John 9:1ff
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”
But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.
17 Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”
The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
Why Do Bad Things Happen?
Why? Why this? Why now? It’s crazy to think how quickly a virus can spread. But as contagious as the disease is, the panic seems even more viral. When will the toilet paper run out? Where can I buy hand sanitizer?
I’d be lying if I told you that I haven’t almost envied those under quarantine – 2 weeks of Netflix sounds pretty good to me – but what about the missed income? How about those hourly workers whose jobs are evaporating? What’s this all going to do for the future of our economy? Health is just one side of it.
So, why? Why this? Why now?
People have been asking that question for generations. It wasn’t all that long ago that we had similar fears about Ebola and the Swine Flu and SARS. We dare not forget the traumas of wars past or the personal tragedies in our family histories.
It happened in Jesus’ day too. Pontius Pilate once murdered a group of Galileans in cold blood while they were worshiping. A tower fell in Siloam and killed 18 people. A man was born blind. The people wanted to know why. Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”[1]
It’s tempting to see tragedy and trouble as a sign of an angry God; to imagine the God of the universe exacting revenge for the wrongs that we do; in short, to see flashes of our First Lesson for today from Isaiah 42:
“For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools.”[2]
The pent-up rage of God has to be vented out sometime, right? God won’t leave the wicked unpunished forever, will he? There has to be someone to blame.
Have you felt that yourself when something bad happens to you? Racing through your recent memory to see if or when or how you deserve this from God? From the minor migraine to the major loss – what did I do to deserve this?
But therein lies the problem. We often like to think of our relationship with God as a transactional one, e.g. “I do good, God treats me well. I do bad, he punishes me.” In a way we almost turn God into nothing more than a vending machine – entirely passive until we push his buttons and prompt him, only getting out of him what we put into him. But God is much more complex than that, and he doesn’t wait for us to act before he does.
When his disciples asked about the man born blind, Jesus, uncharacteristically, gave them a direct answer: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned [that he was born blind].” This wasn’t punishment for a specific sin. Instead Jesus says, “This happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”[3]
Does it sound to you like God afflicted this man with blindness from birth just so that Jesus could have this one moment? Does that sound fair to you – a lifelong handicap just so that Jesus could get his glory? Jesus even said, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned”! He hadn’t done anything wrong to deserve this! Well, that’s not exactly true, is it?
Jesus is not saying that this man and his parents were sinless. The Bible is perfectly clear on that point: “Every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood;”[4] “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”[5] When the tower in Siloam fell and killed 18 people, Jesus himself said, “Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”[6]
Tragedy is not a cosmic act of karma nor is it usually a divine act of judgment against a specific sin. That’s the good news. Coronavirus is not God’s judgment on sinful mankind. But that doesn’t mean that mankind is not sinful or deserving of punishment. The bad news is that both this man and his parents were sinners and because of their sin they deserved much worse than for him to be born blind. All of us do. And while tragedy and trouble may not be God’s judgment against us, they do remind us how much we deserve it.
Isaiah warned us of the same thing in his prophecy: “You have seen many things, but you pay no attention; your ears are open, but you do not listen.”[7] We may not have been born physically blind, but by nature we are all spiritually blind.
We have every advantage in this world. We have wealth and health and stability and security that would have been the envy of every prior generation. We have the full testimony of God, tracing the promises of salvation throughout human history and explaining them to us for our eternal future. We have the freedom and the opportunity to worship him weekly and study his Word daily, but so often we close our eyes to him and plug our ears. We live this life as if this is all that matters, and then God finds a way to remind us how blind we are to reality.
God didn’t cause this man to be born blind. That was the result of being born into a world broken by sin. But God did use this man’s blindness – this horrible handicap – to highlight Jesus’ power to save.
It’s kind of gross the way he does it, isn’t it – making mud out of dirt and spit and then smearing on his face? But at the same time there’s a beauty and intimacy to that gesture. On more than one other occasion Jesus demonstrated that he could heal people with a word from a distance. But here he stoops down to the ground and gets his hands dirty and meets the man where he is weak with the tender touch of a doctor who knows exactly where to apply the balm. One command and an act of obedience later, and this man was healed. He could see! And everyone else could see that Jesus has the power to save.
It was news worthy. All the people were talking about it, but if you ask me, what was really remarkable about that day is that an adult man being able to see for the first time in his entire life wasn’t even the biggest miracle. We read before – we don’t need to read again – this whole debacle with the Pharisees taking issue over Jesus healing on the Sabbath Day; we can talk about that another day. But for now, I want to point your attention to the end of that conversation: Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.”[8]
This man may have been able to see, but he was still blind spiritually. He didn’t know who Jesus really was. And so, after the Pharisees grew tired of him and threw him out, Jesus found him again and performed another, greater miracle.
[Jesus said to him], “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.[9]
Having experienced the power of God to save him from physical blindness, this man was finally ready to believe in Jesus as his Savior from spiritual blindness. He could not know the hopelessness of his condition or the hope of his salvation until Jesus came and used this horrible handicap to highlight his power to save.
It makes you wonder what might have happened to the man if he had been born whole. Would he have been receptive to Jesus without the crisis in his body? Or, would he have been like so many of us who have seen many things, but pay no attention; whose ears are open, but do not listen?[10] Sometimes God uses tragedies, hardship, viral infections to help us see how hopeless our lives would be without him.
If we spend our whole lives dedicated to family and they’re suddenly taken from us by an act of nature entirely out of our control, then what hope is left to us? If we live to live life to the full, but suddenly we can’t enjoy sports or travel or our ukulele group at the library anymore, then what are we spending our lives chasing? If all we want is to be healthy and live a good, long life but can’t control who else might transmit the potentially deadly virus to us, then what good is our goal?
Things like the coronavirus remind us how little control we have over this life. They prick our consciences and call to mind all the ways we deserve to be treated much worse by the God we so often neglect. They remind us of our mortality but they also turn us to our God who has the power to save.
Could God put an end to the pandemic today in answer to our prayers? Of course he could! And if that were his will we would rejoice. But don’t forget that even after his sight was restored, the man born blind was not saved. Physical health is of no good if spiritual health doesn’t accompany it. And God desires your spiritual health! That’s why he sent his Son to save you.
God didn’t send Jesus to make your life on earth long or prosperous. He sent him to die a horrible death here, so that even after you die – however and whenever that day might come – you can have the sure and certain hope of eternal life with him in heaven.
Jesus came to save your soul from sin and death and if worldwide panic is what it takes to get your attention, to get you to turn to him and see his power to save, then rejoice that God could use an evil thing for your eternal good.
So, why? Why the coronavirus? Why now? God only knows. But he wants you to know that come virus, famine or plague, fires, drought or floods, his sincere desire is your eternal salvation. He wants it so badly that he gave his only Son to secure it for you on the cross. He wants your salvation so badly that he continues to speak to you in his Word. He wants your salvation so badly that even tragedy can serve his purpose to bring you closer to him.
God, open our eyes to see your heart for sinners, the hopelessness of life without you, but the hope that you give us through your Son, Jesus. In his name. Amen.
[1] John 9:2
[2] Isaiah 42:14,15
[3] John 9:3
[4] Genesis 8:21
[5] Romans 3:23
[6] Luke 13:4,5
[7] Isaiah 42:20
[8] John 9:17
[9] John 9:35-38
[10] Isaiah 42:20