Every day of your life you deal
with evil. Most of the time, the evil you experience isn't some great crisis.
In fact, most of the time you don't think about it in terms of evil. You
usually think about them as some sort of annoyance. You didn't sleep especially
well. There’s something going on at work. You have a bit of a cold. There are,
of course, those times when it's more than just an annoyance. You get a flat on
the way to an important appointment. One of your kids is suddenly sick, makes
quite the mess, and all just as you're on your way out the door, already five
minutes late. Having faced these sorts of things over a lifetime, we all have
developed coping mechanisms to deal with them. Often, it's some variation of,
'Well, what are you going to do?', as we then try to fix the situation, at
least well enough to get on with the day. There are those times, though, when
the evil that shows up is much larger. Here, think about the massacre of those
children in Connecticut. Simply horrible. You feel the darkness a bit and
actually label it 'evil'. But it's still evil "over there". There
are, however, those awful occasions when the evil isn't somewhere "over
there". No, it shows up right in front of you. Something really bad has
happened, and it has happened to you, and it has shaken you. I am sure that you
all can remember something that qualifies. Evil hit home, and it hurt. In this
kind of situation it just doesn't work to tell yourself, 'Well, what are you
going to do?', and then continue on. It will take more. But, of course, you
need to know what that 'more' is. How should you deal with that evil, the evil
that has confronted you?
During their stay in Jerusalem,
Jesus and His Twelve apprentices encountered some evil: a man born blind. This
would not have been unusual. There were lots of people who were plagued with
some sort of debilitating illness. What makes this particular situation stand
out is how the Twelve responded to the evil that sat before them - how they
dealt with it. They dealt with it by trying to understand it and by doing that
in a certain way. They figured that somebody sinned. And that has been a
popular way of understanding of evil. This or that person is touched by some
evil because somebody sinned. Isn't that what Job's friends assumed? The Twelve
made the same assumption. And it seemed to work well enough. They were ready to
consider the rest of what their day held, except for one last question.
Rabbi, who
sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
They knew that somebody sinned,
but they weren't quite sure who - though they had narrowed the field
considerably. So, they asked Jesus, thinking that once He told them who the
guilty party was they could move on to thinking about lunch. But Jesus did what
He usually does. He surprised them with an answer that they were not expecting.
It was not that
this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed
in him.
This is another of those times
when we should stop and say, 'What?!?' Take a minute and think about what Jesus
just said. This man has suffered under a great evil. He has lived for years and
years and years in blindness. It has forced him to become a beggar in the
streets. And why? God did it. And God did it to attract attention to Himself.
Really? That's why the man suffered this great evil? This poor fellow endured
blindness while friends and neighbors could see just fine? Does that seem fair?
And why exactly was he chosen for this great privilege? Did he do something to
deserve this, some great sin? No? So, what does that make him? Maybe a pawn in
a chess match that God is playing with - whom? - Satan? That can't be right,
can it? That's how so many in our culture respond to this particular way of dealing
with evil. But can you blame them? And responding with a 'But God can do
whatever He wants to do since He's God' seems cheap and really unsatisfying. It
still sounds like we're just some pawns for Him to abuse as He sees fit.
There are many who just don't buy
this way of thinking - that God did it. But what is the alternative? There are
those who try to ignore the reality of evil. But how can you do that in a world
like ours? Entertaining distractions and simply refusing to think about it
helps. But the attempt to ignore evil often results in a greater fear of evil.
It becomes this great unknown. Who can understand it? Who knows what it might
do or whom it might crush next? And so, there are times when you wish that
hiding under the bed would actually work.
Then, there are others who
acknowledge that the evil is there. They see it. They try to understand it so
they might deal with it. But despite their best efforts, they aren't able to do
anything about it. Evil remains oppressively present. So, for these, life is a
cloudy day. The sun peeks out from time to time, but the clouds always return.
At some point, evil will strike. It must. And try as they might, a satisfying
solution is never found.
There is a third group. These are
the folk who no longer try. For these, life is just dark. Despair has planted
itself right in the middle of life. There is no sun.
