(The audio recording of this sermon will be uploaded here after the Sunday service.)
Today’s Scripture passage is from John chapter 9.
First, in order to understand the central theme of today’s passage, I would like to talk about four important points in this account.
The first point we should notice is how the Bible introduces the man who appears in this story.
It says:
“As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth.”
This man had been blind ever since he was born.
Therefore, the fact that he could not see—and that, in the society of ancient Israel, where people with disabilities often faced severe discrimination, he had no choice but to live as a beggar.
It was not something for which he himself was responsible.
Let me explain this a little further.
Suppose, for example, that someone begins using illegal drugs, and while under their influence commits a robbery. Eventually, that person is arrested and sent to prison.
In a case like this, we would have to say that at least part of the cause and responsibility for the dark path that person came to walk lay within the person himself.
Of course, in any situation, it would not be right to say simply that a person alone is responsible for his or her own misfortune.
But in a case like this, we would still have to acknowledge that at least part of the cause of that troubled life came from the choices that person had made.
However, the man in today’s passage—the man who sat begging—was different. The source of his suffering was not found in something that he himself had done.
Now, suppose you see someone who is suffering greatly, and you can find no fault or cause in that person himself—and yet that person continues to bear such hardship.
When you encounter such a reality, how do you understand the reason why that suffering has come upon that person?
The second point is that the Bible deliberately tells us that Jesus saw this man.
What was in the heart of Jesus Christ as He looked at this blind man?
I find something very meaningful in this simple yet profound expression:
“Jesus saw him.”
What kind of look did Jesus give this man? What was in the heart of Jesus at that moment?
But before we consider the way Jesus looked at him, let us think about ourselves. When we see people who are living under heavy burdens, as this man was, how do we usually look at them?
What kind of thoughts and feelings do we have toward them?
Now, let us look at the third point in today’s passage.
Here, the disciples asked the Lord Jesus this question.
Verse 2 says:
“His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’”
If we take some time to think carefully about what their question really meant, we begin to see the coldness in their hearts toward the blind man and their distorted way of looking at people who suffer.
In fact, all of the disciples seemed to share this assumption:
“If a person is suffering, there must be some reason for it. If the cause is not found in that person himself, then it must lie somewhere else—perhaps with his parents, or perhaps with one of his ancestors. There must be some cause behind it.”
Where had they learned to think this way? It is a very sad way of looking at another person.
In Japanese, we might express this idea by saying, “He must be suffering as a punishment for something.”
This kind of thinking is often described by the Japanese expression inga ōhō—the idea that a person’s present suffering is the inevitable consequence of wrongdoing.
It is rather surprising that the disciples of Jesus themselves seem to have been influenced by this kind of thinking: that a person is punished for wrongdoing, or that a person suffers misfortune because of something wrong that he or she has done.
It is, in fact, a very harsh and cold way of thinking.
But is this kind of thinking found only among Japanese people or among people in ancient Jewish society?
Let me change the subject for a moment.
This happened many decades ago around the time when I first met Pastor Ino. At that time, I was a young seminary student. One day, I visited the office of Donald Peterson. He was an American and the president of our seminary. I asked him a question.
I said, “In Japan, I think there are many people who strongly believe in this idea that suffering comes as a consequence or punishment for what someone has done. What about Americans? Do Americans not think this way at all?”
President Peterson’s answer surprised me somewhat.
He answered very clearly:
“Yes, they do. They do. It may not take exactly the same form as it does among Japanese people, but Americans also tend to think in this way.”
Come to think of it, the German missionary who led me to faith had said something similar. In other words, this tendency to think in terms of cause and punishment seems not to be limited to any particular nationality or culture. Rather, it seems to be a sad way of thinking into which people all over the world can easily fall.
Now, returning to today’s passage, when the disciples saw this blind man, they did not realize just how cruel their words actually were. What they were really saying was something like this:
“Jesus, is this man blind because God is punishing him?”
That was the attitude that lay behind the disciples’ question.
The fourth point is, of course, the answer Jesus gave them.
Let us read verse 3:
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
To put Jesus’ answer in simpler words, we might say:
“This is not divine punishment. This man is in this condition so that God’s power, God’s greatness, and God’s glory may be revealed in his life.”
Some of you may still feel that this is a little difficult to understand.
So let me put it in even simpler terms.
What Jesus is saying here is something like this:
You may be right in the middle of suffering even now.
And people may look at you coldly and wonder,
“Why has this person’s life become so miserable? What caused this to happen?”
Perhaps you yourself may even begin to think,
“Has my life become like this because of my own sin? Or is it because of the sin of someone in my family?”
But such despair is mistaken.
First of all, your suffering is certainly not some kind of divine punishment.
When a person finds himself or herself in a painful or unfortunate situation, we cannot simply conclude that the person brought it upon themselves.
If you were born blind and have had no choice but to spend your days begging, that is not the result of something you did, nor is it something for which you are responsible.
Then why did this happen?
Now we begin to see the answer.
After this, the Lord Jesus heals this man’s eyes.
When many people hear what has happened, they come because they want to see this man for themselves.
Some even take him to the Pharisees, who were among the leading religious authorities of that time.
In other words, this man became someone who testified to the greatness of the Lord Jesus.
In that sense, somewhat like Billy Graham, a famous American evangelist, this man became a person through whom others came to hear about how wonderful Jesus is, and his life was greatly used for the proclamation of the gospel.
Someone whose circumstances seemed to be nothing but tragic came to realize the love of Jesus Christ, the Savior, and made the decision to receive Him as their Lord.
Their lives were completely transformed, and through them, the goodness and glory of God began to shine forth. I am sure many of you know examples of people whose lives were changed in this way.
Helen Keller and a Japanese Christian poet and artist, Tomihiro Hoshino are well-known examples of such people.
Today, I would like to introduce Genzo Mizuno, a Japanese Christian poet.
He lived with very severe physical disabilities and could move only by blinking his eyes. In that sense, his disability was even more severe than that of the man in today’s passage.
Maybe some people think of his life as the very picture of misfortune.
And yet, the poems written by Mizuno, who was a Christian, have continued to encourage not only me but many other people as well.
One of his poems goes like this. I imagine that Mizuno wrote these words after waking in the early hours of the morning, while the rest of his family was still asleep:
“Lord, here there are only You and me.
Dawn is still far away,
and I can see nothing and hear nothing.
Lord, here there are only You and me.
To a heart longing for light,
there is Your Light that illuminates all things.
Lord, here there are only You and me.
To a heart trembling in the darkness,
there is Your heart, filled with peace.
Lord, here there are only You and me.
To a heart chilled by the night dew,
there is Your love, which never changes.”
Yes, God is not looking only at those who live with severe disabilities.
He is looking at each and every one of us.
And through each one of you, God can reveal His works.
That is the kind of God we worship.
So today, once again, let us remember this truth as we step forward into a new week.
Now, let us ask Pastor Ino to lead us in prayer.
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