Jesus brought a New Deal

Weekly Encouragement – February 9, 2020

Greetings Friend,

       “As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?’” (John 9:1-2) This question reflects the Jewish Old Covenant way of thinking, that God brings curses in response to sin. We see Jesus’ response in the next few verses where He shows them something very different.

       Too many times the preacher has used this passage to say that God will do bad things to people so that He can bring good out of it to show His “love” (There is no love in doing that!) and that He would be glorified (That behavior is not worthy of glory!). I assure you; God does not do things like that! That’s what bullies and mafia bosses do.

       I understand why many misinterpret this passage. Even though throughout Scripture we see that Jesus often does not answer questions directly, almost every English translation of this passage assumes Jesus is directly answering His disciples’ question so they add “this happened because” to the text – but that is not in the original Greek. Jesus’ response was not to explain why the man was born blind.

       The more accurate interpretation of this story is that Jesus is showing the New Covenant way of thinking which shows the true character of God. My paraphrased translation of Jesus’ response to this question is: “This did not happen because of his or his parents’ sin. But here’s a great opportunity to display a work that shows the Loving heart of God…” – and He did show us God’s heart; He healed the man.

       So, here’s the Encouragement: God is good, really good, always good, only good!! Never any variation or shadow of turning (James 1:17). And He will even bring good out of the evil our enemy does (like He did for this blind man) if we’ll let Him (Romans 8:28).

Talk with God about that,

Dave