WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:03.279 So we're working our way through the book of John. 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:09.279 And so just the next passage in the book of John is this story about a boy born blind. 00:00:09.439 --> 00:00:12.800 So, you know, this is the thing about just working through a book of the Bible, right? 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:14.720 Here's a great idea. 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:16.719 There'll be a lot of visitors this Sunday. 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:18.000 So preach on suffering. 00:00:18.239 --> 00:00:21.679 That'll be a great topic, you know, for infant baptism. 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:24.559 It's so hopeful, and we're going to go after suffering. 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:30.640 But I believe that God has so much in store for us this morning. 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:43.600 As you've probably picked up with that song, this idea of though you slay me, though we come face to face with just the world be taken out from under us, he's still in it. 00:00:43.759 --> 00:00:45.119 He's still in it. 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:47.200 Here's what we all know. 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:57.359 We are all, and maybe we've already been there, maybe you're here right now, we are all going to come to a place where we feel like we cannot take another step. 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:00.960 That's coming, or you've been through it, it's coming again. 00:01:01.119 --> 00:01:05.120 And I'm not talking about, you know, the dryer eight-year favorite shirt. 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:32.400 I'm talking about when life is going good and everything's going great and the kids are great and the kids are selling, they got into college, or you got into the college you wanted, you got the senior superlative, and the marriage is great, and there's extra income at the end of every month, and then you know what I'm talking about is I'm talking about the kind of trouble when that phone rings and all that good life has been going on, and then that phone rings, and that email comes. 00:01:32.799 --> 00:01:35.920 And it is it's like a brick wall. 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:41.280 It is like you're not quite sure if you can take another step. 00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:52.159 And maybe that's deep disappointment with your work, maybe that's deep disappointment with your loved one or with your child, maybe that's disease or disaster or death. 00:01:52.239 --> 00:02:02.799 Those are the big D's and some of my families here and Christy's family, and not to air all of our dirty laundry, but just to kind of show you a picture of a family. 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:08.719 Uh death, betrayal, divorce, abuse, addiction, cancer. 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:10.159 Right? 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:12.000 I mean, this is your family too. 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:13.599 This is life. 00:02:14.479 --> 00:02:16.960 And when this happens, isn't it easy? 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:20.560 We've all been there just to wonder, like, God, are you even are you even there? 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:22.800 I mean, what I mean, what is going on with this? 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:31.360 I mean, I thought you loved me, I thought, and and then there's just there can be so much anger and there can be confusion, and a lot of times just like just apathy? 00:02:31.759 --> 00:02:32.479 I don't even care. 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:33.759 Numbness. 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:35.680 The why questions? 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:37.120 Why me? 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:38.240 Why this? 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:38.960 Why now? 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:40.719 Why not somebody else? 00:02:41.039 --> 00:02:43.199 And there's two typical responses. 00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:47.520 The first is kind of the religious response, and this is this is moralism. 00:02:49.919 --> 00:03:02.479 If only I had been a little better, God would have given me better, or he would have protected me, if only I had prayed more, or like been a little more diligent, or a little more active in my church, or that's moralism. 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:04.159 No hope there. 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:07.919 A secular person might move more towards cynicism. 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:14.319 And the response is as well, if you know, if that's going on, then there must be no God. 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:17.120 Or if he's there, he's incompetent. 00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:22.639 No real hope there, no real answers there with that line of thinking. 00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:28.639 But us moralistic people, religious people, don't get too judgmental because moralism is just as bad. 00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:30.080 It offers no hope. 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:38.960 And that's what we're gonna see in John chapter 9 this morning, is we're gonna see how moralizing suffering, it actually is just more suffering. 00:03:39.439 --> 00:03:40.240 There's no hope. 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:42.639 I have three, I've a three-point sermon this morning. 