John 9:1-2

"Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" John 9:1-2

Tommy stumbled through the darkness seeking shelter from the storm. "Why did this have to happen tonight? Why did it have to be raining?" Many "why's" filled his confused mind. He found no answers to any of them. Still, he trudged on through the woods, stumbling frequently. It wasn't until he paused to take a breather and soothe his bruised knees that he heard the whimpering sound from a nearby bush. He sought to ignore it. The sound persisted and seemed to bore straight into his heart. Slowly, carefully, cautiously he crept toward the bush. With great trepidation he parted the leafy branches to find ... an apparently newborn baby, cold, shivering, and weak. Now he had the answers to every "why" he had uttered. It all happened to save the life of this one lonely, nearly frozen, infant.

Like our fictional character, Jesus' disciples were wondering why the blind fellow begging just outside the Temple was blind. Was it because of his own sin? Was it because of the sins of his parents? There had to be a reason. According to Jewish tradition, every sin had a serious repercussion. Since this man was blind - from birth - there could be only one of two reasons. The first seemed rather ridiculous on first inspection: it was the result of the man's own sins. The sins of an infant? Infants can't sin. They don't have the capability to be anything but be pure and innocent. Again the mind of the Jew would not rule out this possibility. But a more likely scenario was that his mother or father or both had committed some horrible atrocity against God that God could not help but punish them - and what better way than to bring forth a blind child - one that would be permanently dependent upon them?

Jesus refused to give value to either of those possibilities. "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him." Now this is a new and disturbing concept. God would allow some lifelong illness to happen so that His work should be shown? Is it possible that all the anguish, all the suffering, all the leading the blind beggar to the Temple was just a ploy of God to allow Jesus to do something to show God's power? Could God be that horrible? That thoughtless?

Ah, such questions. If I read my Bible correctly, God does not do that to people. Satan does. Satan inflicts needless pain and suffering. Satan causes man to curse the day he was born. Oh, he doesn't do it openly. Nor does the devil do it in such a way that the person so inflicted can't have a choice in the way he reacts. Nor can Satan do it without prior approval. God knew about this man's affliction. He knew when it happened. And He knew exactly how the problem would be resolved. If it were to be any other way, God would never have approved this seemingly useless act of disfigurement.

No, God had everything under control - and we are about to see the results of that control, because the man's life is just about to be turned upside down! But we must wait until tomorrow to get the whole - no, just the beginning - effects of this deliverance. And that same deliverance is available to you and to me - today. Amen and Amen.