The Lutheran Hour
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"Not Why, But How!"
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Text: John 9:1-41
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Our topic for today hits the heart of one question that haunts humanity. Two thousand years ago, this question was asked by those who walked side-by-side with Jesus through the towns and villages of Palestine. Today the same question is asked by those who have no faith in Jesus, as well as those who love Him with all their heart, soul, and mind. Perhaps you have asked this same question at some difficult and damaging point in your life. The question is this: “Why?”
This is the exact same question that the disciples asked Jesus. Listen again to the opening words of our text for today from John chapter 9, “As Jesus went along, He saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?'” There it is – the why question. Why was that man born blind?
When life’s tragedies afflict our lives with pain, we ask those why questions, don’t we? We ask, “Why is the life of a young husband and father snuffed out by the careless actions of a drunken driver?” “Why is a woman with three small children deserted by her husband?” “Why is a dedicated Sunday school teacher struck with cancer?” “Why is an innocent 9-year-old child gunned down on a neighborhood playground?” So many why questions.
I think we ask these questions because we have this personal sense of right and wrong. We have our own mental moral scorecard of who should and who should not suffer. We figure that there are those in this world who deserve to suffer – those who are abusive to their families, those who hate their neighbors, those who are a threat to society. On the other hand we view the misfortunes of the seemingly innocent as unfair. And when life does not unfold according to our way of thinking, we ask “why?”
Countless books have been authored as to why there is suffering in the world; why suffering does not discriminate; why bad things happen to good people. As we entertain the study of why suffering occurs in this world, it is important for us to remember that without the Word of God we will never have peace, since human reason alone will never answer the whys of this world. It is equally important to keep in mind that if we desire to be prepared for the times of our suffering, then we must view the suffering of this world from the Lord’s vantage point.
First, we must bear in mind that the Lord is not the author of evil. I find it interesting that our society will not tolerate the discussion of God in the classroom, or in the workplace, or in the arena of politics – yet, no one seems to have a problem when an insurance policy or a television newsperson refers to a deadly tornado as an “act of God.” How easy it is to blame God for the inexplicable disasters of life.
A few years ago I visited a cancer patient in the hospital. This usually positive Christian was crying with her face buried in her hands. Her husband, sitting at her bedside, was equally disturbed. Thinking she had received some troubling prognosis from the doctor, I inquired as to her distressed state. She explained that well-meaning friends had just stopped by to visit. They asked her, “Have you looked back on your life to figure out what you did that would move God to give you cancer?” The why question. I’ve worked with parents whose children are gravely ill, and they ask if God was punishing them for some transgression from their younger days–the why question.
How important it is for us to remember that our God is the Lord and Giver of life. Scripture clearly teaches us that when the Lord created the universe, including human beings, He made all things perfect – without flaw. Our perfect God can only produce that which is just and right and good. Sin and evil came into the world when Satan, an angel, rebelled against the Lord. Egotistically, Satan wanted to be god. But the Lord cast the devil from the perfect heavens. In an attempt to seek revenge, the devil decided to attack what the Lord treasured most. The devil meandered into the perfect world and sowed the seeds of sin and suffering. He approached the man and the woman, whom the Lord created, and tempted them to disobey the Lord and eat from the forbidden fruit. Satan knew that the disobedience of the man and woman would bring sin and suffering into the world. Satan knew that this disobedience would bring an end to perfect life.
The man and the woman chose to eat from the forbidden fruit and they brought imperfection into God’s perfect world. In all fairness, the Lord had warned them of the disastrous results of disobedience. He clearly spelled out that disobedience would bring imperfection and pain and death. Sin and suffering, disaster and death certainly were not a part of God’s design for human life. The Lord’s perfect creation was twisted and tainted by the sin of our first parents.
We mistakenly believe that Adam and Eve were the first to experience pain and suffering. I believe it was the Lord who first felt this pain and heartache. We talk so much about the tragic suffering of the innocent, but the heavenly Father is the real definition of “innocent suffering.” The Lord lost what He created; what He loved; what He treasured most. He had done no harm. In Him there is no evil – only good and love and life. Now He finds Himself the first to experience the fact that the evil deeds of others will impact even the innocent.
