“Jesus and Suffering” – John 9:1-12

July 26^th, 2020

John 9:1-12

“Jesus & Suffering”

Call to Worship: Psa 34

Aux. text: Mt 5:11-16

 

Service Orientation: As Light of the world, Jesus can turn our suffering into an opportunity to display the work of God.  As long as it is day we need to do the work of God.

 

Bible Memory Verse for the Week:  So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. —1 Peter 4:19

 

Background Information:

• As we read carefully the opening verses of the chapter now before us and compare them with the contents of John 8 it will be found that they present to us a series of contrasts. For example, in John 8 we behold Christ as “the light” exposing the darkness, but in John 9 He communicates sight.  In John 8 the Light is despised and rejected, in John 9 He is received and worshiped.  In John 8 the Jews are seen stooping down–to pick up stones; in John 9 Christ is seen stooping down–to make anointing clay.  In John 8 Christ hides Himself from the Jews; in John 9 He reveals Himself to the blind beggar.  In John 8 we have a company in whom the Word has no place (v. 37); in John 9 is one who responds promptly to the Word (v. 7).  In John 8 Christ, inside the Temple, is called a demoniac (v. 48); in John 9, outside the Temple, He is owned as Lord (v. 36).  The central truth of John 8 is the Light testing human responsibility; in John 9 the central truth is God acting in sovereign grace after human responsibility has failed.  (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 467-8)
• (v. 2) The interest of the disciples was prompted by theological curiosity rather than compassion.  For them the blind man was an unsolved riddle rather than a sufferer to be relieved.  (Frank E. Gæbelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 9, 101)
• (v. 2) Now curiosity has its legitimate place, and questions of a theological nature should be encouraged rather than discouraged. But there is a limit.  One should not only ask questions; one should also perform deeds (“works”) of love!  In fact, that is where the emphasis should rest.  (William Hendriksen, NT Commentary: John 7-21, 74)
• (v. 2) Some think that the Jews had imbibed the common oriental notion of the pre-existence and transmigration of souls from one body to another, and that the disciples supposed that in some previous state of existence this blind man must have committed some great sin, for which he was now punished. (J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 157)
• (v. 2) Some think that the question refers to a strange notion current among some Jews, that infants might sin before they were born. In support of this view, they quote Gn 25:22, and Gn 38:28, 29.  (J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 157)
• (v. 2) When the disciples mentioned as one of their alternatives that the man, though born blind, was perhaps reaping the fruits of his own sin, they were probably not thinking of metempsychosis (transmigration of souls), though this construction is placed upon their question by Calvin and Beza, nor of the purely spiritual pre-existence of the soul (cf. Philo, On the Giants, III, 12-15; some would add Wisd of Sol 8:20; however, this passage does not necessarily imply that doctrine), but of the rabbinic (overemphasis upon the) idea that babies are able to sin in the womb. From Gn 25:22-26 (cf. Ph 58:3 and Lk 1:41-44) the rabbis concluded that in the womb Esau had tried to kill Jacob.  (William Hendriksen, NT Commentary: John 7-21, 73)
• (v. 2) There are few notions that men seem to cling to so naturally, as the notion that bodily sufferings, and all affliction, are the direct consequences of sin, and that a diseased or afflicted person must necessarily be a very wicked man. This was precisely the short-sighted view that Job’s three friends took up when they came to visit him, and against which Job contended.  This was the idea of the people at Melita, when Paul was bitten by a viper, after the shipwreck:  “this man is a murderer” (Acts 28:4).  (J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 158)
• (v. 3) “So, that” = your suffering is never without purpose. Because of God’s sovereignty and providence all our suffering has a telos or purpose.
• (v. 5) “Light of the world” He had just demonstrated Himself to be by exposing their wicked hearts. “Light of the world” He would now exhibit Himself by communicating sight and salvation to this poor blind beggar.  (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 476)
• (v. 6) The use of spittle seems to us strange and repulsive and unhygienic; but in the ancient world it was quite common. Spittle, and especially the spittle of some distinguished person, was believed to possess certain curative qualities.  (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: John, Vol. 2, 41)
• (v. 6) Pliny, the famous Roman collector of what was then called scientific information, has a whole chapter on the use of spittle. He says that it is a sovereign preservative against the poison of serpents; a protection against epilepsy; that lichens and leprous spots can be cured by the application of fasting spittle; that ophthalmia can be cured by anointing the eyes every morning with fasting spittle; that carcinomata and crick in the neck can be cured by the use of spittle.  (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: John, Vol. 2, 42)
• (v. 6) The fact is that Jesus took the methods and customs of his time and used them. He was a wise physician; he had to gain the confidence of his patient.  It was not that he believed in these things, but he kindled expectation by doing what the patient would expect a doctor to do.  After all, to this day the efficacy of any medicine or treatment depends at least as much on the patient’s faith in it as in the treatment or the drug itself.  (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: John, Vol. 2, 42)
• (v. 6) Unquestionably, there was not, either in the clay, or in the water of Siloam, any power or fitness for curing the eyes; but Christ freely made use of those outward symbols, on various occasions, for adorning his miracles, either to accustom believers to the use of signs, or to show that all things were at his disposal, or to testify that every one of the creatures has as much power as he chooses to give them. (Calvin’s Commentary on the Gospel of John, 370-1)
• (v. 6) Christ’s mode of procedure here though extraordinarily peculiar was, nevertheless, profoundly significant. Peculiar it certainly was, for the surest way to blot out vision would be to plaster the eye with wet clay:  and yet this was the only thing Christ did to this blind beggar.  (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 476)
• (v. 6) Mark records two incidents of miraculous healing where Jesus used his saliva–to cure a deaf and dumb man in Decapolis and to heal a blind man in Bethsaida (Mk 7:33; 8:23). John’s account, however, provides the only record of Jesus spitting on the ground and forming clay from it.  (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: John, 194)
• (v. 7) When Hezekiah realized that Sennacherib was about to invade Palestine he determined to cut through the solid rock a tunnel or conduit from the spring into the city (2 Chr 32:2-8, 30; Isa 22:9-11; 2 Kgs 20:20). If the engineers had cut straight it would have been a distance of 366 yards; but because they cut in a zig-zag, either because they were following a fissure in the rock, or to avoid sacred sites, the conduit is actually 583 yards.  (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: John, Vol. 2, 43)
• (v. 7) The clay had no power of healing; the water of Siloam had no power of healing. The thing that healed was Christ’s will, but He uses these externals to help the poor blind man to believe that he is going to be healed.  (Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: John, Chaps. IX to XIV, 16)
• (v. 7) The Pool of Siloam was the place where the conduit from the Virgin’s Fountain issued in the city. It was an open air basin twenty by thirty feet.  That is how the pool got its name.  It was called Siloam, which, it was said, meant sent, because the water in it had been sent through the conduit into the city.  (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: John, Vol. 2, 43)
• (v. 10) They were all asking the wrong question! They should not have asked, “How? but “Who?”  (Simply rearrange the letters!)  But we are so prone to ask, “How?”  We want to understand the mechanics of a miracle instead of simply trusting the Savior, who alone can perform the miracle.  (Warren W. Wiersby, Be Alive, 142)
• (v. 11) The Master deliberately sent the man away from Himself. He wanted no crowd about Him now.  He prefers that the Pharisees come seeking Him after they get word of His “clay-making” on the Sabbath.  This was specifically forbidden by Law.  (C.S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on John, 165)
• (v. 12) The man had been blind when Jesus sent him to the pool of Siloam; therefore, he didn’t know where Jesus had gone afterward. From this point on, the formerly blind man began to see more clearly who Jesus was, while the Pharisees became more spiritually blind.  While sin did not cause the man to be born blind, sin did cause the Pharisees’ blindness.  (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: John, 195)
• First, Jesus used the clay to help develop the man’s faith (he had to do as Jesus said, which was to go and was in a certain pool). Second, Jesus kneaded the mud with his hands in order to make the clay to put on the man’s eyes.  This constituted “work” on a Sabbath day and would upset the Pharisees.  Jesus had much to teach them about God and his Sabbath.  (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: John, 194)

 

The questions to be answered are . . . What is the work of God?  Why does Jesus say we need to get busy and do the work of God before night comes?  What does any of this have to do with me?

 

Answers:  Creating, redeeming, judicating, and providing are all works of God.  Jesus wants us, along with Himself, to make God’s presence known by doing God’s work before it is too late.   We do this no matter how much we must suffer.  Not only to help others see the truth but to keep us IN THE TRUTH!

