If God is good, why do we suffer? John 9:1-5

If God is Good, why do we suffer? John 9:1-5 Introduction: The statistics in the Compassion presentation this morning are heart breaking—children starving to death every day around the world. We are bombarded with news of people in pain and suffering hardship and injustice. This week you probably saw the story of a family of seven traveling on the Bronx River Parkway in NYC– the driver loses control, hits the concrete divider, veers across several lanes of traffic, crashes through a guard rail, and plummets 60 ft. off an embankment – all seven die, including three children. Tragedies are in the news every week… In our own town a house fire and a fishing accident suddenly ended two lives last week. And Christians are not exempt. Just look at our prayer list and we are reminded that believers and their families suffer and experience trials just like the world around us. The five year anniversary of the death of my Hebrew professor from seminary just passed. He was diagnosed with melanoma that had spread to his lungs and eventually his brain. His wife and four children watched him struggle with treatment for a little over a year before the end came. He kept a blog and a year after his diagnosis, a month before his death, he wrote,

…We have grieved, but always with hope in the resurrection we have through faith in Christ. While we would not have chosen it this way, we have seen God’s goodness, nearness, steadfast love, and faithfulness in unprecedented fashion. We have rested in the reality that he is absolutely in control and He is good.

The story of Joni Erickson Tada is another example of this: a 17 year old girl dives off a float in the Chesapeake Bay and hits her head, snapping back her neck. She was stunned for several seconds and realized she couldn’t move and something terrible had happen. Her spinal cord had been severed, and she was paralyzed for life. It wasn’t long before that that she had given her life to the Lord. How could He allow such a tragedy in her life? She struggled and gradually came to the point of accepting God’s presence in her life in the midst of her pain, ministered to others faithfully for 40 years, and then a couple of years ago was diagnosed with breast cancer! If we have a God who is good, who is all powerful, and also loving, why is there such suffering in the world? A famous story from over a century ago is that of Horatio Spafford. In the 1870s Spafford was a successful Chicago lawyer and businessman, and a close friend of evangelist D.L. Moody. Spafford had invested heavily in real estate, but the Chicago fire of 1871 wiped out his holdings. His son had died shortly before the disaster. Spafford and his family desperately needed a rest so in 1873 he planned a trip to Europe with his wife and four daughters. While in England he also hoped to help Moody and Sankey with their evangelistic tour. Last minute business caused Spafford to delay his departure, but he sent his wife and four daughters ahead on the S. S. Ville Du Havre as scheduled, promising to follow in a few days. On November 22 the ship was struck by the English ship Lochearn, and it sank in twelve minutes. Several days later the survivors landed at Cardiff, Wales, and Mrs. Spafford cabled her husband the brief message, "Saved alone." How do you survive crises like these? How do you go on? Today’s text tells us the story of Jesus and his disciples meeting a man who had been born blind. We can only imagine the experience of his parents as he came into the world. Joy and excitement—a son! What a blessing from God. And then realizing, oh God, he’s blind! No “braille” to help him read, nor special education to help him become independent—he would almost surely be a beggar for the rest of his life. Why God? What did we do to deserve this? Have you heard that question? Have you asked it? The Bible doesn’t offer easy answers, but it does point us to the One who is the answer. The Big Idea: Even in the painful situations of life we can be assured that God is good, and that He is working everything together for our good, and for His glory.

I. The Problem of suffering: There is suffering and injustice in the world.

Read John 9:1, “And as He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth.” That is the issue this story begins with. Where does it come from? Why does God allow it? We might add, why, for Heaven’s sake, do Christians have to go through it? First of all, the Bible makes it clear that God created a world that was a paradise. He planted a garden in the midst of it and placed the first humans there. A sinless man and a sinless woman, in a paradise without pain, sickness, suffering and death. God gave them everything they could possibly need, and they lived happily ever after, right? Wrong! Inexplicably, the sinless man and his wife succumbed to the temptation of the evil one. Augustine pondered the truth that they were created without sin, so they were able not to sin, but they also were created with free will, so inherently they were able to sin, the possibility was there. Suffering and hardship and pain and death are not normal. The point is that when we see suffering and sickness, tragedy and pain, death and injustice, that is the result of human rebellion against God. Paul said in his letter to the Romans that “By one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all have sinned.” So there is a connection between sin and suffering, but not the connection the disciples were assuming. We can’t point to individual suffering and say it is the consequence of their personal sin. Many times I’ve had people come to me in the midst of horrific suffering and ask, “What did I do to deserve this?” They wonder if God is punishing them for something they did, or if He is unjust and they don’t deserve what He’s giving them. More often they are simply trying to make sense of what’s happening. Losing a job, a bad report from a doctor, a sudden accident and a serious injury, a break up of a family… It is normal and good in the midst of crises, and to cry out to God. The Psalms are full of the pleas of God’s people in the midst of their pain (See Psalm 3:1, 13:1, etc.). *God understands, we have a High Priest who can sympathize with us, He was tested in all point like as we are, yet without sin. There isn’t much doubt that this blind man’s parents cried out to God, why? What now? It’s probable that he did as well: Why am I different from everyone else? There aren’t easy answers, but we can be assured that… Even in the painful situations of life God is good, and that He is working everything together for our good, and for His glory.

