Perfected in disability

Why doesn’t God heal amputees? This is the name of a website a friend of mine directed me to when he was explaining why, after a year or so of considering becoming a Christian, he was deciding against it. The website, like the question, really boiled down to the problem of suffering - if God is good, why doesn’t he heal amputees?

I didn’t know what to say at the time. And to be honest, I think the fact that my friend lobbed this website at me, rather than coming and asking me directly showed that the deal was done, he had already decided he didn’t want to accept Christianity.

But, as you might’ve guessed, this question about healing - specifically healing of disabilities has been on my mind every since I can remember having questions. From as far back as I can recall, I’ve always been aware that I am different, that my body doesn’t do the things that most people’s bodies do. As a child I was a ware that most of my friends had no trouble jumping up off the ground to run outside and play. I knew that most of my friends didn’t fall over like I did.

I remember thinking, how is this fair? Why do I have to experience the brokenness of the world this way? Why can’t God just make my disability go away?

Last week we began a series of talks called perfected in weakness. We heard the unsettling and upside down truth that God’s power is most clearly shown not in strength, but weakness. God shows us who he is by making himself weak - a human who endures every kind of suffering we experience, and willingly accepts a slaves humiliating death. We heard that because he has done that, it means he can sympathise with our weakness, and it means that when we feel weak, he is right there showing us who he is, sitting with us in solidarity.

So, rather than being an obstacle to us knowing God, and being known by him, our weakness is actually an asset. It’s how God operates.

But it’s one thing to say that in the abstract, it’s quite another to say that about something like disability, the topic we’re thinking about today.

Can we really say that the weakness of disability is an asset?

I’m hoping we can once again see God’s love for us at work in weakness as we look at these questions but first we need to figure out just what we mean when we say the word disability.

What is a disability?

State

As Professor John Swinton points out, many of us think we know what disability is. We think we know what the word means, until we’re asked to define it.

Medical

Many people think of a wheelchair user. After all, the guy using the wheelchair is what marks out the accessible parking space, toilet, website. I’m not sure why wheelchair users get to be the symbol.

Perhaps we think of a particular medical diagnosis e.g. cerebral palsy, or downes syndrome, or multiple sclerosis.

This way of approaching disability is really saying that it’s a problem an individual faces. Their body doesn’t work the way it should - in some way. And the way we ought to respond to disability is by trying to find medical cures, and until they’re found, with compassion and charity.

There’s something to be said for this. It reflects the experience of many people. It’s fairly obvious that legs are designed to allow us to walk, that hands are there to allow us to grab things, that eyes are there to allow us to see.

But there’s also some serious problems with thinking that disability is just about medical problems.

For one thing, medical knowledge is always changing, advancing. What counts as a disability now has not always been seen that way. And medical diagnoses are often very broad and often have very little to do with the day to day experience of an individual.

For instance, when I’m working in my study, e.g. writing this talk, I have no awareness that I have a disability. It just isn’t on my radar because my environment is suited to my body, I’m able to do everything I need to do without really thinking abou it. It’s only when I’m out of my element, like in an office with stairs that I feel disabled.

Many people have realised this and suggested we need a different way to think about disability. Disability isn’t a problem for an individual person, there’s nothing with having a body or mind that is unusual, the problem is how we as a society treat people who don’t fit our idea of ‘normal’.

This approach is known as the social model.

Social/environmental

The social model points out that the way we treat people with unusual bodies often has nothing to do with whatever health issues they face.

And you can test this idea yourself. Next time you go shopping, have a look at what’s on the top and bottom shelves of the supermarket and ask yourself, what kind of body do you have to have in order to shop here? And you can do the same for public transport, or cinemas, or the pool. Ask, what kind of a body do you need in order to use this facility?

When we ask that question, we can see that often, we as a society only cater to a pretty narrow range of bodies.

So perhaps disability is just the way society treats people with unusual bodies. Maybe people with disabilities don’t need to be healed, they just need to be included?

A working definition

Really, it’s hard to pin down exactly what we mean by disability, but the WHO’s definition is ok - disability is a complex interaction between individuals with some kind of health condition in combination with a range of social and environmental factors.

It’s both a medical and social weakness. And if that’s the case, how does God respond to it?

How does God respond to disability?

