Disability Theology
By
Scott Campbell, MSW, LSW
About a year ago my church began a disabilities
ministry. Part of this ministry was training the adult Sunday school classes
about disability etiquette. As I trained these classes I talked more and more
about my disability and how I reconcile that with my faith. This helped me to
put into words something I have been trying to develop for a long time, a new kind of liberation theology, disability theology. The prevailing belief within the church and mainstream society is that the two should
not go hand in hand as if one excludes the other. People with disabilities are,
of course, a minority within the body of Christ. We are not the only minority
but the difference between us and the other minorities is that the church seems to want to “fix” us. It is as if something is wrong with us if we have a disability. Let’s
face it, people with disabilities are noticeably different from everybody else. People
who do not have disabilities think of themselves as the norm. Therefore, anyone
who does not fit into that norm has a flaw that needs to be fixed.
The ideas I present in this manuscript are countercultural both to society at large and
to the church. My conclusions may startle many and bring into question some long
held beliefs. Let us not shy away from this countercultural dynamic, but rather
embrace it. Jesus Himself was countercultural.
He confronted some of the major beliefs and customs of the time such as what it really meant to be the Messiah. People were uncomfortable with Jesus’ definition of the Messiah as the suffering
servant, just as there may be people today who are uncomfortable with my comfort with my disability and my Christian faith.
A lot of people with disabilities have a problem
with the word “disability” because it reinforces the misconception that people with disabilities are literally
not able to do something. People with disabilities, for the most part, do not
consider their disability to be something that needs fixed or healed. Those without
disabilities are often the ones who seek healing for those with disabilities. This
may be out of compassion or it may be out of pity. Often when people pray for people with disabilities to be healed, it is their will they are praying for,
not God’s. They do not understand how a loving and omnipotent God could
allow people to have disabilities. I suggest that it is not the disability they
want to be taken away. It is their discomfort they want removed but they are
masking their discomfort by believing that the disability is “wrong”. Their
prayer should be for the removal of their discomfort, not the removal of the other person’s disability. When able bodied people seek healing for people with disabilities they want the bodies to be “fixed”
into their definition of normal. People with disabilities are a threat to those
without disabilities because they defy what society defines as normal. I maintain
that disability is just another part of diversity in out diverse society. Paul
emphasizes diversity within the unity of the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12. Disabilities
are just another part of that diversity.
People with disabilities in the church also bring
up issues for those without disabilities about their relationship with God. Questions
arise such as “Why would a loving God create someone with a disability?”
“If I am created in God’s image and I don’t have a disability, how can a person with a disability
also be created in God’s image?” If we ask questions like that I
might as well say if I am Caucasian created in God’s image how can any other race also be in God’s image. The problem with these questions is the mindset behind them. An assumption of God as omnipotent and therefore able to heal all disabilities which in turn should be
healed. Therefore if a disability is not healed it presumes either a lack of
power on God’s part or a lack of faith on the Christian’s part. Fiona
Campbell refers to this is “a negative theology of disability” from which Christianity needs to be rescued. It is a theology that operates out of what the English sociologist Mike Oliver calls
the ‘Personal tragedy’ model of disability. This refers to disability as a tragedy which in turn warrants pity from
the church. We must free ourselves from this negative interpretation of disability,
the assumption that a disability is a tragedy or a problem to be fixed. It
is easy for an able-bodied person to say of a person with a disability, “He/she is not like me. Therefore, I am normal and he/she is not and he/she needs to be fixed.” How easy it is for a person without a disability to define themselves as “normal”. Isn’t it hypocritical to use the world “normal” at all in a faith that values diversity
according to I Corinthians 12? If we do use the word “normal” how
do we conceptualize it? If a person with a disability is not “normal”
what about a person who is obese or has a receding hairline? If we use the word
“normal” where do we draw the line between what is normal and what is not?
Who has the right to draw that line? John C. Ward writes, “…people with disabilities move us beyond our comfort zones and confront us with
our own finitude and mortality.” People with disabilities confront society’s
comfort levels and make us all question what it is like to be truly human. Is
a person with a disability more or less human by virtue of their disability? Not
any more than they are more or less of a sinner. And what about these comfort
zones that we love so much? They are a danger to us and to our way of life. They are a danger to people without disabilities because they constrict their view
of God, creation, sin, and grace. They are a danger to people with disabilities
because they keep us trapped in our own little world, afraid of what others will think of us.
A liberation theology of disability tears down these comfort zones forcing us to confront these issues head on. Thank God for disabilities!
