Wrestling with Doubt - Finding Faith - Why do Innocents Suffer?

Suffering raises the hard questions that can gnaw at faith: Why do innocent people hurt? Where is God when a young life is cut short, sickness comes, violence breaks out, and even a small treat becomes out of reach? Scripture does not pretend those questions are easy. Lamentations, Job, and Paul all speak from places where pain is real, yet faithfulness is still possible.

John 9 begins with an assumption that suffering must be somebody’s fault. The disciples ask whether the blind man sinned or whether his parents sinned, because disability was often treated as proof of sin. Jesus refuses that answer. Jesus does not give a tidy explanation for where the blindness came from, but he does show that God can be at work in a situation everybody else has written off.

The healing turns the whole story upside down. Jesus gives sight to the blind man, while the people who think they understand become more blind. The Pharisees, the disciples, and even the healed man at first cannot fully see what God is doing. The blind man is failed by his community, but Jesus sees him when others do not. God sees suffering when others walk away.

Nostalgia can also hide blindness. The past can look clear only because the ending is known, while forgotten failures like redlining, sexism, and exclusion reveal how communities have overlooked people who were suffering. Jesus alone becomes trustworthy for the man in John 9 because Jesus comes near, heals, and transforms.

Mud on the man’s eyes shows that change can be messy. Conversion and transformation rarely arrive neat, quick, or easy to explain. John Newton’s life shows that “I once was blind, but now I see” can come from a person deeply tangled in harm. Christ opened the eyes of a slave ship captain and turned his life toward ending the slave trade.

The question, then, cannot only be why suffering exists. The deeper question asks whether people are part of the problem and whether they will become part of God’s answer. Faith takes action through choices about money, work, consumption, justice, housing, water, poverty, and violence. God can open eyes to suffering and use ordinary decisions, from turning guns into garden tools to making small loans, to show the world the love and grace of Christ.

Key Takeaways

• 1. God sees suffering others ignore. Jesus notices the blind man when his community has reduced him to a question about blame. Christ does not treat suffering people as theological puzzles or inconvenient problems. God’s sight exposes the places where institutions, neighbors, and even religious people have learned to look away. [09:53]
• 2. Jesus rejects easy blame for pain. The disciples want a simple cause for the man’s blindness, but Jesus will not make suffering into a punishment chart. Some questions remain unanswered, and faith must sometimes live without a clean explanation. Christ redirects attention from blame toward the work of God in the middle of what is broken. [05:28]
• 3. Transformation is often messy work. Jesus uses spit and dirt, not something polished or comfortable, to bring healing. Change can feel confusing, disruptive, and unfinished before it becomes clear. John Newton’s life shows that grace can confront deep complicity and still create a person who works against the harm he once served. [11:13]
• 4. Faith asks whether action is possible. Suffering is not only a question about God’s absence but also a question about human participation. Shane Claiborne’s gardening tools, Common Ground’s community work, and small economic choices show that people can become partners in reducing harm. Faith refuses paralysis by taking the next faithful step, however small it may seem. [16:00]
• 5. God opens eyes through ordinary choices. A small loan made while children nap, a meal offered to job trainees, or a purchase made with care can become part of God’s work in the world. No person can fix every injustice, but no person is completely without a choice. Christ calls people to let their decisions reveal the love and grace of God. [22:24]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [00:48] - The Weight of Suffering
• [03:33] - Asking Why God Allows Pain
• [05:28] - The Blind Man and Blame
• [06:19] - Sight That Reveals Blindness
• [08:00] - Nostalgia and What Communities Miss
• [09:53] - God Sees Those Others Ignore
• [10:16] - Mud, Healing, and Messy Change
• [11:59] - John Newton: Once Blind, Now Seeing
• [14:38] - Are People Part of the Problem?
• [16:26] - Becoming Part of God’s Answer
• [19:32] - Common Ground and Local Justice
• [21:07] - Small Choices That Fight Suffering
• [22:58] - Faith That Takes Action

1. In John 9, what assumption do the disciples make about the man’s blindness, and how does Jesus respond to their question? [05:28]
2. As the man receives physical sight, which people in the story seem unable or unwilling to see what God is doing?
3. What does Paul’s description in 2 Corinthians 4:8–9 show about the difference between being deeply troubled and being abandoned by God? [10:16]
4. What image from Isaiah 2:4 is reflected in the example of turning guns into gardening tools? [16:55]

1. Jesus refuses to tie the man’s suffering directly to his own sin or his parents’ sin. How does this challenge the common habit of looking for someone to blame when painful things happen? [05:52]
2. The religious leaders have knowledge and confidence, yet they struggle to recognize Jesus’ work. What kinds of confidence, tradition, or assumptions can keep a person or a church from seeing suffering clearly?
3. Jesus uses mud in the healing, and the change that follows is not simple or immediately understood. What does this suggest about the way God may work through confusing, unfinished, or uncomfortable change? [11:17]
4. Isaiah’s picture of weapons becoming tools for growth connects peace with practical change. What might it mean for a community to move beyond opposing violence and begin creating conditions where people can flourish?

1. When you hear about suffering—a tragedy, illness, poverty, violence, or injustice—do you tend first to look for an explanation, someone to blame, or a way to help? What would it look like to bring your honest questions to God without letting them harden your heart? [16:07]
2. Is there a person or group whose hardship has become easy for you to overlook because it feels distant, complicated, or familiar? What is one way you could pay closer attention and treat them as a person rather than a problem to solve? [10:12]
3. Where might nostalgia be keeping you from seeing harms that people experienced in the past or still experience today—especially around housing, race, sexism, poverty, or exclusion? What could help you listen with more humility? [08:39]
4. What is one area of your life where following Christ may require messy change rather than a quick, neat answer? How can the group support you while that change is still unfinished? [11:47]
5. Our spending, work, voting, giving, and daily choices can affect other people for good or harm. What is one specific choice you could examine this week—such as where you shop, how you give, how you use resources, or how you serve—to better reflect Christ’s love? [18:49]
6. No one person can solve every problem, but each person can take a faithful next step. What local need especially stirs your concern, and what small, realistic action could you take with others to address it? [19:41]