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:47.840 What I was figuring is the Presbyterians and the Episcopals were real happy about the infant baptism, the three-point sermon. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:53.360 The Baptists are gonna be very excited about the three-point sermon, and later we can have sword drills and drink sweet tea. 00:03:53.439 --> 00:03:57.919 And I don't know what Presbyterians will be drinking, they'll be drinking something else, but uh we can be drinking sweet tea. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:03:59.599 So, three points, here's the points. 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:02.960 Number one, Jesus is in suffering. 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:04.639 Jesus is in suffering. 00:04:04.800 --> 00:04:11.919 Number two, Jesus dismisses the moralizing of suffering, and then number three, Jesus uses suffering. 00:04:12.159 --> 00:04:20.639 And so we can jump in in verse one, as he, I mean Jesus, he was going along and he saw a blind man who's blind from birth. 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:28.240 His disciples asked him, so his disciples, they see the blind man, he's been blind since birth, and the disciples turn to Jesus and say, Rabbi, who sinned? 00:04:28.399 --> 00:04:34.240 Who screwed up that this man, this man or his parents, who screwed up that he was born blind? 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:41.199 Because they see somebody blind, they see suffering, and so, well, if this is going on, then somebody must have, somebody must have messed up. 00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:43.120 And Jesus responds and says, Neither. 00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:45.199 This man nor his parents sinned. 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:50.800 But this happens so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 00:04:51.920 --> 00:04:59.680 And then Jesus does this really odd thing where he he on the ground. 00:04:59.839 --> 00:05:01.600 I mean, that's what the blind man heard. 00:05:01.839 --> 00:05:02.800 He spits. 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:06.959 And he gets that dirt together with that spit. 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:09.120 I don't know what the blind man's thinking at this point. 00:05:09.199 --> 00:05:13.759 You've heard that, and you're in front of Jesus, you've heard of this rabbi, he's kind of famous, he's been doing some really cool stuff. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:26.399 But he spit, he's down there, and he's he's kind of caking up that mud, and then he moves toward the blind man and he he just he just smears it on his eyes. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:30.879 He says, Go and wash in the pool of Siloam. 00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:32.079 You'll be healed. 00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:33.839 And so the man leaves. 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:41.920 And the man goes to the pool of Siloam and he gets down to that pool of Siloam and he gets the water and he gets it up on his eyes, and he's washing away the mud. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:51.680 And you can imagine as he's washing away the mud, he's starting to see, he's starting to see that light even through his eyelids, and and and wondering what's going on, you know, does this really happen? 00:05:51.920 --> 00:05:56.879 And then and then opening his eyes and getting that water out of his eyes, and you can see. 00:05:58.160 --> 00:06:03.199 And don't you just wonder, I mean, can can you even imagine have never seen before? 00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:08.240 And then you see all of a sudden and you wonder, I mean, what was his picture of a tree, and then he saw a tree? 00:06:08.399 --> 00:06:12.319 Or what was his what was his picture of blue, and then he looks up and sees the sky. 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:20.319 I mean, what actually what just blew his mind because all of a sudden he could see the mud was off, the darkness was gone. 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:25.279 And we see point number one, Jesus is in the suffering. 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:44.319 I mean, the Christian faith definitely is not a t-shirt, a bumper sticker, you know, it's not a slogan, it's not an equation, it's not something we can just kind of pre-package and say, oh, we become a Christian, you know, sort of like an endless ladder towards like wonderful things, you know, always kind of smiling, happy, shiny Christians. 00:06:44.399 --> 00:06:45.279 Life's always gonna be. 00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:46.560 That's not the Christian life. 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:48.000 That's not reality. 00:06:49.519 --> 00:06:53.839 It is not a ladder to endless success. 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:57.439 I mean, life usually feels a little bit more like a rope. 00:06:57.519 --> 00:07:02.160 I was thinking about it this week, and I was thinking about, I can remember being sixth grade, and maybe you remember this. 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:03.279 Do you remember gym class? 00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:07.439 And in gym, they had that rope hanging from the middle of the gym, and there's a bell at the top. 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:08.079 Do you remember? 