“As Jesus was walking along, He saw a man who had been blind from birth.” (John 9:1) The disciples wanted to know, did this man sin or was it his parents that sinned? “Neither, this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the WORKS OF GOD might be displayed in him.” (John 9:3)
The Disciples wanted to know the cause of this blindness, BENITA! The man’s sin? Or the parents’ sin? Is this blindness a punishment for the parents’ sin or a punishment for his own sin — some kind of inherited sinfulness already in the womb? Jesus says, in effect, specific sins in the past don’t always correlate with specific suffering in the present. The decisive explanation for this blindness is not found by looking for its CAUSE but by looking for its PURPOSE. Verse 3: Jesus answered, “It was so that the WORKS OF GOD might be displayed in him.” The point Jesus is making is not that suffering didn’t come into the world because of sin. IT DID. That’s plain from Genesis 3 and Romans 8:18–25. If there never had been sin, there never would have been suffering. ALL SUFFERING IS OWING TO SIN. And part of the meaning of the physical horrors of suffering is to reveal the MORAL HORRORS OF SIN.
Jesus must do this quickly, because night is coming, and His work will be over. Jesus will turn from a ministry of HEALING to a ministry of DYING. He will turn from the day-work of relieving suffering, and do the night-work of SUFFERING HIMSELF. He will finally submit totally to the plan of His Father that the Son be SWALLOWED UP by the sin and suffering of the world.
Your Personal Pastor -Bill Stockham