“As he [Jesus] went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’
‘Neither…'” said Jesus. (John 9:1-3)
We are always trying to play cause and effect with righteousness. Read your Bible; go to church; have your quiet time; and you will be a spiritual person, guaranteeing that things will go well for you. Fail to do these things and you leave yourself open to all kinds of bad things happening. And the converse is also the case. If things are going well, you must be doing it right, and if things are not well, you must have screwed up somewhere.
Christ’s answer as to the cause and effect of a man born blind was to detach the blindness from the normal human understanding of cause and effect. Sin didn’t have anything to do with it one way or another. There were reasons for the man’s blindness that had nothing to do with him, or his parent’s righteousness, or lack thereof.
The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. Job, a righteous man in anyone’s book, had the bottom fall out of his life. Lot, Abraham’s nephew, in the Old Testament appeared to be a compromising man with little moral backbone, and yet in the New Testament, we find out his righteous soul was being tormented day and night by the lawlessness around him. (2 Peter 2:7) “Righteous Lot?” That’s a real shocker.
All this means that the issue is not our lives fitting into some preconceived idea of righteousness or spirituality, but our faith holding fast regardless of the circumstances.
What happens when we lose a child, or a mate, or birth a mentally challenged baby?” Do we try and figure out what we did wrong (like Job’s friends did) or do we just accept what God sends our way and seek to find out, by faith, what He wants us to do?
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”
What work is God seeking to display in your life right now through what you cannot explain?
John Fischer The Catch 
Unbelievable! This directly relates to a friend’s situation I just learned about. Forwarded it along. God voices his advice and encouragement at just the right moment… again!
Wow that’s sooo good & praise the Lord!
What has God placed in my life I can’t explain? I’ve been out of work since the end of October. I wasn’t fired. My jow was eliminated…by my boss who just happened to be my friend of over 15 years. And in the time since I’ve been out of work, I’ve received exactly zero interviews in response to the hundreds of resumes I’ve sent out.
And yet everyday I recieve encouragement from my Bible and here at The Catch. The words remind me I am right where God wants me to be.
Hang in there, Michael. But don’t slack. Keep at it. God will show you the way.
Whoa! Talk about your cliffhangers! I hope you pursue that last line more tomorrow.
So, are you saying or are you saying the Bible says that God sent the blindness?
Yes.
I know you cannot explain such complicated theology in a five minute devotional, but you have opened a can of worms, John. Exceptions in the Bible don’t define the rule, they merely give an exception to the rule. The rule in the Bible that relates to this situation is, “You reap what you sow.” The disciples were perfectly justified in their question. For every exception to this rule that you can name, like Job, I can name scores of places where God says that He will judge every man according to his works, or that whatever we sow we will reap. So God makes the rules and God has a right to circumvent the rules if He so chooses. In some situations, that’s called mercy. 🙂
The pattern that I find in modern day believers is that we want to take the exceptions in the Bible and make them the rule. There are scores (I want to say hundreds, but I don’t want to exaggerate – it seems like hundreds) of places where Jesus told people that He had healed, “Your faith has made you whole.” Yet, I have friends that want to point to the few examples where He didn’t say that and postulate, “See, faith is not always required.” It is, He just didn’t mention it.
Why are we like that? Why do we choose to ignore the overwhelming majority of scripture in order to make a point? So in this case, yes, no one had sinned because God had a greater purpose here. And even in the case of the tower Christ mentions that had fallen on those people – they were not greater sinners than the ones it didn’t fall on. But you cannot ignore the overwhelming examples from both the Old and New Testaments where people did suffer because of their sins.
So my point is, learn from the exceptions, but don’t make a theology out of them.
Thanks for bringing this up.
Waitsel
Thank-you 4 writing this summary my friend Waitsel: “…learn from the exceptions, but don’t make a theology out of them.” Humm, I could be wrong, I often can be and I easily admit to my mistakes, yet could thought I read in II Tim chapter 3 that: “All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” Therefore it seems to me my friend you are the one that tends try every once in a while to piggion hole God on things and to give great humor and I’m sure laughs along with many sighs to our Lord & Savior… 🙂
How about, “The exception proves there is no rule.”? I take from John’s words that the problem is trusting in Formulas (“rules”) instead of a Living God who ultimately enforces ‘reap and sow’ by His wise standard not ours. Or, my faith is in God doing the right thing, not in how good I am at doing the Right Thing? Isn’t that the hope we share with Tim, others and ourselves when unwelcome and unexplainable negative happens?
Here is the rule to which there is no exception. The New Covenant replaced the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant was all about rewards and punishments based on behavior. The New Covenant is based on the blood Christ shed on the cross to put everything on another basis: Grace, Mercy and pleasing God by faith alone. Yes, faith without works is dead, but works are never the means, they are the evidence of faith.
Amen to that, John.
There are rules, John Haak, because one of the words used in Psalm 119 referring to God’s Word is the word “rule.” The Ten Commandments, besides being commandments, are rules to live by. When we break the rules, we suffer the consequences; just as when we break natural laws or rules, we suffer the consequences. One of the beauties of Grace is that God’s love covers our sins and sometimes (not always) covers the consequences.
I sure agree that the Bible has rules that are true and need to be followed. I meant there are “no rules” for God. He is free to enforce “reap and sow” as He sees fit. I can say, “Lying will lead to no good.” but not “You lost your job because your lied.”
Does that sound right?
Good point, John Haak, but…
That’s us today. In the First Century Church (Acts 5), Peter was able to say to Ananias, “…why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit… You have not lied to men but to God.” In the case of his wife, Sapphira, Peter not only accused her of conspiring with her husband and lying to the Holy Spirit, but he predicted the consequences of her sin: her death.
