As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. (John 9:1-7 ESV).
In our reading today, the disciples see a man who was born blind, and they assume that his blindness is someone’s fault. This was a common way of thinking about suffering in those days. Sickness and disability were often believed to be a result of sin somewhere in the family line. If we think about it, we can see how people could fall into that kind of thinking. It has happened in many cultures. If a person has a disability or a terrible disease, or if they are down and out in some kind of hardship, it can be convenient to blame them or their family or even their friends or community. It calms our fears if we can state a reason or a cause for something we don’t understand, or don’t want to understand.
In this story Jesus complicates things even more by implying that God allowed the man to be blind so that his healing by Jesus could help people see the works of God being done. This is hard to understand. It simply doesn’t seem “fair.” Human suffering is a lot more complicated than we would like to believe. Sin has broken this world in ways that go beyond our understanding; however, we cannot deny that everything happens to us after it is filtered through the hands of our heavenly Father.
This allows us to understand the truth that God will bring good from it. That brings us comfort and hope. We can see that God is powerful enough and willing to work to bring good out of all things, even our challenges and suffering. God works for our good in all things (cf. Romans 8:28), and he has redeemed us in Christ. When the works of God shine through adversity, he shows in a unique way that he is good and loves us.