We’ve all had the experience of hearing someone talk about us when they didn’t think we could hear them. Sometimes we find ourselves pleasantly surprised — they say something good about us. Other times, though, when we overhear someone talk about us, we receive a shock. We find out something we might wish we didn’t know, and it can hurt.

            John doesn’t tell us exactly how close by the blind man sat to the disciples. Did he hear them talk about him? They ask a hurtful question, “Rabbi, who sinned so that he was born blind, this man or his parents?” Whether he heard them or not, the question makes too many assumptions. A handicapping condition does not result from someone’s sin. How could the blindness result from the man’s sin, if he was born blind?

            We often try to explain things we don’t understand. We want things to make sense. We sometimes try to make sense of suffering by assuming that something caused it. We have all heard the phrase, “Everything happens for a reason.” If we push that explanation, we realize that it doesn’t hold up. Does a child die of hunger before her first birthday for a reason? Do hurricanes happen for a reason? Especially, does God have a reason for those things? We know that belief won’t hold up, but we still clutch on to it. That’s exactly what the disciples believed. They sought a reason for the blindness, what lay behind the blindness.

            Jesus shoots down th

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