November 2
November 2
God leads us through difficult hardships, so that through us his glory will be on display.
Much has been written about Jesus’s restoring a man’s sight in John 9. Why did he make mud and put it on the man’s eyes? Why did the man then have to go and wash in the pool of Siloam? But I think that the most important part of what John records is the discussion that takes place right before the miracle:
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. (John 9:1–7)
Jesus’s disciples assume that this man was born blind as a punishment either for his sin or for his parents’. The disciples don’t even question whether the blindness is the result of sin; they are convinced it is. They simply wonder whose sin it was. I am afraid that many of us make the same assumption. We think that when we suffer, we are being punished for some wrong we have done. For a believer, that can never be the case, because every ounce of the penalty for our sin was carried by Jesus on the cross. Our sin-debt has been fully paid.
Jesus speaks to the disciples’ assumption about sin and punishment in a way that they never could have anticipated. He says that the man was born blind so that “the works of God might be displayed in him.” You may be thinking, “Paul, are you saying that there are situations in which God ordains suffering so that his power and glory will be put on display?” That is exactly what Jesus teaches his disciples. You and I will suffer not just because we live in a fallen world or because we have an enemy who devours and destroys. We also will suffer because of God’s zeal for the display of his own glory. He works so that things will be visible in us that are explainable only by his presence and power. He ordains hard things that we do not want to go through so that in us his power will be revealed.
We were not created for our own comfort, pleasure, or glory. We were created to display the presence, power, and glory of the one who made us. God will not leave us alone in our suffering; he will meet us with his power and, through us, publicly display his glory.