But note that in this time of pain, our heavenly Father doesn’t ask, “Why?” He very well could have asked our first-parents “why?” “Why did you do this to Me when I gave you such a beautiful life?” But He didn’t ask “why?” Instead of asking why, He immediately concerns Himself with how He will redeem His lost children. He knows that He must continue His plan to restore life and rescue it from the grasp of death. And again He becomes the author of life. In His love for us, the heavenly Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior. It was Jesus who lived the perfect life, which we cannot live, because of our sinful nature. It was the innocent Jesus who suffered and died for the sin of the entire world. It was the triumphant Jesus who was resurrected unto life, so you and I could have the hope and promise of eternal life. And even now our ascended Lord Jesus is preparing a place in His heavenly home for all those who live and believe in Him.
Meanwhile, as we journey through this world that is still hindered by the sting of sin, we encounter suffering. Some of this suffering we have brought upon ourselves. Traveling too fast on a rain-slicked road can bring painful problems. Disobeying our parents will bring confining consequences. Lying to the Internal Revenue Service will bring a penalty that is quite taxing. On the other hand, there are those times when we seem to be innocent victims. A child receives a blood transfusion and acquires AIDS. A tornado rips through a sleepy town and claims its toll. A dedicated employee is terminated due to budget cuts.
We want to know why these terrible things happen when we feel we really don’t deserve them. We have a faith in the Lord, we go to church, we love our children, we say our prayers and yet tragedy crouches on our doorstep, pouncing on us when we least expect it. Why? It just doesn’t seem fair. But then again, what is fair? Truly, fair would have been the way that our heavenly Father had everything planned. Fair would have been a perfect world, like the one God created.
Why do bad things happen? It’s because we live in an imperfect world. It has nothing to do with God’s power, or His ability to love, or His sense of judgment. It has everything to do with the fact that sin was unleashed on God’s good creation. And now we live with the consequences of an imperfect world.
And in the midst of this life’s complications and challenges, the devil would have us dwell on the why questions, but the Lord calls us to meditate on the “how” – “how do we handle the sufferings of this world?” The blind man of our text found His healing in Jesus. Listen again as we hear Jesus move from the why to the how. “His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ Having said this, He spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ‘Go’ He told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (this word means Sent.) So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.”
We have been washed by Jesus in the waters of baptism. Baptism is one of the ways that we are connected to Jesus and His work on the cross. It is the power of God’s Word, with the waters of baptism, that creates in our hearts a living faith in the Jesus who endured the pains of the cross to forgive our sins and who rose from the grave to conquer death and hell. This is what St. Paul addresses in his letter to the Christians in Rome, and to you and to me today when he writes, “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we, too, may live a new life” (Romans 6:3-4).
The harsh truth is that all of us are subject to this world’s pains and suffering. The imperfections of this world do not discriminate. However, because of our new life in Christ, when any challenges of this imperfect world attack us, we can return to the death and resurrection of Jesus, and be assured of His loving presence and power. When we are crushed by the guilt of some habitual sin, we can return to Jesus and have new life through sin forgiven. When we are paralyzed by the loneliness of a family break-up, we can remember our baptism and have new life as Jesus promises to be with us always. When we are frightened by an uncertain future, we can return to Jesus’ pledge to use all things for good in our lives. And one day when we face death, the gentle arms of the loving Savior will carry us to life eternal. Because of the grace of God we can join St. Paul and say, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9).
My friends in Christ, you and I will experience suffering and pain in this life. Some of it we may bring on ourselves. Some of it we may experience as innocent bystanders. The important thing to remember when confronted by any suffering is that God is not the cause, but He is our comfort. He is not the instigator of our troubles, but He is the author of our tranquility. He will give us the peace to handle each situation in life, the power to rise above it and the promise of a perfect life to come in heaven. May our God, and the faith He has entrusted to us, guide and guard us through our present suffering and unto the glories of heaven’s perfections. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for February 27, 2005
Topic: Getting Over DeathANNOUNCER: And it’s time once again for questions and answers with Pastor Ken Klaus. I’m Mark Eischer. Today we’re going to take up a rather difficult topic. We recently heard about a mother whose young son died several years ago. Since then she’s kept his room exactly the way it was on the day he died. Her friends all say it’s time for her to get over it, but she says she doesn’t want to get over it.
