“What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy him forever.”
– Westminster Shorter Catechism
Have you ever been told “Don’t ask why – it’s not our place”? I suppose that idea sounds like it’s in the Bible, but it isn’t. Knowing “the why” is important. Why am I doing this task? Why did the boss or management make this decision? Why did the national, state, or local government do or not do something…we want to know why!
In the Gospel of John, the disciples came to Jesus with a why question. While they were in Jerusalem, they noticed a beggar who was blind. With what seems like a slightly cruel curiosity, the disciples ask, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). During the time of Christ, when a child was born with a disability or stillborn or something tragic happened in someone’s life, it was assumed that they had offended God somehow. Because of this culturally accepted falsehood, the disciples asked why, but their minds were limited to only two potential answers: either the parents sinned or the blind man sinned.
In certain cases, within our modern culture, we may be tempted to think the same way. We use words like karma or phrases like, “What goes around comes around,” or a Bible verse, you reap what you sow (Galatians 6:7). Some people might even use super spiritual-sounding ideas like a family or generational curse to explain tragedy.
Jesus’ response to the disciples’ question deals a crushing blow to this erroneous and hurtful idea. “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents,” Jesus responds (John 9:3). I can imagine the wheels in the disciples’ heads started to turn. They felt safe in the assumption that all disabilities were a direct result of a specific offense against God. Then Jesus drops a bomb. The reason this man was born blind was “that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3).
In this particular story, Jesus makes some mud on the ground using His spit and He anoints the man’s useless eyes with that mud. Jesus then instructs the man to go and wash in a nearby pool of water. In faith, having not seen but only hearing Jesus’ voice and feeling his hands, he goes, washes, and instantaneously sees for the first time in his life. Jesus had given sight to this blind man.
A mix of wonder and skepticism follows. The man’s parents are stunned. He actually has to convince other people that he used to be the blind beggar they supported. I imagine those conversations being quite humorous. But not everyone was celebrating. The religious leaders didn’t care about a miraculous healing. They’re just agitated with Jesus again. In this case, Jesus did a miracle on the Sabbath, a sacred religious day reserved for rest and worship.
The religious leaders quickly summon the formerly blind man for questioning. When first asked how this happened, he credits, “The man called Jesus” (John 9:11). Then a little bit later when asked his opinion about Jesus, he says, “He is a prophet” (John 9:17). Then when he stands before a religious tribunal, he says of Jesus, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25). The evolution of his opinion about Jesus shows a growing faith. Here was a man who couldn’t be educated because of his disability. A man who is viewed by the vast majority of the population as being punished by God. He isn’t trying to engage in a theological debate. He is stating the facts as he sees them.
Outraged by this man’s boldness and honesty, the religious leaders insult him and cast him out. “You were born in utter sin,” they snidely say, “and would you teach us?” (John 9:34). This was more than just saying get out of my office or out of my sight. Because of his disability, the man had been excluded from the joys and privileges of other Jews. For just a few hours, he had been welcomed into the temple, but the religious leaders casting him out meant that he was just as excluded from the Jewish religious community as before. What a roller coaster of a day! Then Jesus finds him.