John 9:1-5,

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Well today is little unique because last year when we built out the preaching schedule, we decided to devote two weeks to this one story in John Chapter 9 … and the reason was because, in God’s providence, we understood this chapter addresses one of the most relevant topics in the human experience — which is: the reality of suffering in this world. 

And I’ve thought we should have a sermon just on that topic, and so that’s my plan today. Now, I’m calling this a “sermon” loosely. I want to warn you (and ask for your graciousness) because today might feel more like a theology lecture than a sermon. This is a heavy topic, and I want to say some things very precisely.

We’re talking about one of the biggest questions we could ever ask. It goes like this: 

How can God be all-powerful and all-good, and suffering still exist?

An Everyday Theology of Suffering

Maybe you’ve thought a lot about this, or maybe it’s never crossed your mind. 

Maybe you’ve almost given up faith because of this question, or maybe it was the topic of your PhD dissertation — we are a mixed group, I get that — but with God’s help, I hope to speak to all of us this morning, and my goal is to help us build an everyday theology of suffering.

And that “everyday” part is important. I mean practical and useful. I don’t want us to just think biblically about this, but I want us to put these truths to work where we live — I want us to endure hardships because of these truths; I want to comfort the hurting because of these truths; I want us to lead whole lives before and unto God because of these truths.

So God-willing, with John 9 as our foundation, I want to show you three things we do when we’re confronted with human suffering … 

1. We recognize the Evil in this world.

This starts in verse 1. John tells us very simply:

“As he [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.”

And we might not think much about that, but in verse 2 the disciples ask Jesus about this man, which must mean that they saw Jesus see the man — Jesus seeing the man must have been enough of a thing that the disciples asked Jesus about him.

Does that make sense? This is not something that the disciples do with everyone. They’ve been in some pretty big crowds with Jesus; they’ve seen a lot of people; they can’t ask Jesus about every person they encounter, but for some reason they ask Jesus about this man. 

And the best explanation for why is that Jesus must have looked at this man in a way that made the disciples notice.

Try to imagine the scene … Jesus and his disciples are just walking by — they’re around a lot of people — but here was a blind man, a beggar (verse 8 says), a regular in that area.

A lot of people had seen him before because he would sit there and beg, something he had probably done his whole adult life at least, since he had been blind from birth. And his parents don’t come off as especially supportive in verse 21 (I guess they figured if he was old enough to answer questions on his own, he could also make a living on his own).

Key Assumptions

We don’t know all the details, but we know Jesus could see him, and we know the disciples saw Jesus see him, and in verse 2, they asked Jesus a question that is full of assumptions. I want you to see this.

Look at verse 2: 

And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

There’s a lot behind this question: I count at least four assumptions:

1. They assume there’s a spiritual connection to physical maladies.

2. They assume that connection has something to do with sin.

3. They assume that connection could be identified in an answer.

4. They assume Jesus is the person who knows the answer.

There’s a lot going on here in this one question, but there’s actually one key assumption that’s foundational to these four. It’s that the disciples assumed blindness to be a form of human suffering. 

They considered blindness to be a malady, a disorder, an affliction. 

And when they saw Jesus see the blindness they understood that Jesus thinks the same way about it as they do. There’s an agreement between Jesus and the disciples that blindness is not the way it’s supposed to be.

Which means: they encountered Evil and recognized it for what it is.

The Meaning of Evil

And heads up: I’ve just said “evil” (instead of suffering) — and let me explain: 

Evil is the broadest categorical way to talk about what’s wrong with the world.

I know we often use the word “evil” to talk about things that are really bad, but I’m using Evil as a noun. It’s a reality … as in: Evil is the antonym of Good (like there’s Good and Evil). This is capital-E Evil.

And when Evil is committed it’s called Guilt; when Evil is endured it’s called Suffering.

So Suffering comes under Evil — it’s an experience that results because of Evil — but for this message, we’re going to focus on Evil as the main problem; Evil is the real issue. 

And everything wrong with the world comes back to it. Evil is behind everything from wicked acts like first-degree murder to a physical disability like blindness to an elbow injury in a volleyball game.

