JESUS: His Answers                                                                    6-11-06

“Who Sinned, This Man or His Parents?”

John 9:1-25     Audio

Why do bad things happen to good people?  Or in more Biblical terms: “Why do the righteous suffer?”  That’s a question that has come to all of our minds at one time or another: “Why do good people sometimes experience such tragedy, and bad people sometimes experience such trouble-free lives?”

The question is not a new one.  More than 3000 years ago the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 73: I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.  They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills….Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure;

in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning.  (3-5, 13-14).

One day Jesus’ disciples struggled with this same question.  They saw a blind man and wondered why he was blind.  Let’s read about it in John 9 (1-25).

The Disciples’ underlying assumption was that all sickness was caused by sin, by personal sin.  So they asked Jesus if the sin that caused this blindness was the parents’ sin, or the man’s own sin.  I wonder how it could be the man’s sin if he was born blind.  Did they think he had sinned in the womb, or in a previous life?

Is sickness caused by sin?  The Bible’s answer to that question is “Yes”.  Romans 5 says that death and all that leads to it came into the world through Adam’s sin. When Adam, in the Garden of Eden, ate of the fruit which God had forbidden, sin and sickness and death came into our world.  So in the global sense, sickness is the result of sin.

But is my sickness the result of my sin?  That’s the more personal question: is what I am suffering the result of some wrong I have done?  Sometimes it well might be, but not always.  In the Old Testament, when Israel sinned, God at times sent plagues among them.  People got sick, and people died because of their sin.  In the N.T. Annanias & Saphira died because of their sin.  King Herod died because of his sin. 

But perhaps the clearest passage about this is in 1 Corinthians 11.  It’s the chapter about communion.  And here is how serious taking communion is:

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep (in death).  (v.27-30).

Sometimes our sickness is the result of our own personal sin.  Does God cause us to be sick, or does He simply take His protection from us and the devil makes us sick?  Jesus did talk about spirits of infirmity.  But either way, the fault is not with God, but with us as we have sinned against Him and are experiencing the consequences of our sin.

Is sin the only cause of sickness?  Absolutely not!  And we are going to look at several other sources of sickness this morning.  But if sin is the cause of our sickness, God will delight in showing that to us if we will only ask Him.  His desire is not that we would be sick but rather that we would get rid of the sin, so He will not hide it from us if we sincerely go to Him asking for His insight.

The man in John 9 was not suffering because of his sin.  Jesus made that clear.  And understand that Jesus is not saying that this man and his parents had never sinned in their life.  He is not saying that these are perfect people, only that the cause of the sickness was not personal sin.

What are some other possible reasons for our suffering, other than personal sin?

Back in the last century, I brought 8 messages in a series I called “This Present Suffering”.  For 8 weeks we looked at this subject of suffering from a Biblical point of view.  Let’s again look at some of the things we looked at back in 1999.

We who believe in Divine healing sometimes have a hard time understanding suffering.  We somehow have come to believe that God’s will is that we live lives free from suffering, that we cannot suffer and be in the will of God at the same time.  But you cannot read the whole Bible and come up with that.  Suffering is not incompatible with our being in the very center of God’s will.

Here are some Biblical examples.  Job was a man the Bible says was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.  When God writes your resume and says those things about you, if sin were the only cause of suffering, you would think you would have a pretty easy life.  But read the book of Job.  This man suffered terribly – loss of property, loss of family, loss of health.  He lived a pretty holy life, but he still suffered.

Joseph lived a life of purity and righteousness.  He served God with all his heart, yet he is sold by he brothers to be a slave in Egypt, is falsely accused by his master’s wife because he refuses to get sexually involved with her, is thrown in prison and forgotten.  Yet when his son is later born, he says “God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.” (Gen. 41:52).

Jesus suffered, yet he lived that always pleased God.  The disciples suffered.  Paul wrote: There was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  (2 Cor. 12:7-9). Peter writes: those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.  (1 Pet. 4:19)  You can suffer and still be in the center of God’s will.

Let me give you 3 kinds of suffering the Bible talks about that are not the result of personal sin, but are all the result of Adam’s sin and Satan’s working in our world.

