The Lutheran Hour

"Who Sinned?"

#75-25
Presented on The Lutheran Hour on March 2, 2008
Speaker: Rev. Ken Klaus
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries

Text: John 9:1-3

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! To all those who have been living in darkness, the risen Christ comes bringing light. By God’s grace, the Savior’s sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit’s power, may you say, “Perfect submission, all is at rest! I in my Savior am happy and blest, Watching and waiting, looking above, Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.” God grant this Lord unto us all. Amen.

In Christian homes across North America surprisingly similar scenes play out on Sundays. Listen and see if this doesn’t sound just a little bit familiar. Mother begins, “Children, let’s get going. We’ve overslept and now we’re running behind time. We’ve only got 45 minutes to get dressed and get to church. Come on everybody. Honey, you can read the paper later. Yes, children, I know you’re tired. If you had gone to sleep when I said, you wouldn’t be tired. Yes, I’d like to sleep late on Sundays, too, but I can’t. We’re going to church today as a family, and we’re going to do it with a smile.

Most folks think their pastor sees them as they want to be seen: God’s people who are fresh and scrubbed and clean. Most pastors see more, much more. For example, even though the church has asked the back pews remain reserved for families with small children, pastors see trespassers who like to sit in the back so they can make a quick getaway as soon as the final hymn is sung. He sees the people who want an aisle seat because they don’t like to be hemmed in. He sees the folks who hate walking the long aisle to the front of the church because they feel they are being inspected – which they probably are. He sees the people who, when asked to greet those around them, confine their smiles and “hellos” to their spouses. Pastors see a great many things when they look out upon their congregations.

But there’s more. Any pastor who has served as the Savior’s undershepherd to a congregation for any length of time, cannot help but look past the fancy duds of the Lord’s people and see their pains and problems. Although I’m no longer blessed to preach from the same pulpit each week, I can still remember the congregations to which I was called. Even though this message is being recorded as I stand alone in a sound studio, I can still see their faces. There, in the front row is a family. Five years ago one of their children had cancer. There were 24 children who were in the hospital when their son was admitted. Today all 24 of those children have died. While I’m preaching, they’re praying for the continued health of their little one. On the other side of the aisle is a little old lady. Each year she’s hospitalized; each year the surgeons whittle away on her. Even so, the Sunday after every surgery, as regular as a clock, she is in church, and she is smiling. Take my word, hers is a beautiful smile.

Behind her sits a couple who can’t have children. Each week they put aside the ache within their hearts and teach the children of other people in Sunday school. On the other side is a woman who was engaged to be engaged. Her fiancé was killed in a car accident. The diamond ring he was going to give her was found on his dresser. Halfway back there is the man whose 28-year-old son was found dead, in bed. No, there were no drugs, alcohol, or anything else involved. The young man just died. Going further back is a husband and wife. They come to church each Sunday holding hands. After 35 years of marriage they still love each other. That love is going to be tested in the months to come as the wife, who is less than 60, has been told she has Alzheimer’s.

Those of you who don’t know Jesus and the great sacrifice He has made in His life, suffering, death, and resurrection, may find yourselves wondering just why all of these people continue to come to church. What good has their faith been to them? If the God these people worship is really supposed to be loving, kind, and caring, why does He treat His faithful children so shabbily?” Of course you might also be thinking, “If God really is good and kind, what terrible thing have these people done to be so cruelly, callously, unkindly punished?”

If that is what you’re thinking, what you’re feeling, let me tell you, you are not alone. If you could look into the hearts and minds of these Christians sitting in these pews, and if they were being very, very honest, most would hang their heads and confess they once, and maybe more than once, felt the same way. Each of these, in their own way, cried out and demanded the Lord answer their questions: “Why is this happening to me? What have I done that is so wrong? Why am I being treated this way?” Understand, they weren’t proud of those questions, but they have asked them.

These Christians asked “Why” just as Old Testament Job had asked “Why me?” when, in a very short period of time he lost his flocks, his family, his wealth, and his health. The ancient patriarch Joseph might have asked, “Why?” Hated and sold into slavery by his brothers, unfairly accused, unjustly imprisoned, Joseph had every reason to wonder what wrong he had done which called for his life to be so filled to overflowing with unhappiness. I imagine the blind beggar whose story is told in the ninth chapter of the Gospel of John might have spent many dark days and darker nights asking, “Lord, why me?”
In those days, anyone who heard him ask, “Lord, why me?” would have had a ready answer. They would have said, “It’s obvious, God is punishing you because you have sinned; and if you aren’t the serous sinner in your family, your parents most certainly are.” It was a stock reply. To your ears, those words may sound like a most critical thing for anyone to say. They are. Even so, the people who were contemporaries of the Christ believed God always sent a punishment which was appropriate to a committed crime. The bigger the sin – the bigger the punishment.

