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“Signs Done Well - VII”
I love the story in John chapter 9, the sixth sign of Jesus, but it also makes me very sad. It is a wonderful sign because it points to Jesus and his incredible power for good, and it yields an inexpressible blessing to a man who had never seen.
The sad part of it though is what it reveals about the way people at the time thought, even the disciples of Jesus.
“Who sinned, Rabbi, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” The old idea – at least as old as Job and his friends, that if bad things happen to you, it must certainly be your fault. The just-as-bad corollary to that point is, if you are always good, only good things will happen to you.
We all know from practical experience those ideas are wrong. And to raise them in the context of a suffering person may be one of the cruelest things we can do to a fellow human being. It truly would make us “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2).
Jesus immediately sets the record straight in this case, however. In response to the ignorant question of the disciples, the Lord emphatically answers “NEITHER!” Neither! Sin did not cause this blindness – neither the man’s nor that parents’. Jesus in fact doesn’t reveal the cause of the blindness, which was doubtless rooted in some medical condition.
But the Lord does say that God is going to do something in this man that will show people who He is. In other words, this healing will be a sign that will point people to God, and especially to God’s Son.
I encourage you to read all of John 9, and see how this all plays out. It is quite amazing, and you will finish the chapter either seeing or blind – your choice.