 

Presuppositional Statement:  Sin introduced death and suffering into the world.  But, not all suffering is a result of sin.  Jesus wants to redeem our suffering.  Furthermore, time is short.   Obedience to the commands of Christ advances the work of God and brings shalom. (Gn 3; Ex 20:5; 34:7; Nm 14:18; Dt 5:9; 24:16; 2 Chr 25:4; Job 14:1; Ps 10:17; 25:22; 27:5; 51:5; 89:32-33; Jer 31:29-30; Ezek 18:20; Lk 13:1-5; Jn 5:14; 9:3; 16:33; Rom 5:12-19)

 

That a specific illness or suffering can be the direct consequence of a specific sin, few would deny (e.g. Miriam’s revolt, Nm 12; cf. 1 Cor 11:30).  That it is invariably so, numerous biblical texts flatly deny (e.g. Job; Gal 4:13; 2 Cor 12:7).  (D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, 361)

 

Now blindness, like every other bodily infirmity, is one of the fruits of sin.  If Adam had never fallen, we cannot doubt that people would never have been blind, or deaf, or dumb.  The many ills that flesh is heir to, the countless pains and diseases and physical defects to which we are all liable, came in when the curse came upon the earth.  “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (Rom 5:12).  (J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 151)

 

The general principle was laid down by R. Ammi:  “There is no death without sin, and there is no suffering without iniquity.”  (R. Ammi, Shab 55a, 255)  (Leon Morris, The New Int’l Commentary on the NT: John, 425)

 

God can and does visit people with afflictions when they disobey Him.  Throughout biblical history, when people violated the law of God, God visited them with judgment.  What happened to the baby born of David and Bathsheba?  The judgment of God came on the child; God took the baby’s life as judgment on David and Bathsheba (2 Sm 12:15-23).  How about Moses’ sister Miriam, who protested against Moses’ marriage and rebelled against his leadership?  God, we are told, visited her with leprosy (Nm 12:1-10).  That is, a physical affliction came on her as a direct result of her sin.  So there are times when God disciplines His people by affliction.  We simply cannot say that sin and affliction are never linked.  (R.C. Sproul, John: An Expositional Commentary, 159-60)

 

Certainly, it is true that suffering in general is ultimately a result of sin in general.  And it is also true that a specific illness can sometimes be the direct consequence of a specific sin.  Miriam, for example, was stricken with leprosy for rebelling against Moses’ authority (Nm 12:10).  Jesus had earlier warned the man He healed at the pool of Bethesda, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you” (Jn 5:14).  The apostle Paul likewise told the Corinthians, who were partaking of the Lord’s supper in an unworthy manner, “Many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep” (1 Cor 11:30).  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John, 391)

 

According to Scripture (and the apocrypha) physical afflictions (defects, hardships, suffering, “accidents,” sickness, death) can be traced to various moral causes; such as:

(1) The sin of Adam, in whom all have fallen and are by nature guilty before God.  This is implied in Rom 5:12-21 (cf. Also Gn 3:17-19; Rom 8:20-23; 1 Cor 15:21, 22; Eph 2:3; and the apocryphal book Ecclus 25:24).

(2) The sins of the parents (Ex 20:5; 34:7; Nm 14:18; Dt 5:9; 28:32; Jer 31:29; Ezek 18:2.  Cf. The Apocryphal books Wisdom of Sol 4:6; Ecclus 41:5-7).

(3) One’s own personal sins (Dt 28:15-68; Jer 31:30; Ezek 18:4).  (William Hendriksen, NT Commentary: John 7-21, 72)

 

They are false interpreters, therefore, who say that all afflictions, without any distinction, are sent on account of sins; as if the measure of punishments were equal, or as if God looked to nothing else in punishing men than to what every man deserves.  (Calvin’s Commentary on the Gospel of John, 365)

 

WORK of  GOD:

Jesus prays in Jn 17:4, “ I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”   Jesus confirms this when saying just before His death on the cross, “ “It is finished.” (Jn 19:30)  The primary work of Jesus here on earth was redeeming mankind from the effects of the Fall.   That is what Jesus means here in Jn 9:4.  — PK

 

The creation and maintenance of all that exists are the “works” of God (Job 36:24; Ps 86:8; 96:3; 104;13, 24, 31; 139:14).  (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, 1108)

 

Judgment as well as redemption can be called the work of God (Isa 5:19; 10:12; Jer 48:10; 50:25, but Isa 28:21 shows that for those who believed in God’s salvation of His people, judgment of Judah could only be understood as God’s “strange deed” and “alien work” (Hab 1:5).  (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, 1108)

 

A matter of significant concern in the Gospel of John is the interconnection between the works of God and the works of Jesus.  Jesus’ presence in the world is the particular occasion for the works of God to be made manifest (Jn 9:3); when Jesus is no longer present, that occasion will be gone (v. 4).  Jesus’ life has no other purpose than to do the work God has given Him to do (4:34; cf. 17:4).  Because “the Father” works on the sabbath, Jesus works on the sabbath (5:16 f.; cf. Lk 13:14-16).

A fundamental reason for this concern for the interconnection between God’s works and Jesus’ works is the idea that miraculous works should give attestation to anyone who seeks to be heard as a spokesman for God (cf. Jn 5:36; 6:30; 7:3; 10:37 f.).  Jesus takes this further:  the works He does should attest to the mutual indwelling of Jesus and the Father (14:10f.) and to the very nature of the Father (15:24).  But this proves to be ineffective with many, those who do not believe (10:24f.) and who seek to do away with Jesus (vv. 32f.).  (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, 1108)

 

The Word for the Day is . . . Suffer

 

There is no education like adversity — Walt Disney

 

Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much as adversity has. (Billy Graham  as quoted by Harold Myra & Marshall Shelley; The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham, 189)

 

Generally speaking, one day of adversity can be of more profit to us for our eternal salvation than years of untroubled living, whatever good use we make of the time. (Father Jean Baptiste; Trustful Surrender To Divine Providence, 114)

 

A philosopher, John Stuart Mill, considered the manifest presence in the world of pain, suffering, violence, and wickedness, and he concluded that what we encounter on a daily basis belies any hope of a good and loving God.  In skepticism he said that if God is a God of love yet he allows such pain and suffering, then he is powerless to prevent it and is nothing more than a divine weakling incapable of administering peace and justice.  If, on the other hand, he has the power to prevent evil but chooses not to, standing by and allowing it, then he may be powerful but he is not good or loving.  The complaint Mill raised against historical Christianity is that either God is good but not all powerful, or he is all powerful but not good.  (RC Sproul, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary: Romans, 268)

 

Suffering is a vocation.  Suffering is “part” of what it means to be a Christian.  Part of the “vocation,” or calling of a Christian is to suffer.

To suffer is human, to suffer with a purpose is Christian. (Patrick Morely; Ten Secrets for the Man in the Mirror, 67)

 

Three questions we need to answer to be a faithful follower of Jesus?:

 

 

1. What is the work of God? Suffering greatly to clean up the Devil’s messes.  (Jn 9:4; 17:4; see also: Ps 9:9; 10:17; 27:5; 34:2, 6; 37:39; 46:1; 71:20; 91:15; 119:71; Isa 29:18; 32:3; 35:5; 38:17; 42:7; 48:10; Ezek 28:22; Dn 4:32; Lk 4:43; 19:10; Jn 1:14; 5:17-20; 6:38; 9:30-38; 11:1-25; 14:11-17; Jam 5:10; 1 Pt 2:19-23; 3:17; 4:19; Rv 3:18)

 

When we spend ourselves to help those in trouble, in distress, in pain, in sorrow, in affliction, God is using us as the highway by which he sends his help into the lives of his people.  To help a fellow man in need is to manifest the glory of God, for it is to show what God is like.  (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: John, Vol. 2, 40)

 

Only God knows why we go through the things that we go through, but the promise of God is that He brings good out of everything that befalls us (Rom 8:28) and uses the worst pain, the worst suffering, the most confusing events in our lives to bring about, ultimately, His glory.  The blind man’s life is a concrete example of suffering that went on and on for year after year until it finally resulted in glory.  (R.C. Sproul, John: An Expositional Commentary, 161)

 

God has His own wise reasons for permitting sickness and disease; ofttimes it is that He may be glorified thereby.  It was so in the case of Lazarus (Jn 11:4).  It was so in connection with the death of Peter (Jn 21:19).  It was so in the affliction of the apostle Paul (2 Cor 12:9).  It was so with this blind beggar:  he was born blind that the power of God might be evidenced in the removal of it, and that Christ might be glorified thereby.  (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 474)

