Living Stones – Monday, December 4, 2017
Sin and sickness
John 9:1, 2
Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
The American singer, Johnny Nash, singing reggae, much of which he recorded in Jamaica, released an album in 1972 titled “I can see clearly now.” On that album, there is a cut titled, “There are more questions than answers.” I remember this album whenever I read John 9:1-12.
One of my big questions had always been, how did this blind man, blind from birth, get to the pool of Siloam? Did he go there regularly and so knew the way there using a stick? How did he get down the stairs that led to the pool? Did he ask someone for help getting there? Did those who helped him ask why he was going to the pool? Did he tell them? Did they think he was in his right mind? Ah, there are more questions than answers, however, the man came back and could have sung, I can see clearly now!!!
As Jesus approached the blind man His disciples asked a question that might sound strange to our modern thought but that was pretty common at the time. The Jewish people had long accepted that there was a relationship between sin and sickness. The disciples displayed the traditional understanding in their question to Jesus about the blind man they encountered “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” John 9:2.
As Christians, we believe that God’s model of perfection at creation included perfect bodies for us. We also believe that when sin entered the world through man’s disobedience everything was damaged including our bodies. As a result of sin, therefore, our bodies will be decaying and dying until we are glorified at the coming of Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:42 says, “So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.”
The disciples got an answer from Jesus. He said that “Neither this man nor his parents sinned…” That answer leaves open some of the issues and questions that challenge the modern mind. What is the connection between sin and sickness? What is the connection between the sin of parents and the sickness of a child? And could a man, who was born blind, actually have sinned to have caused his blindness?
Today, the prevalence of science and technology, especially science and technology in healthcare makes us less willing to connect sickness and disease with anything other than diet, hereditary factors, exposure, or DNA. Darrel Bock rightly notes, “Today we tend to leave sin out of the health equation, seeing it primarily as a matter of chemicals and biology.”
Jesus told the disciples that, in the case of the blind man in John 9, sin was not at work in a specific sense. However, He never refuted their connection of sin with sickness. As a matter of fact, in a story we examined previously when the paralytic man was let down through a hole in the roof for Jesus to heal him, Jesus first dealt with the man’s sin before He turned his attention to the man’s sickness. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” Mark 2:5. Jesus, operating in the Jewish environment and context of His time dealt first with the cause of the sickness before the sickness itself.
As we have seen in the scripture and confirmed in ministry, there is often a relationship between sin and the physical brokenness in our lives. In many instances, a person’s physical disease is often directly linked to their spiritual dis-ease. Of course, this is not the case for every sickness. However, if a particular sickness or disease is as the result of sin, forgiveness has to accompany healing.
As we have established already, this is not a new idea in Jewish thought as we observe in the couplet in the poem that’s Psalm 103, Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Psalm 103:3
In Mark 16:18 Jesus says of His disciples that we shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. And, in listing the gifts that are given to the church by the Spirit, in 1 Corinthians 12:9, the scripture declares that to some are given the gifts of healings.
There is, however, fuller treatment of the matter in James 5:13-16. The sick are encouraged to call the church leadership, Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. James 5:14. Verse 15, though, is really revealing, it establishes, late in the writings of the New Testament, that the connection between sin and sickness remains, and that the restoration of right relationship with God is connected to the healing of the sick body. “And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” James 5:15
Think on these things:
- Do you believe that there is still a connection between our spiritual condition and sickness?
- Do you genuinely believe that prayer offered in faith can bring healing to the sick?
- Have you had an experience when you were sick and were healed through the ministry of praying persons, or have you prayed for the healing of someone and seen them recover?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would be able to discern when sickness is a result of the spiritual condition and pray for and minister to the sick person appropriately.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex