Ollie says:
"This be true about dat ol' Katarina too, ya know!"
1 Corinthians 1:27-28, 1 Peter 2:19-24
Psalm 30, Proverbs 3:3-6
"As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his
disciples asked him, `Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind?(John 9:1-2).'"
People like to point fingers when problems happen. When someone
gets a disease, like AIDS, we are quick to say that it resulted from
an immoral lifestyle. Even when people get AIDS from a blood
transfusion, people still want to blame the person for AIDS.
Sometimes, people don't follow directions or what we call `common
sense,' and they injure themselves. We like to call those people
idiots. We blame them.
And in the case of the Twin Towers disaster, a famous reverend
blamed the terrorist attack on the peoples' sin. He blamed
homosexuals and the people in the pornography business.
The man in John's gospel also had a problem. He was blind. The
disciples blamed his blindness on the man's sin, or the sin of his
parents. And they had a good rationale for it. In Exodus 20:5, it
says, "...you shall not bow down to them(idols) or serve them; for I
the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children to the third and the forth generation of
those who hate me..." So the disciples blamed generational sin on the
man's blindness.
But John's gospel shows us that this was not the case. "`Jesus
answered, `It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that
the works of God might be made manifest in him(John 9:3).'" So Jesus
was saying that it was not his sin that was to blame. To support
this, we also have a verse from Ezekiel. "The soul that sins shall
die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the
father suffer for the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the
righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked
shall be upon himself(Ezekiel 18:20)." And when Laz'arus was deathly
sick, Jesus said, "`This illness is not unto death; it is for the
glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of
it(John 11:4).'"
The famous reverend was wrong. He was just as bad as the
disciples who were with Jesus, assuming that God was punishing
everyone for their sins. According to this passage, the September 11th
terrorist attack could be a way for the works of God to be made
manifest in the people of New York City. I probably won't be able to
refute any philosophers with this theory, but this is what I draw
from this verse of scripture.
So, the next time you feel you are suffering unjustly, feeling
pain or hurt for no apparent reason, think about this: God is using
the opportunity to show himself through you.
Dear Father in heaven, sometimes we feel like we are being punished
by our suffering. We feel pain and hurt, and lose many things that
are precious to us. We often feel that you are punishing us. But in
the story of the blind man, we see that not all suffering is caused by
our sins. Please work in our hearts, Lord, and help us to know the
difference. If we suffer for doing wrong, rebuke us and allow us to
repent for our evil. But if we suffer for no apparent reason, help
us glorify your name as we endure these trials, and let your glory be
manifested in us. This I pray in the holy name of your Son Jesus. Amen.