The disciples had a legitimate question. After all, we all question why bad things happen to good people. When they saw the man who was bling from birth, they simply wanted to know who had sinned, the man or his parents. Jesus replied in verse 3, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” This is really hard for us because we want to believe that bad things come from consequences of someone doing something wrong. If each of us realized that bad things had the sole purpose of finding a way to glorifying God, we would all have a different perspective on bad situations.
2012 Day 50 – John 9
19 Sunday Feb 2012
Posted in Daily Reading
I love this story! When I read it, I imagine it playing out like a sitcom in my mind. It’s really hilarious. I can just picture this man who was blind that now can see running around telling people, “I can see, I can see, no, I don’t know who healed me, but you don’t understand, I can see.” Then the Pharisees doubt him and doubt that Jesus was God’s Son, because surely if He were the Son of God, He would know better than to heal a blind man on the Sabbath. They couldn’t take it at face value that the man had been miraculously healed and that it was God’s work through Jesus that made it so.
I can empathize with the Pharisees in this situation because I know there have been times in my life where God has clearly been at work, yet I’ve been to caught up in my own assumptions to see Him.
I love that in this story Jesus calls the blind man to respond with an act of belief – not just a statement of belief. He is called to put it in motion in order to receive healing. I wonder how many times God has had healing in store for me and I have refused to follow his instruction to put it into motion.