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by Precarious Yates
Narrated by Artificial Intelligence, Jenny,
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Social media is weird. You hop on and discover people are saying all kinds of things that hardly have relation to what was before it the next post after it. It’s like showing up to a party and immediately shouting what’s been on your mind all day—You won’t believe what happened to me… . Or showing a random cat picture—You’ve got to see how cute this is!!! . Or a question that frequently comes up—Why do bad things happen to good people? Or to people at all? .
Whatever people respond to most turns up at the top of the feed. A celebrity can say the most random thing and have 20k responses an hour. Or you could ask a profound question and no one answers. Yeah, social media is weird.
Studies in theology are also weird. People have been asking for millennia why bad things happen. The range of opinions that seemed vast in Jesus’ day was ever more vast during the reformation in the 16th century and the opinions increased with each generation.
There is a situation in the Gospel of John where Jesus directly addresses a misguided, opinion-laden theology.
“Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?” Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.” He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “Sent”). The man went and washed—and saw.
John 9:1-6 MSG
The disciples weren’t the first to ask opinion-laced questions of theology, questions filled with a biased “either/or” regarding why bad things happen. Job’s friends asked these questions too, and they gave their own answers, citing that it could only have been Job’s sin that caused these bad things. Certainly this couldn’t happen to a righteous person, right? We learn at the end of Job, in 42:7-8 that God is furious at Job’s friends for their condemnation of him. And Job prays for them.
Here, in John 9, Jesus’ disciples ask Him, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
If we accuse anyone of sin—ever—for any reason—without a willingness to pray for that person, we are doing the devil’s work. Satan means accuser, and Jesus is our Great Intercessor. Who are we partnering with?
The disciples have a question that calls for an answer that’s way out in left field (was it the sin of the generation before us?) or way out in right field (was it this particular person’s sin?), baiting Jesus to take sides.
Jesus’ answer cuts down the middle through the narrow way, the road less traveled. “Neither.”
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said,
“And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Matthew 7:3-5 NKJV
People can’t see when there is a log in their eyes. So, then, who is blind? The person with the speck in their eye who sins, or the person who points out everyone else’s sin except their own?
““Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”
Matthew 7:1-2 NKJV
If we criticize anyone without praying for them, we are doing the devil’s work. Let’s be about the work of the Kingdom, and the King of kings—Jesus.
What does Jesus guide us to do?
“Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”
Matthew 10:8 NKJV
Think of Ananias in Acts 9… God guided him to pray for a man who was blind, a man who persecuted the church to the point where Christians were murdered: a man named Saul of Tarsus. Ananias confesses his fear about doing this, but he willingly hears God’s heart on the matter. “But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.””
Acts 9:15-16 NKJV
Jesus, in John 9, through His conversation with His disciples, lets them, and us, know that when we see the sick, the blind, the lame, the brokenhearted, this isn’t a time to cast judgment. It’s a time to lean into the Lord and ask Him to turn this situation around for His glory. Jesus, who healed EVERY SINGLE PERSON who came to Him asking for healing, did this because He came to glorify the Father. The restoration all of creation to its intended state glorifies the Father.
Let’s do the work of the Kingdom of God and bring glory to the Father!
God bless you!
Precarious Yates
About the Author:
Precarious Yates has lived in 8 different states of the Union and 3 different countries, but currently lives in Texas with her husband, her daughter and their big dogs. When she’s not writing, she enjoys music, teaching, playing on jungle gyms, praying and reading. She holds a Masters in the art of making tea and coffee and a PhD in Slinky® disentangling.
Links:
The Captives
The captives will only be free when Shunda loses his fears about who he is. Yet what Shunda fears more than anything is loneliness.
Qoshonni figures she has become too violent and will never come back from the brink that the MerKing has pushed her to.
Mookori knows his father loves him best, but this has no consolation as war invades the shores of his father’s kingdom.
The Heart of the Caveat Whale is an epic trilogy that takes place both under water and on land. Book 1, The Captives, in the beginning of a journey into joy and terror. Sea monsters abound, as does the valor of both simple folk and nobles alike.
