Jesus’ disciples were curious about the man they were seeing. The one who couldn’t see them – who’d never seen anything. Blind from birth, John 9 tells us.
The disciples’ curiosity was about the cause of his blindness. Surely it was sin, but whose? Was it the blind man’s – which God must’ve foreseen and in response predestined the man to blindness – or was it his parents’?
Still not getting the role of grace in the kingdom of God, Jesus’ students sought understanding about sin and its consequences. They must know the sin that caused this blindness so they could be sure to stay away from it.
But Jesus, as He often did, answered a different question from the one they were asking. Neither the parents’ nor the man’s sin caused his blindness.
Now He was going to divulge to them the mysterious cause of this dreadful condition. But then, not. He switched gears on them and focused their attention, not on the cause of the blindness, but on its purpose.
My wife and I got a letter in the mail from our son. He was letting us know he was choosing a different life from the one for which we’d tried his whole life to prepare him, a life of faith-relationship with Jesus. “That’s your faith; it isn’t mine,” the letter read. We read the letter and fell on each other’s neck. For days we cried and prayed, and cried and prayed. What did we do wrong? Why was he making this decision? Was it our error or something else that precipitated this choice our son was making?
Then the Lord directed me to John 9 as I was preparing for that weekend’s sermon.
It wasn’t the son’s sin or the parents’. But so that God can be glorified…was this man born blind…did this son choose to stray. God taught my wife and me that week that God – by His grace – is more concerned with purpose than with cause.
Jesus glorified God by giving sight to the blind man.
And we are trusting God that at exactly the right time God will show our son how much He loves him and the wonderful things He wants to do for him. That’s how God is glorified in this age and it’s how He will glorify Himself in the life of our son and in the lives of so many people.
He was glorified on the night that I discovered His love and power – how both are at work for me. And He’ll glorify Himself when you or anyone you know accepts the life He offers us through faith in Jesus.
He wants far more for us to know the purpose he has for us than what we’re doing wrong to cause our lives’ problems.
Cause or purpose? Let’s take on the focus God has: what’s the purpose for this (fill in the blank?) The answer is always: to glorify God.
