Liz wanted to catch an earlier flight, but her work meetings ran long. She was the valedictorian of her class and graduated from Georgetown law firm. She had been texting with her mother throughout the day and looking forward to returning home to DC for her 33rd birthday. When she was supposed to land, her mother texted the word “Landed” with a question mark at 9:07 pm when she didn’t hear from her daughter. American Airlines Flight 5342 was just your typical midweek regional flight. Many of you have been on dozens of these kinds of flights. A mother and father with their two cats traveled to see their daughter who was away in college. A flight attendant switched careers in the middle of her life in order to see the world. Most of the 64 people on board had never met one another. It was the deadliest American plane crash in decades. As experts study the garbled recording of the plane’s black box, friends and family members cry out to God, “Why?” Nearly 2,000 years ago, Jesus was faced with this question.
We resume our study of the gospel of John. Find John with 9 with me. For many of you country music singers, the legendary Hank Williams wrote a song entitled “I Saw the Light.”
The first verse:
“I wandered so aimless, life filled with sin
I wouldn't let my dear savior in
Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night
Praise the Lord, I saw the light”
Even though Hank Williams wrote those words almost a half a century ago, it could have been written and sung two millennia ago by a man whose name we do not know, but whose life we will never forget.1
Today’s Scripture
“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know” (John 9:1-12).
A miracle occurs, but from the ensuing controversy, you wouldn’t know it. This man has congenital blindness. That’s when you have poor vision from birth.2 I have learned that there are a lot of adjustments blind people have to make.
Christina has been going blind since she was a teenager. She says many blind people prefer a cane because you can put a cane in a closet when you want to. A dog is wonderful, but they take a lot of caring and work as well. She says that even the white cane doesn’t always because her cane slips underneath tables and chairs, and it cannot tell her if there is overhanging brush. “You learn how to map out the world differently. Instead of reading the street signs, you count the number of intersections. You stop using the pedestrian signals to know when to cross the street, but look (or listen for) the traffic flow.” “Sometimes I use a human guide. I hate to do this, not just because it limits my independence, but because most people … are terrible at it. They’ll grab you and proceed to drag you, making you stumble and become disoriented. They’ll forget to stop before a step, so you fall. Even with instruction, guiding someone else is an intuitive exercise that not a lot of people have a talent for.”3
Under the sound of my voice are a number of people suffering from disabilities. We feel for you and want to come alongside you to alleviate your suffering. Disability is expensive — financially, emotionally, and relationally. Let’s leave the blind man for now and return to him in a minute to explore a question that gnaws at us.
Sermon Preview
1. A Look at the Twelve Who Ask the Big Question “Why”
2. A Look at Jesus Who Brings Light into a Dark World
3. A Look at the Blind Man Who Cannot Escape from Controversy
1. Look at the Twelve Who Ask the Big Question, “Why”
“And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2).
1.1 Sin, Suffering, and Illness
The Disciples ask Jesus this question, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2b).
The man who was to be healed isn’t part of this conversation. The conversation happens before he’s evidently at a distance. The Disciples suffer from a false understanding of suffering. They thought that bad things happen only to bad people. Sin and suffering were tightly linked in the minds of the Disciples. They felt that all suffering could be directly linked to the person or to the parents. In their minds, it might very well be the parents’ fault since this man was born blind.
In one sense, the Disciples are correct. There is no death without sin (Ezekiel 18:20). There’s no suffering without guilt (Psalm 89:32). But this is a broad stroke brush where you can think of humanity in general. When it comes to an individual, the connection isn’t nearly as tight. The disciples propose the tightest possible connection.4 The Disciples were essentially in agreement with Job’s miserable comforters for those of you who know the Book of Job.
1.1.1 Children of Divorce
You know, sometimes the children of divorce combine these two. Studies show that sometimes children will not only be mad at one or both of the parents for the divorce, but at the same time, they’ll be sure they caused it somehow.5 “It’s my fault. There must be something wrong with me,” and all the while hating their parents.