00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:24.160 You know, you had fitness stations, we had fitness stations, so you went to the stretching station, you had the pull-up bar station, you had maybe a basketball shot, maybe a maybe a speed, you know, run the length of the court, and then there was the rope in the middle of the gym, the most daunting thing, and like three kids could do it, right? 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:30.959 They could shimmy up that, you know, like Chuck Norris style all the way to the top, and they could ring that bell, and everybody was amazed. 00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:33.120 I mean, that kid, I remember Timmy could do it. 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:35.199 I mean, you were like, Timmy, that's incredible. 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:36.399 Everybody loved Timmy. 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:39.199 And I just I knew, I mean, I mean, look at me. 00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:41.519 I'm not getting up that rope. 00:07:42.319 --> 00:07:49.040 And I can remember getting up about eight feet and looking down, and you know, coach had put about a six-inch mat down there at the bottom. 00:07:49.279 --> 00:07:51.360 Appreciate that a lot if you're 35 feet up. 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:53.040 And I'm about eight feet up. 00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:55.120 It's just not gonna happen. 00:07:55.439 --> 00:07:58.560 You know, I'm just not strong enough. 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:07.600 Weakness overcoming and starting to slide back down and hoping everybody was busy in their other fitness stations to notice the failure. 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:10.959 And life often becomes the rope, but here's the good news. 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:17.920 The good news is God is not just at the top, at the bell, at the success, at the achievement. 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:22.240 We actually see God a lot better at the bottom. 00:08:22.959 --> 00:08:25.439 The weakness and the failure. 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:30.079 And maybe you're here and you would just say, well, can't he just stop it all? 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:32.159 I mean, he do the suffering. 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:33.279 Can't he just stop it all? 00:08:33.519 --> 00:08:34.720 Yes, he can. 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:37.360 He absolutely can. 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:39.200 And he will. 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:40.559 But not for now. 00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:43.360 I've been studying this week, I'm gonna press you with a term. 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:46.000 Uh asymmetrical relationship. 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:48.559 That's the relationship God has with suffering. 00:08:48.720 --> 00:08:54.960 An asymmetrical relationship, meaning this, he permits it while he hates it. 00:08:55.440 --> 00:08:58.799 He's control over it, and he'll use it. 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:03.759 It's an asymmetrical relationship, and part of this is just mystery to us. 00:09:03.919 --> 00:09:06.080 Part of this is we just don't get it. 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:11.279 But what we do know is it wasn't a part of creation, it wasn't a part of his design. 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:19.440 That the brokenness of the world, the falling apart of the world, that is that is us going our own way and creating the suffering. 00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:32.799 The unraveling of the world is humanity turning from God's design and him coming alongside us and saying, I'm going to bring redemption back into the suffering, and there will be a day when it's no longer. 00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:34.960 So that verse too is fascinating. 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:36.159 Rabbi, who sinned? 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:38.879 This man or his parents, that he was born blind, who's screwed up? 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:46.320 I mean, I mean, somebody's born blind, somebody's born with a disability, there's some suffering, a loss of job, cancer, a death, an addiction. 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:51.200 Who screwed up to bring this on me or on these people? 00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:54.799 And Jesus just immediately, he just says, neither. 00:09:55.200 --> 00:09:56.879 Don't moralize it. 00:09:57.279 --> 00:09:59.200 Don't moralize the suffering. 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:01.840 And that's number two point number two. 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:04.240 Jesus dismisses the moralizing of suffering. 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:05.679 So this question's so natural. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:07.279 We just run to it over and over again. 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:11.440 If I'm good enough, if I do good enough, then God will give me good things. 00:10:11.759 --> 00:10:12.960 God will sort of owe me. 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:13.759 And you know what this is? 00:10:14.240 --> 00:10:16.320 This is Hinduism, it's karma. 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:20.000 I mean, it's just like a westernized, Christianized version of karma. 00:10:20.159 --> 00:10:23.679 If I do good enough, I pray enough, I'm a better person. 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:28.480 The problem is it exhausts you because it doesn't end. 