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Who Sinned?
John chapter 9 is one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible. There is so much important going on here, but my favorite parts are when the formerly-blind man speaks. More on that tomorrow.
What I want to talk about today is sin, suffering, and the glory of God. Right at the beginning we get into. The disciples ask question that reveals not only a prevailing attitude of their own time, but also of ours:
"Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
The assumption in this question is that his blindness is the result of someone's wrongdoing. I would assume that the implication of the implied answer of the question is "his parents", as it would be difficult for the man to commit a heinous sin while in the womb that would cause him to be born blind. The response is key: "This man was born blind so that the work of God could be shown in him." Through the healing of this man's blindness, the glory of the Son of God will be revealed through miracle.
This is an especially important idea for my family and I. There have been people who have told Rachel she is in a wheelchair because she or someone else sinned. There have been faith-healers that have randomly come up to us, tried to heal her, and failed. The reason? They say it is that she doesn't have enough faith to be healed. That if only she had enough faith God could be glorified. I take issue with that. In THIS case God is glorified through the healing of the man, but that doesn't mean that is the ONLY way God is glorified. Rachel has had many opportunities to speak and share about her accident, disability, suffering, and the glory of God because of what happened to her. She IS bringing glory to God through these things...not just through being healed. Would it be awesome to be healed? Of course! Should we still glorify God with everything in us even if we are not? Of course! We were created to glorify God no matter what our circumstances.
Back to the passage and our first idea: we can't always know the purposes of God. We can't just look at someone and say "Wow, he must be wicked!" because something happened to them. This is an incredibly deep and complicated topic, and I hope to deal with it much more in our next sermon series and later on in the blog. I don't want to go too far into it today because I've already dealt with some things at length and will do so again.
Last thing - I wanted to provide you with some background information that I think is helpful to understand some of the details that John includes about the pool of Siloam:
"Jesus then tells the man to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam (9:7). John indicates in a parenthesis that “Siloam” means “sent” (which it does in Hebrew).
This pool was at the south end of the city of Jerusalem and is an important detail for two reasons. (1) It was the source of water in the Tabernacles ceremony (see comments on 7:37–52). This is the pool built after Hezekiah redirected the Gihon Spring by tunneling west under the city of David. It was the only source of spring water in the city and thus had religious, ceremonial value. If Jesus is the source of the Feast of Tabernacles water (7:37–39), this man has now experienced such water in a profound way.
(2) The name of the pool bears symbolic importance for Jesus. More than twenty times in this Gospel, Jesus is described as the one who has been “sent” by God (e.g., 4:34; 5:23, 37; 7:28; 8:26; 12:44; 14:24). In other words, the blind man is being told to go wash in the place called “sent,” by the One who was “sent” by God. Jesus, then, is the source of his healing, not the pool." [1]
Questions? Comments? Have an awesome weekend everyone!
Who Sinned?
John chapter 9 is one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible. There is so much important going on here, but my favorite parts are when the formerly-blind man speaks. More on that tomorrow.
What I want to talk about today is sin, suffering, and the glory of God. Right at the beginning we get into. The disciples ask question that reveals not only a prevailing attitude of their own time, but also of ours:
"Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
The assumption in this question is that his blindness is the result of someone's wrongdoing. I would assume that the implication of the implied answer of the question is "his parents", as it would be difficult for the man to commit a heinous sin while in the womb that would cause him to be born blind. The response is key: "This man was born blind so that the work of God could be shown in him." Through the healing of this man's blindness, the glory of the Son of God will be revealed through miracle.
This is an especially important idea for my family and I. There have been people who have told Rachel she is in a wheelchair because she or someone else sinned. There have been faith-healers that have randomly come up to us, tried to heal her, and failed. The reason? They say it is that she doesn't have enough faith to be healed. That if only she had enough faith God could be glorified. I take issue with that. In THIS case God is glorified through the healing of the man, but that doesn't mean that is the ONLY way God is glorified. Rachel has had many opportunities to speak and share about her accident, disability, suffering, and the glory of God because of what happened to her. She IS bringing glory to God through these things...not just through being healed. Would it be awesome to be healed? Of course! Should we still glorify God with everything in us even if we are not? Of course! We were created to glorify God no matter what our circumstances.
Back to the passage and our first idea: we can't always know the purposes of God. We can't just look at someone and say "Wow, he must be wicked!" because something happened to them. This is an incredibly deep and complicated topic, and I hope to deal with it much more in our next sermon series and later on in the blog. I don't want to go too far into it today because I've already dealt with some things at length and will do so again.
Last thing - I wanted to provide you with some background information that I think is helpful to understand some of the details that John includes about the pool of Siloam:
"Jesus then tells the man to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam (9:7). John indicates in a parenthesis that “Siloam” means “sent” (which it does in Hebrew).
This pool was at the south end of the city of Jerusalem and is an important detail for two reasons. (1) It was the source of water in the Tabernacles ceremony (see comments on 7:37–52). This is the pool built after Hezekiah redirected the Gihon Spring by tunneling west under the city of David. It was the only source of spring water in the city and thus had religious, ceremonial value. If Jesus is the source of the Feast of Tabernacles water (7:37–39), this man has now experienced such water in a profound way.
(2) The name of the pool bears symbolic importance for Jesus. More than twenty times in this Gospel, Jesus is described as the one who has been “sent” by God (e.g., 4:34; 5:23, 37; 7:28; 8:26; 12:44; 14:24). In other words, the blind man is being told to go wash in the place called “sent,” by the One who was “sent” by God. Jesus, then, is the source of his healing, not the pool." [1]
Questions? Comments? Have an awesome weekend everyone!
[1] Gary M. Burge, NIV Application Commentary: John (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000), 273.
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