A few weeks ago, my son came home from school and told me, “Daddy, someone said a bad word at school.” When I asked him what the word was, he refused to say it, insisting it was “too bad.” After some gentle coaxing, he finally agreed to spell it: “F-A-T.” I told him, “You know what, buddy, that is a terrible word. Do not ever say that word.”
This got me thinking about the questions we’re afraid to ask. Have you ever had something on your mind but weren’t sure if you were “allowed” to say it? Especially in church, you might wonder, “What if my questions cause me to doubt my faith or doubt God? Can I still ask them?”
I want to promise you something today: The answer is yes. You can ask those questions—whatever they are. In fact, please ask them. That’s why we’re doing this entire series. We want you to know this is a safe place for your questions, even the ones that have caused you to doubt.
My First Encounter with Doubt
I grew up in the church and didn’t really have many doubts as a kid or teenager. But in 2006, everything changed when I watched a documentary called “Invisible Children.” It told the story of Ugandan children being literally taken from their families and forced to become soldiers. Kids as young as five were being abducted from their homes, sometimes torn from their mothers’ arms, given guns, and trained to be killers.
I remember watching this film and thinking, “How does this sort of evil exist in our world? How can someone be that bad that they would do this to children?” And then I asked the question that first brought real doubt into my life: “What does it mean about God that He would allow this sort of thing to happen to an innocent child?”
Have you ever wondered that? Have you ever wondered why God allows evil to happen?
The Man Born Blind
To begin answering this question, I want to look at a story from John chapter 9. When we pick up Jesus’s story, there’s a lot of tension between Him and the religious leaders of His day. Jesus had said some things about Himself that didn’t sit well with them—so much so that they picked up stones to hurt or kill Him. But John tells us that Jesus hid Himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
As Jesus went along, He saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
It’s a weird question that sounds inappropriate to our ears, but it gives us insight into the cultural assumptions of the day. In this culture, it was assumed that if you were born blind, it was punishment for some sin that you or your ancestors committed.
Jesus responds, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
That’s intriguing, isn’t it? Jesus is saying, “I see where you’re coming from with your question, but you’ve got your assumptions wrong. This wasn’t because of sin. This happened so that God’s power could be displayed.”
Jesus then does perhaps the strangest thing in the entire Bible. He spits on the ground, makes mud with His saliva, puts it on the man’s eyes, and tells him to go wash in the Pool of Siloam. The man obeys and comes home seeing.
You’d think everyone would be amazed, right? That they’d all want to follow Jesus after witnessing such a miracle? But that’s not what happens.
When Light Exposes Darkness
Instead, the religious leaders interrogate the man repeatedly. They can’t reconcile what happened with their theological framework. They summon his parents, who basically say, “He’s blind, not mute. Just ask him yourself!”
When they question the man again, he gives this simple but profound testimony: “I don’t know much, but here’s what I do know—I was blind, and now I see.”
But instead of celebrating this miracle, the religious leaders condemn the man. They tell him he was “steeped in sin from birth,” shame him, ridicule him, and have him thrown out of their presence.
Unfortunately, this has been the story for far too many people in church. People who have questions or experiences that don’t fit neatly into our theological boxes bring those questions to church leaders who, instead of leaning in with curiosity, dismiss or condemn them.
If that’s been your story—if you’ve been hesitant to ask your questions because you’ve been dismissed before—I want to say I’m sorry. And if you’ve kept the church, faith, or God at arm’s length because you felt thrown out when you expressed curiosity, will you give Jesus another chance?
Jesus Seeks the Outcast
Because Jesus responds so differently in this story. When He hears that the man has been thrown out, He goes and seeks him out. Jesus finds him and asks, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
“Who is he, sir?” the man asks. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
Jesus says, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
I don’t want you to miss what Jesus did here. He went and sought out a man whom the religious leaders had thrown out of their presence, and He invited that man to believe—to acknowledge that God had sent His chosen one, the Messiah, specifically to him.
“Lord, I believe,” the man said. And he worshiped Him.
In light of what we know about this man’s story, feel how powerful Jesus’s next words are: “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
To this man whose last interaction with the religious establishment was “You’re not worthy to be here,” Jesus says, “What God has just done in your life is an example of the entire purpose that I’m here.”
