The question asked by the disciples in John 9 “Who sinned?” is the questions of man personally hit with trauma. Inquiring, “What and who did the wrong!” is sourced in one who themselves has experienced the heartache associated with sin. Which one of us doesn’t question who’s at fault or to blame for sin? “Did I do wrong, did I inherit the wrong or was wrong perpetrated against me?” But what we witness in Christ’s handling of the man born blind was not about who sinned, it was a circumstance intended for the glory of God.
And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God would be displayed in him.
John 9:2-3
Who Sinned?
When our trauma and our healing journey make a circle back upon itself, it is there that we see a fount of redemptive healing. That is embracing God’s sovereign order. From this bullseye connection, healing emerges not only for us but also for those we encounter. What I have learned and witnessed is that the presence of healing often comes out of great trauma or pain. My book the Sovereign Touch tackles this very difficult truth: that the greatest and most lasting revelations of God often come out of the hardest crises of man.
Here is another truth. The places of our greatest woundedness have space for His greatest glory and presence. The deeper the cavern of need for healing, the more God can fill these areas with Himself. This is one of the positive sides of our woundedness—capacity to experience His divine healing!
Divine Healing
Our wounding in not an island unto itself. We do not incur a wound without the Lord’s provision for healing. His healing touch supersedes our wounding if we will process that journey with Him and in Him. Some of the greatest healings I have witnessed arose from some of the most devastating circumstances of wounding.
As I’ve processed this, I have seen that it is usually the wounded one who can empathize with the wounds of others. That from our pains, we become connected with the pains of humanity. And from that connection we can become a vessel to display His divine healing. We don’t have this opportunity while we resist our story, but as we process the trauma in Him redemption comes forth from Christ. It is out of our healed wounded places that healing reaches out to others.
Thank you for sharing this and enlightening us through the words of God. I felt glad when I saw people spreading God’s word.
Redemption is plunged into His Sovereignty…raised to His exaltation. John 9 says, “He noticed” this blind man. ‘Noticed’ seems like such a small word, for all that was set in motion. The ‘happenstance’ of my life, wasn’t that at all…He looked, & the healing journey began. It’s that “nothing is impossible with Him.” We live in a world constantly ‘looking for something’… It tells the heart. Trauma taken into His Sovereignty becomes gift…God is everything we looked for. I saw my blindness. The shaking & shattering of trauma & circumstance, had purpose, & I fell into the arms of His… Read more »
Wow, John! I needed this. I need Him! My Mom died about 2.5 years ago after my husband I moved across country 5 years ago to be close to family for our twins. There is a lot of abuse in my family of origin … really from my father (severe spiritual, emotional, mental, & sexual as well as some physical). Anyways, my Dad has kept a deceptive relationship with a woman behind my back (though he introduced my children to her unknowingly to me). I happened to find her in my father’s home without him there when I went over… Read more »