With that kind of mental framework, Jesus’ disciples thought nothing of asking their Teacher, “Tell us, has the Lord blinded this man because of some special sin he committed, or is he being punished because of something his parents did?” It was not the only time Jesus had corrected people’s cause-and-effect concept of human sin and Divine punishment. In Luke 13, Jesus spoke about some Galilean worshipers who were murdered by the Roman procurator while they were making their sacrifices to God. On that occasion, Jesus said, “Those folks didn’t die because God was particularly upset about some special and secret sin they had committed.” This time, concerning the blind man, Jesus replied, “If you think this man’s blindness is the direct result of a sin this man or his parents have done, you are thinking wrongly. His blindness has nothing to do with a terrible transgression.”

Understand, Jesus didn’t say sin has nothing to do with our earthly pain and spiritual problems. Human disobedience to the Lord has always – will always – cause heartache and hurt, fear and frustration, discouragement and death. Sin was responsible for Adam and Eve’s ejection from the Garden of Eden; it was responsible for the near universal holocaust of the flood; it remains the source of sickness, sadness, and sorrow in each of our own lives. Yes, upon occasion a particular sin can lead to a personal tragedy; but it is a mistake to think each of our sinful actions has an equal and opposite Divine reaction. Knowing this, when Jesus answered the disciples’ question about the blind man, He replied, “His (the man’s) blindness has nothing to do with his sins or his parents’ sins. He is blind so that God’s power might be seen at work in him.”

If I might be permitted to amplify the point I believe the Savior was trying to make, it would sound something like this: “God, whose ways aren’t your ways, whose thoughts aren’t your thoughts, can’t be tied down and categorized so easily. There are times when My heavenly Father can be like a protective parent who sees His child doing or getting into something which might prove dangerous. On those occasions the Lord will do something to protect His child. The child doesn’t understand, indeed, the child may find his parent’s decision to be arbitrary and inconsistent. No matter what the child thinks, the parent must do what is right. Of course, there are other times when God might allow something to happen which seems to be harsh or unfair. This He may do so when the pain and problem is removed, those people may be moved to greater appreciation, admiration, and gratitude. And, yes, there may be those times when God will do something which the best of human minds will never be able to understand. When that happens, humans will do well to simply trust their Father for He knows what is best.”

There is little doubt in my mind that Jesus knew exactly how His words would have applied to Him. In a very short time He would be forced to His knees in the Garden of Gethsemane. There, as He, the innocent Son of God, was burdened by the sin and guilt of every one of us, He prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). God’s gracious plan made no earthly sense, and it certainly wasn’t fair. It made no sense that Jesus should be whipped for our actions; it wasn’t fair that He would be spit upon and beaten for our mistakes. It made no sense that Jesus would be lied about, falsely accused, and nailed to a cross. It wasn’t fair that God’s perfect Son should suffer for our transgressions. Even so, Jesus said that He would drink this cup of sorrows if that was what was necessary for you and me to be forgiven of the past and freed from punishment. Why do bad things happen to good people? Ask Jesus for He was given a punishment He never earned and died a death He didn’t deserve.

On March 20, 1820, in an age when sickness was commonplace and death was frequent, a little girl was born to a couple in Putnam, New York. Even though they were poor, when their six-week-old daughter developed a cold and an eye infection, the parents called for the doctor. The family doctor couldn’t come, but another was sent in the physician’s stead. This man prescribed the baby’s inflection be treated with hot poultices. It was a terrible decision as the little girl was soon declared to be irreversibly blind. That tragedy of infancy was doubled by the death of the girl’s father before she was a year old. Eventually the bright, blind girl went to school, graduated and fell in love. She and her husband were thrilled when their marriage was blessed with a little girl whom they named Frances. The daughter, their only child Frances, died when she was but a baby.

Blinded by a doctor’s negligence, robbed of a parent and a child by death, this woman could have spent her years agonizing about life’s injustice, shaking her fist at heaven’s unfairness. She could have, but she didn’t. Fanny Crosby felt that her blindness had been given as a gift from God to help her write the 8,000 hymns which flowed from her pen. Trusting in the love of the Christ who had died so she might live forever, Fanny Crosby knew that her pains had come so God could make her better, not bitter. Relying on her Savior and resting in His strength she wrote:

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

Perfect submission, perfect delight! Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels descending bring from above Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest! I in my Savior am happy and blest,
Watching and waiting, looking above, Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

Refrain:
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.

Frances Jane Crosby understood a loving God remains in control. She believed Paul who wrote to the persecuted church in Rome, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). She knew, as all of God’s people should know, God has shown His love for us through the sacrifice of His Son. In Jesus all who believe are given forgiveness, salvation, hope, and eternal life. Christians have no immunity from the anguish and agony of life; nor do they live untouched by suffering and sorrow, for these things are common to all men, including those who are redeemed by the crucified and risen Christ. But they also know that if God is for them, no one can successfully be against them. They believe that the heavenly Father who did not shrink from sacrificing His own Son, but gave Him up for our salvation, will graciously continue to give us all things (see Romans 8:31-32).

