Haiti And Siloam

A few days ago a friend of mine informed me of the "fact" that Haitian slaves had made a deal with the devil (so as to escape slavery) some 200 years ago. The devil apparently agreed to the deal and has ruled over that land ever since.

Somehow, my friend insinuated, the earthquake was a direct consequence of this pact with the devil.

Needless to say, my heart grieves when friends speak this way. Some may wonder at the company I keep! But ignorance of this sort is not new. Jesus dealt with the same kind of blind depravity in his own disciples.

John 9:1-7
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?"
"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Jesus' response is instructive. He didn't abandon his disciples, but he did firmly correct them without hatred or nastiness. Then he proceeded to do the true work of God, which has a lot more to do with healing the world than in condemning it. (Witness John 3:17....)

In this passage, there is only one person who sees clearly in every sense of the word. Jesus. Not by coincidence, I think, does John note that Jesus saw the man. As for the disciples, they were grievously blind in that they mistook an opportunity for grace as an opportunity for blame.

Jesus frequently called the Pharisees blind fools, but sadly all too often his disciples (then and now) are similarly stricken. The original disciples needed more time to understand Jesus and his radical message. What excuse do we as Christians have today for failing to understand?

Ironically, the reference to Siloam in this passage from John brings another passage to my mind. It is from Luke, and it is equally applicable, if not more so, to recent events in Haiti.

Luke 13:1-5
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

My friend got his dubious Haitian history from Pat Robertson, a spiritually blind televangelist. People interested in God's perspective on the situation in Haiti would do better to spend less time entertaining undocumented legends and more time studying these two passages from scripture which clearly show that Jesus took a dim view of our human tendency to draw dotted (or solid) lines between sin and people's suffering. Many towers fell in Haiti — are we so sure that those who died there were more guilty than we who live elsewhere? Jesus emphatically (can you hear his anger?) says the answer is No!

I don't know why God allowed so many Haitian people to die in one horrible minute. All I know with certainty is that God is sovereign and good — and that my job as a follower of Christ is to help alleviate the suffering that the earthquake left behind. If all followers of Christ step up to this task, the work of a sovereign and good God will indeed be displayed in our lives.