Lent: You Don't Have to Moralize Suffering

I know you wanted her just to keep reading and reading all that whole passage.

And you saw it when you walked in, and you're like, oh good gracious, we're gonna be standing for a long time.

So growing up, there was this neighboring high school from the high school that I went to called Brookwood High School, which is where Sam went.

He almost didn't get the job because he went there.

I know a couple of few of you went there.

Um I don't know if you want to come clean and go ahead and raise your hand.

Uh Katie Clark went there, I know that.

Don't know if she's in here, I know she went to Brookwood.

And I so I went to Central Gwinnett, and this is a typical storyline wherever you went to high school and you have neighboring high schools or whatever, wherever you went to college and you have another college or whatever.

I love Sam now, but when I was 17, I would not have loved Sam because he went to because he went to Brookwood, and it was so clear to us.

It was so clear to us.

People from Brookwood were rich and snobby and horrible people, just horrible, horrible.

They were so different, so different from us, right?

Maybe you know what I'm talking about.

And every once in a while we had to drive over there, you know, like three car garages.

We only had two car garages wherever I went to high school, you know, so different, like just a horrible, horrible place.

And we had to drive over there, and they hosted the Summer League uh Basketball League, and so we had to drive over there all the time during the summer, and it was only like five or six high schools played in the summer league, and so we're playing each other over and over again, and we would have to play Brookwood High School over and over again throughout the summer, and there's just this one guy, one guy, Jeremy Fink, F-I-N-K, Jeremy Fink.

We just couldn't stand that Jeremy Fink, just couldn't stand, and it didn't help that he was good, right?

Like that doesn't help.

And oh, we just couldn't, and then the worst thing happened.

The worst thing happened.

Our girls, Colleen and Jen, our girls became friends with Jeremy Fink.

We could not believe it.

What is going on?

Our world is falling apart.

And then you know what happened, right?

One night we end up hanging out with Jeremy Fink.

You know what happened?

We liked him.

We liked him.

Oh, we liked Jeremy Fink.

We liked Brookwood.

He was just like us.

The others.

The others were just like us.

Right?

Like in our defensiveness, we got we like to other ize other people, and then you get to know them, and Jeremy Fink is just like you, and we liked him.

Unbelievable, unbelievable.

We didn't know how to categorize that.

As a 17-year-old, you know how to categorize that.

But we love to otherise them.

Whoever them is, right?

Whoever them is.

Just I couldn't possibly be like her.

I couldn't possibly be like him.

They are nothing like us, and oh, and then the other side, we are nothing like them, and then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, the one you hated, you get to know, and all of a sudden, oh, oh wow.

Like like she's my sister, she he's my brother, like we're the same.

But you know what, you know what I'm talking about because you have a Brookwood, and if you were Brookwood, you have a whatever, and you have a whatever, you went to Auburn, you have Georgia, if you're a Republican, you have a Democrat, if you have a Democrat, you have a Republican, right?

And then you get to know somebody, you're like, oh, oh my gosh, like we're actually really, really alike.

And I mention all of that because this is what's going on in this passage.

These these uh religious folks stroll up on this beggar, this blind guy, and they have already categorized him.

They have already decided what he is and who he is and where he came from and what he must be like, and what he must have done, or what his parents must have done.

And so in John 9, verses 1 and 2, Jesus walking along, he's got his disciples, they're they're cruising through.

John 9:1

We don't know everything about this blind beggar.

We don't know a lot, uh, but we know how disabled people were treated in that society, and that's that they were outcasts.

Something was wrong with them.

So push them to the sides, get them out of the way.

They became beggars, you know, they weren't picked first in gym class, they weren't they weren't picked for trivial pursuit, which by the way, uh last week I was playing the memory card game of Peppa Pig with my four-year-old.

She beat me, she beat me.

Legitimately, I was trying, full-on trying.

She beat me.

That's a side note, just a side note.

So I'm I'm in that outcast of not getting picked for trivial pursuit or Peppa Pig card game, and we know that feeling of the outcast.

So we can sort of go, like, yeah, I kind of know what this guy's feeling like, but these guys are cruising in and they've decided.

They already have in their minds, based on their society and their upbringing, they know who this guy is and what must be the truth about him.

And this poor guy, he is beaten down from his entire life because he's born blind, which means something's wrong with him or something's wrong with his family.