 

That God does His work is the presupposition of human beings’ reception of revelation and salvation.  Just as creation brought the human race into being, so also its experience of God’s redemption does not begin with human seeking or working, but with the work of God on its behalf.  “The works of God” are, therefore, the works of redemption as well as the works of creation, and include the deliverance of the people of Israel from Egypt (Ex 14:13, 31; Dt 11:7; Josh 24:31; Jdg 2:7, 10; Ps 74:12; 77:14; 95:9; 106:7, 13), the giving of the law (Ex 32:16), His driving out the inhabitants of Canaan before Israel (34:10), and His other acts done for deliverance of Israel (e.g., 1 Sm 14:6; Jer 51:10).  The work of God the Redeemer in general, without reference to any particular actions, is often referred to (Dt 32:4; 1 Chr 16:9; Ps 33:4; 46:8; 73:287; 77:12; 78:7; Isa 43:13).  (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, 1108)

 

Because God’s redemption is present in the spread of the gospel and in the Church, the writers of some of the NT epistles speak quite freely of their own missionary activity and the activity of the churches as products or evidences of God’s working.  Thus God works through Peter and Paul in their preaching of the gospel (Gal 2:8; cf. 1 Cor 16:10; Phil 2:30); preachers of the gospel can be called God’s co-workers (1 Cor 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1; cf. 1 Cor 16:16); God works miracles among the Galatian Christians (Gal 3:5); God or His Spirit or His word is at work in believers to accomplish His purposes (Eph 3:20; Phil 1:6; 2:13; 1 Thess 2:13; Heb 13:21); service for the Church can be called work “in the Lord” (Rom 16:12 [cf. V. 6]; 1 Cor 9:1); and the peace and growth together of the Christian community is the work of God (Rom 14:20).  In a generalized closing exhortation Paul refers to the work of the Church as “the work of the Lord” (1 Cor 15:58).  (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, 1108-9)

 

There are more miracles of the giving of sight to the blind recorded of Jesus than healings in any other category (see Mt 9:27-31; 12:22-23; 15:30-31; 12:14; Mk 8:22-26; 10:46-52; Lk 7:21-22).  In the OT the giving of sight to the blind is associated with God himself (Ex 4:11; Ps 146:8).  It is also a messianic activity (Isa 29:18; 35:5; 42:7), and this may be its significance in the NT.  It is a divine function, a function for God’s own Messiah, that Jesus fulfills when he gives sight to the blind.  This chapter then has significance in John’s plan for showing Jesus to be the Messiah.  (Leon Morris, The New Int’l Commentary on the NT: John, 422)

 

Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as adversity has done.  Out of pain and problems have come the sweetest songs, the most poignant poems, the most gripping stories.  Out of suffering and tears have come the greatest spirits and the most blessed lives. (Billy Graham as quoted by Simon Guillebaud, Choose Life, 365 Readings for Radical Disciples, 11-16)

 

Here is our first great lesson from the story.  There are no pat answers to the question of human suffering.  There are answers, of course–we are going to see some of them–but there are no pat answers.  Consequently, we cannot say, as some do, that it is the right of every believer to be healthy.  This is nonsense.  Or that suffering is always the direct result of personal sin.  In some cases, suffering is corrective.  It is given in order to get us back on the path that God has chosen for us.  In other cases, it is constructive.  It is given to build character.  In still other cases, as here, it is given solely that God might receive glory.  (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 3, 689)

 

“I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-five years in the world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness, whether pursued or attained.  In other words, if it ever were to be possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo-jumbo, as Aldous Huxley envisaged in Brave New World, the result would not be to make life delectable, but to make it too banal and trivial to be endurable.” (Malcom Muggeridge in A Twentieth Century Testimony: as quoted by R. Kent Hughes; Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, 121)

 

We live in a fallen world where good behavior is not always rewarded and bad behavior not always punished; therefore, innocent people sometimes suffer.  If God removed suffering whenever we asked, we would follow him for comfort and convenience, not out of love and devotion.  Regardless of the reasons for our suffering, Jesus has the power to help us deal with it.  When we suffer from a disease, tragedy, or disability, we should not ask, Why did this happen to me? or What did I do wrong?  Instead, we should ask God to give us strength for the trial and a clearer perspective on what is happening.  (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: John, 192)

 

There were at least two reasons for our Lord’s use of the clay.  For one thing, it was a picture of the incarnation.  God made the first man out of the dust, and God sent His Son as a real Man.  Note the emphasis on the meaning of “Siloam”–“sent.”  And relate this to Jn 9:4: “The works of him that sent me” (see also Jn 3:17, 34; 5:36; 7:29; 8:18, 42).  Jesus gave a little illustration of His own coming to earth, sent by the Father.

The second reason for the clay was irritation; it encouraged the man to believe and obey!  If you have ever had an irritation in your eyes, you know how quickly you seek irrigation to cleanse it out!  You might compare this “irritation” to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit as He uses God’s law to bring the lost sinner under judgment.  (Warren W. Wiersby, Be Alive, 141)

 

There is also concern in the Gospel of John for the relationship between the works of God and the person who has been exposed to the message of Jesus.  The response that is called for by the message–that which means that a person’s works are done “in God” (Jn 3:21) or that he does the works of God (6:28)–is a response of belief in Jesus (6:29).  The works of healing done through Jesus point beyond themselves; “greater works” will be done, first of all, in that Jesus will give life to those who believe, (5:20f.) and second, in that those who believe will themselves do even greater works than Jesus has done (14:12).  (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, 1108)

 

It is one of those miracles which the Jews were especially taught to expect in Messiah’s time:  “In that day shall the eyes of the blind see out of obscurity” (Isa 29:18).  (5) It is one of those signs of Messiah having come, to which Jesus particularly directed John the Baptist’s attention:  “The blind receive their sight” (Mt 9:5).  (J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 156)

 

The first thing we should do when we are confronted with suffering is to ask God whether or not it is intended for our correction.  If it is, then we need to confess our sin or waywardness and return once more to the path set before us.  (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 3, 691)

 

Contemporary culture has an aversion to pain.  But, not the contemporary sports culture.  There, they understand that pain is necessary for gain.  —Michael Nikkila 3-4-18

 

There is no greater spiritual trial than to have no trials in your life.  There is no more spiritually dangerous place than to have a trouble free stretch when you see towers falling on other people but not you.  (Tim Keller message from Luke 13:1-9:  The Falling Tower )

               

“Trials make room for consolation. There is nothing that makes man have a big heart like a great trial.  I have found that those people who have no sympathy for their fellows, who never weep for the sorrows of others very seldom have any of their own.  Great hearts could be made only by great troubles.”  — Charles Spurgeon

 

It is clear that, so far as afflictions are part of the curse for sin, God does not and cannot afflict His people for sin.  Nor does God afflict His people for sin as if such afflictions were payments or satisfactions for sin, and as if God’s justice was not fully satisfied for sin by Christ; as if Christ had left something for us to bear by way of satisfaction. . . . But afflictions which come upon the godly are medicinal in purpose, and are intended to cure them of sin. (Samuel Bolton; The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, 25)

 

By far the greatest manifestation of miraculous healing in history occurred during the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Nothing even remotely close to the miraculous display through Him has ever occurred, and rightly so.  It has been said that He virtually banished disease from Palestine during that time in an explosion of miraculous healings (cf. Mt 4:23-25; 8:16; 9:35; 12:15; 14:35-36; 15:30; Lk 6:17-19; 7:21; 9:11; Jn 21:25) for several vital reasons and purposes:  they fulfilled messianic prophecy (Mt 8:17), authenticated His messianic ministry (11:2-5; cf. Jn 20:30-31; Acts 2:22), glorified God (Jn 9:3; 11:4), and, most significantly, demonstrated His deity (Mk 2:7, 10).  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John, 389)

 

Only God knows why babies are born with disabilities, and only God can turn those disabilities into something that will bring good to the people and glory to His name.  (Warren W. Wiersby, Be Alive, 140)

 

Certainly both the man and his parents had at some time committed sin, but Jesus did not see their sin as the cause of the man’s blindness.  Nor did He suggest that God deliberately made the man blind so that, years later, Jesus could perform a miracle.  Since there is no punctuation in the original manuscripts, we are free to read Jn 9:3-4 this way:  “Neither has this man sinned nor his parents.  But that the works of God should be made manifest in him, I must work the works of Him who sent Me, while it is day.”  (Warren W. Wiersby, Be Alive, 140)