As Christians we characterize God as omnipotent. Of course God is all powerful but what do we really mean when we say that. What are our views of power? How do Christians define power? Is the way Christians define power different from how the world defines power? Does a person with a disability lack power by virtue of his/her disability? Society is run by power which is based on strength. Take a
look around you. We live in what has been called “the rat race”. A race which runs on power. Power defined
by one’s job or one’s position in society. Power
is also defined by one’s physical appearance. The big strong ones are powerful
while the small weak ones are crushed. “To possess power is
to be on top of someone else…It is to be above the common folk, to flex the muscles of our brains, bodies, or ideologies
and to win”. Solomon said that “power
is on the side of the oppressors”. Our society makes us
prisoners to this kind of power because it reinforces our yearning to possess it. Our
yearning to be “number one”. There is nothing wrong with being the
best when the means to that end is improving one’s self. However, there
is something wrong with being the best when one brings down other people to do it. The
“common folk” do not count in this kind of power driven society and those with disabilities count even less. This is characterized by the success of so-called “reality
television”. The world looks to these shows for their definition of reality. Shows like “Survivor” and “The Bachelor/ Bachelorette”. These shows are all based on competition at the heart of which is power. The basis of these shows is to make everyone else fall so that others can be on top. To quote one of my foster parents, “It makes
people believe everything comes with a price”. Those
who are not strong enough, fast enough, or attractive enough are eliminated, much like they were in Nazi Germany. Of course the only difference is that those who are eliminated are not killed. These shows portray a false dichotomy of power. Look at the
people on these shows. All are young, attractive, strong, and without disabilities. Is this the kind of reality we want to live in?
If these “reality” shows are supposed to be representative of society then where are the representatives
for the people with disabilities which, by the way, constitutes the largest minority group in America? People with disabilities are defined according to what
society says their limitations are. Society, by its actions and attitudes, strips
people with disabilities of their power according to its own definition of normality.
Society’s definition of normality is based on William Rankin’s “Five
Rules of the World”: 1) you must not have anything wrong with you 2) if
you do, you must get over it immediately, do not be a cry baby or ask for help 3) if you can’t get over it pretend you
did 4) if you can’t pretend just don’t show up because it will be too painful for the rest of us 5) if you insist
on showing up, at least have the decency to be ashamed. This sounds pretty harsh but
these are indeed the rules of the world we live in. They come out of people’s
striving for perfection. In this drive for perfection humans, particularly in
the western culture, create a dog-eat-dog society in which the drive to be number one supersedes everything else. This is what leads to comparing ourselves to others in order to make sure that we are number one. For people who obviously do not fit in, i.e. people with disabilities, this can lead
to a sense of failure because society is telling us we cannot measure up because we are not like the rest of them.
Society expects us to market ourselves. We
live under what has been called “The American Fairy Tale”. In this
fairy tale human value is based on productivity. The myth behind this fairy tale
is “if I fail at what I do, I fail at what I am”. Thus any mistake,
or facet of something that we are unable to do based on ability turns us into failures.
Of course, this is to be expected in the work place but what about society in general.
What about those with disabilities who do not produce according to society’s standards? As portrayed by “reality television” they are castaways, losers. A society where only the strong survive. The “winners”
of these reality tv shows are shown to be perfect humanity, indeed, idols which others should live up to. Reality television makes an idol of human ability and human knowledge which become false gods that society
worships. Consider “The Bachelor/Bachelorette”, not only are these
humans in competition but other human beings are the commodity they are competing for.
These other human beings devalue themselves by setting themselves up as prizes to be won. Under this system human beings are expected to market themselves.
This means looking better than the next person. How can a person with
a disability market himself/herself against able bodied people particularly in a society that will consistently chose the
able bodied person? The answer is, they can’t. People with disabilities do not have marketable bodies. But the solution does not lie in the person’s with a disability ability
to conform to the marketing standards of an able bodied society. If that were
so, people with disabilities would consistently fail. The standards must be changed. People must be made aware of the absurdity of these standards. People with disabilities must believe for themselves that they are not subject to these standards and live
their lives accordingly. This requires a daily reminder of these facts and of
the promise that God accepts us for who we are, as we are.
People who are minorities, in this case people with disabilties, assimilate the value
system of the group that is in the majority. We come to believe, falsely,
that we have to compete for attention from peers and members of the opposite sex. This,
again, is perpetuated by reality television which perpetuates this false belief by turning everything into a competition. This competition becomes a part of our value system because it is in the value system
of the majority. People without disabilities want us to believe that everything
in life is, in fact, based on competition and as a result people with disabilities are placed in a second class rule because
they cannot compete with able bodied people, at least not according to this value system.
How easy it is for all of us to get sucked into his false value system and believe it as truth. We do not have to compete because God’s truth is that regardless of our appearance, our apparent
weaknesses or infirmities, the labels we are given by other people; God loves
each one of us as His unique creation
Reality based
on strength and power is a façade and we are all pawns in this competition game.
We are called not to compete. We are called not to show favoritism. This is not reality. Jesus on the cross is the reality. What
happens when we are not “number one” or when we are powerless? We
are vulnerable. Human power is created out of the fear of vulnerability. True power is vulnerable to pain and death. Any power that
is not vulnerable to pain and death is not true power because there is no room for growth.
Power that does not embrace vulnerability is stagnate. People with
disabilities are vulnerable. We are not vulnerable by virtue of our physical
condition. We are vulnerable because of the way society responds to our physical
condition. We are vulnerable to the world’s definition of power described
above. We are vulnerable to pity by this same world because we do not fit their
definition of power. We are vulnerable to society’s and the church’s
definitions of who we are and what we should be. When we do not fit their definition
of power they respond with pity, ridicule, discomfort or the desire to have us healed.