And so Jesus' disciples, the closest folks to him, said, Hey, hey, who sinned?

Who sinned?

Who caused this?

Did he do it?

He did it, right?

It had to have been him.

Oh, if it wasn't him, it had to be his parents.

Something had to happen.

Right?

And this reveals the belief.

This reveals the belief they hold somebody had to be bad for this suffering.

Because no way this just stuff happens.

Right?

I mean, no way good people suffer.

No way.

And Jesus doesn't give it like a direct answer, like a full explanation.

This would be the moment we were like, Jesus, would you have pleased laid it out for us?

Even in 2017 in Marietta, Georgia, could you have laid it out clearly so that my suffering would make sense?

That would have been nice, but he doesn't.

He doesn't do that.

This painful, difficult issue.

Why did that suffering, that hurt, that wound, why'd that happen in my life?

Why is it happening in my life?

Why is it happening in my friend's life, my family's life?

Why is that going up?

Why?

And he doesn't give us all the answers.

He just says, hey, it wasn't his sin, it wasn't his parents' sin, and then he sort of has this overarching big theme, and he says, God will be glorified in the curing of this man's blindness.

So that's a recognition of God's reign over all of this, which may help or may not help, and you're given suffering.

I mean, that's something I think I've struggled with for the past 20 years of life and suffering and 15 years of in ministry of hearing about suffering pretty much on a day-to-day basis, hearing a horrible story.

And going, man, I don't get it.

I still don't get it.

I still don't get it.

But here's what I do get coming out of this story, based on what Jesus said to his disciples, point number one, your suffering is not God getting you back.

Your suffering is not God getting you back.

Now, in the Old Testament, yes, we're seeing that.

We're gonna see like God zapping some people, some people messing up, people are getting zapped, that just wrath of God, that we see that in the Old Testament.

But after the death of Jesus, where that wrath is absorbed into Jesus, where God says, I'm gonna take that upon myself so that my relationship to you is a gracious, loving one.

We don't categorically see this in the New Testament.

We have a strange story in Acts chapter 5, and you can read it later, a strange story where somebody doesn't live up to their vow and they fall dead, and I don't know how to place that, to be honest.

Acts 5 · chapter mention

I still don't know how to place that, I'm still not sure what happened.

So that's a strange story in there.

But categorically in the New Testament, we don't see God getting people back with suffering.

We see him using suffering, we see him uh disciplining, but but that's out of love.

That's not like, oh, you messed up.

I'm coming after you.

I'm disappointed, I'm coming after you.

We don't see that sort of heart from God.

See, these guys are moralizing suffering.

That's what this would be called.

They're moralizing suffering.

Moralizing suffering is kind of like you go to adopt that golden retriever.

And it's the cutest, it's a two-year-old, it's the cutest golden retriever you have ever seen.

And in your mind, it's gonna be cuddles, and it's gonna be, you know, fetch, it's gonna be wonderful, and you don't realize those two first two years of that golden retriever's life, and that golden retriever bites you.

That's what moralizing suffering is.

It's the golden retriever on the front side that you think is gonna be so wonderful, and it ends up biting you.

Right?

That's what prosperity gospel is, right?

Because here's how it plays out your future, your health, your wealth is dependent upon your faith and how good you are.

Okay, so on the front side, golden retriever.

Sounds great.

Sounds great.

So I just got okay, so I'll do these things, and then I'm gonna get all this.

All right.

Sounds like I can be in control too.

I can kind of be God in this, and it can raise some money, by the way.

You can raise a lot of money with that message, and people do, a lot of money.

You can raise a lot of money, and you can motivate a lot of behavioral good.

Not necessarily heart, but you can you can get a lot of behaviors out of that.

But are you gonna tell that rubbish to the four million people in southern Sudan who are starving today?

Are you are you are you gonna tell them that?

That there's starvation, four million people starving today in southern Sudan?

You're gonna tell them that because they haven't been good or faithful?

I mean, are you gonna tell that rubbish to our to our friend who has MS, and then her child dies, and then she just had to shave her head because of the medicine she's taking?

Are you gonna tell her it's because she hadn't been good?

And then what what's gonna happen when you get cancer?

What's gonna happen when your kid gets sick?

What's gonna happen when that car wreck happens?

Was that your fault?

Is that because you haven't been good enough?

See, it's the golden retriever that ends up biting you on the backside.