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:40.159 And then when something bad happens, and it will, no matter how good you are, or holy you think you are, or what you're doing, it will happen to you, and then that equation, it condemns you. 00:10:40.720 --> 00:10:46.240 Because what it means is it means you screwed up and God's punishing you. 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:51.519 I didn't pray enough. 00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:52.879 I didn't do good enough. 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:54.399 I I I've got to get back to that. 00:10:54.480 --> 00:10:57.519 I've got to I've got to do more, I've got to get back on that treadmill. 00:10:57.679 --> 00:11:02.960 If you have friends or family, right, Book of Job, remember the book of Job, Old Testament? 00:11:03.200 --> 00:11:06.000 This is a righteous man, a family man. 00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:13.919 He's done well in the world, he's accumulated a lot of success, and and there's this great conversation between God and Satan, a huge theological breakdown there. 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:15.759 It's so great for us to understand. 00:11:15.919 --> 00:11:21.360 And the friends come along and they say, Well, you must have screwed up for this to happen. 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:23.840 No, he didn't. 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:25.039 He didn't. 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:28.879 They were moralizing the suffering. 00:11:31.440 --> 00:11:33.279 God's not punishing you. 00:11:33.919 --> 00:11:36.480 See, Jesus took the punishment of your sin. 00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:40.080 If you're at rest in Jesus, he already took the punishment of your sin. 00:11:40.320 --> 00:11:41.679 He's not punishing you. 00:11:41.919 --> 00:11:43.679 Don't moralize your suffering. 00:11:44.159 --> 00:11:46.320 We like to moralize it, it makes us feel in control. 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:48.320 That's why we like to do it. 00:11:48.559 --> 00:11:50.000 But don't fall for it. 00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:52.720 It'll exhaust you, it'll eventually condemn you. 00:11:52.799 --> 00:11:57.679 And just as cynicism offers no real hope, moralism doesn't offer any hope. 00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:03.919 Twenty-three years ago, I'm in science class, Mrs. 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:07.600 Goodenough's class, and I meet my friend Kyle. 00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:12.080 And Kyle and me became good friends through middle school and through high school. 00:12:12.159 --> 00:12:17.200 We shared a locker, and then we were later, we were roommates in college, and and Kyle was an athlete. 00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:19.759 I mean, he played basketball, we played basketball together, but he played baseball. 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:23.360 He'd play anything he wanted to, and he went on and he played baseball in college. 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:32.240 And so, you know, somebody like that, you're always, as he gets married and he moves on, you're you're just kind of going, well, you know, he's man, I bet he can't wait to get a baby boy. 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:32.639 Right? 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:33.840 I mean, you're just kind of thinking that. 00:12:33.919 --> 00:12:36.240 I mean, he wouldn't say that, maybe he wouldn't say it, but you're kind of thinking that. 00:12:36.320 --> 00:12:40.480 I mean, he was a baseball player in college, you know, he wants himself a baby boy. 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:54.320 And last year, after having two girls, a baby boy comes along and he calls me last year sometime, and the baby's maybe six months old, and the baby's been having seizures, the little boy. 00:12:54.960 --> 00:12:58.399 And they they don't even they don't know what's going on. 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:01.600 I mean, and and and they're exhausted. 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:02.879 He's exhausted. 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:04.559 He can't fix it. 00:13:04.799 --> 00:13:06.559 He he doesn't know what to do. 00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:12.720 I mean, little baby boys having seizures, I mean, they don't know what to do, and they're going doctor to doctor to doctor. 00:13:13.200 --> 00:13:29.120 And it's just exhaustion and it's fear and it's anger, it's confusion, and it's beginning to be kind of numbness to God, and and he just wanted to talk, he just wanted to be get honest, be able to be honest somewhere about it, and and get prayed for, and and he's just sort of kind of over it. 00:13:29.279 --> 00:13:43.679 Uh what's interesting is I talked to him this week as they've been going doctor to doctor to doctor, and and now they're understanding that the child's brain, the little boy who's now a year old, his brain wasn't formed correctly in the womb, the the right hemisphere. 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:46.720 And it's just it's I'm I'm no I'm no doctor. 00:13:46.960 --> 00:14:00.480 It's misfiring, it's it's not working right, it's messing everything up, and doctors are starting to say we need to do brain surgery and sort of shut down part of the brain, and they're not even sure what that means, the repercussions of that into the future. 00:14:01.679 --> 00:14:08.799 And and Kyle says at the end of the conversations, he says, Man, God has been so good to us in this. 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:17.679 And I'll be honest, I'm on the other end of the phone going, dude, this sounds horrible. 