Christians have desired for me to be healed because I do not fit their definition of power which makes them uncomfortable. Christians are uncomfortable with the fact that I am a Christian and I have a disability
and I can easily rectify the two. The two do not contradict each other. My disability is a gift because it is the manifestation of the grace of God in my
life and the grace of God is sufficient for me. When Christians have approached me about being healed from my disability I
have often wondered what they really desired to be healed, my disability or their discomfort.
Jesus Christ became vulnerable even to death on a cross, the ultimate form of disability. The crucified Jesus is the revelation of a God self-identified with the vulnerable and outsiders of the
world. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus
is revealed as the Son of God, as the vulnerable, crucified one. The crucified Jesus is the
God who identifies with people with disabilities. The crucified Christ
represents the disabled God.
When people
talk about people with disabilities they seem to use demeaning language although without meaning to. They use words and phrases like “confined to a wheelchair”.
What they do not realize is that this is an oxymoron which cannot be true. No
one is confined to their wheelchair. As a matter of fact it is because of the
wheelchair that they are not confined for the wheelchair enables them to be mobile.
Right or wrong, people with disabilities are often identified by their wheelchair.
The wheelchair gives away the fact that they have a disability just as Christ’s crucifixion defined him as a
person with a disability. Was Jesus confined to the cross? Could he have taken himself down? Of
course he could have but the cross fulfilled his destiny. Christ’s disability
made it possible for us to be able. Just as Jesus was disabled on a cross but
not confined to a cross, it is also true that a person may be disabled in a wheelchair but not confined to one.
The disabled God/The crucified Christ
Jesus
Christ came into the world to die. This was His purpose. All of history revolves around the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, or what Karl Barth
called “the event” of Jesus Christ. The Jesus that we know is presented
to us in the Gospel narratives and the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus is the culmination of the Gospel narratives. All of history revolves around this event. Therefore
we should start our theology with the crucified Christ and the God he makes known to us through the crucifixion. Who is this God made known
to us through the crucifixion? It is a God that identifies with the powerless
and the suffering. It is a God who knows what it is like to be disabled.
The crucified
Christ is the physical representation of the disabled God. The disabled God is
the God who identifies with the powerless. Not only does this God identify with
the powerless, the God represented in the crucifixion completely redefines what power is.
The disabled God is the God who identifies with the outcasts of society who do not fit society’s definition of
power. The disabled God is the crucified Christ who has been rejected by his
peers because he does not fit their concept of power. The disabled God
is not powerless. As a matter of fact the disabled God represents the power of
Christ to save. Even the resurrected Christ still bears the scars of the disability. We are not healed by Jesus’ power but by his stripes. A Jesus who says “Look
at my hands and feet. Touch my side. I
know what it’s like to be disabled too.” John Ward states,
“The impaired hands,
feet and side of Christ usually taken as the cost of human sin upon the suffering Jesus, become signs by which his disciples,
then and now, can recognise their own connection to God. The signs of impairment become signs of solidarity with human brokenness
and so signs of salvation.” Jesus
readily became disabled for us. We are now whole because “…God has reconciled (us) by Christ’s physical body through death”. Jesus’ disability does
not take away from His divinity. On the contrary, it is Jesus’ silent suffering
that paradoxically confirms his identity as the true Messiah. It is Jesus’ sacrifice
that saves. It is Jesus’ disability that makes us all able. Able to be whole. Able to receive salvation. The crucifixion is the culmination of Jesus’ work as savior of the world. Burton Copper states that Jesus on the cross is God disabled. A God made weak and vulnerable to worldly powers because of the perfection of divine love. The crucified Christ is the perfection of love
and love is perfected in and through Jesus’ disability on the cross.
Karl Barth said that God confronts humanity through Christ. I would go even further to
say that God confronts humanity specifically through the crucified Christ. For
in and through the crucified Christ, God becomes disabled and makes Himself vulnerable to suffering. In the crucified Christ God is made fully human. Jesus
Christ is the only way we can fully know God and fully know humanity. Christ
embraces suffering. Christ embraces disability.
For Christ “…did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking
the very nature of a servant (indeed a suffering servant), being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on
a cross. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…”. I think the key word in this
passage is “Therefore”. Christ became exalted because he embraced
disability and death on the cross.
The crucified
Christ is also the exalted and glorified Christ. As my teacher Dr. John Wallhausser
says, the crucified Christ is literally lifted up. Jesus is not glorified in
spite of the crucifixion but because of it, just as we are not saved in spite of the crucifixion but because of it. “But we see Jesus…now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death”. Without the suffering of the
crucifixion there is no glory of the resurrection. As Dr. Wallhausser also said,
“There is no Easter Sunday without Good Friday”. “The power of the risen Christ always comes hand
in hand …(with) the sufferings of the crucified Christ”. Christ’s deity reveals itself in the humiliation
of the cross. The
glory of Christ followed His suffering and could not have been possible without His suffering. Jesus went to the cross with
a heavy heart for the lost but not with a sad heart. The writer of Hebrews states
that Jesus endured the cross for joy and Christ was made the perfect savior through suffering. Christ’s suffering validated
who He claimed to be and it validated His purpose here on earth.