1.1.2 Genesis and Suffering
The Disciples are asking the big question of Why. The Bible says all suffering comes from sin in general but not from sin in particular. In Genesis 3, the Bible says the reason there’s suffering and pain in the world is because of the sin of human beings. What God tells us in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve decided to go their own way, when humankind decided to be their own masters, God says: “Now nature will not ever work again properly. It will now be subject to disease and to decay and to death and to natural disasters, and because you’ve all decided to center on yourself and live self-centered lives, you’ll be constantly coming into conflict with each other.” Again, the Bible says suffering comes from sin in general but never from sin in particular.6
1.2 All of Us Ask Why
Pollster, George Barna was once commissioned to inquire of people what one question they would ask of God if they had the opportunity and know that God would give the answer. By an overwhelming majority, the most urgent question was this – “Why is there so much suffering in the world?”7 The best of us thinks “why” when tragedy happens. When the Disciples ask Jesus this question, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?,” it’s really a question we all ask even if we are not religious. Jesus Himself asked the Father “Why” on the cross (Matthew 27:46). If He asked this question, so can you.
1. Look at the Twelve Who Ask the Big Question, “Why”
2. Look at Jesus, Who Brings Light into a Dark World
“We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:4-5).
Jesus rejects the Disciples’ notion out of hand in verse 3. Jesus says, “There’s a purpose for pain.” Jesus does something with suffering that is remarkable. He says, “I care for you. I love you. I want to help you when you are hurting.” But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, look back at verse one with me for just a moment.
2.1 Jesus Notices Hurting People
“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth” (John 9:1).
Jesus notices hurting people. You get the impression from reading the gospel that Jesus first notices the people hurting the most.8 After all, Jesus began the most sermon ever with these words: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:3-4). It was Jesus who noticed the hurting woman at the well in Samaria who had been married many times over (John 4). And it was Jesus who also noticed the hurting man who lay as an invalid for 38 years (John 5:5-6).
[Pause]
Now if Jesus noticed hurting people, shouldn’t you? After all, believers are to be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1-2). When you see someone suffer, don’t be cynical. Jesus says that suffering is present so that God can work in our lives (verse 4). Just as Jesus was the light sent into the world to extinguish darkness, we are the light because He’s in us to extinguish darkness. Suffering isn’t meaningless; it’s an opportunity to extend love.
2.2 The Question Behind the Question
Jesus Christ does what people today call presuppositional analysis. He shows us to look at the question behind the question. Jesus is always making you look at the unexamined, unstated premises in your question. Think about an old album for a moment. Just as a record has a flip side, so does a question. Jesus turns the question over just as you would flip a record over to hear the “B side.” Look all the way down at verse 39-41 with me, where Jesus flips the record with the Pharisees: Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains” (John 9:39-41).
I’ve skipped way ahead in the story, and a lot of religious controversy has gone on. Jesus comes back into the picture after the religious teachers have harassed this once-blind man for breaking a man-made rule about keeping the Sabbath. Jesus flips the album, or really the metaphor. He says, “I’ve come to make sure the blind may see, and those seeing will remain blind.” Jesus says, “It’s because you say you can see that your guilt remains.” Let Jesus show you the “B side” to the assumption, if bad things happen only to bad people. There’s a flip side to this assumption, and it’s this: God owes me a good life.
2.2.1 Luke 13
In Luke 13, the same issue comes up.
Somebody says, “Jesus, have you heard about the tower that fell down in another town and killed a bunch of people? Horrible tragedy. A tower fell on a group of people. Now, Jesus,” they asked him, “were those people worse sinners than others? Is that why the tower fell on them?”
