Jesus’ Explanation for Tragedy

Sermon preached by Pastor C. John Steer

Autumn Ridge Church, Rochester, MN

May 3 & 4, 2008

 

 

 

Scripture:          John 9:1-41

No 13:             John’s Gospel

 

 

Sooner or later all of us will encounter tragedy. 

At that time it is natural to ask the question, Why? 

Why me?  Why has this happened? 

The answer we come to will determine our actions and attitudes in the face of suffering.

 

Today we look at Jesus’ Explanation for Tragedy. 

So please turn to John chapter 9 in your Bible and the sermon outline. 

The passage begins, “As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth.” (v 1)

Now this in itself is remarkable.  Remember that Jesus is running from a group of men who want to kill him.

Jesus had escaped their clutches by “Slipping away from the temple grounds.” (John 8:59)

 

I think if I had a bunch of assassins coming after me I would do my best to break the world record for the 100 meters. 

I certainly wouldn’t notice a blind beggar at the side of the road.

But Jesus does. It is a mark of his extraordinary compassion that he sees the suffering and stops to help.

 

So here is a tragic situation. This man has never seen the beauty of the world. He is unable to go where sighted people can travel. As there were no social services in those days his blindness results in abject poverty and he is reduced to a life of begging. It is all so unfair and we naturally ask the question why?

 

Right away we are introduced to the DISCIPLES’ EXPLANATION

for tragedy.

“His disciples asked Jesus, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’” (v 2)

The disciples’ explanation for suffering is sin.

 

For them life is a simple equation.

Sin equals suffering.

If you sin you will suffer.

Therefore if someone is suffering they must have sinned.

 

Now this is a view that has been in the news recently with the comments of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright who suggested that America got what it deserved on 9/11. 

Dr. Jerry Falwell made a similar comments right after the tragic events of that day. He said God was judging us because of our nation’s embrace of homosexuality.

President Bush showed himself to be a superior theologian to Dr. Falwell. He rebuked him and asked for an apology which was duly given.

 

There is an element of truth behind this explanation that suffering is the result of sin, because there was no suffering until sin entered the world.

On a universal level it is true that sin is the cause of suffering.

However, it is not correct to go to the next step and say that an individual’s personal suffering is always the result of their personal sin.

 

Now the disciples might argue that some sinful actions do result in suffering.  Look at the drunk driver who kills a pedestrian.

Look at the connection between the sexually transmitted disease of syphilis in the mother and blindness in her child.

 

But even those examples do not prove the point that suffering is always the result of sin for there are millions of drunk drivers who don’t kill pedestrians and there are sexually promiscuous people who do not have blind children.

The most you can say is that there is sometimes a connection.

 

This relationship between sin and suffering is the subject of the book of Job. 

Job’s friend Eliphaz suggested that Job’s suffering was due to his sin. But God rejects that simplistic idea just as Jesus does here. 

The problem with this explanation of suffering is that it leads to hopelessness. If my suffering is the result of my sin then there is nothing I can do because I know I am a sinner. I can only expect more suffering.

 

We move on to the NEW AGE EXPLANATION for tragedy.

This is largely drawn from Hinduism and could be summarized in the word Karma which is connected with reincarnation.

This is the idea that our present lot in life is determined by our past lives. Our position in the next life will depend on our behavior in this one.

 

This explanation is hinted at in the disciples’ question to Jesus.

They ask, “Did this man sin?”

As the beggar had been born blind the assumption is that the sin must have occurred before his birth.

In those days it was thought that a fetus could commit sin while in the mother’s womb and that its kicking indicated its sinful state, which would suggest that every child was a sinner!

 

Scientology is a modern day example of a religion that believes that our past lives determine our present position.

Tom Cruise is one of its most ardent evangelists.

 

When I lived in Los Angeles I sometimes walked along Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood where the church of Scientology is located.

I was frequently pounced on by some enthusiastic disciple of Ron Hubbard who would put me through a questionnaire hoping to persuade me to take one of their very expensive courses in order that with the help of an auditor and an E-meter my mind could be cleared of the engrams of my previous lives.

 

I always enjoyed asking these scientologists about their own previous existences. They had always had exciting past lives.

They had been kings or aristocrats or had come to earth in a space ship. No one had ever been a peasant in the middle ages or a slave in a Roman galley.

 

The Bible rejects reincarnation.

