John 9:1-5 (NIV)
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
The problem of evil has been a thorn in man’s theological side since shortly after Adam and Eve’s initial sin. People always want to be able to place the reason for the sin, death, disease, and brokenness that they see around them at the feet of someone.
As Jesus left the temple courts while the angry crowd was out gathering rocks to stone Him with, He and His disciples passed by a beggar outside the gate who had been blind from birth. The common theology at the time was that birth defects such as this were caused by either sin in the parents, or by some sin that the infant had committed while still in the womb. Thus, the defect was seen as a mark of shame for the whole family. Jesus’ disciples knew that He often knew the truth about these things, so they asked Him directly whose sin had been the cause of this defect, the parents, or the man himself before he was born.
Jesus’ answer surprised them: their whole premise was flawed. Neither the parents nor the man had sinned to cause his blindness, so any shame that they had felt, and any disgrace that they had experienced from others was unmerited. Instead, God had allowed this man to be born blind for precisely this time, in order to demonstrate His power and glory through him.
The contrast between light and darkness, between the blind and those who could see was a common theme in Jesus’ teaching that John brings out in his gospel. In this case, Jesus had just left those who, though they had eyes that could see, were trapped in the darkness of ignorance and hatred. They had willfully shut their eyes against the light that Jesus was bringing to them, being willfully blind. But here was a man with eyes that couldn’t see, standing in the presence of the Light of the world, and whose obedience and faith would soon enable to see very clearly.
Jesus pointed ominously to the future, when the night would extinguish His light for a time. But then He immediately refocused on the present moment. There was work to be done! Here was a man lost in the dark on whom the light was about to shine, overwhelming and defeating the both his physical darkness, and the darkness of shame and disgrace in his heart.
Father, I remember when I was walking in my own darkness. I had eyes that could physically see, but I was completely blind to Your light. Then Jesus spoke light into my own darkness, opening my eyes, and letting me see myself as I truly was. I must admit that I was dismayed by what I saw: a heart full of sin, and anger, and darkness. But when I surrendered to Jesus, He washed away all of the pain, and all of the darkness of sin with His pure light, and remade me from the inside out. Thank You, Lord, for the Light of the world. Amen.