Right Questions, Wrong Choice of Answers...

How many times is the answer to the question not even on the answer sheet?  Forget "black & white" vs "grey area" answers.  Most of the time it seems like we are given a set list of answers to choose from.  This means that we are not necessarily choosing the best answer...just the best one available to us.  Worse, the world spends all of its energy making sure we only know how to answer the question in the proper form.  The great danger may not be so much that some of the answers are wrong...but that we don't know how to realize that the question is being asked incorrectly, to keep us from delving the truth.

When I think of this, I am lead to a story in the Gospel of John, chapter 9, about a man born blind for the glory of the Lord.  Jesus and the disciples are walking past him when the disciples ask Jesus why the man was born blind.  They assumed, much like everyone else then, that the man was blind for somebody's specific sin.  The question they have regards who's sin caused the man to be blind.  Was it a sin of his own, or was it his parents sin?

The Old Testament speaks to this issue in a couple of ways.  Exodus 20:5 and Deuteronomy 5:9, speaking in reference to the worship of any god beside Yahweh, states that God will "visit the iniquity" of the parents on the children and grandchildren up to the third and fourth generation (from the parent down to the great grandchild).  The Bible speaks to the ultimate example of the generational consequence of sin in 1 Corinthians 15:22, "For as in Adam all die; so also in Christ shall all be made alive."

Conversely, Deuteronomy 24:16 says that son's should not be held accountable for their father's sins.  What that means, is that is Daddy Smith knocks over a liquor store, you can't punish Son Smith for it.  Ezekiel 18:20 takes it further reminding us that the son should not be punished for the father's sin, and goes further telling us that each person is responsible for his or her own righteousness or wickedness.  It Son Jones snatches Ole Miss Eula's purse, Father Jones is not to be held responsible for it.  It is Son Jones' sin, therefore the sin remains with him.

The disciples of Jesus probably had these verses and principles in mind when they asked Jesus about the blind man.  Here in lies the issue we are speaking of.  Ultimately, the question that the disciples were asking was, "Why is this guy blind?"  The hiccup is in the answers.  The disciples ask the question assuming the answer will be one of the pre-conceived answers.  Being blind is bad, bad things happen to people who sin, therefore someone sinned and that is why the guy is blind.  The question, going back to the OT quotes we explored is, was this punishment for something he did, or something his parents did.

The disciples question was the right question.  The choice of answers were wrong.  Their answers were more driven by society or their own understanding than anything.  Jesus' answer was, in essence, "None of the Above, explain:"  He answers, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him." (John 9:3).

Let us pause here for a moment to take a practical lesson from this.  As a rule, when you ask God a questions, its probably best to just ask the question.  God doesn't need you to give answer options, because He is going to give you the right answer even if you don't give Him that answer as a choice.  The danger, moreover, is that you might get hung up on your own answers choices, making it more difficult to accept the answer you get.

There was a better answer for the disciples than who's sin caused the man to be blind.  The answer was: "God's Will."  "...that the works of God might be displayed in him" is a so far afield from the choices that disciples gave Jesus, it must have taken them off guard.  You can not really blame the disciples for expecting one of the answers they expected.  They were operating out of the conventional religious wisdom of the day.

We do this all the time.  We assume that if God is working, everything is cup cakes and gravy.  God moving is almost always equated to happy times, hearts being broken for the Lord, and healing.  But, it is also biblically true, that God moving also involves hardening of hearts (Isaiah 6:9-10).  We think that because God does a miracle everyone who sees it will rejoice and follow Him.  When this blind man was healed, a lot of folks...even his parents, did not drop all and follow Jesus.  Its an unpleasant reality, but God working often serves to expose whose hearts are hard as much as it shows who is a true follower of Jesus (More on this in the future).

The disciples question is in some ways designed to maintain the status quo.  The answer choices they give don't really change the way things work.  While, perhaps they are hoping that Jesus...as ultimate authority...would put an end to the discussion, nothing would really change the way anyone looked at the issue.  In our world, discussions like that are designed to keep the argument going in the areas of grey.  When I was in school, at some point I got real annoyed by these kind of conversations.  They have the appearance of depth, religiosity, and importance, but really they are designed to go nowhere.  They skirt the important truth.  They skirt finality.

Jesus' answer brings finality to the question, by avoiding the trap of forced answers.  Its not about the man, its not about the man's parents, its about God and His glory.  Jesus does not deny the truth of sin and its consequences by His answer.  We can't take this and say, "Oh!  Jesus is denying that sin causes bad things in our life."  He is not saying that.  He is, and this is important, shifting focus.  His point is not whose sin caused the man to be blind.  Maybe is was his sin.  Maybe it was his parents.  Maybe it was a result of the general sin humanity finds itself in because of the fall (1 Corinthians 15:22).  Maybe God just made it that way for Jesus' stated purpose.  The point is not about who is responsible for the sin, the point is about God's glory.  God's glory?  In this case, that is equated with God's mercy.

Grace and Mercy as an answer has nothing to do with who is responsible for the sin.  The answer of Grace and Mercy is wholly dependent on God.  Essentially, Jesus' response to the false answer choices of the disciples is "Who Cares who's fault it is?  That's not the point."  While the question, moreover, was a good question, Jesus exposes how the motivation behind our questions can be suspect.  When we ask our questions about the things of God, are we asking with our hearts looking toward God or to ourselves?  Jesus, by His response, not only gives us the answer we truly need, his answer rephrases the question in the correct motivation.

When we ask God questions...about why things happen, or how the Church should be, or social issues...we should be careful to examine our hearts.  Why are we really asking the question?  Are we really interested in the true answer.  If we are not?  Confess, because something is wrong.  Isn't that something?  Don't feel guilty, just get right.  All Jesus wants to share with us is the Truth.  And, that's the point of this story.