II. The Purpose of suffering: Why do bad things happen to good people?

The disciples saw two possibilities, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he should be born blind?” The purpose had to be that God was punishing, or at least chastening someone, right? Rabbi Kushner posed addressed the problem of suffering and the question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” in a book by that title in 1981 and he was by no means the first. The church has approached the issue and struggled with it through the centuries. To the world it is usually assumed that either God is not all that good, or he is not all that powerful (that was essentially Kushner’s conclusion, “God can’t do everything, but he can do some important things”!). Biblical Christianity takes a more complex view: God is good, God is sovereign, He is so awesome that He is working together a master plan that is good, even over-ruling even the sinful acts of humans and the consequences of the Fall to accomplish His good purpose. The truth is we may never know “why” in specific cases, but we can know that God is working is working out His good plan in the world (vv.2-3).

John 9:2-3 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?" 3 Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.

First, we see a wrong presupposition: The disciples thought that personal suffering must be related directly to personal sin. Surely either his parents had sinned or, the Jews of the time thought it was possible for someone to sin even while still in the womb, and so he was born blind as a direct consequence. The Hindu idea of “karma” has found its way into a lot of popular American theologies that allow for previous lives influencing the status or conditions that a person might experience in this life. None of that is biblical. It is appointed unto humans to die once, after that the judgment. The biblical world view is different in that it recognizes a bigger picture: God is good, and He is sovereignly working behind the scenes, causing all things to work together for our good and for his glory, even in the painful situations of life.

III. Our Purpose in Suffering: Jesus’ response really turns the question of the disciples completely around.

Rather than answering questions we might have about the sovereignty of God and the origin of evil, He points us back to God. We may not know why things happen, but we can focus on pointing people to Jesus, the One who endured suffering so that we could be saved (vv. 4-5). Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me…” (Phil 4:13). Because we are in Christ we can thrive in every circumstance of life. A. In 9:4 He says, "I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work…” Literally it says “It is necessary (dei)[often used of a “divine requirement”] to work the works of Him who sent me…” Some translations take that as “I must” (KJV, NKJV), others “we must” (NIV, NASB). Both are true. As the Scripture reminds us, we are His body, we are light in the world. While we are here we have a mission to carry out. Wednesday night we’ve been reading through the story of Joseph. This week was the amazing story of how Joseph was elevated from his position of imprisonment to second in command over all of Egypt. The account goes on to say that God gave Joseph two sons: Manasseh, which means “making forgetful,” he said “…for God has caused me to forget all my toil…” and Ephraim, “fruitfulness,” for “….God had caused him to be fruitful in the land of my affliction…” The point is, God didn’t take J. out of the land of his affliction, he blessed him in it (Joseph understood, see Gen 45:5-8; 50:19-21!). Jesus said in v.5 "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” We know the story, the cross is the prelude to the resurrection of Jesus and his ascension into heaven. From there He sends the Spirit to empower the church – His “sent ones” (He’ll say in this Gospel, “As the Father has sent me, so send I you…”). As Jesus sits at the Father’s right hand, we are His body in the world. WE are the light of the world. One way our light shines is our response to the trials we face. Another is our willingness to come alongside those who are suffering, not with easy answers, but to show them Jesus. What is God saying to me in this passage? Even in the painful situations of life we can be assured that God is good, and that he is working everything together for our good, and for His glory. He understands our pain and stuggles in this life. We have a High priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses, he was tested in all points like as we are, yet without sin. And just as Adam brought death and the curse, Jesus provided the way to life: Hebrews 12:2-3

“…fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.”

As he blogged, just a few weeks before passing into the presence of his Lord, Al Groves reflected on some lessons God was teaching him:

First, God has continued to be a father to me. He still ferrets out the issues in my heart and leads me in repentance. The need for sanctification never ends; difficult circumstances have not given me a free pass. My failure to respond well to people or to reach out to others has been particularly an area in which I have been challenged. As painful as this kind of ‘heart’ surgery can be, I am reminded each time he puts his finger on something that he is there and is ever loving me. It may seem strange to some, but he shows his fatherly love and concern by continuing to love me through discipline (Heb 12:5-6). Secondly, as I already mentioned, we have peace and hope afresh in the resurrection, and we are learning about grieving with hope. Thirdly, walking through the valley of the shadow of death, we are not alone. We walk with one who has walked it already and has emerged alive on the other end, who leads us through that valley, and who will lead out to life all who trust him. We have had wonderful care, which we see as part of God’s providential hand in sustaining us. God alone heals. He does so in many ways. Sometimes his purposes are best served as we put off the perishable and put on the imperishable. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be his name.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? Remember Horatio Spafford? He made the ocean crossing to meet his grieving wife, and sailed near the place where his four daughters had drowned. There, in the midst of his sorrow, he wrote these unforgettable words that have brought solace to so many in grief:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blessed assurance control, That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Amen.