The Man Born Blind– Timothy Keller [Sermon]

Anything that's more important to you than God is going to distort your vision. You will not be able to be honest. You will not be able to admit flaws. You won't be there are certain things you'll need to believe even if they aren't true. You'll need to see them even if they aren't there. You refuse to see them even though they are. The only way for your sight to clear, the only way to see yourself freely, yourself clearly, other people clearly, the only way to get clear sight is to worship God. And you know that'll take years, but you got better get started. [00:35:09]

What Jesus is saying is because the gospel is this, that you're saved by what I have done, not by what you have done. You're saved not by your works, but by my works. You what that means is who's saved? Not the good people, but the people who admit that they're not good enough. And who's lost? Not the bad people, but the proud people. And what that who won't admit that they need a savior. So what that means is that the people that the world advantages are at a disadvantage when it comes to the gospel. [00:27:16]

But then he turns around and here's what he rejects. He says while sin in general has led to suffering in general he rejects the idea that individual suffering necessarily comes from individual sin that if I'm having a suffering life that means that I have individually done something wrong that connection just like God in the book of Job that connection he utterly rejects instead he says what well then why was he born blind and he says so that the works of God might be displayed in him. [00:11:16]

When Jesus Christ was on earth, he had perfect spiritual sight. You ever see that? He he could see right into people's hearts. He knew what they were thinking. He saw their motives and he had perfect sensation of God the Father. God was with him. He was always in God's presence. He sensed God's reality perfectly. He had perfect spiritual sight. And then on the cross, two things happened. Darkness, physical darkness came down on the whole land and spiritual darkness came down on Jesus because he said, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" What does he mean? You're not there. I don't sense you. I don't see you. [00:36:38]

And so that's Jesus' answer. And it is remarkably nuanced. You know what I mean? What I mean by this? It is so rich because on the one hand if it's true that sin in general comes suffering in general comes from sin in general that means it gets rid of self-pity. It gets rid of anger toward life or God. But on the other hand it means that when bad things happen to you, you don't just beat yourself up. You don't just get down on yourself. Nor if you see it happen to someone else do you get down on them. [00:12:09]

years ago as a young Christian, I read a sermon by a preacher on being in God's gymnasium. And he says, "What what Hebrews 12 is trying to say is that when bad things happening, God is working us. God is he's he's going to do something good in us. It's uh the suffering is going to bring out our weaknesses. It's going to it's going to show us, boy, we're more afraid, we're more weak, we're more this, we're more that. We're more proud. We're more stupid than we thought." [00:13:33]

But Jesus rejects it. And by the way, at the end of the book of Job, God rejects this assumption that if you're having a bad life, it means you must have done something wrong because what he says is neither neither this man nor his parents sin. Now that by the way, he doesn't mean it, of course, that his parents never sin. I mean, we all sin. What he means is no, this man's suffering was not caused by their sin. [00:08:40]

And we talked about it. He's a Christian, too. And we said, "It's interesting. Are you telling me you got new information? Are you telling me that you now know something you didn't before?" He says, "Of course not." Well, then what changed you? He says, "Well, it's not that I got new information. It's that the information became new. It came home. It grabbed me. Became real to me. Somehow it became affecting to me." [00:24:49]

And therefore the suffering, the death, the evil, the disease, these things are here because the human race as a whole has turned away from God. We no longer acknowledge his lordship. And we're told in Genesis 3 and also Romans 8 and other places that means nothing works now. The world doesn't work right. Nature doesn't work right. Evil and sin and death and suffering wasn't part of the original design, but we've turned away. And as a result, the world doesn't work right. [00:10:25]

here's a man who's blind and they ask a question about his suffering. Why is he suffering? What is the cause of the suffering? So in a sense uh the disciples are asking the why question that's inevitably attached to suffering. When suffering comes into our lives, we ask why me? Or if it comes into our lives of other people, we say why them? Why him? Why her? Very often it's why God, why God? Why did you let this happen? [00:04:22]

Another thing is it's not true to the facts. You know, the idea that if you if you if you're having a worse life, it's because you must have done something to deserve it. It's not true to the facts. There's tons of very good people living miserable lives. And there's lots of tyrannical people who are having prosperous lives and will die old and in their sleep. I mean, it doesn't it doesn't fit the facts on the ground. [00:07:49]

Here's what he says there again? He says, "No." But then he says, "But repent lest ye likewise perish." And here's what he's saying. Here's what's so fascinating about Jesus' view on this and the biblical view. On the one hand, Genesis chapter 3 says that the suffering of the world that the evil, the disease, the the this the injustice, the suffering in this world was not originally in God's design. God made a paradise. [00:09:53]

punished him with blindness. But you see even this question who sin the the man's parents or the man shows how strong the assumed answer was in their minds. And what is that assumption? The assumption is if you are having a worse life it's because you have not you've done something to deserve it. If your circumstances are bad, you must have done something bad. See, it goes like this. You reap what you sow. God is a judge. [00:06:11]

And therefore, if uh if you're sowing evil, you must have if you if you've reaped you're reaping evil, you must have sown evil. If you're reaping evil, you must have sown it. So, obviously, if you're worse off than other people, you must be living wrong in some way. And that's the assumption. Now, right away we see three results by the way of that. There's three huge problems with that assumption. [00:06:43]

And you might have even said, "Oh, I know Jesus died for my sin." But it didn't move you. It didn't change you. It wasn't real to you. Many years ago, I got an idea of how this works again at a kind of common level. And I my brother-in-law picked me up from the airport. We were visiting. And I remember I used to always get after him because he never used to wear a seatelt. [00:24:09]