Who sinned?
John 9:1-41
Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? v. 1
Whose fault is it anyway? Whose fault is it that people live in poverty? Whose fault is it that people can’t just pull themselves up by their bootstraps? Whose fault is it that people get sick? Whose fault is it that people live on welfare?
If it’s not their own fault, it must be their upbringing or their environment, or their poor choices, or something that puts them in this wretched condition? It’s not my fault. Why should I help them?
These are the questions that echo from the story of Jesus healing a man born blind. It wasn’t the Pharisees or Sadducees or other religious leaders, but Jesus’ own disciples who ask, “Whose fault is it?” “Who sinned, this man or his parents…?” The conventional wisdom said that bad outcomes were signs of bad input on someone’s part.
Where others see barriers, Jesus sees opportunities. He sees the opportunity with this man born blind to do good and so give glory to God. Jesus is not saying, of course, that the man was blinded in order to give Jesus some good to do. But Jesus took the opportunity in this situation to reveal God’s glory, God’s ultimate redeeming love.
When we encounter people in desperate situations, Can we imagine that those situations are not wholly of their own making? If so, our encounters become opportunities to bring help and hope to those in need. The gift of the man’s blindness, the gift of those in need of food or water, or clothes, or healing is the opportunity we are given to offer not only our presence, but also our help.
Jesus told his parable of the sheep and the goats as the cross of Golgotha stretched a long shadow over his life. We live in the shadow of death ourselves. We have the opportunities to join God in the shadows to do good, to offer hope and help.
Pray: O God who clothes the world in beauty, we daily live our lives in the shadow of the cross. Help us to see in this darkness the opportunity to do good, to join in blessing the world in your name. Amen.
Fast: By repairing one item of clothing
Act: Buy shoes for a children’s clothes closet
OR $1 for ELCA World Hunger Relief projects
...the least of these... 