John 9:2

Master, who did sin?

The disciples observed the Savior's look, resting sympathetically on the sufferer. They ask the solution of. troublesome question. It was the current opinion of the Jews that such an infliction was. punishment for some sin. Traces of this belief are often found in the Scriptures. When Job was. sufferer from an unprecedented sorrow, his friends insisted that he must have been. great sinner. The prophet, describing the sufferings of Christ, declared that the people would say, "He is smitten of God and afflicted." When Paul placed the bundle of sticks on the fire after the shipwreck, and the viper came out and fastened on his hand, the barbarians decided at once that he was. murderer or, at least,. great criminal. The world still believes that great calamities are judgments. When. great misfortune comes on. nation or an individual, the question is asked, "How did they sin?" Even Christ had said to the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda, "Go, and sin no more, lest. worse thing come upon thee."

This man.

Usually our sorrows are the direct result of our own sins. Men are broken in health, reputation, or fortune, because they have transgressed. When the drunkard has delirium tremens, or the rake is on the rack of. ruined constitution, or an outcast woman is dying in shame, they are all reaping what they have sown. The disciples knew this to be true, and did not stop to consider that the man's own sins could not have caused him to be born blind.

Or his parents.

The disciples knew well that the sins of parents are often visited upon the children. Many. child has received the legacy of. feeble constitution, or. hereditary disease, or of vicious habits, or of. shameful name, from its parents. Nor is such. question strange concerning. member of. race which has inherited the consequences of sin from Adam.