I didn’t get past verse three this morning when the Lord stopped me. Here is the text in John 9: “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 would be born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:1-3)
Look again at the last part of verse three: “But it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
Yes, I know the Lord healed the man. But what of those whom He does not heal? Can the works of God be displayed through them?
Fanny Crosby suddenly came to my mind. Blinded very shortly after birth, her physical darkness gave incalculable spiritual light to millions and millions of Christians around the globe through her thousands of hymns.
“That the works of God might be displayed through [her].”
Then I thought of Job. Writhing in physical and emotional torment, he proclaimed to his ‘counselors,’ “Though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him.” (Job 13:15). And through the millennia, how many untold millions of God's children have found great comfort in Job’s life AND his faith?
“That the works of God might be displayed through [him].”
And then there was Paul the apostle. Here is only the very briefest of his descriptions of his sufferings for Christ: “Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren.” (2 Corinthians 11:24-26)
Yet, he also wrote to the Christians at Philippi: “I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.” (Philippians 1:20b)
“That the works of God might be displayed through [him].”
I could cite many other examples from both biblical and church history of men and women who endured such physical or spiritual or emotional trauma as to make the average person shake their heads and wonder – “Who sinned so grievously that this person should suffer so?” Or, perhaps more to the point, one might wonder, “Where is a loving God in all this trauma?”
But those are the wrong questions. For the one who believes God loves them – as He most obviously demonstrated on a hill called Calvary where He gave His Son to die an agonizing death so you and I could live forever with God – for the one who believes in that kind of God, the question should be for me and for you, whatever is our present suffering – the question should be, “How can I glorify God in my blindness? Or in my paralysis? Or in my cancer? Or in my chronic and debilitating pain? Or my . . . ?”
That the works of God might be displayed through [me].
Oh, Lord Jesus Christ, who learned obedience through the things which YOU suffered, pray for us as our High Priest that we will exalt You in our bodies, whether by life or by death. (See Hebrews 5:8; Hebrews 7:23-25).
Amen.
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