An Appropriate Proverb

There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord.
Proverbs 21:30

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

May 17

NT—John 9:1-41
A very neat story on the part of our author in this scripture passage. It is almost a play. It opens with the question of who sinned? And ends with the pronunciation that the Pharisees sinned. In between, Jesus is a minor character. The main character, the one who teaches us the lesson is the blind man.
Several points about this story that struck me:
1. The Blind man does not elaborate on the story. He sticks to the basic happenings and does not try to make assumptions or declarations. He also does not attempt to bring any glory on himself.
2. Only in the middle of the story do we find that Jesus performed this miracle on the Sabbath. Making mud required kneading (and let me just say, it takes a heck of a lot of spit to make mud. Where did all that spit come from????). Kneading is one of the named thirty-nine forbidden activities on the Sabbath. Jesus healed plenty of people just by touching or in some cases just by saying that the person was healed. He did the knead on purpose. He was answering the question ‘who sinned’.
3. Clearly the man was not educated since he was blind. Yet he doesn’t hesitate to ‘answer’ the insults the Pharisees hurled at him. And he is spot on.
I also have thought a great deal about the whole sickness in response to sin. We would like to think that as 21st century, we are above that, right? But listen to this little blurb about Diana Reeve, wife of Christopher Reeve from CNN when she died:
Dana Reeve, the widow of the actor Christopher Reeve, has died of lung cancer at age 44, according to the Christopher Reeve Foundation. In August, less than a year after her husband's death, Dana Reeve -- a lifelong nonsmoker -- announced she had cancer. She died Monday night."We are all just so sad," foundation President Kathy Lewis said. Lewis said that she had visited Reeve on Friday and that she was "strong and gracious and courageous."Reeve had succeeded her husband as the chairwoman of the foundation, which funds research for new treatments for spinal cord injuries and works to improve the quality of life for people suffering from paralysis.

Did you catch it? “A lifelong nonsmoker”. The implication is – she did nothing wrong so she shouldn’t have cancer?
You are fat, have a heart attack, gosh, your fault. You are thin, have a heart attack, what happened? She was so active! Children born with birth defects, surely, surely, the mother shouldn’t have that drink? Or taken those pills before she knew she was pregnant? Toxic waste, chemicals in laundry detergent, sewage sludge. My email inbox overruns with this stuff.
We still do this whole blame of the sickness thing. Whose fault is it, Lord? Who sinned?
We sinned. It is our fault. Now believe the Lord can heal you and me.

Of course, this story is also the basis for the most famous Christian hymn ever, Amazing Grace.
Here is a lovely rendition:


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