00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:21.840 I mean, and he's saying, God's been so good to us. 00:14:22.399 --> 00:14:25.440 I mean, there are times when I'm going, I don't get it. 00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:31.919 I mean, there's not always some feeling of great resolution in the suffering. 00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:36.240 But what's clear is suffering points out we're not in control. 00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:38.559 We can't control it all. 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:50.080 And this is what we hate, but this is actually what's good for us because what it helps us see, it helps us see that we actually are not at the top of the rope ringing the bell, we're actually at the bottom of the rope. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:15:00.240 And that's where we see God, and we find God, and he finds us, and what we see there is that he actually chose to suffer also. 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:09.279 Those hands that spread the mud on that blind man, they were nailed to a cross, that that mouth that that spit. 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:12.799 It was so dry on the cross he couldn't swallow. 00:15:12.960 --> 00:15:20.559 We see that that God himself chose to be betrayed and imprisoned and stripped and beaten and murdered. 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:27.759 And he did this, and he suffered for you to be in our suffering, to begin to redeem the suffering. 00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:40.639 And he took your sin on the cross, he took all your sin, this is called imputation, your sin put on him, and then his righteousness put on you, so that when God looks at you, he doesn't see your sin, he doesn't see your rebellion. 00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:41.600 That's why it's not punishment. 00:15:41.679 --> 00:15:43.279 That's why the suffering's not punishment. 00:15:43.440 --> 00:15:45.200 The sin's already been put on Jesus. 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:49.039 When God sees you, he sees a righteous, beloved child. 00:15:49.759 --> 00:15:52.960 That's what put gives us rest, it gives us peace. 00:15:54.960 --> 00:16:05.279 And we can know with certainty, as we look at the cross in the midst of suffering, we know with certainty that while we experience suffering, he comes into our suffering to love us. 00:16:06.159 --> 00:16:07.679 So back to John chapter 9. 00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:11.039 So the neighbors bring the man, the blind man, to the Pharisees. 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:27.519 The Pharisees heard about this and they want to know what happened with this blind man and how did he get healed, and Jesus was involved, and we're still trying to catch Jesus because we're religious people, and Jesus is upsetting the system, and so we want to catch them, we want to kill them or get rid of them, and so they're going, okay, somebody got healed again on the Sabbath. 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:38.480 You know, Jesus keeps doing this and breaking that rule, and they're very upset about this, and so he uh the neighbors bring the blind man to the Pharisees, and they say, How are you healed? 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:39.600 What happened? 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:43.679 And the man says, Well, he put mud on my eyes, I washed, now I see. 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:45.840 I mean, it was kind of a pretty simple thing, actually. 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:48.960 He just spread the mud, went and washed, now I see. 00:16:49.039 --> 00:16:51.519 And the Pharisees are upset all over again about this. 00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:54.240 And the Pharisee is actually a little division of the Pharisees at the point. 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:57.600 Some Pharisees are starting to wonder, like, okay, this is kind of interesting. 00:16:57.679 --> 00:16:59.840 He keeps healing people, this is not normal. 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:04.319 Um, maybe, maybe he is who he says he is. 00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:06.960 The larger group's kind of, no, it's still not. 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:10.799 I mean, he's breaking the rules, he's broken the law, and they can't see that he is the Messiah. 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:24.880 And so they asked the man, which was very interesting that the Pharisees, the religious kind of hierarchy, would ask this blind man, who probably they thought was a horrible sinner, wretched, far from them, mind you, because he was blind, because they had they were probably moralizing the suffering. 00:17:26.319 --> 00:17:27.279 Who do you think he is? 00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:30.720 Blind man says, Well, he's I think he's a prophet. 00:17:33.119 --> 00:17:34.559 Pharisees still sort of don't believe. 00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:35.839 So they go get the parents. 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:37.039 Bring the parents in. 00:17:37.279 --> 00:17:41.200 I mean, and you can imagine what the parents' life may have been like at this point. 00:17:41.599 --> 00:17:44.000 Because they gave birth to a blind boy. 00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:46.079 And everybody's moralizing suffering. 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:50.880 So that means that the parents screwed up, so there's probably some judgment towards them, a little banishment, right? 