And part of us wants good things to happen to good people because it means we can be in control, and then if I'm just good, my life works out.

But it but if this is true, what Jesus is talking about, it means I'm not in control.

It means I actually have to live in surrender and in faith.

I can't hedge.

I can't hedge against hurt that much.

And then if you are moralizing suffering, there's this whole other side of it that it means you're in constant judgment over other people.

Oh, did you hear what happened to Cindy Joe?

Did you hear about her?

Yeah, she got sick.

She probably hadn't been real faithful lately.

Did you hear what happened to Randy?

Did you hear what happened to Randy?

Well, if it's happening to Randy, and I'm moralizing suffering, it means it means something's wrong with Randy.

Something's going on.

I don't know about, but I kind of thought he was that way.

I kind of thought he was that way anyway.

So you're in constant judgment on other people.

And then if it happens to you, not only are you suffering, but now you live in shame.

It's a golden retriever that bites.

But your suffering is not God getting you back.

He may use your suffering.

We may not understand suffering, but he's not getting you back.

Point number two, I kind of already hit on it.

You have less control over the suffering in your life than you'd like to.

Amen.

Just like you're like, yes, yes, I do because I've tried.

I was suffering and I tried to control it, not working out.

Or I'm just trying to control everything so I don't suffer, and I'm actually suffering because I'm trying to control everything.

Now, some control works.

Uh if you don't want your child to get hit by a car, probably don't let them play in the highway.

Uh if you don't want to get lung cancer, probably shouldn't smoke.

Like, so there's some reality here.

Like there's some things, there's some measure, but you can't stop your parents from divorcing when you're 16 or 26 or 46.

You can't stop your your husband from having an affair on you.

You you can't stop all the illnesses that might come your way.

You you can't stop literally the earth opening up from underneath you where you live.

You can't stop a tornado coming from hitting your house.

You can't stop gravity from affecting your body.

Anybody just wanted to say, amen, having having that going on?

Right?

I mean, we can't stop everything.

Four people this week walking down Westminster Bridge in London, walking to work, walking home, crazy man gets in a car, runs him over.

They could have never controlled that.

They could have never controlled that.

Who sinned?

That this this guy?

This guy's blind.

Who who caused that?

Had it been him, Jesus says, no.

It wasn't.

Story keeps going, verse 6.

Having said these things, and here's where the story starts to get good, it gets good, he spits on the ground, and so this you know this sounds crazy to us, right?

Imagine the blind man, what he's hearing uh when he goes to spit, and he's going, whoa, okay.

Uh but mud had in in this time, mud had the idea of medicinal purposes.

So the idea of mud for medicine is not like this foreign thought.

But Jesus spits on the ground, he so he's creating the cure from within himself.

He spits on the ground, he mixes up, gets some mud with the saliva, then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, Go wash in the pool of siloum, which means scent.

So he went and washed and came back seeing.

Now, this long convoluted conversation begins with a whole bunch of different parties and they come in and out of this text.

The neighbors are wondering, hey, is this the same guy?

Like, is this the same guy who was blind and now he's seeing?

And the guy's telling everybody, he's telling everybody who will who wants to talk to him, hey, I was blind.

Jesus, that compassionate teacher we've been hearing a lot about, he spits on the ground, mixes up mud, puts them eyes, I go to Siloam, I can see now.

He's telling everybody who he's willing to tell.

And all the people sure, I'm not quite sure if I believe this.

Is this the same guy?

He said, I am the same guy.

So finally they take him to the Pharisees because this miracle occurs.

It's from this radical new teacher, and it's on Sabbath.

Rules are broken.

Uh-oh, rules are broken.

I mean, this is affecting status quo of their religion.

And the Pharisees are all upset, and they sort of almost overlook the fact, like, like, wow, you can see now?

Like, I'm so happy for you.

Right?

You don't get any of that.

Like, you would think there would be a measure of like, I like that must be amazing for you.

You've never seen.

What is that like?

There's none of that.

All there is is like, oh, so he broke the Sabbath.

Can you tell me about that?

Because we want to like, we want to track them down, we want to catch them.

We're gonna get them.

We actually don't care about you, or the fact that you can see now, amazing.

And the whole time this guy's just going, like, you're missing it.

I was blind.

The man stops in front of me, spits, mud, eyes, soloem.

Now I can see.

So finally they go, okay, let's let's keep, let's get the parents.

Let's get the parents over here.