Isaiah 53 gives
us some incredible images of the real power of Jesus and there are some interesting correlations between the description of
Jesus in this passage and how the world views people with disabilities. Jesus
had no beauty and his appearance was not attractive (v.2b). This world is so
often drawn to beauty and strength. Yet consider the amount of people who flocked
to Jesus had and still flock to Him in spite of that unattractive appearance. He
was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering(v.3). As His followers, we too
are called to be familiar with suffering. Just as Jesus was despised and rejected,
so people with disabilities are often rejected by peers. The people “considered
(Jesus) stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted”(v.4b). People with
disabilities are often considered by society to be cursed or punished by God due to their disability. It was the Lord’s will to cause Jesus to suffer, just as it is God’s will that some people
have disabilities(v.10). Jesus’ suffering was not a bad thing. It is His suffering that saves us. Suffering actually leads
to good things. After the suffering we see the light of life and are satisfied.(v.11) This is the great paradox, that suffering does not lead us to want. It actually leads us to fulfillment. Jesus had a great reward
because he suffered not in spite of it. (v.12) We bypass suffering to get to glory.
We have to go through suffering to get to glory. Through Christ’s
suffering we have assurance that God is for us. Suffering and patient
endurance are ours in Christ Jesus. I bear on my body the marks of Christ. My disability is the representation of those marks. We are called to see Christ crucified and to recognize Christ’s suffering in
our own difficulties and struggles.
What do we look
for in a Messiah? Paul states that “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks
look for wisdom” this could be a parallel to the world look for strength based Messiah,
“but we preach Christ crucified…the power of God”. The
world views the crucifixion as weakness but “the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength”. Again, the traditional concepts of strength and weakness are reversed. Where is the glory in this? Where is the glory in Jesus’
crucifixion? Ironically, the glory is in the crucifixion itself. Jesus is glorified because of and through the crucifixion. The
crucifixion itself literally raises Jesus up. He is glorified through and
because of his disability on the cross. That is why Paul says in Romans
8:17 that to be heirs with Christ, to share in his glory, means to share in his suffering.
The moment of His greatest weakness, the moment of His disability is the defining moment for humanity. Christ’s divinity is manifested in His disability, not in spite of it but because of it. Jesus’ kingship is His
by virtue of His death and suffering. It is this suffering that identifies Jesus
of Nazareth as the Christ. It was because the Lamb of Judah had been slain that
He triumphed over evil and was able to read the scroll and open the seals leading to judgment.
The crucifixion gave Jesus power over all.
Jesus Christ is near us in the powerlessness
of humiliation and the cross. Jesus Christ becomes vulnerable to suffering so
that the chasm between God and humanity may be filled. Humans live in a myth
of power. We want to kid ourselves in believing we have power when we are powerless
on our own to overcome the one thing that keeps us from true life, sin. Power
is a façade. Power is fleeting. Even
the muscles we build up will all one day turn to flubber. We are powerless to
overcome our own sin. When Jesus became human He took our powerlessness which
became manifested in Jesus’ disability on the cross and through that disability received the power from God the Father
to overcome sin. The fact that Jesus died on
the cross does not mean He was powerless at that moment. On the contrary, in
the incarnation and in the cross God’s omnipotence is not surrendered but manifested. God is completely God in the
passion of His Son.
When we speak of the Disabled
God we open ourselves up to a deeper understanding God's love. The Disabled
God represented in the crucifixion is the fulfilment of God’s power and love which occur through Christ’s inability
on the cross. We can be open to this deeper understanding or
close ourselves off from it. All people are human and need God’s love no
matter what their disability. This is difficult to understand in a society based
on competition. A society in which there exist “a hierarchy of human being”. This hierarchy decides who is worthy of being human and who is not. The Disabled God rids us of all hierarchy’s and competition and places all people on a level playing
field.
We have taken a look at how society defines power. Now let us look at how the Bible deals with power.
Society says that we are either one or the other, strong or weak. Those
who are strong survive. Those who are weak do not. The beauty of the biblical portrayal of power is that the Bible switches that around. The strong are made weak and the weak are made strong. We
can build our muscles all we want and I do not have anything against building muscles.
What I have a problem with is when our physical strength is supposed to define us as a person. No matter how much we build our muscles up our bodies are still frail.
We are created frail both physically and spiritually to help us reach the realization that we are in need of a Savior. Power through weakness is the crux of disability theology. This flies in the face of the world’s definition of power which is based on strength. If you don’t have the right look, the right body, you do not have the power. The church is subjected to this too. I have gone to church
many times and I have noticed how uncomfortable I make people because I do not fit their view of what a Christian, or even
a “normal” person should be. The church and the world are in need
of a paradigm shift.
