In the physical world, we say that for every action, there is a reaction. If a volcano erupts, it is not a random event but, rather, it is the result of the movement of tectonic plates and the rupture of the earth’s mantle. If the mountains disappear, it is not because they are gone but, rather, there is enough humidity in the air that the haze it causes hides the mountains. We usually can discover the cause of things that happen. If there is no obvious cause, we seek to discover one, trusting that it is discoverable.

This works in the physical world, and people have long recognized this. Today, we tend to be rather scientific about things, and we generally attribute strange events to physical phenomena. In ancient times, however, when scientific methods were unknown, strange events were often attributed to the workings of the gods. When the sun was darkened and the moon turned to blood, people saw this as an act of the gods (or God). Today, however, when the sun is darkened and moon turns red, we realize that it is because of massive amounts of pollution in the air caused by either a volcano erupting or a huge forest fire. The Bible describes such events in the heavens as portents warning of impending doom, and while we, as Christians, might attribute them to physical causes, but we also understand that God can and sometimes does use the timing of the eruption of volcanos to darken the sun and so act as a warning to us. While a Christian can understand the science, we do not discount that such events are directed by God to warn us to preparedness. But even in this, we must be careful to determine if is God warning us or simply a natural phenomenon.

For every action, there is a reaction, even if it is directed by God. But we must always be careful that we do not wrongly attribute an event to a cause unless we are sure that it is the cause. In John 9, the disciples and Jesus encounter a man who was born blind, and his disciples ask Jesus, “Why is this man blind” Was it his own sin or the sin of his parents that led to his blindness?” They believed that in the case of an illness or disability there must be an identifiable cause, namely that there was some identifiable sin that resulted in the problem. The disciples were simply relying on the theology of their day which said that we can determine why bad things happen to people. It’s because they have sinned in some way, and they are being punished for that sin.

Jesus tells the disciples that it is neither the man’s sin nor the sin of his parents that caused his blindness but, rather, that his blindness was an opportunity for God to reveal his powerful work of healing. With that, Jesus proceeded to heal the blind man.

In a meeting with some fellow believers (not in the immediate area), we had a conversation about the homeless people in that city. Generally, the people in that meeting were in agreement that God calls us to help the homeless, but the desire to help was dampened by a comment of one person. He said that their homelessness was God’s judgement because of something they had done wrong. He was challenged by others in the meeting who pointed out to him that while sometimes homelessness was a result of bad decisions, for often times those who are homeless struggle from mental illness, abusive childhoods or some other thing that led to their present situation. In other words, their homelessness was a result of things that had affected them deeply and negatively, and while they didn’t respond well to those negative pressures, they could not be held entirely responsible for their situation. By saying that their homelessness was a punishment, this one person was trying to avoid the responsibility of caring for our neighbour because, after all, if someone is being punished by God, we should not really intervene. This is the implication of saying that bad things happen to us because we did something to deserve them, and we are being punished.

It is bad theology to apply the laws of the physical world to our spiritual lives. It is not always true that all the bad things that happen to us are a result of our sin. If it were, I think that most of us would have to admit that our lives should be a lot worse than they are. If it is true for every action (sin) there was a reaction (punishment), we would all be in agony all the time. When someone struggles with illness or poverty or loneliness, we must be very cautious to say that they are getting what they deserve because they have committed some sin. That would be to apply laws of science to spiritual situations, something that we must be careful not to do.

The truth is, of course, that we can identify the cause of our problems, but the cause is broad and general: bad things happen to us simply because we live in a world that is soaked in sin. The sinful nature of the world and of ourselves results in problems of all sorts: illness, disease, poverty, loneliness, and the like. Some are more affected by the sinfulness of this world than others, and there does not seem to be a pattern. We cannot say that the one who suffers more is being punished more because of his/her sin. All we can say is that this is the result of living in this world such as it is.

But we do see that there are moments of hope and healing. When Jesus healed the blind man, he rejoiced in his healing and gave God the glory. His healing was an opportunity for God to show his power. Surprisingly, the religious leaders did not like the fact that he was healed and they abandoned their cause-effect theology. They would not acknowledge that Jesus was from God even though they must have understood that only God can heal a man who was born blind. The result (the restoration of his sight) had to have had a cause, and that cause had to have been God.

In this we do learn that there is an identifiable cause and effect when we see restoration. We say that living in a world of sin causes suffering, but we can also say that when God gets involved, we see the impact of his touch. Restoration is from the hand of God, so when God works, we can see what he has done. So, to summarize, we cannot necessarily say that the cause of someone’s suffering is a result of their sin, but we can say that relief from suffering is directly caused by God’s intervening work.