00:17:51.039 --> 00:17:52.319 Churches never behave like this. 00:17:52.400 --> 00:17:55.279 You know, sort of judgment and banishment towards the parents. 00:17:55.359 --> 00:18:01.039 So the parents come before the religious hierarchy and they are they're they are nervous, they're scared. 00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:05.680 Jumping in and verse 19, is this your son? 00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:06.799 The Pharisees asked. 00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:09.440 Is this the one you say was born blind? 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:11.039 How is it that he can see? 00:18:12.079 --> 00:18:13.680 Parents are going to play it cool. 00:18:13.839 --> 00:18:15.359 We know he's our son. 00:18:15.680 --> 00:18:17.359 And we know he was born blind. 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:21.279 But how he can see now or who opened his eyes, we don't know. 00:18:21.519 --> 00:18:22.480 Ask him. 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:25.279 He is of age, he will speak for himself. 00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:26.480 I mean, they're just staying out of it. 00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:27.279 Staying out of it. 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:31.039 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. 00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:31.680 Isn't that great? 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:41.200 Isn't that how the relationship should be between a religious leader and people who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:44.559 Verse 25, he replied. 00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:47.440 Pharisees are saying, no, that Jesus he's a sinner. 00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:48.559 We know he's a sinner. 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:54.079 And then the blind man replies in verse 25, whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know. 00:18:54.799 --> 00:18:56.160 Here's what I know. 00:18:56.880 --> 00:19:00.799 I was blind, the guy put mud on my eyes, now I see. 00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:04.319 And they replied to him, What did he do to you? 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:05.680 How did he open your eyes? 00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:06.799 They can't let it go. 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:09.200 They can't see, they can't just take the truth for what it is. 00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:11.920 And he answers that, I've told you already. 00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:13.359 You didn't listen. 00:19:13.599 --> 00:19:15.359 He's starting to get a little fed up. 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:17.599 Or why do you want to hear it again? 00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:20.160 And then he takes a little leap of faith and probably the wrong leap. 00:19:20.240 --> 00:19:22.559 He says, Do you want to become his disciples too? 00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:24.400 Are you actually interested in him? 00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:25.440 Or do you still want to catch him? 00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:34.000 And then they just hurled insults at him and they put him down and belittled him more and eventually they threw him out. 00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:38.880 Jesus finds out about this, and Jesus goes a little bit later and he goes and he finds the man. 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:42.799 And he says to him, He says, Um, do you know who the Son of Man is? 00:19:44.240 --> 00:19:46.720 A term for the Messiah, a term for the Son of God. 00:19:47.039 --> 00:19:47.680 Do you know who that is? 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:49.119 And he says, No, I don't know who that is. 00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:51.039 And Jesus says, It's me. 00:19:51.279 --> 00:19:51.920 I am. 00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:55.759 And then the blind man says, Lord, I believe. 00:19:55.920 --> 00:19:57.440 And he worshipped. 00:19:57.759 --> 00:20:02.160 So point number three, Jesus uses suffering. 00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:08.559 So what we see in this man is we see blindness, we see sight, and then we see belief. 00:20:09.839 --> 00:20:16.400 See, God is not waiting at the end of your rope to go, you better get better, get back up the rope. 00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:18.000 If only you're a little moral. 00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:19.519 I'll love you when I get a little more. 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:22.160 When you get your act together, that's when you can come. 00:20:22.319 --> 00:20:28.240 When you can climb your way to the top with all of your effort and your resilience, then I will love you. 00:20:28.319 --> 00:20:29.119 No, no, no, no. 00:20:29.519 --> 00:20:29.920 Not at all. 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:31.279 That's moralism. 00:20:32.799 --> 00:20:35.920 He's at the bottom and he's saying, Do you see it yet? 00:20:37.759 --> 00:20:39.440 Do you have sight for it yet? 00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:44.079 Do you have sight that you can you can't? 00:20:47.680 --> 00:20:49.119 Do you see that you need help? 00:20:49.359 --> 00:20:55.200 Do you see that you can't deliver yourself out of your shame, out of your guilt, out of your inadequacy? 