end suffering-removing, totally removing. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). And over every sorrow and every disability and every loss embraced in faith for the glory of God will be written in blood: “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17–18).

May God give you eyes to see that the display of His works in his Son’s suffering and your suffering and others suffering are all expressions of his love  whether He displays His works in healing you or sustaining you.

Pastor Bill