No one likes to be weak. For many of us can-do American types, the worst thing we can imagine is having to be dependent on someone else. But, when they came upon a man who had been blind from his birth, why would Jesus’ disciples immediately have assumed that his helplessness was a result of sin?

This is of course the same sort of logic that Job’s friends used to explain his suffering – since they believed that God blesses righteous people and that God in His justices punishes the wicked, they jumped to the conclusion that, since Job was suffering, He must have done something to deserve it.

And this kind of thinking remains popular today. Even people who are not Hindus often speak about people having “bad karma,” meaning that their prior misdeeds have somehow brought about their present misfortunes. And there’s something very comforting in this sort of belief, for in a strange sort of way, it puts us in charge of our destiny. For if we only suffer because we do wrong, then we can shield ourselves by doing right, right?

But Jesus’ response to the disciples should set all of us straight. Sometimes, suffering comes into our lives or the lives of our loved ones regardless of whatever good or bad anyone does (John 9:3). Sometimes, people just get caught up in the painful conditions of our fallen world. Sometimes, there’s no easy explanation for why people become weak and helpless.

But Jesus’ healing of this blind man demonstrates that God can bring great good out of the greatest evil. The blind man’s disability allowed Jesus to display His identity and power as the Son of God. In the same way, our weaknesses allow God to demonstrate His power to deliver us, even as they allow others to demonstrate the love of Christ as they care for us.

So, maybe it’s okay to admit our need. Maybe it’s our weakness that brings us closer to God as we cry out to Him. Maybe it’s our helplessness that brings us closer to our Christian brothers and sisters as they help us out. And maybe it’s closeness to God, and the love we give and receive from others, that really matters most.

John 9:1-12 (ESV)

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.
2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; 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 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud
7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?”
9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.”
10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?”
11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.”
12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”