Believers back then were far, far bolder than believers today. Throughout the book of Acts, people were called on their sin – even Peter! That’s also true of the OT and the Gospels. Only today are we afraid to call a spade a spade… unless it relates to politics. I believe the Holy Spirit can tell you WHY someone is suffering, just as He did in the Bible. I’m not saying He will do that all the time, but sometimes, when it’s needed.
And we need to have the boldness to look someone in the eye and speak what the Holy Spirit has put in our heart – not just the good, but the “bad” as well. There’s a big difference between walking around looking for sin in people, and walking around asking God to show you what’s what. I don’t think we ask Him NEARLY enough. But I do believe He’s more than ready to tell us.
In other words, I think our world is sorely laking believers with a prophetic bent, or even a prophetic office, and it may be because we have all become people pleasers, co-dependents, and generally spiritual cowards.
Just a little afternoon venting. 🙂
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”
How is “The work of God” displayed though the lives of those that are disabled? Could it be by the Christ like actions of people who are doing the “Work of God?” When we exhibit behaviors such as visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting those who are in prison and caring for those who are disabled, then the Work of God is displayed. The sin would not lie in the parents of the disabled or in the disabled themselves but in those that have the opportunity to help and decide not to help.
Don’t forget the people themselves who often shine right through their disabilities in ways that shame those of us who have all our facilities operating normally.
Have to add an Amen to wat you wrote brother John, very simply becauz since I had a stroke back in 2001 – it’s been one a the biggest advantages in expanding my business.
Business has been lousy, on and off for the last two years I’ve had some undiagnosed neuro-muscular problem leaving me without enough energy to put into looking for more work, my wife dumped me, and now I’m just about broke and I can’t find a place to live.
And one of my best Christian buddies is losing his battle with cancer.
So yeah, this is fresh.
Yesterday our pastor pointed out that Hebrews 11:13 says, “All these people (of great faith) were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.”
This world is not our home, we’re just passing thru.
They died without receiving the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
The reward is not always an earthly reward. And in fact, it is far better if the reward is not an earthly reward. What we don’t see is more real than what we do see. We walk by faith, not by sight. Sometimes bad stuff happens to Godly people so that we can comfort others with the same comfort with which we ourselves have been comforted. We must be sure to see that the principle of sowing and reaping is an eternal message.
Dear brother Tim, just wanted to let u know, you are in my thoughts and prayers and I luv the verse you quoted out of Hebrews…
God’s speed & many blessings to you 🙂
Excellent Word, Tim. Thanks! Waits
May I plz advise you, Mr. John Haak to consider leaving our friend Waitsel Smith to his own … LOL Someday hopefully he’ll learn a bit more about how to balance things and about the Lord’s luv & mercy…
Mark, can you not disagree with me without mocking me and judging me? Christ never did that. As a matter of fact, look at His patience with Nicodemus in explaining the new birth. Look at His patience with His disciples. Look at His patience with US. A little more patience and a little less mocking would stand you in good stead… friend. 🙂 W
To answer: “Mark, can you not disagree with me without mocking me and judging me?” It’s simply as a very smart and Christian Psychologist once mentioned: (I’ll paraphrase) People that have a low self esteem don’t like it when you disagree with them, and take offence to it and will say you’re trying to put them down. And I’ll add “mocking & judging.” Simply because they may have never took the time to learn how to have a good self esteem, by learning to balance things and developing more of the Lord’s love, grace and mercy.
Thank you. I needed this today. It seems as if it spoke to many people. This one I need to read and re-read. Thank you again.
Dear John — This is one of those John messages that has my name on it (apparently Jodi’s too…). Thanks, Writer Man, for being a channel through which God speaks with such precision and tenderness to so many of us. Prayers for all your readers, for you, for Marti, for your dear ones.
Wow. I just went back and re-read all the comments. Great discussion (I need to go back and re-read them more often). I don’t know that we will ever ever ever understand God’s ways. Especially in a situation like this. If this example had not been included in scripture, and if God hadn’t chosen to reveal that the blindness was for His glory, we never would have thought that up on our own. I think it takes a lifetime sometimes to come to grips with God and His ways.
I recently had a prayer answered from literally about 12 yrs ago, a friend who’s divorce had totally broken his ties with his two young, now young adult, daughters. I’d always prayed that there would be reconciliation, preferably in time so the girls wouldn’t end up with toxic relationships with guys in their future. Guess what, after all these years, and one of them becoming a heroin addict and now in recovery, she has reconciled with my friend/coworker. God took a totally hopeless situation… he didn’t “fix” the marriage… he didn’t even “fix” the two adults involved… but yet His glory is now showing thru. When I told this friend that I’d been praying for this whole thing for years now, he had no idea. And he was truly grateful. I only did the one thing I could do, I didn’t know the other folks involved. This was all God working all these years.
Anyway, the answer is not as easy for those who have a severely autistic child (another friend of mine) yet God has shown his glory through her over the course of many years. Those dealing with a suicide of a husband/father yet God’s glory is already showing in the responses another friend received this week. My dad passed away Mar 1 and I have begun to see God’s hand in many things through his illness and after his death.
It’s hard. Maybe we look too hard for God to do something huge and obvious. I don’t know. But it is hard and God’s glory often comes over time instead of immediately. I think His comfort comes quickly but we can only hope to live out our days to see His glory come also.
wanted to say thank you Kellie 4 your post, i throughly enjoyed reading it and it drew a few tears to my eyes…
also let me plz add to my brother Waitsel, i’m so sorry and please forgive me if i offended you in any way shape or form….