Same question. “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5)
Jesus says, “Is this what you think? You think these people were worse sinners than you?” Jesus says, “You’re wrong.” Again, the flip side to this assumption and it’s that God owes me a good life. If bad things happen only to bad people, the flip side is that good things only happen to good people. When people say, “Why does God allow suffering?” Jesus is saying, “Listen, friends. Don’t you see what you’re assuming? You wouldn’t be asking that question unless you believed God owed you a comfortable life.”
2.2.2 God Owes You a Comfortable Life
Look at the “B Side” of the Why question. Here, you have a God who has created you and who sustains you every minute of the day. He upholds your life every second, all the time. Therefore, wouldn’t you agree that if this is true, then you owe it to Him to love Him, serve Him, and obey him? Yes, that’s what you owe Him, and yet every day of your life, you have resented His interference. You have rejected His loving authority over your life. You have continually decided you are wiser than He was. You resented His rules whenever they went against your desires or what you thought was right to you. He has given you hundreds of chances to give yourself to Him. Again and again and again, you’ve thwarted His loving authority, and you’ve given him so little that now He owes you. He made your life possible, and He sustains you at every moment of your life, and now He has the additional obligation to follow along after you and make sure your life is comfortable?
2.3 I Am the Light of the World
Look back at Jesus’ response with me: “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:4-5). Jesus says, in effect, “Some, not all, bad things (like this man’s heart-breaking birth) don’t happen not from their personal sinful choices in the past but for good purposes in the future.9 Whenever you experience suffering, God wants to work in your life. It was never God’s design for the world to hurt. God wants to heal the brokenness in our lives. There is a purpose behind why’s he blind. Jesus says, “There is a divine design.”
2.3.1 God Doesn’t Immediately Punish Every Sinner
Jesus says, “Don’t believe for a moment that if someone is suffering in their life, God is paying them back. If my Father worked that way, nobody would be left. If God sent immediate suffering and tragedy in your life as soon as you disobeyed Him, nobody would be walking around!”
Jesus says, “I’m here now. I’m here to bless, to hear, to liberate the captive, to see the prisoner free.”
2.3.2 When a Christian Suffers
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
If you’re here as a genuine Christian and you’re suffering. Here’s how you should talk to yourself: “If there is suffering in my life, it’s not because God is punishing me, because all my punishment fell into Jesus. All of it. God would never take two payments for one debt. God is not going to punish Jesus for my sin and then punish me.”10 A Christian is somebody who, on the one hand, says, “Suffering is in this world because of sin in general. I can never ever, ever feel sorry for myself and decide I don’t deserve suffering.” “On the other hand, I know if there’s suffering in my life, it’s not because God is punishing me for my sin. There’s a reason for it. There’s a purpose to my pain. The Lord is teaching me in it, but I realize He’s with me in it. He hates the suffering. He’s unhappy with the pain. It’s not His design.”
Whenever you experience suffering, God wants to work in your life. It was never God’s design for the world to hurt. God wants to heal the brokenness in our lives.
1. Look at the Twelve Who Ask the Big Question, “Why”
2. Look at Jesus, Who Brings Light into a Dark World
3. Look at the Blind Man Who Cannot Escape from Controversy
“He answered, ‘Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see’” (John 9:25).
3.1 The Blind Man
Most of the dialogues in John’s Gospel involve Jesus and another person or group. If you were to act out the scenes in the Gospel of John, you could get by with two people for much of it, and Jesus is one of them. John 9 is an exception. Jesus was present for much of the beginning when the miracle took place, and He comes back in the end. But as the controversy around the miracle begins to develop, the man who used to blind replaces Jesus as the central character. However, this formerly blind man is the dominant person in much of John 9 as he interacts with other people.11 John is showing you the development of this blind man and how he can see when almost no one else around him does.
3.2 Celebration?
When this man was healed, you would have expected a celebration, but instead all he got was confrontation. You would have thought that everyone would have been happy for the blind man. You would have thought they would have thrown a party. You would have thought this story would have been on the front page of the Jerusalem newspapers and everyone would have shared his story on social media.
