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Today we are returning to our study of John.
We are picking up in John 9. I encourage you to open your bibles to that passage.
Let’s read through the passage to get an overview of what is going on, and then we will begin to look at the passage and how it applies to us today in more detail.
Prayer
Why was this man born blind?
Picture the scene in your mind.
Jesus and his disciples are in Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths.
Jesus has been teaching, and telling the people that He is the Light of the World.
He told them that He is the Son that can set them free, so they would no longer be slaves of sin, but children of God.
He went on to tell them that He is the great I am, who was before Abraham, and saw Abraham.
Twice Jesus had claimed to be God.
First they tried to seize Him.
The second time, they tried to stone Him.
It has been a time of Jesus proclaiming the truth, and the religious leaders opposing Him, and even some who were claiming to be disciples leaving Him.
Now, as Jesus was leaving the temple grounds, He and His disciples pass a man who was a known beggar.
He was born blind and was a regular fixture there, begging to gain food so he could live.
Upon seeing the man begging, the disciples asked Jesus, “Why was this man born blind?”
I don’t want to us to miss the transition here, so let’s look back into chapter 8, and then the question.
Getting distracted by suffering
Here, the disciples just heard Jesus clearly proclaiming who He was, and saw how He miraculously escaped from being stoned.
If we were walking with Jesus after that proclamation, shouldn’t we be wondering, and questioning Jesus a little differently?
Maybe just wanting to worship Him and thank Him for all He has done?
But instead of soaking in that they were literally walking with God, they got distracted by suffering.
They saw the man begging, and obviously had seen him before.
They knew his story.
At least the important part.
This man was born blind.
Some people go blind due to accidents or sickness.
But this man was born blind.
They had encountered blind men before, and Jesus had healed them.
Here was God, and another blind man in need!
So, the disciples sprung into action!
Jesus, here is a blind man!
You, God, are able to give Him sight!
Show everyone that you alone are God! give him sight!
Now, the rabbis—the professors of the day—taught everyone that there were two kinds of miracles.
First, there were miracles that any prophet of God could do: heal sickness, cast out demons, make the lame walk, make the blind see, etc.
Second, there were miracles that only the Messiah would be able to do.
There were, specifically, three miracles that they taught that only God, the Messiah would be able to do: heal a leper, cast the demon from a mute, and heal a person born blind.
Here’s the opportunity, Jesus!
Show them all that you are the Messiah!
Show them what you claim is true!
Make this man born blind to see! Then they will all see and know that you are the Light of the World!
You are the God who leads and guides.
You are the One who came to bring freedom and life!
Unfortunately, that was not their reaction.
What is the cause of suffering?
Instead, they were distracted by suffering, and just wanted to know the cause of suffering, instead of seeing what God could do for the sufferer.
Now, I want you to know that I cannot honestly be too hard on the disciples.
If I am honest, I can be distracted by suffering, too.
God has shown me—God has opened my eyes—so that I know He is God even more clearly than the disciples did at this point.
I don’t think they really got the full import of who Jesus is until after Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to them.
I have had it clearly shown to me.
I know who Jesus is!
As we study through the life of Jesus, we should be falling in love with Him more and more.
I should look at people in suffering, and wonder what God is going to do in and through that person.
Instead, I can be just like the disciples.
Have you ever seen a person begging and wondered, “Why are they begging?”
Or, “What did they do that they are having to beg?” Or, have you ever seen someone walking along the road to work and wondered if they lost their license for drinking and driving?
We get distracted by suffering, and wonder what the cause of the suffering is, instead of wondering what is God going to do.
We are just like the disciples, getting distracted by suffering.
The assumptions
The assumption from the culture of the day was that either this man, or his parents, had sinned, therefore he was born blind.
Now, the bible does teach that there are sometimes consequences that children face because of the sins of the parents.
As you read through the Bible, you see this in Israel.
The children are raised in exile, because the parents sinned.
We saw that last week in Daniel 9.
We also know that the one who sins suffers for their sin.
That is all over the Bible.
There are also other causes for sin.
But Jesus did not want His disciples to stay there.
He did not want them to be distracted with the cause of sin, but rather to focus on something else.
Root cause vs. Purpose of God
Jesus did not want His disciples to focus on the cause, but on the purpose and word of God.
He wanted them to focus on, “What is God going to do for and with the sufferer?”
I think that is what God wants us, His disciples today, to do as well.
Instead of being distracted by suffering, worrying about the cause of suffering, God wants us to focus on Him, and His purpose for suffering.
What is God going to do for, and with, the sufferer?
So, that is what I want to practice with you today.
How are we supposed to do that?
Well, we need to ask the Lord, who walks with us just like He was walking with His disciples then.
He is with us.
So, let’s ask Him.
That is exactly what James says to do.
Now this is going to be an example of what I want you to explore this week in your homework.
For your homework, I want you to read for yourself in the Bible, and ask God for wisdom to consider two things.
1.
What is the cause of suffering?
2. What is God’s purpose for suffering?
My goal with the first point, the cause of suffering is that we understand what God has already told us about suffering, so that we don’t get distracted by the cause.
When something is already known, it is less distracting.
The goal for the second part is that we learn to train our minds in the direction God wants it to go… what is His purpose in the suffering?
You will study this out for yourself this week, but lets look at just three examples from the Bible to see what I mean about finding the cause and the purpose.
First example.
Think with me about Genesis chapter 3. Adam and Eve disobeyed God.
When God was protecting them from knowing evil and suffering, they disobeyed Him and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Immediately, they began to suffer.
They suffered shame about being naked.
They suffered in losing their close relationship with God, and now hid from Him.
Then God pronounced punishment upon them for their disobedience.
Adam and Eve
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