God sees people with disabilities

We see this play out when Jesus interacts with people with disabilities in the gospels. One such example is in John chapter 9.

We’re told that Jesus sees the man. The disciples also see the man, and can’t help but ask the question, who is at fault? This is basically like saying ‘this guy is a mistake, his whole existence is a problem, but who can we blame? It’s a question that often gets asked around people with disabilities. And it’s not an innocent one. It reduces a person made in the image of god to an object, a writing prompt for a theological essay.

But Jesus refuses the disciples question. Not just by saying that neither he or his parents were to blame. But he pushes back on the whole approach of seeing a person as merely an object. As a philosophical conundrum to be studied like we might study an unusual insect under a microscope.

Unfortunately our translations often don’t help us here. But I’ve done my best to show what the underlying Greek text says to help us see that Jesus is not answering their question but changing the subject.

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned. But that God’s works might be displayed in him we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day, night is coming when no one can work.”

In other words, don’t waste time debating who is to blame, get on with the work the Father has given to you.

What is that work, what does Jesus do but go and approach the man. Jesus does this little ritual with mud, offering the man a sign that fits with the senses he has i.e. touch, and then tells him to go and wash.

The disciples are interested in the mans past, but Jesus is calling our attention to his future, and the way in which Jesus will glorify God through him.

So we see firstly that God responds to disability by preferencing the person, not the disbaility. He considers that those of us with unusual bodies don’t need to be the subject of debate, we need the healing and revealing presence of God just as much as those who fit the norm. In fact, the irony is that the disciples are just as much ‘in the dark’ about God’s purposes here as the man was.

God understands what it’s like to be disabled

Secondly, we see that this is no tick and flick healing. John gives us an entire chapter fleshing out what happens to the man, and it’s remarkable how insightful John’s understanding of disability is. We see many of the things we noted about the social model of disability. In verses 8-9 there’s this big discussion in the whole town saying, isn’t that the guy who used to beg. But others can’t believe it and they say no. Who ought to be the one being heard here? The guy himself! And yet no one is listening to him! He’s like ‘hello! I’m right here!’

One of the things wheelchair users notice, and then sadly have to get used to is people talking over them, or around them, or to anyone but them. A wheelchair seems to signal to people, this person can’t understand so don’t bother engaging with them. It’s similar to the disciples questioning, treating the man as an object.

The other thing to notice is how the people around the man can’t seem to separate him from his disability. If he’s no longer blind, he’s not the man born blind anymore. So who is he? He doesn’t have that problem, but they do. From his perspective, his disability was never his defining characteristic. He knows, as Jesus does, that he is the same person, blind or sighted.

God treats people with disabilities as real people

The one awkard thing about this whole episode is that it might suggest that if you want to be a disciple, you need can’t be disabled. After all, the man only comes to faith after he is healed and after he’s had time to debate with his neighbours, and then the pharisees about who Jesus is. The whole thing seems to point to the man gradually realising who Jesus is - the Son of God, but it all starts with his healing. Where does that leave those who aren’t healed? How does it fit with the great truth of the gospel that God’s power is perfected in weakness?

It’s an awkward question, and as many disabled Christians know, it’s a question that sometimes makes people suspicious of them. If I’ve prayed for healing, and God hasn’t healed me, is my faith not strong enough? Or is there some secret sin I need to confess? Or is there something I’m not doing?

This episode in John 9 might point us in that direction, but if we take a step back and see it against the whole of John’s gospel, we see that Jesus is very cleverly detaching healing and salvation, health and being righteous. Where the disciples assume that blindness meant someone sinned, Jesus refuses the quesiton. But this is not the first healing in John. In fact, it’s the 3rd. And back in John 5 we see Jesus heal a man on the Sabbath. It generates some controversy, and just like here the man who was healed is interrogated by the Pharisees. But in John 5, the man does not become a disciple. He is healed, but he is not saved - at least not that we know. The point is that disability does not equal sin. And health does not equal holiness.

Instead, Jesus is showing us that able and disabled alike are called to make the choice to follow him. God treats people with disabilities as real people, who can make real choices. And the choice everyone in John’s gospel, and indeed everyone in the world is asked to make is will you follow Jesus? Will you become a disciple.

How ought we respond to disability?

I just want to highlight 3 things:

1. Expect full fledged discipleship

Because God’s offer of salvation is open to everyone, we ought to expect everyone, every disciple of Jesus to grow.

