Jesus and his disciples come across a man that was born blind. The disciples ask Jesus, "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus said, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned: he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him." (Verses 2-3)
Jesus goes on to heal the man of his blindness.
Back in the day, people really believed that if you were disabled in any way, it was because you or your parents had committed a terrible sin. God punished them by making their children blind or deaf or any other ailment for which there was no cure.
What bothers me about this text is that Jesus doesn't disagree with their assumption, instead he says "no, this man has been blind his whole life so that God can show off how great He is."
Really? God does that? This a troubling story because it depicts a God that punishes the innocent for His own glory. That is not a loving God, that is oppression.
Well... Jesus never actually said that God made the man blind, he just said he was born blind and God used his imperfection to reveal Himself to others. I like that better.
Truth is, we are all born with a defect, with an imperfection... We are all humans and we are all sinners. God didn't create us that way, it's the way that we chose... And it's the way we continue to choose.
God took away our imperfections when Jesus died on the cross, and Jesus died so that God's glory might be revealed to the world.
As humans, we can read that last statement as, God killed his son to show off how great He is... But we don't understand what Jesus means when he says 'glory.'
God's glory is not shown in overwhelming power, it is shown in suffering love. Which means God's glory is our glory, because in love, Jesus suffered for us.
In the end, the cross IS God showing off how great He is... Because we need to see it.
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