And even broader than that — Evil is anything in God’s good creational order that gets distorted. J. I. Packer says evil includes “all facts, physical and moral, that prompt the [accurate] feeling, ‘This ought not to be.’”

We’ve All Said It

Have you ever seen or heard of something that made you feel that? . . .

To bring it more down to where we live. One theologian explains:

…[E]vil is ‘some thing’ that occurs in experience and ought not to. It has occurred, but it is not what you would expect, and spontaneously and whole-heartedly we say “No!” to it … No! is the cry of human beings in the face of [evil].

Have you ever seen or heard of something that made you just say “No!”? … 

No! … No! No!

I remember being 14 years old and finding out that my younger cousin had died in an ATV accident, and that’s what came out, just No! … 

I tried to count last week how many times I’ve had that response to things, and it’s been too many. You can’t count them. None of us can.

“No!” is the visceral human response to Evil — we’ve all said it, and we must never stop staying it. Never.

As long we we’re in this world of sin, we must continue to protest the reality of evil. That’s what the No means. 

It means evil does not belong here. 

It is not the way it ought to be.

God made this world and said it was Good, and Evil is not Good — so we hate it. Psalm 97, 10:

“O you who love the Lord, hate evil!” 

Romans 12:9,

“Hate what is evil.”

That’s a protest.

Our protest varies in intensity with the magnitude of the evil, but the protest must always be there, which starts with recognizing evil when you see it. 

That’s what Jesus does here (and the disciples). They recognize that blindness is a disorder, a deprivation of Good. It ought not to be. It’s an Evil.

They recognize that, and we must do the same. An everyday theology of suffering starts with recognizing the evil in this world.

2. We wrestle with the Why?

This is the next step. After we recognize Evil, that something ought not to be, pretty soon we seek some kind of explanation.

The disciples are doing that here in verse 2. That’s the question:

“Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

This is a smart question. I know a lot of times we like to roll our eyes about the disciples, but these guys were not dummies. They are trying to build their own theology of suffering.

Under the existence of Evil, they think there has to be some reason for this Suffering, and they assume it’s because of somebody’s Guilt. We think the same way. 

Some of us probably have a hard time even using the word “evil” because when we think “Evil” we immediately think of Guilt. We think that to classify something as Evil means that somebody must have done something, somebody has to be Guilty, somebody should be blamed. We think this way all the time. Who’s fault is it?

That’s what the disciples are trying to figure out. It’s an honest question. It’s a question that means they’re wrestling, and what fascinates me here is that they’re not wrong to wrestle. 

Jesus does not rebuke them for asking. It’s what you do when you’re confronted with Evil. Right beside the No is Why? … and we’ve all said that too.

And it’s not a simple Why? It takes the form of three different directions: we ask “Why?” looking out, looking in, and looking up. 

Looking Out

This is the question: Why is evil in the world?

Another title for this question is the “theoretical problem of the origin of evil.”

I know that sounds academic, but it’s really not. I remember when my oldest son was in fifth grade, he had a friend who had some serious health problems, and he called me in his room one night to talk, because he had been laying in his bed wondering “Dad, where did bad things come from?”

And you say, It’s because of sin — go to bed.

But he says, No, but where did sin come from?

You say, The devil — goodnight, son.

But no no, where did the devil come from? … Why was it even possible for Lucifer to rebel against God if everything God made is good? … And if freedom is good, created by a good God, how can it lead to anything evil?

And eventually, you say: I don’t know. I don’t understand. 

That’s what we say looking out.

Looking In

This is the question: Why has this evil happened here?

It could be referring to evil you’ve experienced, or maybe someone close to you. It could be evil you’ve heard about. Practical evil. This is the question: Why this, here, now? 

I said that on Monday night. My daughter was playing her heart out in a volleyball game, going for a ball she crashed into the wall, Boom! — displaced fracture in her elbow, ligaments messed up, needs surgery, done for the season.

And you know what she said to me? She said, “Why, Dad? Why?”

And I was asking the same thing, so you say: I don’t know. I don’t understand. 

That’s what we say looking in.

Looking Up

This is the question: What will God do?

And this is the true tension in asking “Why?” and it proves to us that we’re not really seeking answers, but we’re making a complaint. This is biblical lament. That’s what the wrestling is.

