Why do people suffer?
One of the most vexing questions that people, regardless of their faith tradition or lack thereof, need to grapple with is. “why do people suffer?” And to be sure, it is understandable why we want concrete answers to that question. Sometimes, if we know why something occurs, we can try and prevent it from occurring.
(Assuming we have the capacity or desire to change. For instance, we know why mass shootings occur, yet our politicians and a significant portion of the American population seem unwilling to take the few steps necessary to prevent them from occurring).
There’s nothing wrong with asking why people suffer, especially when we seek to answer that question in reference to our individual pain or when our motive is to advocate for a more just and equitable society. The problem is that too often our answer to the question is filled with judgment and contributes to the suffering of those already in pain. And I want to specifically talk to my Christian peers and ask us to do better.
Sometimes, our answer to the why other people suffer is based less on caring and loving other people, but more on seeking to maintain our illusion of control over the world. We sometimes act as if believing the “right” things; about God, about the world, and about sin will act as some sort of magical spell that will protect us from harm. It Is easier to believe that those who suffer do so because they believed the “wrong” things or they sinned than it is to acknowledge that sometimes tragedy and injustice befall people that did not deserve it.
In this gospel passage, the disciples repeat a standard belief: the man they are interacting with was blind either because of his or his parent’s sins. The implication, in either case, is that this man deserves to be blind and by extension deserves to be marginalized and possibly reduced to poverty. It is easy to scoff at the disciples, who at various points in the gospels are depicted as being clueless about Jesus and the nature of God.
But my fellow Christians, many times we fall into similar theological traps assuming that we have all the answers. And that arrogance can and does cause harm. Too many of us have a similar belief system to the disciples in this story: we see someone struggling and we trace their adversity to some secret sin they or their family members must have committed.
Such a belief gives us a false sense of security. If we avoid believing or acting like that person then we will be safe from whatever adversity they may have experienced. Or we think that because the person suffering “deserved” what happened to them, then we can ridicule them, mock them, and judge them.
We use this theology as an excuse to isolate and marginalize people that we, for whatever reason, don’t think are worthy of care and compassion. Or we find it easier to blame individuals for the problems they are experiencing rather than look at the larger systems.
Imagine, for instance, if in John 9:1-3, the disciples, instead of hyper-focusing on the individual blind man and his family thought about the ways in which the empire and the religious institutions in power, made life a living hell for those with various forms of disabilities forcing them to beg to survive. In that instance, they would need to focus any judgment on the empire-an institution of power.
In lieu of trying to answer the question, “why do people suffer” in ways that assign blame to individuals, what if we decided to focus on providing care and compassion for those on the receiving end of tragedy?
What if we focused on the institutions of injustice that often either directly cause tragedies or that make it harder for people to overcome said tragedy? Or what if instead of viewing health issues as a “punishment,” (they are not) we focus on the ways in which our society actively marginalizes and isolates those experiencing illness or disabilities?
When I read the healing stories in the gospels, I don’t interpret those stories as claiming that the person who is blind, or sick, is being “punished” or that there is something “wrong” with them, but rather those stories serve as an indictment on a selfish society that refuses to care for those on the margins.
A quick note about verse 3 where Jesus says that the man was born blind “so that God's works might be revealed in him.” Jesus, as the Son of God who is actively healing the man, has firm ground to say that. For anyone else, such a statement is arrogant and ableist. We don’t need to try and explain away other people’s suffering. We can and should work to create a world where ALL are cared for and treated with dignity.
Image: Hands open, palm upward. Text: The healing stories in the gospels are not an indictment of the individual but rather of a selfish society that refuses to care for those on the margins.