It’s an age-old question … one that people continue to ask. Why is this happening? Things happen to us that we view as bad. We look for a reason. We ask these questions when we don’t get the job we want, when a relationship doesn’t work out, or when a tornado hits our home and no one else’s. Why me?
Some say its karma: that some action you did in the past that was hurtful or selfish set the wheel of fate in motion and you’re paying for it now. Others say it’s the law of attraction: thinking positively or negatively attracts positive or negative things in your life. Others are even more direct and suggest that you brought in on yourself. Somehow, these popular explanations for tragedies, ranging from rape to refugees fleeing violence, boil down to blaming the victim. All of these popular rationalizations ultimately boil down to the victim having done something to cause it to happen.
One of the stories often told in the Lenten season is from the Gospel attributed to John. It’s referred to as the story of the man born blind. It’s a very long story, but the plot is simple: a man blind from birth is brought to Jesus and Jesus heals him. Around this story are many important lessons. One of them is this: Jesus was asked why the man was born blind. Was it because of something he did or something his parents did? After all, if someone didn’t do something wrong, why would this impediment have occurred?
The writer of John’s gospel provides an answer from Jesus which is both clear and cryptic. The clarity is this: Jesus responds by saying that it wasn’t this man’s sin or that of his parents. It’s nothing anyone did. No law of attraction. No blaming of the victim. The cryptic response causes preachers to often stumble. Jesus went on to say that the man was born blind so that the glory of God could be revealed. Preachers stumble by assuming this means that the “glory of God” is the healing of the blind man. But for John’s gospel, the story is much bigger than that.
Biblical scholars have explained for decades that the structure of John’s gospel is two-fold: there’s a “book of signs” and a “book of glory.” The book of signs, included in chapter 1 verse 19 through chapter 12, presents seven signs that are meant to convey life as part of the new creation Jesus was bringing. These signs include changing water to wine, walking on water, and this story: a person blind from birth gaining sight. These signs convey that in the new realm of God, things are different than you expect. The book of glory begins with chapter 13. The second half of John’s gospel is focused on Jesus passing through death to new life. The glory of God is the movement from death to life, from bondage to freedom, from falsehood to truth.
Understanding the story of the man born blind in the context of John’s gospel draws us to consider that the challenges, disappointments, and tragedies we experience in life are not our fault or things we brought on ourselves. Instead, they are opportunities to consider something much more profound: how in the midst of difficult times can I find the possibility of new life?
Essentially, the writer of John’s gospel draws us to consider that the real merit of the message of Jesus and the death and resurrection of Jesus is to find something of God’s new creation throughout our lives. That means appreciating something simple and ordinary as water and savoring like it was the choicest wine or understanding that handicapping conditions like blindness are opportunities to find God’s goodness in different ways.
The truth is that the message of John’s gospel is very challenging to us. It’s much easier to keep our faith as something narrow, boxed in by dogma or occasional miraculous events that probably won’t happen in my lifetime. But the faith of John’s gospel is to grasp that the teachings of Jesus are transformative for our day to day lives. No matter what events come our way, the glory of God is around us and present to be experienced.
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