The Apostle Paul says in II Corinthians 4:7-9
“We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned;
struck down but not destroyed”. As jars of clay we experience sadness,
tears, troubles, weaknesses and fears. But we are not destroyed because of the
heavenly treasure within us. Christianity is not the removal of weaknesses. It is the manifestation of divine power through weaknesses. Our weaknesses, struggles, and sufferings open us to Christ’s abundant grace and allow his life to
be revealed in our bodies. What we have here is the paradigm
shift mentioned above. A shift from power through strength to power through weakness. How can this be? How can power
come through weakness? The best example of this is the crucified Christ. Jesus’ power of salvation is the result of his crucifixion. The greatest manifestation of his power, his whole purpose for coming into the world, was in his greatest
moment of weakness on the cross. God’s power does not work in the life
of a person with a disability in spite of the disability but because of and through the disability. My teacher, Dr. John Wallhausser used to say that the
expected messiah comes but does not come as expected. When we want a savior we
want a victorious king. Someone who will take away all of our problems and suffering. However, the savior comes as the suffering servant, the crucified messiah for it is
only as the suffering servant that Christ can enter human suffering
The church
and society seldom use images of God that embrace weakness. However, the
crucified Christ is a perfect example of one of these images. The power of the
physically disabling wounds of Christ as the image of the Disabled God is identified by Nancy Eiesland as a positive image
for people whose bodies are "nonconventional". It reveals that as Jesus embodies true personhood, so "full personhood is fully
compatible with the experience of disability."
However, I take issue with Eiesland in her focus on the resurrected Christ. She seems to want to conveniently skip over the crucified Christ.
As my theology professor Dr. John Wallhausser was so fond of saying, “There is no Easter Sunday without Good
Friday”. The closest that Eiesland comes to the Crucifixion is the Eucharist. She does state that the Eucharist leads us to the disabled God. This is true in that the Eucharist
leads us directly to the crucifixion which Eiesland seems to conveniently skip over when she states that “In presenting
his impaired hands and feet… the resurrected Jesus is revealed as the disabled God”. Eiesland makes it very clear
that she is uncomfortable with the idea of what she calls “virtuous suffering”.
She claims that interpretations of biblical stories such as Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” present a
theology of disability as a “temporary affliction that must be endured to gain heavenly rewards”. The problem here is that she
is equivocating affliction with suffering and my stance is that the are not the same.
I deny that I am afflicted with cerebral palsy but I do not deny that I suffer as a result of it. I do not view my suffering as a “temporary affliction that must be endured”. I view my physical suffering as part of the gift. I do not
see my suffering as taken away in heaven, but the meaning of my suffering is fulfilled in heaven. By attempting to debase the importance of suffering, Eiesland conveniently skips over the crucifixion to
the resurrection. She does not want to go through the suffering to get to the
disabled God but I contend that is precisely where the disabled God is, in the suffering of the crucifixion. Paul says that suffering produces perserverance; perserverance character; and character hope. Why then should we shy away
from suffering, even from virtuous suffering?
Paul goes
on to say in II Corinthians 12:7-10 “To keep me from becoming conceited
because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given to me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment
me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me ‘My grace is sufficient for you for power is made perfect in weakness’. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s
power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses,
in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak
then I am strong.” Paul’s thorn kept him dependent on divine grace. We do not know exactly what Paul’s “thorn” was. He could be referring to his speech impediment or his poor eyesight which resulted from his conversion
experience. If it was his eyesight Paul’s blindness was the result of his
encounter with the Christ, not in spite of it. Paul’s physical blindness coincides with the removal of his spiritual
blindness and is a sign of his new life. It is also important
to note that Paul’s blindness is never healed although he does seem to recover some of it. Thus Paul receives a disability, not a healing, as a result of his encounter with Christ and not in spite
of that encounter. The power of Christ resides in Paul’s weakness or inability. Grace
will rest on believers who accept their difficulties and weaknesses for the Gospel’s sake. How many times have I
not wanted to have a disability? There are things in my life that would be easier
without it but who would I be without my disability. I cannot separate the two. While it is true that I would have had many of the same life experiences if I did
not have a disability, the way I reacted to those life experiences would be considerably different. Thus I would not be the same person I am today. I don’t
need to be healed. Having the disability makes me dependent upon grace,
dependent on God’s power and not my own because “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”
Jesus himself
redefined what power is. Jesus is the most powerful person to ever walk the face
of the earth but He rejected worldly power. Worldly power is coercive power,
the object of which is to win a prize. The Jesus of the gospels rejects coercive
power. At the beginning of Jesus’
ministry He is offered power during His temptation. As soon as Jesus is baptized
He is led into the wilderness to be tempted. Mark 1:12
states that after being baptized “At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert…” The first order of business
in Jesus’ ministry is suffering. This does not sound very powerful by the
world’s standards but Jesus’ temptation legitimized who he was. It
was His rejection of strength and power that enabled Him to be savior. When
Jesus was tempted by Satan He was offered every form of earthly power known to humankind and He rejected all of them. Jesus knew what power really was even from the very beginning of His ministry. He knew he had the power to do whatever He wished.
He had an entire heavenly army at His disposal that He could command at any time.
He traded in the easy worldly view of power for a much more difficult road. Jesus
knew that His road to power was through suffering. Jesus knew that His road to
power was through weakness. Jesus paved this road to power with His blood shed
on the cross. Through His weakness we can reject earthly power also. We follow Jesus down the road to real power; the power that only comes through Him. Jesus was most powerful when He was in His weakest moment, hanging on the cross. Jesus was our “weakest link” and by being that “weakest link” Jesus redefined strength
and power.
