Everyman

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. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.” (John 9:1-12 ESV). Few of the people in our present series of readings are dealt with at such length as the man who was born blind. Nearly two chapters, 89 verses, center on him. Yet he is never named. Perhaps it’s because he represents “Everyman.” He is the Everyman to whom Christ comes as “the light of the world.” The disciples’ question is universal too. “Why this man’s affliction?” opens up the whole problem of evil. Do you notice that whereas they asked the cause of the man’s blindness, Jesus redirected their thinking with an answer about the purpose of it? Your suffering may be your own fault, or your parents’, or your enemy’s, or your neighbor’s, or your ancestors’, or, in the last analysis, the effect of what Milton called “Man’s First Disobedience” in the Garden of Eden. But questions about the “why of cause“ are always academic and not very helpful. Think rather of the “why of purpose.” Jesus said the man had been born blind so that in due course “God’s works might be revealed in him.” That purpose would still include things hard to bear; he was later thrown out of the fellowship of the synagogue. But that was more than compensated by his having found his sight, and his Savior. I have mentioned before the differences between generations that I have noticed as I have grown older. We have now seen the millennials take their place as they reach adulthood in much of our culture; soon we shall see the dawning of what is now being called Generation Z rise to that status. What surprises me most is the high levels of anxiety in both of these groups. The endless choices millennials face have also proven paralyzing. They’re the constantly-swiping-right generation. It’s always on to the next thing. Carol Beaton, in Psychology Today, says an abundance of choices is stressing young people out. Perhaps this is the reason why it is so difficult to simply trust in the goodness of God, especially in the face of what seems to be so bad. For every generation the answer is in the purpose of those bad things. The victory requires trusting in the grace of God. That is the challenge for all of us regardless of age. I can say, as I have gotten older that trust has gotten easier. My prayer and hope for you is that you will trust more and ask why less! Life becomes much more fun that way.