Did Christ heal Jews because he loved them?

[unknown soldier]

Recently I was discussing Christ's love for the Jews with our resident prophetess, Tam. As far as Tam is concerned Christ can do no wrong, and she can post Bible passages to prove it. She is fond of posting passages describing Christ's preaching love, mercy, and forgiveness. Who can argue with that? Christ we can assume had to have acted on his love for the Jews, and that's why he spent so much time healing them, for example.

Well, we all know what happens when we assume. So rather than assume we know what Jesus' motive was, let's see what he actually said about it. John 9:2-3 (NRSV) gives us the answer:

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 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; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. ...

Did Christ say that his love for the Jews was the reason he was to restore this man's sight?

[JehovahsWitness]

Please answer my question. Why was the man born blind?

The New World Translation puts it this way....

JOHN 9 2-4

And his disciples asked him: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, so that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered: “Neither this man sinned nor his parents, but it was so that the works of God might be made manifest in his case

So basically was born blind so he could benefit from a miraculously event, a divines healing such as Jesus was to perform on him that day.





JW

Bible stage drama : For a Certainty God Made Him Lord and Christ'—Part II (start 11"10)
https://www.jw.org/en/library/videos/#e ... rc_2_VIDEO

To learn more please go to other posts related to

MIRACLES , JESUS' MIRACLES, and MESSIANIC PROPHECY

[Willum]

I am more a fan of Jesus was used as a way to encourage the Jews to:

Stop killing people for adultery. Something that offended their Greek cohabitants.

Obey Roman law, as it was given to them by God. (Failing to mention Roman law was sponsored by Jove and his vicar Caesars.)

Pay taxes. Also not mentioning that paying tax was to a foreign power sponsored by foreign gods.

Anyway, the Jews of the day weren’t so easily fooled, and rebelled against that nonsense until the Diaspora.

[unknown soldier]

So basically was born blind so he could benefit from a miraculously event, a divines healing such as Jesus was to perform on him that day.

The passage nowhere says that the man born blind would benefit from anything. To make a man born blind in order to restore his sight as an adult sounds like something Josef Mengele would dream up. Christ tells us that he was born blind so that God’s magical powers might be shown off using the poor man as a pawn in God's cruel game.

That's not love by any stretch of the imagination--or at least it's not love by anything I can imagine.

[JehovahsWitness]

So basically was born blind so he could benefit from a miraculously event, a divines healing such as Jesus was to perform on him that day.

The passage nowhere says that the man born blind would benefit from anything.

The passage nowhere says that that God made the man blind nor does it mention magical powers.

[nobspeople]

Recently I was discussing Christ's love for the Jews with our resident prophetess, Tam. As far as Tam is concerned Christ can do no wrong, and she can post Bible passages to prove it. She is fond of posting passages describing Christ's preaching love, mercy, and forgiveness. Who can argue with that? Christ we can assume had to have acted on his love for the Jews, and that's why he spent so much time healing them, for example.

Well, we all know what happens when we assume. So rather than assume we know what Jesus' motive was, let's see what he actually said about it. John 9:2-3 (NRSV) gives us the answer:

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 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; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. ...

Did Christ say that his love for the Jews was the reason he was to restore this man's sight?

Not sure what of who he loved and why (or why not) but the fact that God USES people just to prove a point is, to me, awful. And not something a loving being would do to those he's said to love.
Surely, such a grand being can prove itself through other works that didn't distract from one's life (and yes I know there's no way to PROVE this man's blindness hindered his life, but, in this time, it sure seems logical that it would; I doubt he was elevated to fame, happiness and health by others for him being blind)?

[Overcomer]

God does not cause blindness, deafness, lameness or any illness or health problem. Those things happen because of sin. Humankind chose sin. It wasn't something God wanted us to experience which is why he told Adam and Eve NOT to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They disobeyed him. Sin entered the world and, along with that sin, came sickness.

However, God does make good things come out of suffering as he did in this case. He didn't cause the blindness, but he used it for his purpose.

What was his purpose? If you look at the context, you can see that Jesus is trying to make them understand that not all sickness is the result of personal sin, but of sin in general. The Jews mistakenly believed that ALL sickness pointed to the sick person's personal sin.

Look at it this way: It's the same as if somebody today has lung cancer. It might be the result of his personal choice to smoke heavily. But for the person who has never smoked but still gets lung cancer, it's not because she did anything wrong. It's just the result of living in a fallen world and sin in general.

But I have seen God bring good out of some pretty bad situations. He doesn't let things go to waste.

I think atheists have a far bigger problem with the issues of evil and suffering than the Christian does. After all, if the atheist thinks we are all the product of random chance, then everything just is. That means blindness just is. You can't really blame anybody for it. You have to just accept it as the result of blind (no pun intended) evolution. So why does the atheist complain about it?

[unknown soldier]

Not sure what of who he loved and why (or why not) but the fact that God USES people just to prove a point is, to me, awful.

And what could be more cruel than to force a man to live most of his life blind? We see that kind of cruelty throughout the Bible as Jehovah forces people into all kinds of terrible circumstances as pawns in his evil game of chess.

And not something a loving being would do to those he's said to love.

It's not my idea of love, but anybody can say "love" and mean whatever they want by it. I'm not impressed with talk of love especially when those who use it end up hurting people.

Surely, such a grand being can prove itself through other works that didn't distract from one's life (and yes I know there's no way to PROVE this man's blindness hindered his life, but, in this time, it sure seems logical that it would; I doubt he was elevated to fame, happiness and health by others for him being blind)?

I know from many years in the school of hard knocks that blindness is a major hindrance to a person living a full and happy life. I've never been blind, but I've known some people who are blind. Sure, you'll hear the "feel good" stories about some blind person doing amazing things, and they sometimes can, but most often they live on the margin.

Anyway, that's why I find the idea of blinding a man from birth just to eventually "cure" him in a sideshow in Jehovah's "salvation circus" to be so disgusting. If we are to ever have a truly civilized society this kind of demented thinking has got to go.

[brunumb]

God does not cause blindness, deafness, lameness or any illness or health problem. Those things happen because of sin. Humankind chose sin. It wasn't something God wanted us to experience which is why he told Adam and Eve NOT to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They disobeyed him. Sin entered the world and, along with that sin, came sickness.

Those things did not exist before sin allegedly came into the world, so how did sin actually cause them?

Sin is not a thing, so what exactly does sin came into the world mean?

How did disobedience cause sin to enter the world?

How could blindness, deafness, lameness or any illness or health problem exist without God making them possible in the first place?

How could human beings choose sin if it didn't exist and they didn't know what it meant?

If God didn't want Adam and Eve to sin and suffer the consequences, why put a tree in the garden with fruit that they couldn't eat?

[brunumb]

After all, if the atheist thinks we are all the product of random chance, then everything just is. That means blindness just is. You can't really blame anybody for it. You have to just accept it as the result of blind (no pun intended) evolution. So why does the atheist complain about it?

Yes, blindness just is and you can't blame anyone for it. It is an outcome of the fallibility of biochemistry and how organisms evolved. Any complaints are directed at the arguments claiming that God is the author of all things and where those things are bad then the buck is somehow passed to human beings.

[bjs1]

Please answer my question. Why was the man born blind?

I am not interested in your bait and switch. You asked a question in the thread: Did Christ say that his love for the Jews was the reason he was to restore this man's sight?

The answer has been given. The fact that even you are not beating that dead horse suggests the answer is conclusive.

If you want to start a new thread about why bad things happen to good people, feel free.