You may not be in one of those
categories, but it is beyond doubt that you know people in those categories. We
are surrounded by people with real life questions about how to deal with evil,
people with real questions and no answers. And that makes life so very
difficult for them. But Jesus has answers to those questions. He provides an
explanation for evil and a way to deal with it. And He is quite clear: God
sends it. Without embarrassment, Jesus states that God caused this man to be
blind, and that He did it to draw attention to Himself, to His works. That's
how Jesus understands evil.
But what about that fairness
question? How does Jesus respond to that? It really doesn't seem fair to single
this man out for such evil, does it? However, the question of fairness is only
a problem if the point of your life is to set your own goals and then be able
to achieve them. That's what is usually behind that complaint. The problem
isn't fairness. It's that I can't live the way I want to. But what if the point
of a person's life was not about being able to achieve the goals that he set
for himself? What if his life was about something different? Jesus offers a
very different set of goals. They can be summarized by, 'Hallowed be Thy Name,
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done'. Those are the goals that Jesus calls His
disciples to give themselves to. So, instead of a complaint about fairness,
there is something very different. There is willingness in the disciple to
suffer evil - if that will result in Jesus' goals being achieved.
But, let's be real about all of
this. Evil hurts. And simply reminding yourself that life is about Jesus' goals
will not lessen that pain. But, for a disciple, while it does not lessen the
pain it gives a good reason to endure it. Jesus explains.
… that the works
of God might be displayed…
At that moment in Jerusalem, God
was drawing attention to Himself by something He was about to do. And what was
that? What work of God was displayed? I'm guessing that your first thought is
about the miracle. And that makes sense. As the man said later,
Never since the
world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.
Now, maybe he's overstating
things. 'Never since the world began'? But then again, maybe not. A striking
miracle occurred. The power of God was displayed. And that really is something
to write home about. But there was another work of God being displayed. A life
was changed. This man came to believe in Jesus. That's the sort of thing that
makes a dent in this world. It's the sort of thing that results in God's Name
being honored, His Kingdom showing up and His Will being obeyed. And seeing
that happen can encourage a disciple to be even more devoted to the cause, to
be even more willing to have something 'unfair' happen to him.
That's good, but it's not good
enough - not for Jesus. He doesn't call us to be devoted to a cause. He calls
us to love. And so, the disciple is to endure the pain of evil because of love.
First, it's love for God. The disciple wants those goals about Name and Kingdom
and Will to be achieved simply because he loves his God. Love is the motivation
and not mere devotion to the cause. But there is also love for his neighbors.
They need to believe in Jesus, too. And how does that happen? Well, displays of
God's miraculous power and of how He changes lives can go a long way toward
that goal. And if enduring some evil results in others coming to know Jesus,
then the evil was worth suffering. That may sound like hype, but I assure that
it isn't. God sends evil to display His works, and a disciple is willing to
suffer the pain of that evil because he loves his God and his neighbor.
Now, it needs to be said that
there are also benefits for the disciple who submits to this heaven-sent evil.
For one thing, he gets to see the power of God in action - up close and
personal. And I'll tell you what - seeing that is exciting and refreshing. How
bracing to see the God of all power going about His creative work. Wrestling
with evil so that the works of God might be displayed affects a person. The
Spirit uses that experience for that disciple's good. So, what starts out as a
small love for God and neighbor develops into something huge. Life is changed.
And it is changed in a way that could not happen without the experience of that
evil. The sufferer also benefits.
So, now to bring this together.
The practical question: what do you do when evil touches your life? First, hate
it. Evil is wrong - just plain wrong. Our ancient foe is behind it. He wants to
destroy whatever he can. Hate the evil. If you can do something to stop it, to
turn it back and to bring about some good instead, do it. There are ways that we
can bring that sort of change to our world, and we really do need to do that.
However, there will be those times when you cannot thwart evil. There is
nothing you can do to change the situation. When that happens, this is what you
do: embrace the evil. It's still ugly and to be hated, but embrace it in the
hope that God is once again using evil to display His amazing works. Embrace it
in the hope that through that evil His goals will be achieved and lives will be
changed. And do that as an act of love. Then, watch as the works of God are
displayed through your life.