Suffering and the Works of God – John’s Gospel, chapter 9 verses 1 to 12
Suffering is always with us.
3 ways people think about it:
- Sowing and reaping, the “law of Karma”.
- No meaning at all, fatalism.
- Suffering is not pointless or arbitrary. There is meaning, though we cannot often see it. God uses our suffering for our good and His glory.
The reality of suffering.
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.
John 9:1
An even more hopeless case (than the lame man at the pool in chapter 5). He saw a man blind from birth. Jesus knows, feels, understands. Heb 4:14-16
He “gets” our suffering. God sends his son, fitted to be our great high priest, ultimately to suffer and die for us.
The reason of suffering.
2 His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ 3 ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
John 9:2-3
“Have I done something to deserve this?” Karma?
No – but it is to show the glory of God in this man’s life.
Yes, all suffering is the result of Adam’s sin, but we are not fit to say of anyone “this man’s suffering is caused by this mans’ sin”.
God is at work in our sufferings. He is at work in YOUR suffering.
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
The feebleness of suffering.
6 After saying this, he spat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 ‘Go,’ he told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (this word means ‘Sent’). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
John 9:6-7
Mud! God uses the feeble things of earth to overcome things we cannot. Congenital blindness healed with a smear of mud? Yes, because it was from the hand of Jesus.
The almighty, everywhere-present power of God, where, as it were by His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth with all creatures, and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things come not by chance, but by His fatherly hand.
The Heidelberg Catechism, question 27
