The answer to the question why depends on who’s asking it.
Jesus was walking through the city of Jerusalem with His disciples when they saw a man blind from birth.
“Why,” they asked Jesus, “was this man born blind?”
Their why meant “what was the cause?”
But Jesus often answered the question that should’ve been asked, rather than the one actually asked. And that’s what He did in this case.
The disciples were concerned with the cause of the man’s blindness. At best, they wanted wisdom to understand so they could teach others how to avoid such plights as a life of blindness. At worst, they wanted to know who was at fault, whom to blame.
Jesus wasn’t interested in whose fault it was. He hadn’t come from Heaven to earth to condemn us, but that through Him we might be saved.
So, Jesus, instead of answering the whose-fault-is-this question, answered the what’s-the-purpose-of-this question.
And the answer was, “so that the works of God can be seen.”
And then Jesus healed the man.
I believe this is more than an isolated incident. I believe this story, found in the 9th chapter of John’s gospel, reveals to us a principle of God.
As I found myself in the hospital 3 ½ years ago, unable to walk or swallow, one of the questions everybody was asking was “what caused this?”
I wasn’t a candidate for stroke. I was fairly healthy – my diet was healthy, I exercised regularly, didn’t use nicotine or any substances, didn’t have a high level of stress and stroke wasn’t in my family history.
The neurosurgeon said my carotid was extremely dissected, leading him to believe I had been in a car accident or had some kind of trauma to my neck.
Nothing like that had occurred, so nobody had an answer for what caused the stroke.
However, God has shown me over time that the stroke did have a purpose.
I won’t get into whether the stroke was caused or merely allowed by God. Again, cause isn’t my concern, but purpose is.
Scripture teaches that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and embrace His purpose. We also know from His Word that everything exists to bring Him glory.
So God is causing my stroke to produce good for me and glory for Him. That’s His purpose and I’m more than ok with it.
What good looks like in my situation is that I’m more intimate with God than I’ve ever been before. I haven’t been able to open the fingers on my left hand in almost 43 months; also in that time, 80% of my musical abilities have vanished. Those are two painful losses for me, but God has more than offset them with the close friendship He’s fostered with me. Every time I’ve felt the pain of loss in my post-stroke life, the Spirit of God has whispered to me, “I’m here with you; draw close.”
So for me, God’s purpose has brilliantly trumped any sense of cause.
I’m pretty sure the blind man would say the same.