The Paradox of Spiritual Blindness
Some Pharisees who were with Jesus heard this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
The man living in literal darkness his whole life came to see when he encountered the Light of the World. Meanwhile, these religious leaders who thought they could see were actually living in spiritual darkness, refusing to admit they needed that same light.
Why Bad Things Happen
This brings us back to our original question: Why do bad things happen? Why does God allow evil?
Bad things happen because this world is not as it should be. God created a world that was whole, full of His love and goodness. But sin entered the world and broke what was once perfect. Sin is just anything we do that goes against the way God designed us—anything that rebels against God.
We could blame all the brokenness on Adam and Eve, except… I’ve also sinned. I’ve also contributed to this brokenness. We all have. We’ve all sinned. We’ve all contributed to the darkness. We’ve all, to some measure, brought bad into the world.
The reason bad things happen is because we live in a broken and fallen world, and suffering is a symptom of that. We all long for the world to be different than what we experience, and yet we all know deep down that we have contributed to this brokenness.
The Light Has Come
But God doesn’t want us to stay here. Before brokenness ever came into this world, God had a plan. If darkness ever entered, He knew how He would bring light back. His plan was Jesus.
Jesus came into the world as the Light of the World. On the cross, He took all of the darkness into Himself. Though He was without sin, He gave His life to take on the consequence for our sin. Jesus died to heal the brokenness.
What the New Testament teaches is that anyone who puts their trust in His death and resurrection—anyone who repents and turns away from the darkness they’ve brought and turns to Jesus—He will restore back to wholeness in God.
Paul described this new life as being a “new creation” in Christ. And when we’re made new, God sends us back into the brokenness of this world—not through sin, which leads to death, but through Christ—to draw people who are stuck in sin and brokenness to their Savior.
Living as Light in a Dark World
Every week, we end our services by saying, “Go be the church where you live, work, and play.” When we say that, we’re commissioning you to go in Christ to the brokenness and lead people to Jesus.
Trust me, as a foster parent with two foster boys in my home, every single morning when I have breakfast with these boys, I’m reminded that the world is not as it should be. And every day when I take them to school, I’m reminded that God has called me, because I know Jesus, to bring wholeness where there’s brokenness, to bring light where the world is dark, to take the kingdom of heaven and bring it a little bit nearer for the people closest to me.
And yet I get it. When you’re suffering, when you see the brokenness, when you’re in the middle of it, I can see exactly why people doubt. Jesus’s own disciples, who saw Him die and rise again, doubted! It makes sense that when we suffer, when our loved ones suffer, when our children are struggling and we pray, “God, end this! Where are you?” and He doesn’t show up in the way we want—yes, it makes sense that we would ask, “Why do bad things happen? Why would God allow this?”
Yet the story of Jesus healing the blind man reminds me that even in the pain, even in the suffering, even in the depths of the darkness, Jesus is there. He is shining His light, and He is inviting and urging us to draw near to Him and believe. And when we do, what we see is that God can redeem all things.
The God Who Loves Too Much to Let Go
Why do bad things happen? Because the world is broken by sin.
And why does God continue to allow bad things? How can He be good and continue to allow bad things to happen?
Well, because if He eliminated all the bad, let’s be honest—there wouldn’t be anything left. I know I wouldn’t be left.
God doesn’t want to get rid of all the bad because He doesn’t want to get rid of anyone. He simply loves us too much. He loves us so much that instead of getting rid of all the bad, He sent His Son into an evil world to love people who do evil things, and then to go to work eliminating the evil in them and in us.
Because that’s what a good God would do. And that’s what your heavenly Father has done.
So if you’re wrestling with questions today, bring them to Jesus. He won’t throw you out. He’s seeking you, just as He sought the blind man. And in your questions, in your doubts, in your darkness—you might just find the Light of the World waiting to open your eyes.
This blog post is adapted from a weekend message at 2|42 Community Church. If you’re wrestling with questions about the Bible or want to take your next step of faith (whether that’s accepting Christ or being baptized), I’d love to talk with you. Reach out to me or any of our pastoral team—we’re here to walk alongside you on this journey.
Check out our website for more information. We always welcome new friends to worship with us. Find a location that’s close to you!
You can learn more about our beliefs and visit our video library to explore more topics like this one. You can also check out our events page to find out what fun new things we’re doing this season.