Because they know, those folks put on their best and come to worship. Because they know, they pack up their problems and put them on the Savior’s shoulders. Because they know. Just as we pray you may know. You see, although I am alone in a studio, I know there are those of you who are listening. I know there are those of you who are broken – broken in love, broken in hope, broken in peace, broken in your belief of a joyous tomorrow. Listen, the Lord who sent His Son to save you can mend your brokenness, can repair your lostness; He can restore your hope. He can do this for you, even as He did it for a blind woman who could write: “Perfect submission, all is at rest! I in my Savior am happy and blest, Watching and waiting, looking above, Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.” If you are broken and in need of repair, let us introduce you to Jesus. Please, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.

LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for March 2, 2008
TOPIC: Angry with God

ANNOUNCER: What would you say to someone who’s angry at God? Pastor Ken Klaus responds to a listener’s problem. I’m Mark Eischer.

KLAUS: Mark, before we get into our discussion, do you think we might tell people how they could submit their questions?

ANNOUNCER: Here’s what you do: you can call us here at 1-800-876-9880. That’s a toll-free number. Or you can send e-mail to us at lhmresponse@lhm.org

KLAUS: Thank you. So what do we have in front of us today?

ANNOUNCER: The question is how to deal with someone who’s angry at God. We heard about this from a listener whose sister is angry at God ever since their father passed away.

KLAUS: I’m glad we have that question, Mark. I’m especially glad, because I think there are a lot of people who face that same situation.

ANNOUNCER: You mean they’ve somehow gotten upset with the Lord because something happened in their life?

KLAUS: Exactly. They may feel the way they do because someone has died, or let’s say a spouse let them down, or because their financial plans didn’t work out the way they wanted them to – any number of things that can lead people to get angry with the Lord.

ANNOUNCER: And so what we’re looking for, I guess, is this: Is there any way for people that aren’t angry at God to get through to help those who are?

KLAUS: I can give some suggestions here, Mark. Before I do, let me preface my remarks by saying this: all of us in this world experience sadness and disappointment. When things seem really unfair, we look around for someone else to blame. And God is the person who usually gets singled out.

ANNOUNCER: And I suppose that’s because God is the all-powerful One who is supposed to be in control of everything; and we think, well, He could have prevented or stopped this problem, but He didn’t.

KLAUS: Right. Then we immediately jump to the conclusion that God doesn’t care, or He’s got it in for us. We throw a sort of “spiritual tantrum.” If God doesn’t seem to care about us, we’re not going to care about Him! All right, so what do you say to someone who feels that way? First, anything we say needs to be shared in a gentle and loving way. We need to lead people to a different understanding, not be confrontational and argue with them. When we argue with them all that’s going to happen, at least from my experience, is, they’re going to dig in their heels.

ANNOUNCER: Right.

KLAUS: I realize it may be frustrating. We may just want to shake these people, but that won’t help anybody.

ANNOUNCER: Well, you said you had some suggestions.

KLAUS: So I do. There are a number of emotional issues here, and we need to deal with them emotionally. First, we need to begin with the idea that God loves us. Period.

ANNOUNCER: But I suppose people who are angry with God aren’t going to accept that.

KLAUS: They don’t, and that’s part of the problem. Even so, it’s true. God still loves them. As proof, we need to realize that He sacrificed His only Son so our loved one might be saved. If our loved one had faith in Jesus as Savior when they died, they are at peace in the Lord. We may have wanted to keep that loved one with us, but God has given that person a happiness far beyond any we’ve known in this world.

ANNOUNCER: So, what you’re doing is, you’re encouraging your angry friend or family member to try and see things from their loved one’s perspective.

KLAUS: Exactly. In saving them, God has given them everything they didn’t have on earth – and more.

ANNOUNCER: But how do we also let them know God loves the ones who are left behind?

KLAUS: Mark, God’s love has already taken this person of faith to heaven when they died. And He has promised to do the same for anyone who trusts in Jesus as Savior. Yes, there are pains and problems in this world. That’s what this world offers. God didn’t want us to experience these things, but sin is here – and so those problems are here. Still, He has made it so these pains and problems don’t have the final word.

Through faith in Jesus, there will be a reunion in heaven, a never-ending celebration with all of our family – fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters – all who are there or will be there. It’s something to look forward to.

ANNOUNCER: So, in closing, if you are angry at God, or you have fallen out of faith…

KLAUS: I’m sorry to see that your unbelief is pushing God away. You’re excluding yourself from that party in paradise. Believe this – God wants what is best and He wants you there, but you need to trust in Him. You need to believe He always does the right thing.

ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.

Music selections for this program:

“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC

“Blessed Assurance” by Fanny Crosby & Phoebe Knopp. From The Hymn Project by Buller, Balzer & Aichele (© 2008 daCapo Productions, Winnipeg)

“My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” From Hymns for All Saints (© 2004 Concordia Publishing House/SESAC)

“Jesus, Your Blood and Righteousness” arranged by Chris Loemker. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC

“Jesu, meines Todes Tod” by J.S. Bach.