“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ ” (Jn 9:1-2)
Those who question are men who follow Jesus closely. They are believers; they know his power to heal. But look closely at the question they choose to ask him.
It is not, “Will you heal this man?” or “How will you heal this man?”
It is, “Why did this happen to him?”
When the disciples looked upon the man who was blind from birth, they are most interested in why such a sad burden was placed on him. Without showing any interest in helping the man in his present sorrowful condition, they are only curious about the cause of his condition.
We do this all the time. We ask the wrong question. Questioning the problem, we wonder why we’ve been given a cross. We ask why we’re allowed to suffer, focusing on the genesis of the burden instead of focusing on the source of healing.
In Jesus’ time, it was widely held that one’s sin was the root of one’s suffering. Since this man was born blind, it was hard to imagine how he could have sinned in such a way to have deserved total darkness. Jesus is quick to correct them. He clarifies that the man’s blindness was not caused by some specific sin on the part of the man or his parents.
Instead, God allowed the suffering so “that the works of God might be made manifest in him.” (v. 3)
We imagine the childhood of this man. As a little boy, how many times did he ask his parents, “Why am I blind? What caused me to be different from everyone else? Why must I be so dependent when other people have freedom to come and go as they please?”
Maybe his parents were always at a loss to answer. Maybe they spent countless hours wondering what they could have done differently and if they were the cause of their child’s suffering. Perhaps they were wracked with guilt and doubt.
Jesus is quick to expunge the guilt. Instead of pointing to the cause, he points to the cure. Jesus explains that God wanted to work in and through even this heavy cross. He redirected the question away from the “why” and asked instead, “What can God do in this sorrow?”
What can God do in this? When we face difficulties not of our own making — things that aren’t caused by our own sin or foolishness or poor decisions — is our first and continuing response what can God do in this?
Life brings with it so many challenges. Things like birth defects, certainly, but also a medical diagnosis, a natural disaster, an injury or insult suffered at the hands of someone else, a job loss, the death of someone dear — all are ways we can and do suffer. What can God do in this?
In the case of the man born blind, the specific work of God would soon be revealed. Jesus would invite him to be healed. This is of course the happy resolution. In this man’s case, it came with excommunication from his community, so it was not without yet another cost, another cause to suffer. And Jesus would meet him there as well, a consolation and a companion in his desolation.
For us, God may reveal His works in other ways. He confers strength and endurance and grace and even joy in the midst of difficulties. He is there in the challenge. He brings light to the darkness. And he is comfort in the sorrow. He asks us not to focus on the why, but to look forward with hope to whatever good he can do in a bad situation.
Foss, whose website is takeupandread.org, writes from Connecticut.