Would Jesus
rebuke our definitions of power? Would Jesus rebuke our criteria for what it
is to be a man or a woman? Is a person with a disability less of a man or a woman
because of the disability? We as a society and as a Church need to redefine what
it is to be a man or a woman. We have become saturated with the typical strength
paradigm. A man must be strong, athletic, and independent. A woman must be pretty and petite. A girl in a wheelchair
with drool coming out of her mouth does not exactly fit society’s definition of beauty.
Does a disability decrease these virtues? Of course if you were to ask
a person with a disability that question the answer would come back as an empathic NO!
What do others think? Do they see a person in a wheelchair and automatically
think that they are less than a man or a woman without the use of their legs?
Power comes
through suffering not in spite of it. In Mark 10:35-38, James and John ask Jesus if they can sit on either side of him in
heaven. Their minds are focused on the definition of power as one of strength
and glory. Jesus’ response is to ask them if they can drink of the same
cup Jesus must drink from. Eagerly, they respond “we can.” Do they even know what Jesus is talking about? Do they know
that Jesus’ cup is his crucifixion? They want the glory but they do not
understand that the path to glory is through suffering. Suffering for God
makes it easier for us to walk away from sin for we are closer to God and closer to the cross of Christ, the cross of suffering. The cross of suffering, both Jesus’ cross and our cross brings glory. Through the cross and through the rejection of the world’s view of power we participate in the sufferings
of Christ, including Christ’s disability on the cross so that we may be overjoyed when Christ’s glory is revealed.
Sometimes this
is not good enough for us. It certainly was not good enough for Peter during
his time with Jesus. Peter, like most people in his day, was looking for a strong
military messiah to overthrow the Romans. The disciples were not that different
from us today. They had the same view of power and strength. They wanted physical power because they assumed that was what they needed to rise above their mundane existence. A lot is made of Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Christ in Mark 8:27-33
but what does Peter’s confession really mean? He was looking for a victorious
warrior. Peter’s confession has been called the turning point of the gospel
of Mark because immediately after Peter’s confession Jesus talks of being crucified.
Notice the correlation Jesus makes between his own crucifixion and Peter’s declaration of Jesus’ power. The power comes from the crucifixion. Peter
does not understand that and thus he is rebuked by Jesus.
Many theologians
and biblical scholars have written about Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ.
A couple of their points concern us here. In Matthew’s gospel Peter’s
confession occurs in 16:16. Right
after this, beginning in verse 21, Jesus begins telling the disciples about his pending death and suffering. The timing of this is no accident as scholars have pointed out. Peter’s
confession that Jesus is the Christ centers on the belief he and the apostles held that the Christ was to be a triumphant
warrior who would overthrow the Roman occupation. It is difficult if not impossible
for Peter to draw the connection between Christ and the crucifixion. In Peter’s
mind the Christ cannot suffer or he would not be the Christ. Jesus is trying
to stress the very opposite, that suffering is indeed what makes him the Christ. Jesus
is not the Christ in spite of his suffering but because of it. Jesus confronts
Peter’s idea of power. Jesus even goes so far as to say “get behind
me Satan”, thus equivocating Peter’s conception of power and strength with the world’s conception.
We are
all drawn to strength. This is what makes us feel we are not good enough as people
with disabilities. Society has told us that, because we have disabilities
we are weak and therefore undesirable. The ancient Israelites were drawn to strength
as evidenced by their desire for a king. What do we mean when we talk about strength
and weakness? Let us first define what these two words mean. Webster defines strength as “the power of exerting muscular force; power; vigor” “potency”
“effective” “effectual”. Webster defines weakness as
“state of lacking physical strength or endurance” “lacking moral or mental strength or firmness” “inadequate or unsatisfactory, faulty”.
It usually would not occur to me to equate Webster’s definitions with worldly definitions but look at the words
Webster uses for strength like “effectual”. So according to this
definition humans cannot be effective in daily life with what are considered to be their weaknesses. Also note that the word “power” is used in the definition of strength but not in that of weakness,
not even pertaining to the lack of power. Power is always associated with strength. But, again, Paul is reversing this by associating power with weakness. Power is made perfect in weakness. When Paul speaks of strength and weakness, the Greek words he uses, “dunamis”
and “astheneiai” actually mean “ability” and “inability” respectively. God’s power is made perfect in our inability. Our inability does not make us imperfect when we accept God’s power, which is
inherent in that inability.
How do we live
by a power that comes from weakness? Power comes through weakness by grace. The strong believe they have no need of grace and therefore are incapable of mercy. They are living in the myth of power. The
strong do not allow themselves to be vulnerable to love and therefore are incapable of love.
