“Why me?”
John 9: 1-5
1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Have you ever felt like God had it out for you? I mean according to some Pastors, riches are a sign of God’s favor. I don’t know about you, but I will never be a rich man. In fact I’ve come to accept the struggle to pay each month’s bills as a fact of life. Now some people will say and have said that I must have screwed up royally to be in this position. As a man of faith I should be healthy, wealthy, and wise, right? Well when winter comes around I know it by the aches in my joints, and we’ve already talked about the wealth situation. As for wisdom, I merely have to look up at a starry night time sky to remember how much I don’t know. At times like the disciples, I found myself asking, is there some sin in my life that I don’t know about?
Three things come out of this passage for me. The first is that disciples assumed that there must be some heinous crime committed by his parents or the blind man. They were so quick to judge someone that they didn’t even know. Now before you shake your head and wonder about the stupidity of the disciples let me ask you one thing- have you ever judged people that you didn’t know? I know I have. And oddly enough there was no way that the man could have done something to deserve this punishment because he was blind to start out with. Did the disciples know this? If not why didn’t they bother to ask the man before rushing to judgment.
The second thing is that Jesus shows mercy. Being God he could have agreed with the disciple and recited every single sin that the blind man and his parents ever committed. Yet he chose to tell the disciples that the man hadn’t done anything to deserve this. Notice the difference between the two- mankind judges and God has mercy. How many times have we thought that it was the other way around? Yet here God shows us the true nature of things and how mankind can be a harsher judge than God will ever be.
The final thing that emerges from this passage is the fact that Jesus reminds the disciples that there is nothing that God can’t fix. In fact some things happened so that God’s power can be seen in us. Let me ask you a question. If you had a choice between living an easy life or manifesting God’s power which would you choose? I fear that most of us, including myself would choose the former, but the correct answer is the latter. Just think that the God of the universe, that almighty infinite being, has chosen you to broadcast His message. How could we turn down such an honor? Yet often times, because of a lack of faith, we do.
Let us pray that God’s will will be manifest in us, regardless of what circumstances it takes to do so. And let us ask that God will make us more like Jesus, and make us not so quick to judge and see the evil in people, but rather see the good in their situation and them.
So the next time you’re tempted to ask, ” Why me?” remember that you’re not cursed but rather chosen. God is working in all our lives, through all of our sicknesses and weaknesses. We should be glad that he has picked us to do so.
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