Jesus Does Not Care About the WHY, He Just Cares About YOU!

This past weekend Jacinda, Stella and I recently had the privilege to visit a very special congregation, American Lutheran Church in Rantoul, IL.  I grew up in Rantoul from age 2 to 12. My two youngest siblings were born while we were living in Rantoul.  I grew up running through the halls of ALC as a kid playing hide and seek, going to Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, worship and much more while my dad was the pastor there.  

Going back we had the opportunity to visit this wonderful congregation to not only tell them about Blessman Ministries but also to say "Thank You!"  Through my years in seminary this congregation has been a trememndous support through the financial scholarship that they have given me.  That scholarship is not only a blessing now for me, but will continue to bless my family well into the future.  It also has given Jacinda and I much greater financial freedom to join Blessman Ministries in South Africa.  Below is a part of the sermon that I shared with the congregation at Americal Lutheran Church on 11/9 and 11/10:

John 9:1-7  

As he went along, [Jesus] saw a man blind from birth.  His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned,this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.  As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.  While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.  “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

The American Foundation for AIDS research estimates that 35 million people around the world are living with HIV/AIDS.  Roughly 70%, or 25 million, live in sub-Saharan Africa. 

The Republic of South Africa has 51 million people.  6 million are living with HIV/AIDS.  That is roughly 12% of the people in the country living with an incurable disease.  Because of this disease alone it is estimated that 2.5 million children have been orphaned in South Africa.   

In John chapter 9 Jesus is walking with his disciples in Jerusalem and they see a man that was born blind.  Instead of the disciples asking how they could help the man they are more concerned with the debate over WHY he was blind.  The debate of the day was that either the man had sinned in the womb or his parents sinned before he was born.  The logic was that the only reason God would punish him with blindness was because someone sinned to deserve it.  

We, like the disciples, want to know why bad things happen.  But Jesus is not concerned about the "WHY."  Instead, the mission of Jesus is to throw all of the WHY’s out the window.  

Why are we stressed and angry?  Why do we self-medicate with food, alcohol, and prescription drugs?  Why do we look for love in one-night sexual encounters?  Why do we judge and ridicule those who have fallen on hard times?  Why do some people live off of welfare and others do not?  Is it their fault or their parents?  Maybe it is our fault? 

Well guess what… Jesus does not care why.  He just cares about YOU and every other person who is broken and suffering. 

When we stop and talk about WHY what we are really doing is judging.  We are placing ourselves in the judgment seat of God and try to figure out whether or not the people who are poor or sick deserve it.  We are trying to justify the world we live in.  People constantly say things like, “I do not deserve this,” or “why do bad things happen to good people?”  We like to judge until we have an answer to the WHY.

But Jesus throws all that out the window.  When Jesus shed his blood and died on the cross he took all the justifying upon his own shoulders.  Anyone who thinks they have the world figured out is wrong.  Your WHY, your reason for justifying WHY your life is "good" is meaningless in the shadow of the cross.  The justifications we give to understand why someone is poor or sick are meaningless.  Jesus cares about justification through His blood alone.  Jesus wants to be the one and only WHY in our lives.

When Jesus says, "this [man was born blind] so that the works of God might be displayed in him," he is not saying that God caused the blindness simply in order to perform a miracle later.  Blindness is a universal disease.  Every single person is walking blind in this world without Christ.  In John 9:39-41 Jesus points this out to the religious leaders of the day.  But they think they are already perfectly fine... they do not need Jesus and the forgiveness he offers.

It would be like us looking at Africa and saying, "Well how did they get that way?  They must have done something to deserve the spread of HIV/AIDS."  

This judgment that tries to understand WHY the world is the way it is over there fails to recognize our own personal darkness.  In October 2011 Time Magazine reported that more than 1 in 10 Americans now take antidepressants.  But in America we have it all figured out, right?  

Sometimes WHY the world is the way it is does not matter.  What matters is our response.  What matters is our humility.  What matters is the realization that we are all broken and we all need help.  What matters is the encounter we have with Jesus.  Do we receive the salvation he offers like the blind man or do we continue to live like the Pharisees acting as if we are not blind and in need of a savior.