The weak are vulnerable and receive grace because it is unmerited. Our
weakness makes us realize our dependency on God and it is our dependency on God which gives us power. Jesus’ power comes through his weakness. It was the
moment of Jesus’ most disabling weakness that he was the most powerful. It
is the power of Jesus’ weakness on the cross that saves. Paul says
in 1 Corinthians 1:18 that there are those who do not understand this and it sounds like foolishness but the cross is
power, the power of God. The Jews had the prophecy of the suffering Messiah,
but despite this prophecy the crucified Christ was still a stumbling block to them. It can be hard to see power in weakness even when we know that is where we need
to look for it. It sounded like foolishness in Paul’s time and it sounds
like foolishness today because society has taught us to boast in our strength and be ashamed of our weakness. However, Paul also says in Galatians, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” and the cross is the epitome of power through weakness. Paul is boasting about weakness, not about strength. Power
is made known, above all, in the weakness of the cross of Jesus. Paul states in II Corinthians
13:4 “For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s
power. Likewise we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with
him to serve (God)”. The core of Christianity, the crucifixion, is weakness. Jesus, in His power, became weak. Indeed
it was in His weakest and most vulnerable state on the cross when He was His most powerful for it is the power of His sacrifice
that saves. It is that power, that weakness, that saves us. This is the paradigm shift. Power through weakness. This is why we boast in our weakness.
The part of
the definition of weakness that interests me is “inadequate or unsatisfactory, faulty”. Consider Moses. When he was called by God how much did he
stress his inadequacy? Exodus 4:10-11 states, “Moses said to the Lord ‘O
Lord I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue’. The Lord said to him,
‘Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” Moses was emphasizing his weakness as an excuse to not do what God had called him
to do. Look at God’s answer. In
this verse the Lord seems not to be so interested in buying into Moses’ ‘disability negativity’, but instead
adopts a ‘so what’ attitude. Moses is reminded that the Lord was
not only involved in the creative process of ‘disability’, but that it is his ‘disability’ in particular
that ‘marks’ him for the role to which he is called. How uncomfortable does that make us? The idea that God gives people disabilities! Why? To burden us? No, to empower us with a purpose! Empower us with His power! Weakness actually empowers us. In this story God refutes “ableist normativity”. The idea that people without disabilities are “normal” which, in turn, suggests that people
with disabilities are some how flawed. Disability is a part of a diverse creation
and God calls Moses not in spite of his disability but because of it.
People in mainstream
society like to boast of their strength. From athletes to celebrities to reality
television people boast in their strength. They like to advertise how strong
or athletic they are and they claim that makes them attractive. The sad part
is that we, as a society, buy into that. We want what they have because they
boast about it. “Look at me. I
am strong and attractive”. Of course they do this non verbally too with
the way they dress and behave. This boasting of strength sets up a world of competition,
especially among men. Men in today’s society are competing with one another
to be the strongest and best looking. Of course the prize is the affections of
women. Men compete for these affections and those who are not strong and attractive
by society’s standards cannot compete. I cannot boast about my body the
way other men boast about theirs. But I can boast in my weakness by following
the example of Paul.
Society
wants us to believe that a person’s worth is based on accomplishments, particularly physical accomplishments, but “a person's worth is not found in what they can do,
or can not do, but in the fact that they are loved in the present.” Paul
says on II Corinthians 11 that if the world wants to boast in its strength we can boast in our weakness. “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”(11:30) How does the world boast? Through strengths,
good looks, riches, image. And we must agree that these things are beautiful
but is that all we have to boast about? What about boasting about our weakness? How crazy does that sound? Yet another
example of the paradigm shift. When we boast about our weakness Christ is glorified. I must say this sounds hard. Especially
when there is such a great temptation to compare myself to others, but to do that makes me unwise. I will boast of me and who I am because I am fearfully and wonderfully made in weakness, in God’s
image, and in that image, that disabled image, Christ is glorified. We don’t
have to look good and be strong for Christ to be glorified in us. Christ’s
greatest glorification came in his weakness, on the cross. Disability theology
is a theology of the crucified Christ. Like Paul we all must say, “May
I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”. The crucified Christ
is the disabled Christ. Paul is boasting in his disability and in Christ’s
disability which saves us. How do we boast about our weaknesses? We do this by not being afraid of people, not being afraid of going out in public, not comparing ourselves
to others, and not wishing we did not have these weaknesses. I will
rejoice in my weakness and my suffering: “…we also rejoice in our
sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance,
character; and character, hope.” Therefore my suffering and
who I am in Christ are inseperable and the hope I have in Christ will not disappoint me.
My suffering, my character, my entire persona, and indeed the hope I have in Christ are all interrelated and one cannot
exist without the full participation of the others.
I will join
Paul in boasting of my weakness because God is for the weak. God says in Psalms
12:5 “ ‘Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise’ says the
Lord, ‘I will protect them from those who malign them’”. The
weak are oppressed by a society that values strength over weakness. The strong
may assume that the Lord is with them because, after all, they deserve God’s grace because they are strong and is not
the very presence of their strength evidence of God’s grace. This is obviously
a misunderstanding of the undeserving quality of grace. Grace, by definition,
is undeserved. The strong may assume that they are better than the weak but God
takes what the world believes should be the correct order, strong over weak, and reverses it.
The last shall be first and the first shall be last. The weak are strong because
they get their strength from God. “God chose the weak things
of the world to shame the strong” so that no one may boast. People like to boast about
their strength and their power. Men and women like to go on reality television
and say “look at me, I’m better than anyone else here”. Men
compete in the dating scene based on their strength. People compete to be the
best and the “weakest link” is rejected. These things are facades
because one day this strength will fade and all that will be left is the person you are on the inside.
