John Calvin Commentary John 9:2

"And his disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind?" — John 9:2 (ASV)

Rabbi, who has sinned, this man, or his parents? In the first place, as Scripture testifies that all the sufferings to which the human race is liable proceed from sin, whenever we see any person wretched, we cannot prevent the thought from immediately presenting itself to our minds, that the distresses which fall heavily upon him are punishments inflicted by the hand of God. But here we commonly err in three ways:

1. While everyone is ready to censure others with extreme bitterness, there are few who apply to themselves, as they ought to do, the same severity. If my brother meets with adversity, I instantly acknowledge the judgment of God; but if God chastises me with a heavier stroke, I wink at my sins. But in considering punishments, everyone ought to begin with himself, and to spare himself as little as any other person. Therefore, if we wish to be candid judges in this matter, let us learn to be quick in discerning our own evils rather than those of others.

2. Excessive severity. For no sooner is any person touched by the hand of God, than we conclude that this shows deadly hatred, and we turn small offenses into crimes, and almost despair of his salvation. On the contrary, by extenuating our sins, we scarcely think that we have committed very small offenses, when we have committed a very aggravated crime.

3. Pronouncing condemnation on all, without exception, whom God visits with the cross or with tribulation. What we have lately said is undoubtedly true, that all our distresses arise from sin; but God afflicts His own people for various reasons. For just as there are some people whose crimes He does not punish in this world, but whose punishment He delays until the future life, so that He may inflict on them more dreadful torments; so He often treats His believing people with greater severity, not because they have sinned more grievously, but so that He may mortify the sins of the flesh for the future. Sometimes, too, He does not look at their sins, but only tests their obedience, or trains them to patience. As we see, holy Job—a righteous man, and one that fears God—is miserable beyond all other people; and yet it is not on account of his sins that he is severely distressed. But the design of God was different, which was that his piety might be more fully ascertained even in adversity. They are false interpreters, therefore, who say that all afflictions, without any distinction, are sent on account of sins, as if the measure of punishments were equal, or as if God looked to nothing else in punishing people than to what every person deserves.

Therefore, there are two things here that ought to be observed:

1. Judgment begins, for the most part, at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17); and, consequently, while He passes by the wicked, He punishes His own people with severity when they have offended, and in correcting the sinful actions of the Church, His stripes are far more severe.

2. There are various reasons why He afflicts people; for He gave Peter and Paul, no less than the most wicked robbers, into the hands of the executioner. Hence we infer, that we cannot always put our finger on the causes of the punishments which people endure.

When the disciples, following the common opinion, asked what kind of sin it was that the God of heaven punished when this man was born, they did not speak as absurdly as when they asked if he sinned before he was born. And yet this question, absurd as it is, was drawn from a common opinion which prevailed at that time; for it is very evident from other passages of Scripture, that they believed the transmigration (μετεμψύχωσις) of which Pythagoras dreamed, or that souls passed from one body to another.

Hence we see that human curiosity is an exceedingly deep labyrinth, especially when presumption is added to it. They saw that some were born lame, some squint-eyed, some entirely blind, and some with a deformed body; but instead of adoring, as they ought to have done, the hidden judgments of God, they wished to have a clear reason in His works.

Thus through their rashness they fell into those childish foolish notions, thinking that a soul, when it has completed one life, passes into a new body and there endures the punishment due for the life already past. Nor are the Jews in the present day ashamed to proclaim this foolish dream in their synagogues, as if it were a revelation from heaven.

We are taught by this example that we ought to be exceedingly careful not to push our inquiries into the judgments of God beyond the measure of sobriety; otherwise, the wanderings and errors of our understanding will hurry and plunge us into dreadful gulfs.

It was truly monstrous that such a gross error should have found a place among the elect people of God, in whose midst the light of heavenly wisdom had been kindled by the Law and the Prophets.

But if God punished their presumption so severely, there is nothing better for us, when considering the works of God, than such modesty that, when the reason for them is concealed, our minds will break out into admiration, and our tongues will immediately exclaim, “Thou art righteous, O Lord, and thy judgments are right though they cannot be comprehended.”

It is not without reason that the disciples asked, Did his parents sin? For though the innocent son is not punished for his father’s fault (it is written, the soul which hath sinned shall itself die, Ezekiel 18:20), yet it is not an empty threatening that the Lord throws the crimes of the parents into the bosom of the children and revenges them to the third and fourth generation (Exodus 20:5).

Thus it frequently happens that the anger of God rests on one house for many generations; and, as He blesses the children of believers for the sake of their fathers, so He also rejects a wicked offspring, destining the children, by a just punishment, to the same ruin as their fathers.

Nor can any person complain, on this account, that he is unjustly punished for the sin of another person; for, where the grace of the Spirit is lacking, from bad crows—as the proverb says—bad eggs must be produced.

This gave the apostles reason to doubt if the Lord punished, in the son, some crime of his parents.