Dignity and Disability
Notes
Transcript
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
Background
Background
In John 8 Jesus was at the temple teaching when the woman caught in the act of adultery was brought to him.
In Jn 8:20 Jesus was in the treasury teaching and debating with the Pharisees. This is on the left hand side. That long colonnade is where the market was held in the outer court and was the place where Jesus most likely overturned the money changers later. It also allowed him to talk to a larger crowd here since Gentiles could not enter the inner court of the temple. When Jesus makes his famous claim “Before Abraham was, I am,” and thereby claimed to be preexistent God, the Pharisees picked up rocks to stone him, but he hid himself and left the temple.
Jesus may have exited the back staircase that led into the old part of Jerusalem known as the City of David. See here:
As you can see, a road travels directly from the back staircase through the City of David like a main thoroughfare towards the Pool of Siloam. It may have been along this route that Jesus encountered the man born blind. This is where our story picks up in chapter 9. His precise location is not mentioned in scripture. It just says, “As he passed by....”
Why Does Disability Occur in Scripture?
Why Does Disability Occur in Scripture?
Disability occurs in scripture for 3 reasons:
Disability occurs in scripture for 3 reasons:
Natural reasons - the result of living in a fallen world and having a sinful nature that leads to poor choices. We see examples of natural reasons for disability in the story of Mephibosheth becoming lame in both feet because of a childhood accident; Hannah was infertile; Moses had a stutter; the Apostle Paul had poor eyesight. But regardless of the disability, God honors the disabled and holds them in high esteem.
And there was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number, and he also was descended from the giants.
Psalm 139:13–16 (ESV)
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
Lev 19:14 You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Logical reasons - this is also known as divine judgment for sin. Examples of this include Adam and Eve being kicked out of the Garden of Eden, the Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, or universal judgment for sin. The important thing to note about Logical Reasons is that God allows or causes suffering either as a consequence or as a call to repentance.
Isaiah 45:5–7 (ESV)
I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.
Lamentations 3:31–33 (ESV)
For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Supernatural reasons - This is where disability occurs so that the works and character of God might be displayed in/through a person. The most famous example of this is the story of Job, but we also see it through the healing of Naaman from leprosy and Jesus healing the crowds with their infirmities
Micah 4:6–7 (ESV)
In that day [the day of the Messiah], declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted; and the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off, a strong nation; and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore.
Zephaniah 3:19 (ESV)
Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.
Matthew 15:29–31 (ESV)
Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
FROM THE BOOK “THE AIR WE BREATHE”:
“In the Gospels (the biographies of Christ’s life), the word that describes Jesus’ emotional life more than any other is “compassion”. The authors had to reach for an odd Greek word to describe his depth of feeling: a verb form of the word for “intestines”. When describing love, we moderns speak romantically of “the heart”, but ancient people knew that the deepest feelings are experienced in our innards. And such stomach-churning pity was so obvious in Jesus that the Gospel writers continually spoke of it. When he brought healing (Matthew 20:34), restoration (Mark 1:41), or new life (Luke 7:13), we are told that he was moved with [gut-level] compassion.”
Scrivener, Glen. The Air We Breathe: How We All Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality (pp. 55-56). The Good Book Company. Kindle Edition.
QUESTION: How do we move from intellectual assent that the disabled are worthy of being treated with dignity to a “gut-level” compassion that drives us to do so?
“Medical care did not, of course, originate with Christians. The Greeks had their physicians and manuals. The Romans had their “sick bays” for slaves and soldiers. But such sick bays existed in order to return the injured to economic and military usefulness. Christians, following the lead of the good Samaritan, developed something new: healthcare for all. The religious scholar David Bentley Hart gives a sketch of the early development:
“St. Ephraim the Syrian (A.D. c. 306-373), when the city of Edessa was ravaged by plague, established hospitals open to all who were afflicted. St. Basil the Great (A.D. 329-379) founded a hospital in Cappadocia with a ward set aside for the care of lepers, whom he did not disdain to nurse with his own hands. St. Benedict of Nursia (A.D. c. 480 – c. 547) opened a free infirmary at Monte Cassino and made care of the sick a paramount duty of his monks. In Rome, the Christian noblewoman and scholar St. Fabiola (d. A.D. c. 399) established the first public hospital in Western Europe and—despite her wealth and position—often ventured out into the streets personally to seek out those who needed care. St. John Chrysostom (A.D. 347-407), while patriarch of Constantinople, used his influence to fund several such institutions in the city.”[31]
This care for the poor and sick was headed up by church leaders. Charity was considered integral to the faith and to the duties of each Christian, with the bishops leading the way. They presided over “mini welfare states”, with their size and infrastructure further growing after the conversion of the Roman emperor Constantine in 312.[32]
From the 5th century there was, to use medievalist James William Brodman’s phrase, a “cascade of hospitals”.[33] In the Middle Ages, just the monastic order of the Benedictines alone were responsible for more than 2,000 hospitals in western Europe.[34] These movements were thoroughly and particularly Christian. Today, if you need first aid, look for a white cross on a green background—the internationally recognised sign. If you’re in a crisis, it’s the “Red Cross” which millions turn to—a charity whose strapline sounds suspiciously like a summary of Jesus’ famous parable: “Refusing to ignore people in crisis”. The good Samaritan lives. In fact nowadays the good Samaritan is assumed.
But there’s nothing natural about this. Nature is “red in tooth and claw”, as the poet Tennyson put it.[35] Compassion comes from another realm. It is, in a real sense, “super-natural”.”
Scrivener, Glen. The Air We Breathe: How We All Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality (pp. 58-59). The Good Book Company. Kindle Edition.
Let there be a law that no deformed child shall be reared.
Aristotle
