My Body Is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church

by Amy Kenny

This isn’t the only time Jesus talks about disability as a teacher and a way to reveal God to nondisabled people. When Jesus encountered a man born blind in Jerusalem, “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’” (John 9:2–3). Just like the prayerful perpetrators who approach my wheelchair with head tilts and side-glances, the disciples interpret this man solely as his disability. They are so caught up in prescribing the cause of his disability that we don’t even learn his name. Do they even know it, I wonder? He’s known as the man formerly known as blind, which sounds like a dad joke about Prince. I hate that he is not given a name, as though he is unknown and forgotten, not important enough to name. I know what it’s like to be reduced to a diagnosis, and I want this man to be given more humanity and dignity than that. So let’s call him Zechariah, which means “God remembers.” Zach is so much more than his blindness. “I am the man,” he confidently enlightens his neighbors, wanting them to know who he really is, in addition to his disability (v. 9). We also get a sense of his personality throughout the chapter: he’s not afraid to challenge authority figures, and he’s feisty. He seems like someone who would use the eye-roll and face-palm emojis with regularity. (Who doesn’t?) Zach advocates for himself w...

Wow. Write this bible verse down.