Why Did God Allow This?

Introduction

I mentioned last week how much I like the Gospel of John. In this reading I see one more reason for this. In the other Gospels, the motivation for Jesus’ miracles seems to be that he was moved by compassion. We see this often, Jesus sees someone, he is moved by compassion, and so he brings healing to that person.

In this morning’s passage, there is a little different motivation. Our reading this morning starts out that they see this blind man, and the disciples ask, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” This was the common thought of the day; tragedy or death had to be the direct result of sin in our lives. We don’t believe that anymore. Tragedy and death happen because we live in a fallen world filled with fallen people. I do firmly believe that God uses tragedy to teach us and to correct us, but we really don’t believe that He causes the tragedy

Jesus answered his disciples question by saying that nobody sinned. He was born blind “so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” I love that answer. I want you to think about this for a minute. He was born for the same reason any of us were born. So that the work of God might be displayed in our lives. He was to be healed, and everyone would know that Jesus brought that healing, through the power of God. This healing would bring glory to God. His life, from this point on, would bring glory to God.

Have you ever thought why God choose you? You were called by the Holy Spirit to be a believer. Why you? So that the work of God might be displayed in your life. Will there be some miracle that you can show to others? I don’t know. But I do know that the day-to-day stuff that we go through, how we conduct ourselves every day, is a pretty powerful witness to the work of God in our lives.

Remember that next time something happens. Remember that God is with you, and how you respond can either show others the work of God in your life, or can have quite the opposite effect. This man was healed of his blindness, he saw Jesus for who he really is, the Messiah, the Christ, and he tried to point others to the same good news.

And this really is good news! A man born blind – completely healed of his blindness! The problem was, it was done on the Sabbath. The Pharisee’s interpretation of the Sabbath law was quite extreme. Even making the mud for the healing was a violation of the Sabbath. Healing was definitely a violation! The Pharisee’s meant well, they thought they were honoring God by observing the Sabbath like this. But for Jesus, it seemed a little foolish, way beyond God’s intent in keeping a day of rest. Either way, in their eyes, Jesus was guilty of breaking the Sabbath, he was a common sinner.

The Pharisee’s interpretation was so strict that you couldn’t even wear shoes with nails in them, because the weight of nails would constitute carrying a burden, and you were forbidden from carrying any burden on the Sabbath. That was certainly extreme. Today most Christians don’t do much, if anything, with the Sabbath. I think that’s another extreme. God gave us the Sabbath for a reason; we should try to find the happy medium here. Why did God give us the Sabbath? What can we do to observe the Sabbath, without going to either extreme? What does God desire of us on the Sabbath? Something to reflect on…

I see a frustration in this passage between the Pharisees and this man who was healed. They are thinking in very theological terms, and they want to understand this thing that’s happened. But the man born blind is not a theologian. He couldn’t explain what happened in the theologically correct language that the Pharisees might have understood.

He knew what Jesus did for him! He could be a witness to that. Folks, we don’t have to be theologians to understand what Jesus did for us! Even when we don’t understand it in our heads, we can feel it in our hearts, and we can be a witness to that. So often we don’t want to share our faith because we don’t know how, we don’t know what to say. We don’t have the theologically correct terminology. Who cares? This man just tried to explain what Jesus did for him!

In Acts 1:8, it says, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This hadn’t been said yet, but somehow the man understood. He experienced a miracle, and when we experience the miraculous, we just want to tell people! And that’s all that’s expected of us. We are to be witnesses to the glory of God in our lives. We’ve all experienced the miraculous. Our hard hearts have been softened and opened, and the Holy Spirit has entered. That in itself is a miracle. But most of us have experienced answered prayers. That’s the miraculous!

Of course in this man’s case, the people weren’t ready to believe him. Often in our cases, people won’t be ready to believe us, either! But he went to the people that he knew, his friends and neighbors that had seen him begging all these years. He tries to tell them, but they don’t understand. They ask, “How were your eyes opened?” He explains everything. “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go the Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.” Siloam was a spring just outside the city. He did what he was told, and now he can see.

This was a miracle. There were no other cases of a man actually born blind, who had ever had his vision restored. Especially with anything as simple as putting mud on the eyelids. They didn’t understand it, so they took him to the Pharisees. They know something about the things of God, they will understand!

Unfortunately, the Pharisee’s were theologically vigilant, but spiritually blind. They were very aware of Jesus; they had been watching him since his baptism in the Jordan River. They knew that he was getting more and more popular, and they were a little concerned over his popularity. They had arrested John, now they their attention turned to Jesus. That’s why maybe they didn’t really wanting to understand this miracle, they just got a little hung up on the fact that it happened on a Sabbath. They saw this as a chance to discredit him! To maybe draw some attention away from him. They can accuse him of sin. They heard from the other people what had happened, but now they wanted to hear directly from the man born blind. Again, he told them. He made mud and put it on my eyes; I washed it off, now I can see!

I imagine the Pharisee’s delighted in his answer. We’ve got him now! Jesus broke the Sabbath. Not only can we publicly discredit him, maybe we can even arrest him! Throw him in the slammer and throw away the key! Jesus won’t be a problem anymore. But they weren’t all agreed. I mean, sure, he broke the Sabbath and all, but this did sound like a miracle. In fact, when they asked the man, we see this in verse 17, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened. The man replied, ‘He is a prophet.’” I suspect they hesitated a little when they heard that.

So they called the man’s parents. Maybe if they can prove he wasn’t born blind, that would be the out! If he wasn’t really blind, there was no healing, and we’ve still got him for breaking the Sabbath. But the parents are a little afraid of the Pharisees. They would really rather not get involved.

The Pharisees were pretty powerful; they have the power to ex-communicate you, that’s what it means in verse 22, when it says they would “put you out of the synagogue.” They would throw you out of the church and forbid other Jews to even talk to you. This doesn’t sound so extreme to us, if we couldn’t come here there are a dozen other churches within ten miles we could go to, but at that time, this was all there was. If you were put out of the synagogue, that was pretty serious. So the parents were afraid to say anything.

They did confirm that he was born blind, but they didn’t venture to add anything else. He’s old enough to tell you himself, leave us alone. So they called the man in again. They accuse Jesus of being a common sinner because he violated the Sabbath law, and then, for about the fourth time, they want to hear what happened.

His response is the classic response that we’ve all heard before. “Whether he was a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know, I was blind, but now I see!”

He even went on, in verses 31-33, “We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” Of course that didn’t sit well with the Pharisees. They were trying to cut Jesus down, and this man was saying he was a man of God.

Sometimes, we’re a little like the Pharisees then we care to admit. We get preoccupied with our lives, and we don’t see what God is doing right in front of us. We sometimes even miss what God is doing through us, or even for us.

But we can be more like this blind man. Once blind to spiritual truths, we can see now. True, our understanding is limited, but because of the work of the Holy Spirit, we can see and understand spiritual things. And in our devotions and our Bible reading and Bible Study, we can understand a little more. And as we humble ourselves and submit to God, He reveals even a little more.

We can also learn from his response. We certainly don’t understand everything, but we know the difference Jesus has made in our lives. We know the difference our faith makes. That’s what we can witness too. Witness to others about the change in you. But don’t argue with them. We will never argue anyone into the kingdom of heaven. We can only share what happened in our lives. And what God continues to do in our lives. And the benefit that we have because of we are people of faith. The times that our faith has brought us through difficult times. Be a witness to these things.

We don’t know everything. But we know Jesus – and that makes all the difference!