A Job for JesusSample

The Correlation Between Sin And Sickness

To move around and not be able to walk by sight, to grope and feel and not be able to see who people are would be a tremendous loss. Here a man is born blind. Darkness is all that he knows for he has nothing to compare it to. As Jesus moves in close proximity to this man, a question emerges about this man. It comes from the folks surrounding Jesus. "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 

We live in a culture of blame. 

You will be shocked at how many people we blame for what we cannot explain. So Jesus said to not blame his mother or father because they cannot heal him—don’t even blame him. But this is for the glory of God. 

Have you considered your emptiness, your loneliness, your unhappiness is for the glory of God? 

Who sinned? We want an answer for human suffering and that answer is sin—but it’s not always individual sin. Jesus’ disciples are worried, or believe that if something negative has happened to someone, it must be a result of some individual sin. How different is it from the law of karma? What they’re asking is, is the kid (grown man now) being punished or are His parents being punished for something they have done? 

It is sad that in many Christian circles and churches there is a spirit of judgmentalism. When we see people suffering (and virtually all of us have issues going on in our lives) our first reaction ought to be compassion, not judgment. 

The disciples ask a question that reflects a narrow theology of God’s justice. The assumption here is that if people suffer, then they must have done something bad to deserve it. Jesus’ statement does not mean that God inflicted blindness upon the man so he could later heal him. God doesn’t work that way. Rather, God takes what has happened and turns it into good.

This text is an echo of the call to Naaman who sought healing from leprosy by Elisha. Naaman, a great commander, was told by a servant that he would not be healed by Elisha’s magic but by his own blind faith and obedience. We read in 2 Kings 5:10-13, “Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.” But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he… would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy… Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.  Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”

The correlation between sin and sickness is not so direct, not so black and white. I know of wicked people who are very strong and healthy and never need to see a doctor. I know very good and devout people who have hardly seen one healthy day in their lives, and who need to bear with one ailment upon another.

You may have great faith and yet remain unhealed. The apostle Paul, who healed many people and even raised someone from the dead, speaks about this when he mentions a “thorn in the flesh”. Gods answer to Paul ought to be the balm in our lives. But he said to me my grace is sufficient for you because my power is made perfect in weakness. 2 Cor 12:9