00:20:58.079 --> 00:21:07.039 Because if you see it, you're ready to believe, and you'll be set free from shame and guilt, from moralism, perfectionism, cynicism, all the isms. 00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:09.759 Just go ahead and be rescued from all the isms. 00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:17.759 And you'll be set free into a theology of grace, which says the world is broken, it's not as it should be. 00:21:18.079 --> 00:21:20.400 I'm broken, I'm not as I should be. 00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:28.319 Yet, because of Jesus, I am loved in all of this suffering, and I don't always understand it. 00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:37.839 The suffering comes, and I still get angry, I still get confused, I still get numb, but I can look to the cross and I can know with certainty he came into the suffering. 00:21:38.559 --> 00:21:44.079 And he's hanging on the cross saying, I love you even though, even though you're not as you should be. 00:21:44.400 --> 00:21:47.279 We can so easily think of this passage as the end of suffering. 00:21:47.359 --> 00:21:50.640 You know, the blind man who's given sight, and then he's gonna go on and have a wonderful life. 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:51.440 How do we know that? 00:21:51.519 --> 00:21:52.480 We don't know that. 00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:58.319 Perhaps the eyesight created more fear, more anxiety than ever before. 00:21:58.640 --> 00:21:59.440 It's possible. 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:04.480 Suffering keeps happening for this man. 00:22:04.640 --> 00:22:06.559 He's not relieved of suffering. 00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:09.519 The rescue here is not the eyesight. 00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:11.440 The rescue here is belief. 00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:16.960 The blindness and the eyesight were used for belief. 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:19.440 See, all of it. 00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:32.319 The job loss, the divorce, the betrayal, the car wreck, the cancer. 00:22:34.160 --> 00:22:43.519 When that car didn't see your little girl in the cul-de-sac, none of it's meaningless. 00:22:44.799 --> 00:22:47.279 He will use all of it. 00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:49.440 I know we can't see that. 00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:52.480 I know you can't see that. 00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:53.519 But he will. 00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:55.119 He will use it. 00:22:56.559 --> 00:22:58.000 It is not meaningless. 00:23:00.160 --> 00:23:02.400 When the test comes back, when the phone rings. 00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:04.400 It's not meaningless. 00:23:04.559 --> 00:23:05.440 It hurts, right? 00:23:06.079 --> 00:23:08.079 It hurts like hell, it hurts. 00:23:08.319 --> 00:23:10.000 But it's not meaningless. 00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:19.680 We look to the cross, we rest in the cross, and what we know is we know a suffering God who will love us and he will care for us. 00:23:19.759 --> 00:23:23.119 And there is grace beyond our imagination. 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:33.680 And what he's saying to you this morning, he's saying that suffering, don't moralize it. 00:23:34.079 --> 00:23:35.680 Wasn't your fault. 00:23:36.880 --> 00:23:41.680 You may not understand it, but I love you. 00:23:44.160 --> 00:23:45.599 I'm enough for you. 00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:47.599 Look to the cross. 00:23:47.839 --> 00:23:52.160 I'm a suffering God waiting to meet you there. 00:23:52.400 --> 00:23:54.000 Let's pray together. 00:23:55.920 --> 00:24:04.000 God, there's so much mystery when it comes to suffering, so much we don't understand, and I pray that you would give us a gift of humility now. 00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:08.960 We're not the creators. 00:24:09.599 --> 00:24:11.200 We're not redeemers. 00:24:12.319 --> 00:24:12.960 You are. 00:24:16.799 --> 00:24:20.720 Lord, we think about our suffering and we can get so angry. 00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:23.440 We can get so apathetic. 00:24:24.079 --> 00:24:31.759 Would you turn our hearts and minds to the cross that we would see that you too came into our suffering? 00:24:33.440 --> 00:24:38.960 To say to us that though you are not as you should be, and this world is far from what it should be. 00:24:39.279 --> 00:24:40.240 I love you. 00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:48.319 And in some mysterious way you are sovereign over all of this, and in that we take some hope. 00:24:51.359 --> 00:25:02.559 God, would you give us the gift of faith to believe when everything around us, in the situation, the circumstance, says, ah, shouldn't believe. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:06.640 But what we know is there's only hope. 00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:08.960 There's only hope in you. 00:25:09.359 --> 00:25:11.440 And we do have certainty. 00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:18.480 When we look to the cross, your great objective statement to the world and to all of humanity. 00:25:19.920 --> 00:25:26.000 And that you're hanging up there, not demanding us to get better, but you're hanging up there to say, I'm at the end of your rope. 00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:28.720 And would we hear you? 00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:34.160 And we'd be relieved to know that you love us as we are. 00:25:36.160 --> 00:25:37.440 Not as we should be. 00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:39.200 We pray this in Jesus' name. 00:25:39.359 --> 00:25:39.839 Amen.