 

This account of Jesus’ healing of a blind man beautifully illustrates the salvation process.  Blinded by sin (12:40; 2 Cor 4:4), lost sinners have no capacity to recognize the Savior or find Him on their own (Rom 3:11; 8:7).  The blind man would not have been healed had Jesus not sought him and revealed Himself to Him.  So it is in salvation; if God did not reach out to spiritually blind sinners, no one would be saved (Rom 5:6; cf. Jn 6:44, 65).  And just as the blind man was healed only when he obeyed Jesus’ command and washed in the pool of Siloam, so also are sinners saved only when they humbly and obediently embrace the truth of the gospel (Rom 1:5; 15:18; 16:26; Heb 5:9; cf. 2 Thess 1:8; 1 Pt 4:17).  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John, 396)

 

To the disciples a glance at this man suggested a theological puzzle.  To Jesus a look in his direction presented a challenge, an opportunity for work.  They reasoned:  “How did he get that way?”  He answered:  “what can we do for him?”  So there were two ways of looking at this man, and the latter was by far the better.  (William Hendriksen, NT Commentary: John 7-21, 73)

 

Jones of Nayland, on this text, remarks, “The best way to answer the great question of the origin of evil, is to consider the end of it, ‘What good comes out of it?’”  This makes the subject plain and useful.  Why was this man born blind?  That the works of God might appear, and Christ might cure him.–Why did man fall?  That God might save him.–Why is evil permitted in this world?  That God may be glorified in removing it.–Why does the body of man die?  That God may raise it up again.–When we philosophize in this manner we find light, certainty, and comfort.  (J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 159-60)

 

7. The Pool of Siloam was located at the southern end of the city, probably a considerable distance from the place where the blind man was. The walk would call for some exertion.  Certainly the man would not want to continue sitting by the roadside with mud smeared over his eyes.  If his lifelong affliction had tended to make him apathetic, he now had at least one motive for obeying what must have seemed a foolish command.  How could washing in a public pool restore the sight he never had?  The trip the man made must have been a venture of faith.  Jesus had not even told him that he would be healed but had merely commanded him to wash.  (Frank E. Gæbelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 9, 101)

 

Jesus brushes this question aside.  He does not focus on the past, nor is He interested in answering theological speculation, for He sets the needs of this man in the context of what God can do.  He knows that the work of God will be done in this situation even though men call it impossible.  (Roger L. Fredrikson, The Communicator’s Commentary: John, 168)

 

Jesus loved others; hence, he had to go out of his way to work for them.  (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 3, 695)

 

New creation does happen.  Healing does happen.  Lives can be transformed.  (N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part One, 135)

 

When the man is told to go and wash in the pool Siloam, though it is certainly true that this must be taken in the most literal sense so that he was actually expected to wash his eyes in that literal pool, the deeper meaning is surely this: that for spiritual cleansing one must go to the true Siloam; i.e., to the One who was sent by the Father to save sinners.  (William Hendriksen, NT Commentary: John 7-21, 76)

 

There is not always a direct link between suffering and personal sin.  When Job’s would-be counselors rested their case for his suffering on this wrong assumption, they caused him needless misery (cf. Job 13:1-13; 16:1-4) and ultimately received a rebuke from God (42:7).  On another occasion, Jesus taught that neither those Galileans whom Pilate slaughtered in the temple nor those killed when the tower in Siloam fell on them (Lk 13:1-5) suffered those deadly effects because they were particularly vile sinners–as His audience had smugly assumed.  Instead, the Lord used those two incidents to warn His hearers that all sinners, including them, face death, and when it comes would perish unless they repented and trusted in Him.  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John, 392-3)

 

The One who is the spiritual Light of the World would also provide physical light for this man who had lived his entire life in darkness.  The healing is thus a living parable, illustrating Jesus’ ministry as the Light shining in a spiritually darkened world (cf. 1:5).  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John, 394)

 

The condition on which sight comes to the blind is compliance with Christ’s invitation, “Come to Me; trust in Me; and thou shalt be whole.”  (Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: John, Chaps. IX to XIV, 19)

 

Blind from birth, and therefore beyond the help of man; a beggar and therefore having nothing, he fitly portrays our condition by nature.  Sought out by Christ and ministered to without a single cry or appeal from him, we have a beautiful illustration of the activities of sovereign grace reaching out to us in our unregenerate state.  Our Lord’s method of dealing with him, was also, in principle, the way in which He dealt with us, when Divine mercy came to our rescue.  (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 478)

 

“Some said, This is he:  others said, He is like him:  but he said, I am he” (9:9).  How marvelously accurate is this line in the picture!  When one who is dead in trespasses and sins has been quickened into newness of life he becomes a new creature in Christ, but the old man still remains.  Not yet has he been delivered from this body of death; for that, he must await the return of our Lord.  In the one who has been born again there are, then, two natures: the old is not destroyed, but a new has been imparted.  (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 482)

 

Jesus Christ looked at the man, and He did not think about theological cobwebs.  What was suggested to Him was to fight against the evil and abolish it.  It is sometimes necessary to discuss the origin of an evil thing, of a sorrow or a sin, in order to understand how to deal with and get rid of it.  But unless that is the case, our first business is not to say, “How comes this about?” but our business is to take steps to make it cease to come about.  (Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: John, Chaps. IX to XIV, 5)

 

Blindness was an all too common occurrence in the ancient world (cf. Lv 19:14; 21:18; Dt 27:18; 28:29; 2 Sm 5:5, 8; Job 29:15); and the uncared-for blind were reduced to begging (cf. Mk 10:46).  As Isa 42:7 predicted that the Messiah would do, Jesus gave sight to the blind on several occasions (Mt 9:27-28; 11:5; 12:22; 15:30-31; 20:30-34; 21:14; Mk 8:22-25; Lk 4:18).  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John, 390)

 

This does not mean that God deliberately caused the child to be born blind in order that, after many years, his glory should be displayed in the removal of the blindness; to think so would again be an aspersion on the character of God.  It does mean that God overruled the disaster of the child’s blindness so that, when the child grew to manhood, he might, by recovering his sight, see the glory of God in the face of Christ, and others, seeing this work of God, might turn to the true Light of the World.  (F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John, 209)

 

• God may use our experience to help advise and encourage others who pass through the same trials.
• God may use our suffering to break through the hardness of another person and bring about change in them.
• God may use our unresolved need to motivate others to keep searching for a solution from which others will benefit.
• God may use our endurance in suffering rather than the suffering itself to be an encouraging example to other believers. (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: John, 193)

 

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains:  it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.  (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, 3)

 

Your trial can become your friend when it drives you closer to God!  (Vernon Brewer, Why?, 28)

 

What we have lately said is undoubtedly true, that all our distresses arise from sin; but God afflicts his own people for various reasons.  For as there are some men whose crimes he does not punish in this world, but whose punishment he delays till the future life, that he may inflict on them more dreadful torments; so he often treats his believing people with greater severity, not because they have sinned more grievously, but that he may mortify the sins of the flesh for the future.  (Calvin’s Commentary on the Gospel of John, 364-5)

 

1. Why does Jesus say we need to get busy and do the work of God before night comes? Because when night comes it will be too late.  (Jn 9:4; see also: Mt 5:11-16; Jn 20:21; 1 Cor 3:9; 15:58; 2 Cor 4:6; 6:1; Eph 5:16; 1 Thess 1:6)

 

When we suffer and handle it with grace, we’re like walking billboards advertising the positive way God works in the life of someone who suffers. — Joni Eareckson Tada

 

When the night comes we cannot work, because the light afforded us to work by is extinguished; the grave is a land of darkness, and our work cannot be done in the dark.  And, besides, our time allotted us for our work will then have expired; when our Master tied us to duty he tied us to time too; when night comes, call the laborers; we must then show our work, and receive according to the things done.  (Matthew Henry’s Commentary: Vol. V, 1011)

 

Our time is very short.  Our daylight will soon be gone.  Opportunities once lost can never be retrieved.  A second lease of life is granted to no man.  Then let us resist procrastination as we would resist the devil.  Whatever our hand findeth to do, let us do it with our might.  “The night cometh, when no man can work.”  (J. C. Ryle, Expository thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 152-3)

 

