This past weekend Joplin, Missouri was hit by some devastating tornadoes that killed 116 people and injured countless more. This comes in the aftermath of some other severe whether they had which included tornadoes some weeks ago. It is times like this, just like when Hurricane Katrina hit six years ago, and 9/11 hit 10 years ago, that the question is asked, "Where is God?" Whenever something occurs such as this, we call it evil and ask either why God did it, or why God allowed it. These questions are common to humankind during such times.
These questions are so common that we can find them dating back to the time of Jesus where we have the disciples asking Jesus a similar question (albeit for a far less tragic event) in the bible. In John 9 we are told a story where Jesus and his disciples approach a man who has been blind from birth. When they see this man, the question asked by the disciples is telling. Their question to Jesus was: "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind" (v 2)?
The question the disciples had came from the same assumption that many of us have today: that if something tragic happens, it was caused by God because of some sin of ours. The only question remaining is "whose sin caused this tragedy?" This question, of course, has led to much of the bigotry and hate speech we hear about today. When 9/11 occurred, those who held this assumption answered the question, "whose sin caused this," by pointing to the LGBT community. When Hurricane Katrina occurred the question was answered the same way.
The Westboro Baptist Church, as well as many other churches and individual Christians, follow this assumption today. The reason they go around picketing funerals is because they are trying to put a stop to the sin of homosexuality which they believe to be causing the deaths of the people they are picketing. They feel that the death of these people are good because it brings recognition to the sins that are causing these deaths.
Many of us live our own lives with this assumption. Some event occurs in our life, maybe we lost a job or a house, or a loved one, and we start to wonder: "what sin did I commit for this to happen?" We think: "what did I do wrong this time?" Or things are going really well and we avoid sin simply because we think if we sin we might ruin everything (not exactly the best motivation for refraining from sin). What a terrible way to live, and what a stressful life that must be.
But this way of thinking, this assumption, is completely unbiblical, and we see this in Jesus' response. He replies to his disciples' question by saying, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him" (v 3). The tragedy of this man's blindness was not a result of anyone's sin. This response by Jesus guides us to no longer ask the question "whose sin caused this?" because we learn that sin is not the cause of natural evils. Sometimes these natural evils just happen. But we know, from this passage, that when they do happen, it allows an opportunity for God to perform amazing works in these situations. And how does he do that? By working through others. The work that God performed in John 9 was working a miracle through Jesus. In the next few days, you will hear of non-profits and churches going down to Missouri to help with the cleanup. You will hear of miraculous situations where some people should have been more severely injured but weren't. You will hear stories of people performing heroic feats and rescues. You will hear of the works of God.
When things like this happen, it is not because of the sin of any individual or group of people. To assume this is to nullify the grace of God and to place undo blame on others. God does not cause bad things to happen and neither does our sin. God's grace is big enough, infinite enough to forgive all sin and look past all sin. What Jesus teaches us in this passage is not to blame the sin of others for the occurrence of any disaster or tragedy. Instead, we need to focus on the grace of God and the good he does in the midst of tragedy. That is what Jesus did.
Blessings,
-Brandon
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