Thursday, January 27, 2005
A New Look at an Old Story
My wife and I lead a small group Bible study for a few high school kids from our church. Last night we studied the story of Jesus healing the blind man with spit. (John 9:1-16) This is always a big hit with kids because it has that whole gross out aspect to it.
As we were discussing it, doing the usual stuff about "Light of the World" and how Jesus was setting up the Pharisees, etc., etc. I could not get the first three verses of the passage out of my head.
John 9:1-3 (NAS)
1 And as He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?" 3 Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.
Break that short passage down. The disciples wonder if a guy is blind from birth as some form of punishment for sin. Jesus answers that it is not. Now so far this story sounds great. God does not punish us for our sins. It does not explain why the guy is blind, but it is good to know that a loving God does not visit earthly punishments upon us for our sins, or those of our parents.
But then Jesus says that the man's blindness exists purely so that God can display His might. I can just hear the brakes squealing on all those minds out there that are worried about how a loving God can condemn sinners, this sounds even more capricious than that. I think this needs to inform both our theology of salvation, and our ideas about the character of God.
Let's start with the character of God first. All those people out there that claim God cannot possible be the author of suffering in the world -- here's some news for you -- Jesus is flat out claiming responsibility for this man's suffering. All those fuzzy thinkers out there that contend that bad things happen to good people because God is just not quite as in charge as we want to think he is -- guess again. Jesus is telling us here that He is firmly in control.
I think our understanding of the character of God may be a little one-sided. Do I think God is not loving and merciful? Of course not! - but I do think that 1) we have insufficient concepts of what love and mercy really are; and 2) that God's character is far, far more complex than just love and mercy, and that we forget so at our own risk.
I am not going to even begin to try and describe the character of God, because I think that is precisely the point -- We cannot do so. Ultimately God is beyond our comprehension. For someone with a background in science, that is not easy to say. I'd like to think given enough time, energy, and research I could figure anything out -- but not this one. Ultimately we can only ever understand bits and pieces of God, we will never get the whole picture, and we best always remember that.
What about our theology of salvation? I think this points out that salvation is a lot more complex than, "Things were bad, but now I'm saved, so they are good." I think it is more like "I'm saved, so now I am a tool in God's toolbox and He may use me as a hammer, which has got to hurt."
I have been concerned ever since my long ago days as a Young Life staff person at how many people say "Yes" to Jesus and then get lost along the way. Why is that? I think in large part it is because we sell the "It was bad, but now it's good" theory of salvation instead of the "You're saved, life still gets pretty rough" theory.
Admittedly the first theory fills the pews pretty well, but I wonder if it fills the Kingdom? In the end, only God will judge who is and is not in the Kingdom, but I do not think it hurts to wonder, and I really don't think it hurts to figure out what precisely it is that we are selling.
As we were discussing it, doing the usual stuff about "Light of the World" and how Jesus was setting up the Pharisees, etc., etc. I could not get the first three verses of the passage out of my head.
John 9:1-3 (NAS)
1 And as He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?" 3 Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.
Break that short passage down. The disciples wonder if a guy is blind from birth as some form of punishment for sin. Jesus answers that it is not. Now so far this story sounds great. God does not punish us for our sins. It does not explain why the guy is blind, but it is good to know that a loving God does not visit earthly punishments upon us for our sins, or those of our parents.
But then Jesus says that the man's blindness exists purely so that God can display His might. I can just hear the brakes squealing on all those minds out there that are worried about how a loving God can condemn sinners, this sounds even more capricious than that. I think this needs to inform both our theology of salvation, and our ideas about the character of God.
Let's start with the character of God first. All those people out there that claim God cannot possible be the author of suffering in the world -- here's some news for you -- Jesus is flat out claiming responsibility for this man's suffering. All those fuzzy thinkers out there that contend that bad things happen to good people because God is just not quite as in charge as we want to think he is -- guess again. Jesus is telling us here that He is firmly in control.
I think our understanding of the character of God may be a little one-sided. Do I think God is not loving and merciful? Of course not! - but I do think that 1) we have insufficient concepts of what love and mercy really are; and 2) that God's character is far, far more complex than just love and mercy, and that we forget so at our own risk.
I am not going to even begin to try and describe the character of God, because I think that is precisely the point -- We cannot do so. Ultimately God is beyond our comprehension. For someone with a background in science, that is not easy to say. I'd like to think given enough time, energy, and research I could figure anything out -- but not this one. Ultimately we can only ever understand bits and pieces of God, we will never get the whole picture, and we best always remember that.
What about our theology of salvation? I think this points out that salvation is a lot more complex than, "Things were bad, but now I'm saved, so they are good." I think it is more like "I'm saved, so now I am a tool in God's toolbox and He may use me as a hammer, which has got to hurt."
I have been concerned ever since my long ago days as a Young Life staff person at how many people say "Yes" to Jesus and then get lost along the way. Why is that? I think in large part it is because we sell the "It was bad, but now it's good" theory of salvation instead of the "You're saved, life still gets pretty rough" theory.
Admittedly the first theory fills the pews pretty well, but I wonder if it fills the Kingdom? In the end, only God will judge who is and is not in the Kingdom, but I do not think it hurts to wonder, and I really don't think it hurts to figure out what precisely it is that we are selling.