The phrase as long as it is day conveys a sense of urgency (cf. 7:33; 11:9-10; 12:35; 13:33).  It refers to the brief time (only a few months remained until the crucifixion) that Jesus would still be physically present with the disciples.  After that, He said, “Night is coming when no one can work”–a reference to His being taken away from the disciples in death.  They would then be overtaken by the darkness (cf. 12:35) and unable to work (cf. 20:19; Mt 26:56) until the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost once again empowered them to minister.  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John, 393)

 

What good we have opportunity of doing we should do quickly; he that will never do a good work till there is nothing to be objected against it will leave many a good work for ever undone, Eccl 9:4.  (Matthew Henry’s Commentary: Vol. V, 1012)

 

What Christ saith of himself, he saith of his disciples: You are lights in the world, and if so, Let your light shine.  What were candles made for but to burn?  (Matthew Henry’s Commentary: Vol. V, 1012)

 

We are to learn from this, as Spurgeon said, that “the Savior has a greater respect for work than he has for speculation.”  Questions are good.  There are answers to such questions.  Jesus gives them.  But there is an eternity to ask and answer questions. What counts now is to work, for the working time is limited and the workers are few.  God had sent Jesus to work.  He was determined to do that work.  If you are a Christian, God has also given you work to do.  The conclusion is that you should set about doing that work with the same determination.  (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 3, 694)

 

If God presents an opportunity and also provides the strength, skill, or other resources to do it, we ought to respond immediately.  The night is coming soon enough; then our day of opportunity will end.  (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: John, 194)

 

Both “we” and  “must” are important.  Jesus is not speaking only of what he must do; his followers share with him the responsibility of doing what God directs (specifically Jesus has said that it is “the work of God” for people to believe on him whom God sent, 6:29).  And “must” reminds us that this is not simply what is advisable or expedient.  There is the thought of a compelling necessity (see 4:4, 34).  (Leon Morris, The New Int’l Commentary on the NT: John, 426)

 

Time is running out.  The cross is six months away.  He is going to heal this man and He doesn’t want His disciples fussing with theology when He is about to dramatize the truth of Himself.  He would shift their focus to the urgency of God’s work, rather than explanations of Satan’s work.  (C.S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on John, 163)

 

Christ is the timeless God.  He lived in eternity past and will be living throughout eternity future.  If anyone could have postponed work, surely it was the Lord Jesus.  Yet we see him concerned for the moment and aware that the moment was passing.  If that is true for Jesus, how much more true is it for us who are entirely creatures of time and for whom time is quickly passing!  (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 3, 697)

 

Now is the time to train your children.  You must begin while they are young.  You will not have them for more than twenty years, and they will be malleable to your teaching for even less than that.  You must lead them to faith in the Savior.  You must teach them the ways of God with men and help them to develop Christian character.  God will not hold you guiltless if you fail to do this; for you are responsible for them, and the time is passing.  In this as in other areas “night is coming, when no one can work.”  (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 3, 697)

 

In John 8 we read about Jesus being driven out of the temple area.  We would feel it to be all right if we found Jesus thinking primarily about his own needs and problems.  But he is not.  For as soon as he is outside the temple area, by the very gate of the temple, he spots a blind beggar and is immediately taken up with his need and problems.  The heart of the Lord Jesus Christ went out to him.  Moreover, it was always this way with Jesus.  Wherever he looked there were sheep to be gathered and souls to be won.  So he worked; the need of men compelled him to it.  (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 3, 695)

 

Though it is true that even after his resurrection there were “appearances,” he is not “in the world” any more as he was formerly.  The same holds with respect to the disciple: for him too there is a divinely-appointed time; namely, his life-time here below.  Let him make the most of his opportunities.  (William Hendriksen, NT Commentary: John 7-21, 74)

 

The Father’s works must be done “while it is day”–which meant, so far as Jesus himself was concerned, “while I am in the world” (v. 5).  The coming night was the period of his withdrawal from the world:  so in Jn 13:30, Judas went out into the “night,” while the other disciples remained in the circle of the true light while the true light was with them (cf. Jn 12:35 f.).  (F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John, 209)

 

Christ took this poor blind man in his way, and cured him in transitu–as he passed by.  Thus should be take occasions of doing good, even as we pass by, wherever we are.  (Matthew Henry’s Commentary: Vol. V, 1009)

 

III.  What does any of this have to do with me?  Followers of Jesus follow Jesus especially in suffering.  (see: Mt 5:11-16; Rom 5:1-5; 8:18-25; 2 Cor 4:7-5:10; 6:4-10; 8:1-9; Phil 1:29; 2:5-11; 3:10; Col 1:24-29; 2 Thess 1:4-7; 2 Tm 1:8-12; 3:11; Heb 12:5-11; Jam 1:2-4, 12;  1 Pt 1:3-9; 4:12-19; 5:9-10; Rv 2:9-10)

 

Many times our suffering can be the most effective platform by which to display the work of God.  Anybody can talk faith and obedience when things are going hunky-dory.  But it is when you suffer and when all of life seems against you that your message and your mission are taken more seriously. — PK

 

The more we fear to suffer, the more we need to do so.  (Francois Fenelon as quoted by Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage, 128)

 

“Pain is weakness leaving the body.” (US Marine Corp Sign on US 127 just North of Addison 4-15-02)

 

“The place of suffering in service and of passion in mission is hardly ever taught today.  But the greatest single secret of evangelistic or missionary effectiveness is the willingness to suffer and die.  It may be a death to popularity (by faithfully preaching the unpopular biblical gospel), or to pride (by the use of modest methods in reliance on the Holy Spirit), or to racial and national prejudice (by identification with another culture), or to material comfort (by adopting a simple lifestyle).  But the servant must suffer if he is to bring light to the nations, and the seed must die it if is to multiply.” (John R. W. Stott; The Cross of Christ, p. 322).

 

Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?  In fact He attributed the suffering and ignominy of His passion not to the Jews who accused him, not to Judas who betrayed Him, nor to Pilate who condemned Him, nor to the soldiers who ill-treated and crucified him, nor to the devil who incited them all, though they were the immediate causes of His sufferings, but to God, and to God not considered as a strict judge but as a loving and beloved Father. (Father Jean Baptiste; Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, 25)

 

It seems as though Deuteronomy 8-10 & Proverbs 14:12 were right.  The very thing that we try to do for ourselves and our loved ones is the thing that is killing us and them.  We try to keep them from suffering, pain, sickness, loss and trouble, only to find that the experience of those things is what humbles us and leads us to the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn 14:6). — PK

 

Our growth is directly dependent upon how much pain we are willing to endure.  — Dr. Jeffery Portmann

 

Growth and pain go hand in hand.  — Dr. Jeffery Portmann

 

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.  Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.  — Helen Keller

 

The Son of Man has come unto the world to take upon Himself the sins of the world.   If you want to follow Him you must be willing to do the same.” — Jesus to Barabas in the movie  Jesus of Nazareth

 

As the passage goes on, we see part of what it means that “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness didn’t overcome it.”  John’s gospel is pushing us forward in heart and mind towards God’s new creation, the time when God will make all things new.  (N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part One, 134)

 

The trial of faith is also a test of its character; it is the furnace that tries the ore, of what kind it is:  it may be brass, or iron, or clay, or perhaps precious gold; but the crucible will test it.  There is much that passes for real faith, which is no faith; there is much spurious, counterfeit metal; it is the trial that brings out its real character.  (Octavius Winslow, Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul, 87)

 

Surely this word of the Savior’s contains a message of consolation to afflicted ones among His people now.  Not that they may expect to be relieved by a miracle, but that they may comfort themselves with the assurance that God has a wise (if hidden) purpose to be served by their affliction, and that is, that in some way He will be glorified thereby.  That way may not be manifested at once; perhaps not for long years.  At least thirty years (see v. 23) passed before God made it evident why this man had been born blind.  (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 474)

 

When Paul says, “If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink,” he does not mean, “Let’s all become lechers.”  He means, there is a normal, simple, comfortable, ordinary life of human delights that we may enjoy with no troubling thoughts of heaven or hell or sin or holiness or God—if there is no resurrection from the dead.  And what stunned me about this train of thought is that many professing Christians seem to aim at just this, and call it Christianity.