3.3 Why Mud?
Jesus could have healed this man any way He chose. If your imagination could have come up with it, Jesus could have performed the miracle that way. Jesus intentionally chose to heal with mud because it was against the Pharisee’s understanding of the law. In other words, Jesus went looking for a fight. Jesus triggers a fight over the Sabbath that goes on for 41 verses. Jesus knew the blind man wasn’t the only one suffering. If Jesus didn’t pick a fight, then everyone would have suffered under these silly, terrible religious laws.
3.4 The Irony of Not Seeing
As the story develops, the most ironic thing appears in front of us. It’s that the one-time blind man sees better than those who could always see. They excommunicate this man because He won’t refuse to see. Even his parents won’t stand up for him in verse 22: “(His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.)” (John 9:22).
You can see perfectly fine and still be blind.
3.5 Progression of Faith
Do you see how this man progressed in his faith? Watch carefully as this man’s faith grows in front of our eyes. The religious teachers ask him in verse 10: “So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know” (John 9:10-12).
Not liking that answer, they come back in verse 16: “Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.” (John 9:16-17).
First, Jesus was a good man, then Jesus was a great man. In verse 26, they insist that he agrees with them: “They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” (John 9:26-27).
He continues in verse 30: “The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing’ (John 9:30-33).
“Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him” (John 9:35-38).
Watch carefully as this man’s faith grows in front of our eyes. First, Jesus was a good man, then Jesus was a great man. Then became a godly man, only in the end, Jesus was the God-Man. Is it not interesting that even a miracles cannot make some people see.
3.6 A Closing Appeal
No matter what mess you’re in or what pain you’re in, the causes of that mess and that pain are not decisive in explaining it. What is decisive in explaining it is God’s purpose. Yes, there are causes. Some of them your fault, perhaps, and some of them not. But those causes are not decisive in determining the meaning of your mess or your pain.12 What is absolutely decisive is God’s purpose: “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3b).
3.7 Conclusion
Picture 64 people on board American Airlines Flight 5342 and 3 soldiers on the US Army Blackhawk. There are young ice skaters, lawyers, and duck hunters aboard. There are parents, singles, and teenagers. After the crash, they each stand before God stripped of credit cards, offshore bank accounts, the latest clothes, their how-to-succeed books, and their Marriot reservations. Here they all are – the duck hunter, the corporate lawyer, the flight attendant, and a community college professor – all are now on ground level with nothing in their hands. They only possess what they brought with them in their hearts.13 You don’t control your life.
EndNotes
1 James Merritt, “”Have You Seen the Light,” https://www.sermonsearch.com/sermon-outlines/20836/have-you-seen-the-light/; accessed February 2, 2025.
2 https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24446-blindness; accessed January 28, 2025.
3 https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/12/what-does-it-feel-like-to-be-blind.html; accessed January 28, 2025.
4 D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 361-362.
5 Timothy J. Keller, “The Problem of Pain,” The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).
6 Timothy J. Keller, “The Problem of Pain,” The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).
7 https://www.christianpost.com/news/lee-strobel-why-does-god-allow-pain-suffering.html; accessed May 17, 2022.
8 Frederick Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans, 2012), 564.
9 Philip Schaff, Ed., St. Augustin: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1888), 246.
10 Timothy J. Keller, “The Problem of Pain,” The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).
11 Andy M. Reimer, “The Man Born Blind: True Disciple of Jesus,” in Hunt, Tolmie, and Zimmermann, Character Studies in the Fourth Gospel: Narrative Approaches to Seventy Figures in John (Mohr Siebeck, 2013) 429.
12 John Piper, “The Works of God and the Worship of Jesus,” Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014). (Minneapolis, MN: Desiring God, 2014).
13 This illustration was taken from John Piper. http://www.desiringgod.org/sermons/money-currency-for-christian-hedonism; accessed June 8, 2014.
