John 9:1-7,13-17,34-39 As Jesus was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that God’s works might be revealed in connection with him. 4I must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. 5As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the World.”
6After saying this, Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and spread the mud on the man’s eyes. 7“Go,” Jesus told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.
13They brought this man who had been blind to the Pharisees. 14Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15So the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight.
“He put mud on my eyes,” the man told them. “I washed, and now I see.”
16Then some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath.” Others were saying, “How can a sinful man work such miraculous signs?”
There was division among them, 17so they said to the blind man again, “What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?”
The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
34They answered him, “You were entirely born in sinfulness! Yet you presume to teach us?” And they threw him out.
35Jesus heard that they had thrown him out. When he found him, he asked, “Do you believe in the Son of God?”
36“Who is he, sir,” the man replied, “that I may believe in him?”
37Jesus answered, “You have seen him, and he is the very one who is speaking with you.”
38Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” and he knelt down and worshipped him.
39Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, in order that those who do not see will see, and those who do see will become blind.”
Do you know what karma is? Karma is a core concept in Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. Karma means “action.” It is the belief that each action a person takes will affect him or her at some time in the future. Karma is the belief that you get what’s coming to you. What goes around, comes around. If you do evil, you’ll receive evil. If you do good, you’ll receive good.
For example, this week in Florida, a motorcyclist was popping wheelies when he was confronted by the police. Instead of going quietly with the police, the motorcyclist decided to lead the police on a high speed chase. As he was going through an intersection, he decided to glance backwards at the pursuing police and flip them off. At that moment, he was T-boned by a truck. ... Thankfully and miraculously, the motorcyclist survived.
Some would say that’s karma.
Another example is a popular YouTuber who makes a lot of money on his videos. He’s using that money to pay for cataract surgeries so thousands of legally blind people are able to see again. He’s helping a lot of people and those people hope more good will come to him so he can continue to help others.
They would say that’s karma.
Karma is not correct. It’s not biblical. It’s not Christian. Yet many Christians today believe in this false theology of karma.
It’s a very old false theology. Job’s friends believed in karma. Job lost his family, his wealth, and then his health. Then for chapter upon chapter, Job’s so-called “friends” sat around giving him reasons why God was bringing all this suffering upon him. They accused him of committing some kind of sin so that God was bringing about divine retribution (Job 4:7-8; 8:20; 11:14-15).
The disciples of Jesus also succumb to this faulty conclusion when they come upon a man who was blind from birth. The disciples ask Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
How many of you, when things go south in the life of someone close to you, wonder what that person did to make God angry? How many of you, when things go south in your own life, turn your eyes to heaven and ask God, “Why am I being punished?”
This is how people thought in Jesus’ day and in Job’s day. In our day, it is a conclusion that we often jump to very quickly, as well. If someone suffers a tragic accident or lingers in an illness, then we assume that God must be punishing them for some specific sin. Who sinned?
We jump to this kind of conclusion because we want to have an answer for suffering. We make up pat answers for suffering. “It’s for the best.” It’s all a part of God’s plan.” “God won’t give you more than you can handle.”
Those answers may sound pious and theological, but they aren’t correct. That suffering might not be for the best. We don’t know God’s plan. God often gives us more than we can handle.
While we might join with the friends of Job and Jesus’ disciples to offer pat answers for human suffering, we won’t find such easy answers for suffering in Scripture. The Bible offers a multi-faceted, balanced, and remarkably nuanced view of suffering. Some suffering appears to be the direct result of God’s righteous anger over rebellious unbelief – like the Israelites being bitten by venomous snakes because of their complaining about food (Numbers 21:4-9). Some suffering appears to be corrective chastisement, as God changes the hearts and behavior of his people – like Jonah being swallowed by the great fish, in order to turn Jonah back toward his ministry in Ninevah (Jonah 1-2). Some suffering appears to come as a direct result of our connection to Jesus – like when Jesus assures us that we will be persecuted for our faith, just as Jesus was persecuted (John 15:18-20).
And, some suffering appears to come because we are sinful people, living in a sinful world – like with this blind man (John 9).
The disciples were somewhat correct in their diagnosis. The man was born blind because of sin. But it wasn’t his sin as an infant in the womb or a specific sin of his parents. Rather, blindness is one of the many different symptoms of the deadly condition of sin. Strokes, cancer, heart defects, old age, are all the symptoms of being sinners living in a sinful world. These are symptoms that infect everyone.
We often like to think of sin as something that we do. So, we do moral math. If sin is something that we do, and suffering is a result of our sin, then we figure we can fix the problem of our suffering just by sinning less or making up for our sin. But sin is much more pervasive than that. Sin is what we do wrong. Sin is what we fail to do right. Sin is who we are by nature. Jesus told Nicodemus, “Flesh gives birth to flesh.”