SUFFERING AT THE HANDS OF OTHERS 

(Video of 9-11)

At 9:03 a.m. on September 11, 2001, a hijacked plane crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center, 17 minutes after another hijacked plane had crashed into the north tower.  42 minutes later another hijacked plane crashes into the Pentagon, and later a 4^th plane, headed for the White House, crashes in Pennsylvania, after passengers try to take it back from the hijackers.  Nearly 3000 people died that day, and multiplied thousands still suffer today from those acts nearly 5 years ago.

These people are not suffering from anything they did wrong.  They are suffering because a group of men decided to inflict as much suffering as they could on people who are innocent.

A lot of the suffering we read about in the N.T. is that kind of suffering – suffering by followers of Jesus at the hands of people who are not followers of Jesus.  Sometimes it’s called “persecution”.  In the Book of Acts, and in the years that followed, Christians were stripped of their property, beaten, tortured, and even killed simply because they would not renounce their faith in Jesus.  And it still is happening today.

I often send to our email prayer team a prayer letter I receive weekly from Voice of the Martyrs. Here are two excerpts from this week’s letter:

“Imprisoned religious leader of South China Church, Gong Shengliang, was beaten again in Hong Shan prison, Wuhan, Hubei Province. On April 18, 2006, Pastor Gong's two sisters came to visit him and saw that the right side of Gong's face was swollen. Gong told them that March 21, 2006, another prisoner named Lei, who was assigned by prison officials to watch Gong day and night, beat him without cause. After the beating, Gong could not move his mouth for three days and suffered some hearing loss in his right ear. When Gong reported the beating to prison officials, they punished Pastor Gong by taking away two merit points he had earned during the last year. By contrast, the prison officers praised Lei.”

Another one is from India: “With the encouragement of a local chief and the apparent backing of a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, villagers in the north-central state of Madhya Pradesh gang-raped two Christian women Sunday (May 28) after the husband of one refused to deny Christ.

We sometimes suffer at the hands of others, often as they are used as tools of Satan.

THE SUFFERING OF CALAMITY.

It seems like there have been so many lately.  We are currently being called to help the people of Indonesia because of their recent earthquake.  Before that it was the earthquake in Pakistan.  And then there was the 2005 hurricane season, the worst in recorded history.  7 major hurricanes making landfall, 2280 deaths, $100 billion in damages. Even today we are still hearing about problems left behind by Hurricane Katrina.  Before that there was the earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 that left 230,000 people dead and millions suffering throughout that region: Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and India.

All of these are what we commonly call “acts of nature”.  Tornados, firestorms, ice storms, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, drought – they are nobody’s fault; they just happen.

God created the world perfect, but Satan got involved and messed it up.  An earthquake comes not because God caused it, or even because Satan caused it – it’s just part of the messed up world we are living in.  Sometimes God uses these things to get our attention, but He is not directly responsible for every storm that comes and every earthquakes that shakes our world.

One day God will straighten this world out.  One day there will be a new creation that will be even better than His original creation.  But for now, we live in a world that is far from perfect.  Revelation 21 speaks of a new heaven and a new earth, and v.4 says: He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

But today we still live in that old order of things.

Why doesn’t God intervene?  Why doesn’t He stop the storm?  Why does He let it rain on our picnic?  Why doesn’t He stop the frost that kills the blossoms on my peach trees?  Or keep the worms out of my apples?  Or stop the movement of the tectonic plates that cause earthquakes? Or keep hurricanes from making landfall?

Is it because He does not exist?

Is it because He is not aware of what is happening?

Is it because He is not able?

Is it because He does not care?

The Bible’s resounding answer to each of those questions is “NO”.  The Bible teaches that God does exist, that He is aware of what is happening in our world, He is able to do whatever He chooses to do, and He does care about us.  But often He chooses not to intervene what happens in our world, just as He chose not to intervene in the suffering and death of His own Son.

THE SUFFERING OF DECAY.

2 Corin. 4:16 says Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. Another translation says Though our outer man is progressively decaying and wasting away…

The older I get, the more I experience the effects of this one.  Our outer man, our physical body, is experiencing changes, and they are not all that good.  We are all in the process of decaying, of wasting away, and that is the cause of much of our physical suffering.

I’m trying hard to keep it from happening.  I’m eating healthy; I’m exercising more than I ever have in my life; I’m getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night; but I’m still decaying.

