Mahatma Gandhi apparently said this: “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Unfortunately, sometimes I think he had a point. For example, someone I know with diabetes was told by members of their church that it happened because he was such a sinner. What? It’s shameful that church members would treat the unfortunate this way, but it happens, and it is one of the most inappropriate and discouraging things I can imagine.
In this post, I’ll share 2 examples from the Gospels that show Jesus would never speak, or even think, this way. In fact, His attitude was almost the exact opposite.
The first story comes from John 9:1-7, which says:
“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 was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.”
This example is relevant to my story about the diabetic because the disciples in the story are making the same connection between a person’s specific sin and their specific illness that the people talking about the diabetic made. Jesus gave a surprising answer to why the man was born blind – to glorify God by showing His healing power. Although people are too often hasty to assign blame, Jesus’ answer shows that there’s an alternative to drawing a straight line from specific sins to specific problems. And interestingly, the answer could apply to any disabled or sick person: all sicknesses will be gone in paradise, and God will be glorified by all of it. Illness is not evidence of sin; there could be other causes.
Another story comes from Luke 13:1-5, which says:
“There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.””
In this story, Jesus is questioning the assumption that very bad things happen to very bad people, and that if something very bad happens to you, you must be a very bad person. The lesson Jesus is illustrating is that we should never think that the punishment of other sinners should be worse than the punishment we deserve ourselves. Put another way, if we think someone was punished with diabetes because of their sin, what makes someone think they don’t also deserve diabetes (or worse)?
As John Calvin wrote in his commentary on this story:
“This passage is highly useful, were it for no other reason than that this disease is almost natural to us, to be too rigorous and severe in judging of others, and too much disposed to flatter our own faults. The consequence is, that we not only censure with excessive severity the offenses of our brethren; but whenever they meet with any calamity, we condemn them as wicked and reprobate persons.”
Or as the late pastor and author James Boice said about the story:
“We are asking the wrong question. We are saying, ‘God, how could you let this happen to them?’ When the real question should be, ‘God, why hasn’t it happened to me? Why am I still living, sinner that I am?’”
Whether a person suffers calamity or doesn’t isn’t because of anyone’s righteousness, and Jesus doesn’t offer us an explanation about why. He doesn’t have to. Instead, he said “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish”, and implied that one of the things to repent of is thinking that others are “worse sinners” than we are.
Some people who appear righteous end up suffering terribly in this world, while some who are flagrant sinners live prosperous lives. Which brings me to another quote by our Lord Jesus, from Matthew 9:12b-13.
“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Jesus showed mercy to those who are sick, both physically and spiritually, and so should all of His people. Jesus went out of His way to seek and love the sick and the lost, and so should we.
Amen.