Paul did not see his relation to Christ as the key to maximizing his physical comforts and pleasures in this life.  No, Paul’s relation to Christ was a call to choose suffering—a suffering that was beyond what would make atheism “meaningful” or “beautiful” or “heroic.”  It was a suffering that would have been utterly foolish and pitiable to choose if there is no resurrection into the joyful presence of Christ. (John Piper; Desiring God, 219)

 

Affliction is a pill, which, being wrapped up in patience and quiet submission, may be easily swallowed; but discontent chews the pill, and so embitters the soul.  God throws away some comfort which he saw would hurt you, and you will throw away your peace after it; he shoots an arrow which sticks in your clothes, and was never intended to hurt, but only to drive you from sin, and you will thrust it deeper, to the piercing of your very heart, by despondency and discontent.  (John Flavel, Keeping the Heart, 47)

 

Note, The power of God often works by contraries; and he makes men feel their own blindness before he gives them sight.  (Matthew Henry’s Commentary: Vol. V, 1012)

 

Paul in his conversion was struck blind for three days, and then the scales fell from his eyes.  The way prescribed for getting spiritual wisdom is, Let a man become a fool, that he may be wise, 1 Cor 3:18.  We must be made uneasy with our blindness, as this man here, and then healed.  (Matthew Henry’s Commentary: Vol. V, 1012)

 

If your meaning for life is to maximize comfort and pleasure now; then suffering will destroy you because it destroys your meaning for life.  — Tim Keller

 

Punishment and pain are the means of healing.  To any one ignorant of medical science, a surgeon performing an operation would seem cruel and unfeeling.  But he cuts down into the living flesh with his keen knife and inflicts the sharpest pain because he knows that in no other way can the life be saved.  In the hands of a benevolent God suffering is surgical.  (Joseph S. Exell, The Biblical Illustrator, 2 Chronicles, 27)

 

The chaos and misery of this present world is, it seems, the raw material out of which the loving, wise and just God is making his new creation.  (N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part One, 134)

 

Wordsworth also observes, “God loves to effect His greatest works by means tending under ordinary circumstances to produce the very opposite of what is to be done.  God walls the sea with sand.  God clears the air with storms.  God warms the earth with snow.  So in the world of grace.  He brings water in the desert, not from the soft earth, but the flinty rock.  He heals the sting of the serpent of fire by the serpent of brass.  He overthrows the wall of Jericho by ram’s horns.  He cures the salt water with salt.  He fells the giant with a sling and stone.  And thus does the Son of God work in the Gospel.  He cures the blind man by that which seemed likely to increase his blindness,–by anointing his eyes with clay.  He exalts us to heaven by the stumbling-block of the cross.”  (J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 162-3)

 

I began to see now why the religious establishment of those days wanted to get rid of Him at all costs.  He was sudden death to pride, pomposity, and pretense.  (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 3, 702)

 

If you are still drawing back from it as the leper Naaman drew back from the water of the Jordan River, thinking it to be beneath him, then you have not yet seen your plight to be as desperate as it really is.  But if, like the blind man, you know it to be desperate, if you sense that there is no hope for you unless Jesus himself comes into your life and does a miracle–if that is the case, then you will not draw back at the simplicity of that which is preached to you but rather will go on to accept whatever Christ offers and do as he tells you.  (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 3, 703-4)

 

We need not doubt that in this, as in every other action of our Lord, there is an instructive lesson.  It teaches us, we may well believe, that the Lord of heaven and earth will not be tied down to the use of any one means or instrumentality.  In conferring blessings on man, He will work in His own way, and will allow no one to prescribe to Him.  (J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 153)

 

If there were no suffering, would there be compassion? If there were no discipline and hardship, would we ever learn patience and endurance? Construct a universe with no trouble in it and immediately you banish some of the finest qualities in the world. — James Stewart

 

Ultimately the furnace of adversity does not make you; it reveals you. The fire shows what you really are on the inside. You can lose your praise or find it during a fiery trial. (Jentezen Franklin, The Spirit of Python, 114)

 

It would much conduce to the settlement of your heart, to consider that by fretting and discontent you do yourself more injury than all your afflictions could do.  Your own discontent is that which arms your troubles with a sting; you make your burden heavy by struggling under it.  Did you but lie quietly under the hand of God, your condition would be much more easy than it is.  (John Flavel, Keeping the Heart, 46-47)

 

I know that some of you have gone through accidents, earth-shaking tragedies, or other terrible experiences. I’m not trying to minimize anything that has happened to you or the pain it has caused. But after a while you have to decide, “I don’t want to be a victim anymore.”

I like to say, “You just have to get a big, old ‘So what?’ down in your spirit.” So what if they left you? Jesus will never leave you or forsake you. So what if they hurt you? Jesus is your healer. So what if that event stole from you and altered the course of your life and abilities? Through Jesus you can do all things! It’s time to talk to the mountain and command it to get out of your life. (Jentezen Franklin, The Spirit of Python, 100)

 

 

Worship Point: Job was nearly obliterated by Satan with God’s permission.  And yet the Bible says that Job worshiped God.  Could we?  (Job 1:1-20)

 

In these closing moments of this age, the Lord will have a people whose purpose for living is to please God with their lives.  In them, God finds His own reward for creating man.  They are His worshipers.  They are on earth only to please God, and when He is pleased, they also are pleased.

The Lord takes them farther and through more pain and conflicts than other men.  Outwardly, they often seem “smitten of God, and afflicted” (Is 53:4).  Yet to God, they are His beloved.  When they are crushed, like the petals of a flower, they exude a worship, the fragrance of which is so beautiful and rare that angels weep in quiet awe at their surrender.  They are the Lord’s purpose for creation.

One would think that God would protect them, guarding them in such a way that they would not be marred.  Instead, they are marred more than others.  Indeed, the Lord seems pleased to crush them, putting them to grief.  For in the midst of their physical and emotional pain, their loyalty to Christ grows pure and perfect.  And in the face of persecutions, their love and worship toward God become all-consuming.

Would that all Christ’s servants were so perfectly surrendered.   (Francis Frangipane, The Three Battlegrounds, 93-4)

 

If your kid is hurt and they don’t come to you for comfort and help, it hurts.   We worship God when we come to Him with our pain, suffering and hurts.  — Tom Phillips

 

Joy is not the absence of suffering, but the presence of God. — Barbara Johnson

 

Job’s friends come to the conclusion that Job is the worst sinner in the land because he is the most grievously afflicted person in the land.  Their logic is this:  there has to be some kind of ratio between the degree of a person’s suffering and the degree of his sin.  The book of Job was written to refute this falsehood by showing that Job’s suffering had nothing to do with sin on his part.  (R.C. Sproul, John: An Expositional Commentary, 158)

 

Gospel Application: Jesus perfectly demonstrates for us doing the work of God through terrible suffering by His work on the cross.   The Gospel assures us that if we find ourselves “in Christ” we too can have this kind of power. (Isa 61:1; Jn 12:27; Acts 1:3; 3:18; 17:3; 26:23; Phil 2:5-11; Heb 2:9-10; 5:8; 9:26; 1 Pt 1:11; 2:19-23; 4:1, 12-19)

 

To create, God merely had to speak; to save He had to suffer.  (Croft M. Pentz;  Zingers, 122)

 

Moreover, notice that Jesus was not selective in the works he felt compelled to accomplish.  He did not pick and choose.  Rather, he said, “we must do the work of him who sent me.”  That is, “We must do all of them.”  There were works of preaching and of praying, of rebuking and of suffering, finally, even of dying.  (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 3, 696)

 

We must reassert the words of Joseph Rickaby:  “the Cross does not abolish suffering, but transforms it, sanctifies it, makes it fruitful, bearable, even joyful, and finally victorious.”  (Robert Lewis, The Church of Irresistible Influence, 97)

 

When we find ourselves rejecting difficulty, we may find that we are really rejecting the cross–and therefore Christ Himself.  It was not just John of the Cross who wrote about this.  Consider Thomas a Kempis’ words:  “Christ’s whole life was a cross and martyrdom; and dost thou seek rest and joy for thyself?  Thou art deceived, thou art deceived, if thou seek any other thing than to suffer tribulations; for this whole mortal life is full of miseries, and signed on every side with crosses.  And the higher a person hath advanced in spirit, so much the heavier crosses he oftentimes findeth.  (Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, III:19:1)  (Gary L. Thomas, Seeking the Face of God, 164)

 

Jesus came to save us from the hell of our sins, the hell we choose to go to ourselves when we shake our fist at God and say, ‘No, I want to have it my way!’ Jesus suffered hell so that we don’t have to.  (David Robertson, Magnificent Obsession–Why Jesus Is Great, 88-89)

 

Unfortunately we now need God’s help in order to do something which God, in His own nature, never does at all–to surrender, to suffer, to submit, to die.  Nothing in God’s nature corresponds to this process at all.  So that the one road for which we now need God’s leadership most of all is a road God, in His own nature, has never walked.  God can share only what He has:  this thing, in His own nature, He has not.

