Why Does God Allow Suffering?

“Why Does God Allow Suffering?”

John 9:1-7

Our text brings us face to face with one 0f the questions that we all have asked ourselves at one time or another, either concerning ourselves or others; “Why does God permit such suffering to occur?” Country singer Joey Feek passed away March 4, 2016 after an almost two-year battle with cervical cancer at just forty years of age. And although I don’t know much about her, she and her husband seemed to be a fine Christian couple. So, questions arise. “Why her? Why now at just 40 years of age?” All of us probably can think of an example of suffering that to us seems unfair. Any trip to any children’s hospital leaves you with an ache in your heart and ques-tions in your mind. “Why do children so young and innocent have to battle cancer?” The Disciples found themselves facing such a situation when they encountered the blind man in John chapter nine.

On the morning recorded in John chapter nine a blind man arose unaware that his world was about to change because he was about to meet Jesus. In John chapter eight Jesus said that he was the “light of the world” and in John chapter nine Jesus proves it. As Jesus and His Disciple leave the city of Jerusalem after the Feast of the Tabernacles they encounter a man blind from birth, “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind. (2) And His disciples asked Him saying, Who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind.” (John 9:1-2)

First, Errors Concerning Suffering.

There are two crucial questions regarding trials and suffering. The first is “why?” Why is there suffering in life? The second is “what?” What should we do about this suffering?

As Jesus and His disciples leave the city of Jerusalem after the Feast of the Tabernacles – they came across a man blind from birth. The disciples turned to Jesus and in verse two asked the “why” question that we all are tempted to ask from time to time. “Why has this happened?”

Perhaps no question challenges us more deeply than the question “Why?”

Why me?

Why here?

Why now?

Why this?

The question “Why did this happen?” challenges us to probe the connection between the goodness of God and human suffering. If God is good, why is there so much suffering in the world? If God is all-powerful, why doesn’t He use His power to stop the suffering?

In this case the Disciples are curious as to the reason for this man’s blindness, and ask in verse two, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

There are many errors expressed frequently in our day concerning why people suffer. The first error is to think that we suffering in this life because of bad things we did in a previous life. We can tribute this to the influence of Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism and now seen in New Age thought. This is the idea of karma. This of course runs counter to the plain teaching of the Bible which plain teaches we each have one life after which comes death. Hebrews 9:27, “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”

The Jews of Jesus day had another view which seems to be what the disciples meant. That is that some children sin in the womb and birth defects are the result. The disciples displaying the beliefs of that day were sure that one of two reasons accounted for this man’s blindness, either this man had sinned or his parent had. It would seem to us that the fact that this man’s blindness began at birth would have excluded from consider-ation that it was this man’s sin that had caused his blindness.

However, one of the strange ideas that existed at the time was that some Jews believed in the “pre-existence of the soul” which is the belief that all souls have already existed in the Garden of Eden before the creation of the world. This implied that somehow this man could have sinned in a former state before he came into this world and thus as punishment came into this world blind. [William Barclay. And He Had Compassion: The Miracles of Jesus. (Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1975) p. 178]

Interesting but just as far-fetched was a more common belief in prenatal sin – children might sin in the womb. Used as an example might be Gen 25:22 which states that Esau and Jacob as “ children inside her struggled with each other” (Gen. 25:22 - ESV) since the babies were active it was possible to do what was wrong as well as what was right. (Leon Morris. Reflections on the Gospel of John. p. 347)