All of us, no matter what kind of body we have, no matter how our brains work, or what abilities we have, we’re all called to grow as disciples of Jesus.

Now, if our ability is low, that’s fine. But we ought not confuse growing as disciples with becoming highly educated. Being a disciple means becoming like Jesus, who embraced weakness. Who used displayed God’s power and love for us by becoming weak, even to death.

So if that’s how Jesus shows his love, if that’s the model of discipleship, then anyone abled bodied or disabled can be a disciple.

Illustration - low expectations

One of the hardest things about having a disability is low expectations. When my Dad went to school, he was not allowed to go to his local public school but was instead sent to a school for the disabled. The school meant well, but because it had to cater to every conceivable disability, it ended up aiming for the lowest common denominator. And that meant that severe intellectual disability. By the age of 20, my Dad and his friend Guy still had not finished the HSC. And at that point, facing a life with bodies that prevented them from blue collar work, and educations that left them with no other option, they protested and wrote to the NSW premier. The low expectations placed on Dad and Guy would’ve consigned them to poverty, or living with their parents for the rest of their lives, perhaps working in a sheltered workshop. Needlessly as it turns out becauase my Dad went and got a degree and became a public servant, and Guy went and got a Masters and became senior electrical engineer at Motorola.

We ought to respond to disability by having high expectations. We ought not consign people to ‘sheltered discipleship’. Jesus redeems all of us from the tyranny of low expectations. God calls each of us, regardless of ability to follow him with everything we have.

2. Expect to see God’s power perfected in disability!

When I say the words ‘a perfect body’, what do you think of? Is it that of an olympic athletes, in their early 20s? Or is it Holywood star, also in their 20s? Or a model, in her 20s?

As Christians, our hope is in the resurrection, when our bodies will be redeemed and made like Jesus’ glorious body. I wonder what image pops into your head when you think of that? What kind of body do you imagine?

The surprising, even unsettling thing is, we only have one example of a resurrected body, and it has scars. And Jesus glorious resurrected body still had the evidence of his crucifixion, how else could Thomas have been convinced?

Theologians like Nancy Eisland point out that what we imagine a perfect body to be tells us what we think the image of God is. And instead of taking inspiration from our culture, we ought instead to meditate on God’s preference for weakness, for turning human expectations on their head.

She even goes so far as to imagine God using a using a sip-puff wheelchair. This image, like the image of Jesus crucified bearing plague sores might be historically inaccurate, but, she argues, it says something important. It says, God’s power is perfected in disability.

God may choose to heal. But God does not need to heal eyes that don’t see, or ears that don’t hear or muscles that aren’t strong or minds that are easily overwhelmed in order for his power to be perfected in us.

We ought to expect that people with disabilities won’t just be the ones to receive our ministry - we’re not just talking about charity here. No, God’s power is perfected in weakness, so people with disabilities will be the ones ministering to us and with us - powerfully.

And thirdly, the reality is, at some point, people with disabilities will include you.

3. Expect that you will have a disability at some point

In Australia, the stats are that 70% of us will spend some time with a disability at some point in our lives. As we live longer, chances are something in our bodies will fail.

At that point, we face a crisis. Because if we’ve made our abilities a core part of who we are, we are going to be hit hard. If we think that our ability to run, walk, lift, travel, work, or hear is essential to us, if we think, as many people with disabilities hear said to them, if that happened to me I’d top myself, then we have a probelm.

It’s normal to grieve loss. It’s normal to question, to plead with God for healing. It’s natural to express frustration when what used to come easily is now a struggle. We can have the most inclusive, accepting church in the world and that won’t change the fact that some of the frustration of disability comes just because your body doesn’t do what it should do.

But while it’s right to grieve, we must stop short of despair. We must not think that our usefulness to God is over, or that we’ve fallen out of his favour, or that our lives are over - more on that in a few weeks when we talk about dying with dignity.

Because, when we consider how God responds to disability, how his power is perfected in weakness, we ought to be preparing for the time when we will all experience weakness, and prepare for God to work through it. For him to make himself known to us in a new and deeper way. For him to do great and glorious things through weak people like us. For our lives to more and more look like the life and death of Jesus, as we anticipate one day sharing in his resurrection.