SERVING GOD IN A BROKEN WORLD

They were so sure of themselves, this little band of Jesus-followers. The miracles they had seen and the wonders He had performed apparently gave them a sense of importance, as if He had chosen them by virtue of some special character or assets they possessed.

So it was that as they left the temple precincts one day, Jesus came upon a man blind from birth, and His followers decided it was time for an explanation. “Teacher,” they asked Him, “why was this man born blind? On account of his parents’ sin, or his own sin?”

They were like so many in the church today, anxious to conjecture about the cause of things, even to find fault and place blame. They seemed to have forgotten that they were living in a broken world, and that in a broken world unexplainable tragedies take place. Babies die. Earthquakes strike. Children are born blind.

Jesus reminded them of this truth even as He rebuked them. “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents,” He said (an explanation they probably didn’t like very much), “but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” In other words, the issue was not so much who to blame, but rather, how God might be glorified in the situation. Not “Why?” but rather, “What now?”

“We must work the works of Him Who sent me,” Jesus continued, and immediately began to do so. He got down on the ground, made mud out of dust and spit, placed it on the man’s eyes and told him to go wash in the pool called Siloam. He went and washed, and came back miraculously able to see.

When the earth shakes and people die, it’s natural to look for reasons why. But Christ commands us not to let our curiosity paralyze us. When once we’ve asked the “Why?” question, and received whatever explanation God’s word affords (even if we don’t like it very much), it’s time to move on quickly to “What now?” What can we do now that the works of God might be displayed? How can we point to God’s goodness and mercy, and draw the wounded to their only all-sufficient Healer?

The extraordinary tragedy in Haiti should remind us of the more common tragedies among which we are called to work the works of God. Every month in America, 100,000 unborn children are killed, matching the Haitian earthquake’s toll once a month, twelve months a year. And what question do you ask? Why? Or what now?

Every hour in sub-Saharan Africa, a hundred children become orphans. Why? Or what now?

Every day on this broken world, 500,000 souls slip from this life into eternity, most of them due to old age, natural causes, the silent horrific incursion of the last enemy, death. Why? Or what now?

And every moment, all around you, marriages fail, children hurt, and people struggle and sin and suffer. It’s a broken world we live in; and what are you doing about it, for the glory of God?