Rather it teaches that each person is a distinct individual made in God’s image and confronted with the call to believe in Christ.

Each of us are responsible to God for our life and we will give an account to God after we die.

 

The problem with Karma is that it removes the motive of compassion. If you are poor it is your own fault and my only motivation for helping you is to make me look good in the next life.

 

There is a MODERN EXPLANATION FOR TRAGEDY.

This says that somebody else is to blame.

So whether it is the tragedy of Katrina or the collapse of the 35W Bridge we blame the government or a long forgotten engineer and then want to sue those responsible for our suffering.

 

Sometimes legal action is legitimate but we do need to recognize that accidents do happen and that suffering is part of life.

We will slip on the ice in a Minnesota winter and it is probably not fair to blame the householder on whose driveway we fall.

 

The problem with this explanation that somebody else is to blame for my tragedy is that it leads to anger against the world and encourages an attitude of victimhood.

Neither of these provide a strong launching pad for recovery.

 

We now come to JESUS’ EXPLANATION FOR TRAGEDY.

He answers the disciples’ question of “Who sinned?” by saying, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned…but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” (v 3)

 

In other words tragedy is God’s opportunity. 

God permits suffering in order that his glory can be seen in it.

Now this is a not a complete explanation for tragedy.

Other passages of scripture provide us with other answers and at the end we still have to acknowledge that suffering is a mystery.

 

As I was preparing this message I received the news that a 24 year old young woman called Mandy had been killed while riding her bike in Chicago. She was a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and a close friend of one of our church members. 

Her parents are missionaries in Romania. 

Her boyfriend was going to ask her to marry him this weekend.

But now she is dead. 

 

It is hard to see right now how the work of God might be displayed in Mandy’s life.  But we do see the work of God in other tragedies.  

 

This week I listened to an interview with the President of Habitat for Humanity. He was expressing his gratitude that thousands of people still travel to New Orleans each month to build houses for the homeless. The work of God is being displayed through the compassion of his people in a city shattered by tragedy.

After the dreadful Tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands in the Indian Ocean in 2004, many Christian organizations stepped in and showed the love of Christ.

The tragedy opened up Muslim areas of Banda Aceh on the island of Sumatra that had previously been closed to the gospel.

 

When an old saint was dying in agony he sent for his family saying, “Come and see how a Christian can die.”

He recognized his suffering was God’s opportunity.

 

The benefits of Jesus’ explanation for tragedy is that it provides a positive purpose for suffering.

It also gives us a positive outlook for we can expect God to act to display his work in our life.

Guilt is replaced by grace and despair with hope.

I found this comforting in the tragedies of my own life.

Tragedy is God’s opportunity to display his power. 

This is one of the important tasks of the body of Christ.

To weep with those who weep.

To support those who are suffering.

 

This is the reason the church has been left on earth.

Jesus puts it this way, “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” (v 4)

We only have so much time and we are to use it for helping the hurting in order that the work of God might be displayed.

So Jesus’ explanation for tragedy is that it is God’s opportunity. 

 

How is this worked out in practice in the life of the blind beggar?

First the blind man is physically healed.

Jesus begins by telling the poor fellow, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (v 5)

It a repeat of the claim he made in the temple in the last chapter.

This poor man is in darkness because of his blindness but he is about to discover what Jesus, the light of the world, can do.

 

Jesus then spat on the ground made some mud with the saliva and put it on the man’s eyes.

“Go” he told him, wash in the Pool of Siloam . . . so the man went and washed, and came home seeing.” (v 6-7)

 

This is the sixth sign of John’s gospel.

It is significant because one of the marks of the Messianic Age is the receiving of sight by the blind.

Isaiah had prophesied, “In that day … the eyes of the blind will see.”  (Isaiah 29:18)

In this miracle Jesus shows he is the Messiah.

 

Jesus teaches us so much about ministering to suffering people here. 

He identifies with this man by using saliva. 

In those days people thought that saliva had healing power.

Jesus certainly didn’t need to use saliva but he is relating to the man’s level of medical understanding. 

 

Then Jesus respects the man’s dignity. He gives him a task to do and tells him to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam.

The Pool of Siloam is a marvelous place that you can still visit today.

 

The water supply for Jerusalem came from The Gihon Spring in the Kidron Valley. The problem was that this spring was outside the city walls and so in a time of siege, water was inaccessible.

 

King Hezekiah realized this when Sennacherib and the Assyrian army were about to attack Jerusalem. So Hezekiah cut a tunnel through the rock to bring the water from the spring into the city.

 

My parents used to live in Jerusalem and some years ago Gretchen and I visited them.

We took the opportunity to wade through Hezekiah’s Tunnel.

It is tremendous fun. It is about 600 yards long.

It is about two feet wide and five feet high.

The water comes up to your knees. 

 

We were in complete darkness except for the candle we were carrying. Eventually we emerged into the Pool of Siloam. 

My brother Andrew, who was with us, immediately began to rub mud in his eyes.  I asked him what on earth he was doing.

He said he was reenacting this miracle of Jesus.

 

This blind man was so changed that his friends who had known him all his life barely recognized him. 

Like reporters at a Presidential Press Conference the neighbors are full of questions.

“His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, ‘Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?’ Some claimed that it was. Others said, ‘No’, he only looks like him.  But he himself insisted, ‘I am the man’.” (vs 8-9)

 

He has been gloriously healed.

But physical healing is only half of what we need.

It is important. But it is not the end of the story.

That is why at the Compassion Evangelical Hospital in Guinea the patients not only get medical treatment but they are told about the love of God.

Last Sunday over 100 of us gathered for the dedication of Discipleship Home 2.

Rochester Network for ReEntry wants to provide a home for men coming out of prison where they can be warm and fed and loved.

But the Network won’t stop there.

The goal is that these men become disciples of Jesus.

That is what this beggar and we need too.

So let’s watch how the blind man is spiritually healed.

It begins with a colossal argument between the Pharisees and this man over who Jesus is.

The religious leaders were furious because they thought Jesus had broken the law by working on the Sabbath. 

 

Their definition of work was that Jesus had made mud to put on the man’s eyes. It was true that God had told them to, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” (Exodus 20:8)

But they had interpreted that in a far too restrictive way.

Frankly I find this whole debate tiresome.

I want to say to these Pharisees, “get a life.” 

This man has been healed. Who cares what day it was. 

 

But this discussion does illustrate an important spiritual principle which Jesus outlines when he says, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” (v 39) 

The irony is that it is the blind man who can see and it is these religious folk who are blind. 

 

This beggar comes to faith through a gradual process.

Some Christians can point to the exact time of their conversion.

For others it takes place over months or years.

There is no specific moment.

They know that at one point they were spiritually blind then after a series of events, they can say, “Now I see.”

 

It was like this for the blind beggar.

First he sees Jesus as a man.

When his friends inquire, “How then were your eyes opened?”  he replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes.” (v 10-11) 

That is all Jesus was at this point – just a man.

 

But then as he hears the Pharisees calling Jesus a sinner, his eyes begin to open and when they ask, “What have you to say about him?” (v 17) He replies “He is a prophet.” (v 17)

 

The beggar is not there yet but he knows that Jesus is more than just a man and later on he gives his faith story of the progress he has made up to this point in a lovely way. 

“Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see.”  (v 25)

 

He even begins to teach these seminary professors theology when he says, “You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners.

He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” (v 30-33)

 

At this insolence the Pharisees throw the beggar out of temple and when Jesus heard about it he went to find him.

John Chrysostom notes that, “The Jews cast him out of the temple. The Lord of the temple found him.”

 

That must have been an extraordinary encounter. Remember the man has not seen Jesus before because when Jesus put the mud on his eyes he was still blind.  Now he is about to meet his rescuer and his redeemer. Jesus asks him the all important question, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (v 35) 

 

The man now sees Jesus as the Lord as he responds, “Lord, I believe.” (v 38)

This man represents the human condition.

He is blind from birth, as we are born sinners.

As a result he cannot see Jesus.

That is the state of the lost today.

Jesus is preached but they cannot see him.

The gospel is explained but they cannot understand.

 

Then this man was unable to seek Jesus.

In spiritual terms this means that we are unable to seek God.

Paul tells us, “No one seeks God.” (Romans 3:11)

But the good news is that Jesus comes seeking him.

In the tragedy of his blindness the Lord of life provides both physical and spiritual sight.

 

Perhaps you are facing a tragedy today. This is God’s opportunity.

He wants his work to be displayed in your life.

Jesus understands your suffering for he is the suffering Savior. 

He is the Man of Sorrows.

He came to bear your sin so that you don’t need to.

We can make sense of the sadness of a dark world only by believing in the one who came to be the light of the world.