Who is the sinner?

John 9

[1] As he walked 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] Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents
sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in
him.

Often we have the idea that some tragedy is the result of God being against us or because of our sin. I've seen this often in comments such as "God is against homosexuals and has punished them with AIDS." That ignores the fact that most people with the virus are heterosexuals and that homosexuals who are women are one of the least affected groups.

The common wisdom of Jesus' day was that blindness or other defect reflected sin in a person's life. The burning question was not about that but whether the one blind from birth was affected by his own sin or that of his parents. The common wisdom asked the wrong question. When we use tragedy to ask who's the sinner or blame the one affected, we are like those blind fools of Jesus' day who concentrated on the wrong question.

The question is not whether AIDS is a punishment but how have we helped those in need. Are we providing resources that will effectively prevent the spread of AIDS and other STD's? That seems to me to be closer to the answer of who is saved in the last days. The passage about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the prisoner, healing the sick from Matthew 25 suggests that our task is not to call someone a sinner, but to work so that another person's life may be made better.

AIDS is but one example of how we, who claim the name of Christian, have failed to follow the one whose name we claim. We who claim to be religious should look to the harshest words in the gospels. Those words of disdain were reserved for the people who were considered most religious. The ones who were commonly know as sinners - tax collecters, prostitutes, lepers - were given words of kindness and compassion. The Saducees, the pharisees, the levites were called hypocrites, white-washed burial caves, and more.

The one who was blind from birth recieved sight. But what about those of us who have blinded ourselves and stopped our ears and shut our mouths ... the cure is in our control. We have but to listen to the word and repent of our own hypocrisy and closed minds, then go forth to heal the sick, visit the prisoner, clothe the naked, feed the hungry using our gifts and joys to meed the deep needs of the world.