Wilbur Inks is one of my heroes.  He’s in his 80s and he’s still doing Bloomsday.  He fell and broke his pelvis a few weeks back, so he had his family push him in a wheelchair this year.  When he turned 80, his goal was to do that 7½ mile course in 80 minutes.  That’s averaging nearly 6 mph, even up Doomsday Hill.  And if you don’t think 6 mph is very fast, get on a treadmill sometime and set it for that speed and see how long you can go.

But I’ve noticed that even Wilbur is slowing down.  I’ve noticed that about some of the rest of you as well.

When Adam ate the forbidden fruit, that day he died spiritually.  He was separated from fellowship with God.  But something also happened physically that day.  Physical death was introduced into the human race that day.  And every day since, human beings have been decaying.  It started in Adam and Eve, and it continues in us.

Listen to me carefully.  Faith cannot change the order of things that God has instituted.  In His original creation our bodies were not subject to decay, and the glorified bodies we receive after our death will not be either.  But Adam’s sin brought God’s curse on this physical creation – including our bodies.  And that’s the way it will be until Jesus comes back to redeem this physical creation from its curse. 

Yes, God can and sometimes does sovereignly choose to heal us, often in response to our prayers of faith, to temporarily intervene in that decay process.  God can heal and God does heal.  I’m not saying this morning that God cannot heal you or that He will not heal you.  So don’t stop asking Him.  I stand here today as a product of God’s miracle working power.

But God does not always heal, and certainly not as often as we would like for Him to.  The truth is, most of the time when we pray for our eyesight to get better so we would not have to wear glasses, or for our hearing to get better so we would not have to wear hearing aids, or for our teeth to stop decaying, or even for our cold to go away, God does not intervene not matter how great our faith is.

He allows the order of things that He has instituted after the fall of Adam to continue just as it has for centuries.  And when He does perform miracles, it’s always for a purpose.

Romans 8 talks about this suffering of decay.  It says beginning in v.17: Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. ¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  ¹⁹ The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.  ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope  ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. ²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

We are currently living in bodies that have not yet been redeemed, as our spirits have been redeemed.  We are living in a fallen world, and the effects of that fallen world touch our unredeemed body. 

1 Corin. 15 contrasts the body we have now, with the one we will have when Jesus comes back.  It talks about the body we live in today and that will one day be buried, with the body that will be resurrected.  It says: It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. (v.42-44).

It is sown in weakness: the word used here means: native weakness and frailty; feebleness of health or sickness.

When we get to heaven things will be different; but for now, that’s the kind of body you and I have, one that is weak, frail, feeble, sick.  The reason you get sick is not usually because you have sinned; it’s usually because you are living in a body that is still mortal, a body that is still in bondage to decay.  Like it or not, we will suffer.

Let me close with two important truths that I want you to imprint on everything you have heard this morning.  In the midst of my suffering, what hope is there for me?  Please remember these two things.

Suffering can benefit us. 

Someone sent me an email a while back of an article a pastor had written following his surgery for cancer.  And one of the things he said was that God had spoken to him about not wasting his suffering.  His suffering could be wasted, or it could have purpose in his life.

Romans 5 begins: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

James 1 talks about the same thing.  In the midst of my suffering, there is something good that Jesus is wanting to do in my life.  He wants me to be better because of my suffering rather than being bitter.

In all of our suffering, God wants to be glorified.  That’s the point of the story in John 9.  This man was allowed to suffer blindness so that God could be glorified in His healing.  In Paul’s case, his thorn in the flesh was so that God could be glorified in sustaining Paul as he lived with his suffering.  But in both cases, God was the one to get the glory.

Peter writes: In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  1 Pet 1:6-7.

Our faith is more important to God than our comfort.  Our bringing Him glory in front of a watching world is more important to Him than our living lives free from suffering and pain.          

Here is one of the last things Jesus said before He went back to heaven.  It’s found in John 21:18-19.  Jesus is speaking and He says to Peter:  I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

The kind of death by which Peter would glorify God!  When people die, we sometimes feel we have been defeated.  But I have seen people glorify God even in their death, even in the way they die.  They are determined that God will receive glory, whether He heals them or takes them home. 

I hope that Jesus will come soon, but if He does not, I pray that people will some day say of me: “He glorified God, even in his death.”  And I hope they will say that of you as well.