John 9. Jesus and his disciples come upon a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples ask the standard question, not that different from the question many people are asking today about the coronavirus: Teacher, whose sin was it that caused this man to be born blind? Did he sin, or did his parents? Jesus’ answer puts paid to any easy-going vending-machine theology (one sin in, one punishment out). ‘He didn’t sin,’ replied Jesus, ‘nor did his parents. It happened so that God’s works could be seen in him.’ (John 9.1–3) Jesus, in other words, doesn’t look back to a hypothetical cause which
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