Who Sinned?
John 9:2-3
(2) And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
(3) Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
While the natural human question regarding any kind of disadvantage or hardship is ‘who did something wrong to cause this?’ Jesus reaction is quite different- ‘how can this misfortune become a display of God’s goodness?’ His way is definitely far above our way and so much more uplifting, encouraging and comforting. Rather than looking to condemn, He is continually looking to restore to complete wholeness by His love.
Surely the man and his parents both were not without fault. Jesus, after all, was the only sinless man. If sin could have caused the blindness, surely there was plenty to go around. So, how could it be said by Jesus that sin wasn’t responsible for this? How could He completely sidestep the responsibility of those involved for the ‘obvious’ judgment on display in this man’s body? Maybe it has everything to do with what qualified Him to be the sacrificial Lamb for all of mankind. While we may smell the masses and be turned off by their stench, while the attitudes and failures of the rebellious may garner rejection and incarceration, and while the disabled and dysfunctional may repel, Jesus sees the whole of all mankind’s failures, sickness and dismemberment as a glory opportunity. For the very situations to which we would attach blame and separation, He extends a saving hand and a loving embrace. Rather than condemnation He offers salvation. What a revolutionary concept and what a powerful approach for the One actually possessing the power to implement it? True restoration and complete salvation must get past the blame and the fault or there can never be enough personal righteousness or holiness to merit heaven’s goodness. Jesus didn’t see the blindness as caused by or disqualified by sin, but He rather saw it as just another way for His Father’s works to be displayed.
So, what is so wonderful about this truth for us, as we head out into our day with whatever ails us and whatever faults for which we are undeniably guilty, is that there will never be enough disqualifying failure on our part to disable God’s powerful restoration love. Sin will definitely have its toll on the life of the one willfully given to it, but with every natural consequence there will also be a God opportunity for a glory display, and God, instead of looking to condemn, is looking to bless and save to the uttermost all that would otherwise be undeserving. No matter how much our own guilt and sense of loss may be restricting our self acceptance, there is an opportunity for us to shift our gaze to the way God sees our situation. Rather than just accepting circumstances as something we may deserve and as the cost for some sin or shortcoming, we can begin to see them as incredible ‘God-working’ opportunities. The only real restriction upon our reception of His goodness will ever be that self erected barrier of condemnation that keeps us from rising at His command and accepting His joy empowering embrace of love. He’s standing right now on the other side of that barrier waiting for us to join Him there.
John 3:17-18
(17) God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.
(18) Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.