KLAUS: It’s a tragic situation to be sure, Mark. I’m sure all of our listeners, especially those who are parents and grandparents, can sympathize with this mother. She’s experienced a parent’s worst nightmare. Even though we all know that death is inevitable, it still seems so wrong when a child precedes a parent in death. The question the listener asks is, “Is she wrong?”
ANNOUNCER: That’s certainly a hard question to answer.
KLAUS: Absolutely. Let’s work through this together. Is it wrong for a parent to mourn a child who has died?
ANNOUNCER: No, I think it would be probably unnatural if they didn’t experience a profound sense of loss.
KLAUS: Is it wrong to try and preserve your memories of the child, such as this parent has done by keeping the child’s room intact?
ANNOUNCER: For four years. Well that’s a little bit harder to answer.
KLAUS: I agree. It’s normal to want a keepsake, a memento of someone that you love, a remembrance of some kind, but after four years of preserving an entire room, that may not necessarily be healthy. But it’s also not necessarily sinful that a person do that kind of thing.
ANNOUNCER: What do you think is the problem here?
KLAUS: If you were to ask this person, perhaps she would admit her feelings have not made her life better or easier. Maybe she finds herself unable to socialize, unable to laugh, unable to keep her thoughts on conversations.
ANNOUNCER: Kind of sounds like depression.
KLAUS: And it may well be. Don’t want to minimize depression. Certainly I’m not able to say whether that’s the case here, but there are Christian counselors and doctors who can be of service in diagnosing and dealing, helping with this.
ANNOUNCER: And there are many churches that also sponsor groups and classes that can help people cope with loss.
KLAUS: And there, Mark, is probably part of the problem. This lady doesn’t necessarily want to have help dealing with the problem. How did she say it, “I don’t want to get over my son’s death”? That line also gives us a clue as to the problem. She’s sending up a pretty clear signal that she feels somehow, that she will be a bad mother, she will be betraying the memory of her son if she moves on. That’s the problem.
ANNOUNCER: That she doesn’t want to move on?
KLAUS: Exactly. It seems that when that boy breathed his last, in one sense, two people died. He did, and so did his mother. Her life became frozen in time. She didn’t get angry with God or question His judgment, at least nothing in the letter says she did that. On the other hand, she’s not accepted the fact that her son has gone home to Jesus and a better life, and she’s still left behind. Her life has stopped. That’s not what the Lord wants for her. She’s been given the gift of living, loving, caring, continuing on. It’s a gift that shouldn’t be ignored.
ANNOUNCER: So what can she do?
KLAUS: It might help her to take a look at 2 Samuel 12 – that’s a story of another parent who lost his child. In this case it was King David. When his child was dying, David fasted and went through the entire mourning process. After his child died, those around him debated whether they should even tell him. David figured it out, got up, cleaned up, went to worship, had something to eat, comforted his wife, picked up his duties. When he was asked about this apparent reversal of feelings, David said, “When the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows, the Lord might be gracious to me and let the child live.’ But now that the child is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I’ll go to him, but he will not return to me.”
ANNOUNCER: David was saying this child is now in God’s hands, and they would see each other again some day.
KLAUS: Exactly. This Christian mother who had a Christian child, knows her child is with the Lord. That’s a wonderful thing. She’s mourned, but not as one who has no hope. She knows that Jesus is the only One who loved her son more than she did. Still, our lady might do well to think upon her son as he is right now, absolutely happy; absolutely safe; absolutely content; and we might say, he’s having the time of his life. Looking forward to the resurrection. For him, the best is yet to come.
ANNOUNCER: How would you sum this up?
KLAUS: Rather than allowing death to keep her eyes downcast upon her son’s grave, may the Holy Spirit lift her eyes to heaven and the reunion which will take place soon enough, made possible through the Savior’s sacrifice.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.