The following is an edited excerpt from a sermon I delivered at St. Paul’s Cathedral on the Gospel passage John 9:1–41, which describes the healing of a blind man by Jesus.
Why was this man born blind? Who sinned? Did he sin? Did his parents sin? Whose fault is it? Our assumption then and now is that people get what they deserve. There must be a straight and clear line between cause and result.
When we see someone in trouble, we look for blame. They must have made very poor choices in life. We ask the homeless person, “Why are you here?” What do you expect with a lifestyle like that? And we judge. They have no one to blame but themselves.
Thinking like that makes the world feel orderly. It gives us tidy, simple answers, if “A” leads to “B”, simply avoid “A” and “B” will never befall you.
When we hear that trouble befall someone, we ask, What caused this? Who caused this? Who is to blame? That's what wse do. We need explanations, and so often the explanation we settle on is blame. People get what they deserve, we conclude.
To that assumption today, Jesus says, “no”. People do not simply get what they deserve. Life is far more complex than that, and suffering is far too mysterious for that. Jesus tells us that our simplistic “a leads to b” explanations are wrong. So, if we only take away one simple thing from this story, let us release the myth that suffering can be explained by blame. Jesus rejects the blame game, the simplistic cause-and-effect approach.
What does he offer instead? Some will say, “He was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” That is not easy to understand. Can we decipher it?
In this story everyone wants to debate the problem of evil. Jesus wants to talk with a person! Do you hear the difference? For Christians, suffering is not a theoretical problem to discuss. It's a practical problem to address. So perhaps, instead of calling the man's blindness an opportunity, it feels just a little bit better to call it an opening. It often invites God into the conversation.
The people in the story seem to understand God as a punisher, one who sends suffering.
Jesus understands God as a healer, one who puts things back together. When we see suffering, instead of explaining or assigning blame, what if we respond with love?
Sophie and I volunteer with the Urban Bicycle Food Ministry. On a typical Thursday night, UBFM brings food and radical hospitality to about 600 to 800 unhoused people, and now we feed another 100 people on Saturday mornings.
Understand, I’ve spent a lifetime serving on committees addressing injustice and poverty and a Christian response, and I hope we accomplished some good. What I like about UBFM is that we are not trying to solve a big picture problem.
When we address someone on the street, we simply say, “Have you had supper tonight? Would you like some burritos? Do you need a blanket or socks?”
Our goal in these interactions is not to assign blame. It is to make their life a little better that night. To give them a touch of dignity and friendship.
By Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell