❖ Video
❖ Audio (Message)
Is Disability God’s Will?
Series “Theology of Interdependence and Disability,” Part 1 (John9:1-5)
Mari Ikeda
Last Christmas, I read Isaiah 11 to think about what peace means. At that time, I thought that true peace is not only that the strong do not exploit the weak, but also that the weak can remain weak and ask for help without fear, and that it is the natural responsibility of the strong to meet the needs of the weak. In this sense, the weak are the leaders in creating true peace.
This is very well expressed in the words of Kazuo Itoga, the father of child welfare in Japan, “Let these children (with disabilities) be the light of the world. While people with disabilities need society’s help, society can change for the better by meeting their needs. Therefore, it is not “Let the light of the world shine on these children,” but “Let these children be the light of the world.
In thinking about this, I happened to come across a book in a Christian bookstore, “A Healing Homiletic-Preaching and Disability.” by Kathy Black. The author has an internal disability herself and is a long-time Deaf college chaplain and Deaf church pastor. This book was an eye-opener for me because it taught me that there are many problems with the conventional way of reading the Bible from the perspective of people with disabilities. And I really wanted to share the contents of this book with you. So I would like to start a series of reading this book alongside the series on the Gospel of John.
Today, I will share with you my interpretation of the contents of Chapter 1. Chapter 1 begins with a fundamental question. “Is disability God’s will?” For those who were born with a disability, this question leads to the question, “Why was my disability given to me?” And for parents who discover that their child has a disability, the question is, “Why was this child given a disability?” When someone who has no disability is asked this question by a family member or friend, what would he or she say? I think it is a very difficult question. Today, I would like to share my thoughts with you using the book as a guide, and I hope that it will encourage us to talk and think with each other. I believe this is necessary to avoid repeating mistakes like the Tsukui Yamayuri En incident and the Eugenic Protection Law.
Let’s begin by reading only the first five verses of chapter 9 of John’s Gospel.
A. From the episode of John 9
1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
1. Innate disability is no one’s fault.
From biblical times to the present day, perhaps everywhere in the world, there is a belief that the hardships we experience in life are punishment for having done wrong. It is the idea of cause and effect. It is also connected to the idea of reincarnation, and people think that those who did bad things in their previous lives are being punished in this life, or that they must do good things in this life to atone for their sins in the previous life. Or, like the disciples who questioned Jesus, some believe that children bear the sins of their parents. This is due to the Old Testament teaching that the sins of forefathers are charged to their descendants several generations down the road.
But Jesus rejects all these ideas here and affirms, “It is neither his fault nor his parents’ fault that this man was born blind.” The innate disability is not the fault of anyone’s sin. So why was this person born blind? Jesus’ answer is ambiguous. What does he mean by “this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him?” That is what we will consider today, and there are a few clues in verses 4-5.
2. We are entrusted with God’s work.
Jesus says, “We must do God’s work in the daytime.” It is important to note that he says “we” and not “I”. The work of God that must appear to a person born blind is not something that Jesus does alone, but something that “we” must do. We will consider what exactly this means later today.
Let us first consider how the traditional interpretation of disability as being due to God’s will is wrong. There are three main types of mistakes.
B. Is Disability God’s will?
1. Punishment for sin?
The idea that disability is a punishment for sin is wrong, as Jesus already denied, but if you think about it more closely, this idea is wrong in a double sense.
First, God does not punish us for our sins. Jesus suffered on the cross to take our place so that God would not punish us. Therefore, to think of the suffering we experience in our lives, not just disability, as punishment from God is to despise the cross of Jesus. The atonement of Jesus’ cross is perfect. All we can do is to receive that forgiveness and mercy gratefully.
The second mistake in making disability a punishment for sin is that it is based on the idea that disability is a misfortune that has nothing to do with oneself and is inflicted only on certain people. That is the arrogance of those who do not have disabilities. The way society should be is for each person to be able to live their own life fully, regardless of whether they have a disability or not. Because society today is not like that, people with disabilities and their families and friends feel difficulties and unhappy with themselves. Also, people who do not currently have disabilities have to fear having them and feel hopeless and actually suffer socially when they do get disabilities due to illness, accident, or aging. We can create a society that is more accepting of people with any disabilities, whether it is an intellectual disability, a physical disability, or mental disability, and that is the responsibility we all have to bear.
2. A test of faith?
The second traditional interpretation is that the disability is a test to strengthen one’s faith.
An extreme example of this interpretation is to believe that if one has enough faith, one’s disability will be healed. Conversely, it would mean that if one’s disability is not healed, it is because one does not have enough faith. Thinking in this direction immediately leads to a contradiction. Simply, an amputated leg cannot be restored. There are also people who are healthy without faith and who endure difficult situations through faith. The presence or absence or strength of faith has nothing to do with the amount or magnitude of the difficulties we experience.
Even if it is not that extreme, the idea that God gives us trials for our growth is persistent. Certainly, we learn to trust God in the midst of difficulties. But this does not apply to those who are born with severe disabilities or who become difficult to think due to brain damage or dementia. God does not ask us to always be growing spiritually or faithfully, nor does He give us one challenge after another to do so. God loves us just the way we are, with all our shortcomings. If God asks us to grow, it is only in the honesty with which we receive His love.
There is this episode of Jesus and his disciples.
People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (Luke 18:15-17)
3. To prove God’s healing power?
The third traditional interpretation of disability as God’s will is the idea that disability is given for a demonstration of God’s supernatural healing power. This is an idea that arose because of that mysterious saying of Jesus, “this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” After these words, Jesus healed a blind man and made him see. Based on this episode, a simplistic interpretation is made that disability is given to prove God’s supernatural healing, but in reality, such miracles are rare.
So what was Jesus trying to say? Kathy Black’s “Theology of Interdependence” explains the answer.
C. Theology of interdependence
1. God depends on us.
In fact, the episode of Jesus healing the blind man in John 9 ends with the conclusion that society does not accept the man who has become able to see. When the blind man became able to see and began to speak powerfully in front of the crowd, people were more offended than pleased. Regretfully, Jesus’ supernatural miracles alone did not change society.
That is why I believe Jesus said, “We must do the works of God.” The “work of God” is not something that only Jesus does, but something that He cannot do alone. Jesus needs us. This is the starting point for a theology of interdependence. While we need God, God also depends on us.
But God’s dependence on us may seem to contradict the idea that God is omniscient and omnipotent. What does it mean that God is omniscient and omnipotent? Does it mean that everything that happens in the world is according to God’s plan, that everything is predestined from the beginning, and that nothing we do or don’t do can deviate from that plan? I believe that is not true.
God is omniscient and omnipotent, but being omnipotent means that He can also choose not to use His power. God could have made us like elaborate puppets that move according to His instructions, but He did not. Because to love is not to control the other person according to one’s own will, but to respect the other person’s will. God gave us the freedom to decide for ourselves whether or not to receive His love and how to live. That is a risk for God. Perhaps God is cringing, disappointed, and sometimes strongly resentful of us all year round. Still, to that extent, God has entrusted us with His love and entrusted us with the work of changing this world.
So what exactly is the work of God that Jesus entrusted to us? It is to create a society in which each person, regardless of disability, regardless of what they can or cannot do, can realize that God loves them. We may not be able to perform miracles such as making a blind person see like Jesus did, but we can change society so that the person can have the joy of living as a member of society in their own way. It is wrong to determine a person’s worth by the degree of his or her contribution to society. Rather, according to Jesus’ words earlier, those who can do nothing, like infants, are closer to God. If we pursue economic productivity and efficiency, money and material wealth, we cannot create such a society. That cannot happen without Jesus’ love working in us to resist human sin. So it is a miracle that Jesus and we work together, which cannot be done by Jesus alone, but at the same time cannot be done by us alone.
2. We need each other.
But the question remains, why doesn’t God remove the suffering that we have now before we can achieve such a society? Even if disabilities are not willed by God, they are given to some and not to many others. The burning question remains, “Why did a disability have to be given to me, why to my child?”
I think the correct answer to this question is that no one knows. It is true that God does not intend for us to suffer, and it is true that we do not help each other enough in our society, but the question “Why?” is a question that no one can answer. I think this means that we must accept the reality that none of us can understand everything about God.
So we need each other. When we don’t understand God, we still need a presence to prove to us that God’s love has not changed. We may not be able to remove suffering, but we can suffer and agonize together. And we can recall that Jesus also cried out to God on the cross, “Why have you forsaken me?” God is with us in our suffering and has never abandoned us.
Kathy Black says the following.
“We experience the presence of God through someone’s comforting touch, through the loving acceptance of another, through a hug or an invitation to table fellowship. …We are agents of God in bringing about transformation in the lives of others. We work interdependently with God to achieve well-being for ourselves and others.”
Transforming pain into healing, despair into hope, is not something we can easily do alone. And this does not only refer to when people without disabilities help people with disabilities. Sometimes people with disabilities save people without disabilities.
Henri Nouwen, a Catholic priest and Harvard professor whom I sometimes refer to, said that when he gave up his position and honors as a professor and began to live in a communal home for people with intellectual disabilities, he felt liberated from his loneliness and felt he had a home to return to. The people at the home were not interested in Nouwen’s academic achievements or social status, but were delighted with just one person, Henri. Nouwen also says that as he cared for a person who had a severe disability and was bedridden, he began to notice small changes as he tried to read the person’s will, and this became his great joy. Although it was Nouwen who provided the physical assistance, the person being assisted saved Nouwen’s heart. For Nouwen, the community of people with intellectual disabilities became a family that taught him about God’s free love.
We all need such a community. Everyone, with or without a disability, needs someone who accepts and loves them as they are, regardless of what they can or cannot do. No one can live alone without relying on others.
3. Church values human weakness and dependence.
The Bible has been recommending a way of being church that is different from the way of society since 2,000 years ago. 1 Corinthians 12 says,
20 …there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. (1 Corinthians 12:20-27)
Modern society places great value on individual independence, and dependency on someone or something is considered a sign of immaturity and weakness. Moreover, it is also believed that the more dependent one is, the more time-consuming and costly it is, and the less one can contribute to society, which leads to discrimination and exclusion.
But no one is completely independent, and no one can live without depending on someone or something. Because that is what it means to be human. People with disabilities may know better than people without disabilities what it means to be human.
And the church is a place that honors that inherent humanity. To live trusting in God means not to hide our weaknesses, but rather to be proud of them, to entrust our weaknesses to God, and to live with hope, expecting what God will do in any situation. It is in our weaknesses that God’s love works and miracles occur where we can help one another. People with disabilities may be able to perform more of those miracles than those without disabilities. God makes love happen among us through our weakness and dependence rather than through our strength and independence. The church is and must be different in society in this sense.
(Prayer) Lord, you know and love each of us well, no matter what condition we are in, what we can or cannot do, or what mistakes we have made. You want each of us to walk through life with hope and you rejoice in every step we take. May we seek You to work in our weaknesses, not in the strength and independence that society emphasizes. Send us someone to show us that You are with us so that we do not feel isolated in our own disabilities, illnesses, and sufferings. Also, use us. We pray in your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Summary
<This is part 1 in a series of readings of Kathy Black’s “A Healing Homiletic -Preaching and Disability.”> To live trusting in God means not to hide our weaknesses, but rather to be proud of them, to entrust our weaknesses to God, and to live with hope, looking forward to what God will do in any situation. Church is a community that helps one another to share with one another the joy of living in such a way. Such a way of life, such a community, values interdependence, which is the opposite of the individual independence that modern society emphasizes. People with disabilities can lead the way of interdependence. To begin the series, let’s consider together the question, “Is disability God’s will?”
For Discussion
- What does it mean, “this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him”?
- How do you answer the question, “Is disability God’s will?”