Tuesday after the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on August 22, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. John 9:1-7 (NKJV)
9:1 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. 4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. 7 And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.
Devotion
“Who sinned that such a thing should happen?” “Who is to blame for this tragedy?” “Why would God let such a thing happen?” These and other such impertinent questions seek to find someone to blame for the tragic circumstances in life, whether that blame is laid on God or our neighbor. But the Lord points out that not every terrible situation is caused by a specific sin. We live in a corrupt creation, and a corrupt creation begets more corruption. The man born blind was no more to blame for his blindness than his parents. Neither was God to blame for it. Instead, Jesus reveals that this man’s tragedy would not serve the cause of sin but the cause of God’s glory.
While He is never the cause of evil, the Lord often uses such calamity to accomplish His good and gracious will. God allowed this man to be born blind so that in time he could help demonstrate the miraculous healing power of God’s incarnate Son. In whatever circumstance of life, we should not waste time finding someone to blame for it, but pray in faith to Him who has the power to work it out for us for our own good, saying, “Thy will be done.”
Prayer: Almighty and Everlasting God, Who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve: Pour down upon us the abundance of Thy mercy, forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