But supposing God became a man–suppose our human nature which can suffer and die was amalgamated with God’s nature in one person–then that person could help us.  He could surrender His will, and suffer and die, because He was man; and He could do it perfectly because He was God…But we cannot share God’s dying unless God dies; and He cannot die except by being a man.  That is the sense in which He pays our debt, and suffers for us what He Himself need not suffer at all. (C. S. Lewis; Mere Christianity, 60)

 

Spiritual Challenge: Begin to see everything that happens to you in light of God’s providence and sovereignty.  Nothing happens that doesn’t work for God’s glory and your benefit.  (Gn 50:20; Acts 5:41; 9:16; Rom 8:28; 2 Cor 1:4-8)

 

There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children ought to more earnestly contend to than the doctrine of their Master over all creation—the Kingship of God over all the works of His own hands—the Throne of God and His right to sit upon that throne…for it is God upon the Throne whom we trust. —  C.H. Spurgeon.

 

God never promises that our lives will be free of obstacles, problems, crises, and adversities.  He promises something better.  He will use every obstacle in your life to bring to fulfillment the very purposes He has planned for your life.  Every problem, every crisis, every adversity, every setback, and every sorrow will be turned around to bring breakthrough, blessing, and triumph.  And in God, every mountain, every obstacle that has hindered God’s purposes in your life, will, in the end, be turned around and become a capstone to bring about the completion of those very purposes.  (Jonathan Cahn, The Book of Mysteries, Day 313)

 

Do with me whatever it shall please thee.  For it can not be anything but good, whatever thou shalt do with me.  If it be thy will I should be in darkness, be thou blessed; and if it be thy will I should be in light, be thou again blessed.  If thou grant me comfort, be thou blessed; and if thou will have me afflicted, be thou still equally blessed.  My son, such as this ought to be thy state, if thou desire to walk with Me.  Thou must be as ready to suffer as to rejoice.  Thou must cheerfully be as destitute and poor, as full and rich.  (Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, III:17:1-2)

 

Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. — African proverb

 

Kenneth Copeland says, “The religious idea that God chastises His own with sickness and disease and poverty is the very thing that has caused the church to go 1500 years without the knowledge of the Holy Spirit…” Spurgeon, however, said, “I am certain that I never did grow in grace one-half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain.” Three thousand years ago, King David gave proof positive that Copeland and the Faith teachers are dead wrong. God does indeed chastise His own. David was a man after God’s own heart, yet he wrote, “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees…I know, O Lord, that your laws are righteous, and in faithfulness you have afflicted me” (Psalm 119:71,75, emphasis added).  (Hank Hanegraaff, Christianity In Crisis, 267)

 

“A season of suffering is a small price to pay for a clear view of God.”  (Max Lucado; Evangel July 31^st, 2005, 5)

 

We rather easily attribute to Satan the trials of life, as if he is keeping us from something and robbing us of our joy.   We also quickly attribute to God the blessings in life as if He is gifting us and increasing our joy.

We should be careful, however, to consider that sometimes a blessing is Satan manipulating circumstances to keep us from where God wants us to move to.  He knows human happiness leads to complacency, and he will gladly “bless” us with a lifetime’s worth of happiness to keep us from eternal joy.

We should just as carefully consider that sometimes a “curse”, a trial, is God intervening to keep us from where we are headed; breaking our hearts and/or bodies to save our souls.  Or to get us to finally spend the alone time with Him that He has been longing for, to have the intimacy with us that we have been avoiding.  — Buddy Briggs post 7-7-20

 

Let a Christian, says a late writer, be but two or three years without an affliction, and he is almost good for nothing.  He cannot pray, nor meditate, nor discourse at that rate he was wont to do; but when a new affliction comes, now he can find his tongue, and come to his knees again, and live at another rate. (John Flavel; The Mystery of Providence, 202)

 

God delights to increase the faith of His children…I say, and say it deliberately—trials, difficulties and sometimes defeat, are the very food of faith…We should take them out of His hands as evidences of His love and care for us in developing more and more that faith which He is seeking to strengthen in us. — George Mueller

 

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.  (Chinese proverb as quoted by Simon Guillebaud, Choose Life, 365 Readings for Radical Disciples, 8-6)

 

“We hate trouble.  We secretly wish we could have a vicarious Christianity, and could be good by proxy, and have everything done for us.  Anything that requires exertion and labour is entirely against the grain of our hearts.  But the soul can have ‘no gains without pains’. . . .  To be a Christian it will cost a man his love of ease.” (J. C. Ryle; Holiness, 69)

 

It is difficult to see God’s hand of love in the adversities and heartaches of life because we persist in thinking, as the world does, that happiness is the greatest good. Thus we tend to evaluate all our circumstances in terms of whether or not they produce happiness. Holiness, however, is a greater good than happiness, so God arranges and orchestrates circumstances to produce holiness before happiness. He is more concerned about our eternal than our temporal welfare and more concerned about our spiritual than our material welfare. So all the trials and difficulties, all the heartaches, disappointments, and humiliations come from His loving hand to make us partakers of His holiness. (Jerry Bridges; Transforming Grace; Living Confidently in God’s Unfailing Love,183)

 

This is a soft age in the West, an age in which ease and comfort are seen by the world as life’s supreme values.  Affluence and medical resources have brought secular people to the point of feeling they have a right to a long life, and a right to be free of poverty and pain for the whole of that life.  Many even cherish a grudge against God and society if these hopes do not materialize.  Nothing, however, as we now see, could be further from the true, tough, hard-gaining holiness that expresses true Christianity. (J. I. Packer; Rediscovering Holiness, 270)

 

While physical pain may be a part of the fall, God can and does use it for our spiritual advancement.  Brother Lawrence said God “sometimes permits the body to suffer to cure the sickness of the soul.”  (Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, Fourteenth Letter)  (Gary L. Thomas, Seeking the Face of God, 170)

 

We appreciate things only in contrast.  — Peter Kreeft

 

According to Augustine, God would not permit evil at all unless He could draw good out of it.  (Thomas C. Oden; The Living God, 298)

 

BELIEF:  Knowing there is a loving God that can take away all your pain.  FAITH:  Not needing Him to.  (Buddy Briggs; HFM Take-Home Page, May 26^th, 2019)

 

Until we are broken, our life will be self-centered, self-reliant; our strength will be our own.  So long as you think you are really something in and of yourself, what will you need God for?  I don’t trust a man who hasn’t suffered. (John Eldredge as quoted by Simon Guillebaud, Choose Life, 365 Readings for Radical Disciples, 10-6)

 

And yet, temptations can be useful to us even though they seem to cause us nothing but pain.  They are useful because they can make us humble, they can cleanse us, and they can teach us.  All of the saints passed through times of temptation and tribulation, and they used them to make progress in the spiritual life.  Those who did not deal with temptation successfully fell to the wayside. — Thomas á Kempis

 

 

Oswald Chambers wrote, “Huge waves that would frighten an ordinary swimmer produce a tremendous thrill for the surfer who has ridden them… A saint doesn’t know the joy of the Lord in spite of tribulation, but because of it.”

 

Do not let ourselves be troubled when we are sometimes beset by adversity, for we know that it is meant for our spiritual welfare and carefully proportioned to our needs, and that a limit has been set to it by the wisdom of the same God who has set a bound to the ocean.  Sometimes it might seem as if the sea in its fury would overflow and flood the land, but it respects the limits of its shore and its waves break upon the yielding sand.  There is no tribulation or temptation whose limits God has not appointed so as to serve not for our destruction but for our salvation.  God is faithful says the Apostle, and will not permit you to be tempted (or afflicted) beyond your strength, but it is necessary for you to be so, since through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God in the steps of our Redeemer who said of Himself, Did not the Christ have to suffer all these things before entering into his glory?  If you refused to accept these tribulations you would be acting against your best interests.  You are like a block of marble in the hands of the sculptor.  The sculptor must chip, hew and smooth it to make it into a statue that is a work of art.  God wishes to make us the living image of Himself.  All we need to think of is to keep still in His hands while He works on us, and we can rest assured that the chisel will never strike the slightest blow that is not needed for His purposes and our sanctification; for, as St. Paul says, the will of God is your sanctification.  (Father Jean Baptiste; Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, 31-33)

 

We ought to conform to the will of God in sickness and infirmity and wish for what He sends us, both at the time it comes and for the time it lasts and with all the circumstances attending it, without wishing for one of them to be changed; and at the same time do all that is reasonable in our power to get well again, because God wishes it so.  “For my part” says St. Alphonsus,” I call illness the touchstone of the spirit, for it is then that the true virtue of a man is discovered.”  If we feel ourselves becoming impatient or rebellious we should endeavor to repress such feelings and be deeply ashamed of any attempt at opposition to the just decrees of an all-wise God.

St. Bonaventure relates that St. Francis of Assisi was afflicted by an illness which caused him great pain.  One of his followers said to him, “Ask Our Lord to treat you a little more gently, for it seems to me He lays His hand too heavily upon you.”  Hearing this the saint gave a cry and addressed the man in these words: “If I did not think that what you have just said comes from the simplicity of your heart without any evil intention I would have no more to do with you, because you have been so rash as to find fault with what God does to me.”:  Then, though he was very weak from the length and violence of his illness, he threw himself down from the rough bed he was lying on, at the risk of breaking his bones, and kissing the floor of his cell said “I thank you, O Lord, for all the sufferings you send me.  I beg you to send me a hundred times more if you think it right.  I shall rejoice if it pleases you to afflict me without sparing me in any way, for the accomplishments of your holy will is my greatest consolation.”  (Father Jean Baptiste; Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, 67-8)

 

The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib (Isa. 1:3); the most dull and stupid creatures know their benefactors.  O look to the hand of God in all; and know that neither your comforts nor afflictions do arise out of the dust, or spring up out of the ground. (John Flavel; The Mystery of Providence, 181)

 

It was a saying of Bishop Latimer to Ridley, “When I live in a settled and steadfast assurance about the state of my soul, methinks then I am as bold as a lion.  I can laugh at all trouble: no affliction daunts me.  But when I am eclipsed in my comforts, I am of so fearful a spirit that I could run into a very mouse-hole.”  (J. C. Ryle; Holiness, 121)

 

If you don’t learn to laugh at adversity when you are young, then you rob yourself of a lot of laughter when you are older.

 

Note, The intentions of Providence commonly do not appear till a great while after the event, perhaps many years after.  The sentences in the book of providence are sometimes long, and you must read a great way before you can apprehend the sense of them.  (Matthew Henry’s Commentary: Vol. V, 1011)

 

The only way to learn a strong faith is to endure great trials.  I have learned my faith by standing firm amid the most severe of tests.  (George Mueller as quoted by John Ragsdale, How Do I Deal with Anxiety and Fear?, 17)

 

We must have a decisive conviction that we are going to face trials with a joyful attitude.  It is the joy of one who counts it a privilege to have his faith tested because he knows the testing will draw him closer to the Savior. (John MacArthur as quoted by John Ragsdale, How Do I Deal with Anxiety and Fear?, 35)

 

Missionary Hudson Taylor sometimes quoted this Frederick W. Faber poem when afflictions came his way:

Ill that God blesses is our good,

And unblest good is ill.

And all is right that seems most wrong,

If it be His sweet will.  (Frederick W. Faber, Jesus and Mary)  (David Jeremiah, Searching for Heaven on Earth, 60)

 

Spiritual Challenge Questions:

 

1. What convictions must one have before one can begin to live out James 1:2-4?
2. Most of us have not learned to be content and find joy in our suffering. Why?  What prevents us from this kind of spiritual power? 
3. If we automatically ascribe all suffering, pain and loss to Satan, what 2 Divine attributes are we in danger of divorcing from God?
4. In your mind, what Biblical person best illustrates thriving in the mist of suffering? Why?

 

So What?: We waste a lot of time, effort and energy trying to figure out what God is doing in the lives of others through their suffering.  Stop it.  Seek to become more of the man or woman God wants you to become through your suffering.  (Gn 50:20; Rom 5:1-5; 8:18-25, 28; 2 Cor 4:7-5:10; Jam 1:2-4; 1 Pt 1:3-9)

 

Instead of asking questions about our trials . . . trials are meant to ask questions of ourselves.  (Line by Esther in A Night with the King).

 

Suffering and hardship are an amplifier to whatever is in our hearts.  — Louis Giglio

 

Is it possible to have the walls crashing down around you and still experience contentment?  I would have never thought so, but I was surprised to learn that we can be content in the midst of suffering — not mere inconvenience, but severe, agonizing suffering.  The issue, I learned, is that our circumstances don’t determine our contentment, but our faith and trust in God do.  (Patrick Morley; The Man In The Mirror, 101-2)

 

Suffering is a megaphone to the message of our hearts.  — Louis Giglio

 

Then there is a special lesson here, and that is, Obedience brings sight.  “If any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine.”  Are there any of you groping in darkness, compassed about with theological perplexities and religious doubts?  Obey what you know.  Do what you see clearly you ought to do.  Bow your wills to the recognized truth.  He who has turned all his knowledge into action will get more knowledge as soon as he needs it.  “Go and wash; and he went, and came seeing.”  (Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: John, Chaps. IX to XIV, 19)

 

It was in view of these prevailing and conflicting theories and philosophies which then obtained that the disciples put their question to the Lord:  “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?”  Evidently they desired to hear what He would say upon the matter.  But what is the present-day application of this verse to us?  Surely the reasoning of these disciples in the presence of the blind beggar points a solemn warning.  Surely it tells of the danger there is of us theorizing and philosophizing while we remain indifferent to human needs.  Let us beware of becoming so occupied with the problems of theology that we fail to preach the Gospel to lost souls!  (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 473)

 

As the old Puritan, John Trapp (1647), quaintly puts it, “He obeyed Christ blindly.  He looked not upon Siloam with Syrian eyes as Naaman did upon Jordan; but, passing by the unlikelihood of a cure by such means, he believeth and doeth as he was bidden, without hesitation.”  (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 478-9)

 

I have closely studied every passage on suffering, and even in God’s summation speech to Job, at a moment that begged for such an answer, God refrained.  Jesus contradicted the Pharisees’ airtight theories that suffering comes to those who deserve it, yet avoided directly answering the question of cause.  Resolution of the “Why?” questions lied beyond the reach of humanity–was that not God’s main message to Job?  (Philip Yancey; Soul Survivor, 212-3)

 

Christian faith begins when men and women come to see that sin has robbed them of spiritual vision, that in this sense they are all blind from birth and are wholly unable to free themselves from their predicament; and faith comes to maturity when they accept Jesus as the One who alone can recreate in them the faculty sin has destroyed.  (R.V. G. Tasker, Tyndale NT Commentaries: John, 123)

 

To obtain physical sight he must not remain passive, but must wash in the pool of Siloam; and to receive the gift of spiritual sight all men must wash in the cleansing water that comes from the crucified Christ, because it is only made fully available by His atoning death.  Christian experience is first and foremost a willingness to accept the gift of cleansing, a truth symbolized in baptism, the initial sacrament of the believer’s life.  In a word, true faith begins in obeying the command, given by Elisha to Naaman, “Go and wash” (2 Kgs 5:10).  (R.V. G. Tasker, Tyndale NT Commentaries: John, 123-4)

 

And what was this to them?  Or what good would it do them to know it?  We are apt to be more inquisitive concerning other people’s sins than concerning our own; whereas, it is more our concern to know wherefore God contends with us than wherefore he contends with others; for to judge ourselves is our duty, but to judge our brother is our sin.  (Matthew Henry’s Commentary: Vol. V, 1010)

 

If my brother meets with adversity, I instantly acknowledge the judgment of God; but if God chastises me with a heavier stroke, I wink at my sins.  But in considering punishments, every man ought to begin with himself, and to spare himself as little as any other person.  Wherefore, if we wish to be candid judges in this matter, let us learn to be quick in discerning our own evils rather than those of others.  (Calvin’s Commentary on the Gospel of John, 364)

 

It is so easy to assume the role of judge and pass sentence upon another.  This was the sin of Job’s friends, recorded for our learning and warning.  The same spirit is displayed among some of the “Faith-healing” sects of our day.  With them the view largely obtains that sickness is due to some sin in the life, and that where healing is withheld it is because that sin is unconfessed.  But this is a very harsh and censorious judgment, and must frequently be erroneous.  Moreover, it tends strongly to foster pride.  If I am enjoying better health than many of my fellows, the inference would be, it is because I am not so great a sinner as they!  The Lord deliver us from such reprehensible Phariseeism.  (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 474)

Consider it pure joy, my brothers,

whenever you face trials of many kinds . . .

— James 1:2

 

 JESUS:

SUFFERING SERVANT