“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.’” (John 9:1-3)
John describes Jesus’ encounter with a man who was blind from birth. The man’s disability caused the disciples to raise a question we often contemplate, especially during the past 3 years: “Why does God allow suffering?” Indeed, why does He permit adversity, sickness, and trials? Why does He allow terrorists and madmen to wreak havoc and violence on the entire world? Why does God allow catastrophic tornadoes, earthquakes, and storms to wreak such destruction? What about the COVID pandemic? Why does He let such things happen? Surely He can step in and stop these evils from occurring. Or does He continue to allow them on order to punish people for their sins? After all, isn’t all suffering a direct consequence of sin?
Such questions perhaps were in the thoughts of Jesus’ disciples. Their questions indicated that they were trying to pinpoint a specific reason. Then they could avoid such a thing from happening to them. Like us, they wanted an easy answer to a tough question. We want to find a cause for everything so that we can gain a sense of control over our lives. Perhaps this is why the media talking heads and the people in our Congress are all seeking to find the root cause of COVID, so they can recommend ways to eradicate it, or at least control it’s virulence.
Jesus would answer such questions with the same answer that he gave his disciples concerning the man who was born blind: so that the works of God would be manifest, that He would be glorified. But how does His answer address those afflicted by dreadful and debilitating diseases or emotional traumas? How is God glorified in these things? What about babies born with handicaps? How is He glorified in their suffering? Does He want to punish the parents for some sin they committed? That would make our God mean, vindictive, and frightening. Yet we know that, while He is awe-inspiring, holy, and almighty, He is loving, merciful and compassionate. We can trust Him to always do what is good, right, and just. Jesus confirmed this by healing this blind man.
Jesus’ response does not fall into our neat little categories. We find safety in seeing all that happens in terms of logic and reason, cause and effect. But God defies our logic, our attempts to control life. His answers are not always simple or to our liking. And yet He is the Light of the world. He came into the world to give us light, to heal our spiritual blindness so that we would no longer live in the darkness of sin. And by faith we acknowledge that His light indeed sheds light on the reason for our suffering. A life lived by faith in Jesus is the only way one can make sense of suffering and live in righteousness and peace.