God doesn’t do this kind of moral math. He doesn’t add up our sins and subtract our righteous acts, and then dish out suffering based on the difference.
God doesn’t explain why bad things happen. The reason for suffering is largely and unknowably mysterious to us.
Although, we cannot know why suffering always occurs, God does reveal to us what he has done about it. He has sent his Son to suffer satanic temptation, divine wrath, and hellish punishment in our place. All the suffering we should be enduring now and for eternity, Jesus has already suffered with us and for us. The Bible says Jesus suffered with us: “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:18). The Bible also says Jesus suffered for us: “We see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone (Hebrews 2:9).
Jesus is the answer to all our suffering. He was the answer to this blind man’s suffering. Throughout his life, the Jewish rabbis taught him that he was damaged goods, because either he or his parents committed some horrible sin. Then, another Rabbi approached. He taught, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” A little while later, this Rabbi made some mud with his divine saliva and put it on the blind man’s eyes. Then he told the blind man to wash his eyes in the Pool of Siloam. Suddenly, the blind man could see.
Comedian Paul Reiser wrote once about mother’s spit: “I saw a kid who had some dried-up food on his face. His mother took out a tissue, spit on the tissue and rubbed it into the kid’s face. This goes on, in communities around our country, on a daily basis. It is disgusting, but it sure does work, doesn’t it? There’s something in Mother Saliva that cleans like nobody’s business. All women, once they give birth, their enzymes change, and saliva becomes Ajax. It’ll clean anything: a baby’s face, a countertop, a Buick – you get enough mothers, you could do a whole car in 30, 40 minutes.” (Paul Reiser, “Couplehood”)
Mother’s spit may be great for cleaning, but Jesus’ touch and spit is for something even greater – for healing! What had been broken, Jesus mends with the Creator’s touch. The Great Physician is at work. Notice the earthiness of it all. Fingers in the dirt. Mud on the eyes. God coming down to us, touching us, opening eyes, creating faith, and saving souls.
Jesus does what only the Creator can do - create and recreate humanity with mud. Adam was made by the hand of God and now the Master Potter himself takes a bit of mud and fixes the son of Adam’s broken eyes.
This week we were discussing suffering in the 7th grade Catechism class. As we were studying life issues with the 5th commandment, we talked about not ending suffering through euthanasia – mercy killing. We talked about all the different things we can learn through suffering. We imagined that Grandma is very ill and living with the 7th grader and the family.
Through her suffering, Grandma may learn patience. This patience can then lead to a strong Christian character. That strong Christian character leads to hope in Jesus Christ for her salvation. And her hope will never be put to shame (Romans 5:3-5).
The 7th grader watches Mom take care of Grandma. She feeds her, clothes her, bathes her, changes her. Mom has empathy and compassion. The 7th grader can learn to express that same Christian empathy and compassion.
We also talked about how Grandma’s illness keeps her from moving to Florida with other older people. Instead, she’s in the house with her grandchildren every day. We discussed how the 7th grader can sit and learn Grandma’s stories and they can share their stories with their grandmother. They can hold hands, give hugs, learn family history, and so many other things all through Grandma’s suffering.
God is not cursing us for sin when we are suffering. Rather, suffering can be used by God to lead us to see him more clearly. When the previously blind man was walking around trying out his new eyes, Jesus appears in front of him.
Being blind for decades, the man had probably never heard of Jesus. He certainly had never seen him. He doesn’t know who Jesus is when he is stopped and is asked, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” “Who is he, sir,” the man replied, “that I may believe in him?” Jesus answered, “You have seen him, and he is the very one who is speaking with you.” Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” and he knelt down and worshipped him.
Jesus allowed the decades of suffering with blindness so Jesus could give him sight. Jesus gave the man physical sight, but more than that, he gifted him with the spiritual sight of faith. He could now see his Savior standing right in front of him!
God often allows disabilities into our lives to help us understand that we are born full of sin and spiritually blind. The Holy Spirit can use this suffering to start us looking for a Savior. He gives us spiritual sight, not with mud and spit, but with the equally humble means of water, bread, wine, and Word. God sometimes uses suffering, followed by his gospel, to open the eyes of the spiritually blind, so they might see the Savior from all their eternal suffering.
Don’t ask, “Who sinned to cause my suffering?” That’s false theology. That’s karma. Rather ask, “How can my suffering lead me to patience, character, and hope?” “How can the burden of my suffering lead me to rely more on Christ who promises to ease my burdens and suffered for my sins?” “How can my suffering lead me to see Christ more clearly?”
Instead of asking, “Who sinned?”, thank God that Christ has removed your sin. Instead of believing in karma, believe in Christ. Amen.