We'll get the parents, parents come over.

And the parents, they're hedging, they're hedging their bets.

There's a lot of social repercussions here if they go against the Pharisees and the status quo religion, you know, maybe economic repercussions here.

And so, and maybe, maybe they've bailed on this kid a long time ago.

Because, you know, maybe it's easier just to otherize them, push, outcast him because he he's disabled.

He must be, you know, he must have screwed up, something bad, suffering.

Let's push him to the side.

Don't want to get too close to that.

And so maybe they've already bailed on him.

But they they here in this moment, they just say, hey, uh, yeah, that's our kid.

We're not sure.

We're not sure.

We're not sure.

Um talk to him.

Don't talk to us, talk to him.

And in that, you wonder what that moment would have been like for this healed man.

You have to wonder when he got healed, if he thought, like, oh, finally, I'll be welcomed back.

Like, this must be the thing.

Like, surely this is the thing where mom and dad will let me back in.

Like, this will be the thing where people recognize me into like society.

And everybody's just overlooking them.

They just don't care.

Verse 34, they answered him.

Just listen to this arrogance.

This is this is the Pharisees.

You were born in utter sin, and you would teach us, and they cast him out.

Jesus heard that they cast him out, and having found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man?

He answered, And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?

I mean, he's just at the bottom.

I mean, he thought blindness was bad.

Now he was blind, then he could see, and then he got outcast again when he thought it would get better.

But Jesus comes straight into that hurt, which may be worse than the first hurt of just being blind.

And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?

And Jesus said to him, You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.

He said, Lord, I believe, and he worshipped him.

So, point number three, Jesus pursues the blind and the hurting and the outcast.

And this guy just never brings anything to the table at any point in this story.

Not the first time Jesus shows up into his life, and not the second time.

Both times he is just outcast and he has left and he has nothing.

And maybe you feel like that.

Maybe you feel like you just never quite have your act together enough to show up at the table, to warrant his love, to be righteous, to be secure as a Christian.

And it's like you're in good company because that's just the person Jesus shows up to.

That's just the moment where you can actually see.

I just love that verse.

Jesus heard that they cast him out, and having found him, he found him, and then all this goes down, more suffering goes down, and Jesus circles back again and finds him again.

See, Jesus doesn't usher us into the family of God and then just set you off on a path of merit and performance, like, hey, yeah, all the forgiveness of sin, got that, you're covered, and now just work really hard.

That's going to be the rest of your life.

That's not what Jesus does.

Jesus says, I take on all your sin and your guilt, I take on all that, past, future, present, I take all that, and I give you my righteousness.

And I'm in it here, and I'm circling back around when all that other stuff comes along.

He is constantly circling us.

To be accurate, theologically, the sentence would be, he is abiding in you through the spirit as you are imperfectly but honestly attempting to abide in him.

He is perfectly abiding in you through his spirit, even while you are imperfectly, but honestly, but imperfectly trying to abide in him.

See, we're all blind.

But no one is blind as the person who does not know they're blind.

And yet there's a love.

There's a love that's blind to all your imperfections.

And it's not stupid love.

It's redeeming love.

It's deep love.

It's wise love.

It's the love that takes on all that wrath of God that we see in the Old Testament pre-Jesus, where we can understand how just God is and how righteous God is, how big God is, and in the cross, all of that is absorbed in the person of Jesus, in God Himself.

He said, I'll take it all on.

I'll take it all on so that you are free.

So you are free.

And your position with Him is not based on what you do over and over and over again.

You are forever His beloved based on His work for you.

So, my brothers and sisters, may you know that God is circling you.

He is abiding in you through His Spirit as you imperfectly attempt as best you can to abide in Him.

And may you know that your suffering is not God getting you back.

He may discipline you, He may do that to grow you, but He's not getting you back.

That was handled at the cross.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your goodness that you saw a blind beggar who has nothing to offer.

And you stopped.

You brought nothing to the table.

And you healed him.

Nothing from him, but just from you.

And your work.

And thank you that even as the story progresses and he suffers more that you don't disappear on earth.

God, we confess we don't understand suffering.

And it creates a lot of doubt and disbelief at times.

And God, I pray that you would give us belief in all the places we have unbelief.

Or at least comfort.

And would you help us in all of our life to trust you that you are sufficient for us?

And we know that you abide in us.

In Jesus' name, we pray.

Amen.