It’s the struggle to hold together these three truths:

1. The sheer evil of Evil

2. The pure goodness of God

3. The sovereign power of God

If you could imagine it, the three truths form a capital “T.” 

The sheer evil of Evil is here on one side. The pure goodness of God is here on the other side. And the sovereign power of God is the stem in the middle.

It’s hard for us to hold these three truths together and not dilute any of them. 

That’s usually what happens in our human attempts to find a rational explanation for Why?

There are some who detract from the power of God and basically make him out to be well-meaning but weak. 

Others go to the other extreme and stress God’s power at the expense of his goodness — they basically make him an accomplice with evil.

Others might take such a long view, thinking that the end justifies the means, that they downplay the evil of Evil — they assume that in the long-run we’ll be able to look back and say, “See, it wasn’t that bad.”

But that’s not true! These are all distortions! Each way of thinking here defies the testimony of Scripture. 

God’s word is clear: God is sovereign in power — totally, radically, absolutely.

God is pure in goodness — totally, radically, absolutely.

Evil remains evil — totally, radically, absolutely.

And so, holding these together, we’re just left to look up and say: God, what are you doing?

This is the question we see all throughout the Psalms that goes: 

“How long, O Lord? How long?” 

How long do we gotta live in this tension? 

Live with these questions? … live without answers? … How long?

This is the wrestling with the Why?

Theologian Henri Blocher says it like this:

Scripture teaches us that we shall not find, at least in this life, the rational solution that so many have sought after. It does not give us an answer … We do not understand the why of evil. … Evil is not there to be understood   …(101, 103)

We eventually look out and say I don’t know where it came from. 

We look in and say I don’t know why it happened here. 

We look up and say How long, O Lord?

This brings us to the third point. Remember, we are trying to build an everyday theology of suffering. We recognize the evil of this world … We wrestle with the Why? … And finally …

3. We trust God.

Look at verse 3: 

Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

Notice that Jesus doesn’t rebuke the disciples asking why, but he also doesn’t indulge it.

Instead, he redirects their attention from where the evil came from to what God is doing through it — this man’s blindness is “so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

Jesus steers us away from speculation about origin, and he calls us to faith in the present.

Don’t concern yourself with the cause, but understand the purpose. God has allowed this evil in order that in this man God’s works are displayed. 

Here we learn what the rest of Scripture testifies:

God overcomes evil to use it as a stage to display his glory and serve our everlasting joy.

And we seldom see this right away! It’s not obvious! We can’t really trace the details, but we can trust that God is accomplishing this purpose over Evil by his power and goodness. 

Not Explained, But Conquered 

This doesn’t explain Evil, but evil is not there to be understood, it’s there to be conquered. And God has conquered it. That is the wonder of the cross.

At the cross, the sinless Son of God was slain!

Has there ever been a moment that so unmasked the sheer evil of Evil?

At the cross, Jesus was slain according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God!

Has there ever been a moment that so revealed God’s sovereign power? 

At the cross, Jesus saved us and gave us the right to be called the children of God!

Has there ever been a moment that so demonstrated God’s pure goodness? 

The cross was that literal “T” — and it doesn’t just hold together these three truths but it proves them all definitely.

And this is the foundation of our hope — if God has brought about the greatest good ever imaginable from the worst Evil ever conceived, it means he will accomplish good in your suffering, in any suffering. 

This is who God is — he doesn’t give us answers, he gives us himself, he gives us his victory. And so we can trust him. 

Summary

That’s where we land with our everyday theology of suffering. 

This is not just about thinking rightly, but we live this out. Anytime we’re confronted with Evil, whenever we encounter suffering, whether in our lives or in the world…

First, we recognize the evil — it’s right to say NO!

Second, we wrestle with Why? — How long, O Lord?

Third, we trust God — it is true, church, that he does work all things together for good … and when we can’t trace his hand, we trust his heart.

That’s what brings us to the Table.

The Table

We come to this Table to remember the death of Jesus for us, and to remember all that he has accomplished for us through the cross. 

That even what the enemy means for Evil, God ultimately turns it for our Good. 

And this is our hope.

So if you’re here this morning and you trust in Jesus Christ, I invite you to eat and drink, resting in the cross.