One type of competition is comparing ourselves
to others. For people with disabilities our physical condition determines how we view the social and physical world. It is a great temptation to compare oneself to others. A basic human need is self-esteem. Unfortunately
we tend to look for our self-esteem in all the wrong places. I know I am guilty
of it. We have so many questions. Do
I compare to others? Am I as good as others? Am I good enough? Am I defective in some way? Am I less of a man or a woman
because I have a disability? I often think to myself “if only I were just
like that person I would be happy”. Usually “that person” is
good looking, strong, popular, or they seem to have it all together. When I see
that “that person” has these things I begin to think that I do not. I
cannot count how many times I have asked for prayer in church in the midst of my crying and feeling sorry for myself because
of my belief that I do not measure up to other men. It is so easy for me to compare
myself to other men and believe that I do not measure up to them and therefore I cannot attract the beautiful women they seem
to attract therefore I am cursed to be single forever because of my disability. This
spiral of negative thoughts drags me down further and further into depression. I
need to stop the spiral.
Paul gives a remedy to this depression when he
says in II Corinthians 4:16 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day”. Everything in the world is based on outward appearances. It’s
easy to think that I can’t compete with other men because I don’t look like them, walk like them, talk like them. It is a competition. A competition set
up by survival of the fittest. This is festered by reality television that feeds
into the myth that you are not worth anything if you do not measure up to a certain standard.
If “reality television” really is realistic none of us would
be allowed to have weaknesses. Do we really live in a world that is “dog
eat dog” or have we made it that way? Where are the minorities in these
shows? Is this really the type of world we want to live in? This also takes place within the church and the church needs to face this head on. No more just talking about love. No more just praying and
fellowshipping only when something is wrong. But coming together all the time. We are all wasting away. I admit that
I am sometimes taken in by the competitiveness. When I compare myself with other
men it is easy for me to think that I do not measure up in terms of appearance, in terms of strength. It is easy for me to think “I’m not good enough” but I need to come to the realization
that is a lie. I need to find the truth for Jesus said “the truth shall
set you free”.
When I compare myself to others asking if I measure
up to them the answer is always “no” because I have a disability and they do not.
Do I have to accept the “no” as the final answer? Am I destined
to live my life being less then a man because of my disability or lack of physical strength?
If I follow the world’s example of beauty and strength then I do have to accept “no” as the final
answer because I do not fit into their definitions of beauty and strength. However,
for those who are in Christ the answer is always “yes”. “For
no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘yes’ in Christ. And
so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God”. God says “yes”
to all my questions of fear, doubt, and shame. God says “yes” I do
belong as a member of society just the way I am. I am who I am and I am created
this way. “For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I
am fearfully and wonderfully made.” God “knit me together
with bones and sinew”. I am created this way, created
with a disability. It is because God says “yes” that I say my “Amen,
Hallelujah, Praise the Lord!” God has placed me in an able-bodied society
as a person with a disability and God has declared “Yes” I do belong in that society and there is no need to compare
myself with others. We need to redefine what society is. A society that is not based on competition. We need a definition
of society that does not seek out human perfection but embraces diversity. This
diversity includes our weaknesses and this diversity includes disabilities. We
need a society where embrace our weaknesses instead of trying to hide them or make excuses for them.
When I compare myself to others and the answer
comes back “no” I feel incompetent. Of course the problem with this
is that I am trying to gain my competence from the world’s standards. I
need to realize what Paul realized, that “our competence comes from God”. How many times have I felt
incompetent or inadequate? It is so easy to base our competence on the world’s
standards. My competence comes from God because the answer is always “yes”
in Christ. Therefore I do not have to worry about rejection. So then what if I am rejected by others? What if their answer
is “no”? It takes inner strength to get through that. Inner strength that does not come from being accepted by other people but being accepted by God. I often feel incompetent in social interactions because of my disability. I get nervous and timid in social groups because I am afraid they will not understand what I am saying. Then I feel left out because I am leaving myself out of the interaction. Most of the time because of my incompetence I feel rejected by them.
But the question is are they rejecting me or am I making myself feel rejected because I feel incompetent? If my competence comes from God I can carry that competence into the social interaction. I need to pray for the competence before the social interaction.
I need to pray for competence that can only come from God.
I should not
compare myself with others, I should compare myself with Christ. According to
societal standards I will never be equal. Sure they can say so but in the back
of their minds they know I will always be “different”. We have to
be powerful in order for us to be equal to people without disabilities. However,
for Christians, to follow the pattern of Christ, a pattern of suffering and vulnerability, is to develop an ideology of equality
just as Christ became “equal” with human beings not inferior. We
must also reject the idea of power as it is defined by society. Christ became
equal through virtue of his suffering. Thus to follow Christ’s example
does not mean to allow ourselves to be walked all over by others or by society. It
does not mean to allow ourselves to be ignored, rejected, or scorned by society. When
we do not compare ourselves to others then there is no reason for rejection. We
are who we are because God created us that way and there is no need for comparison.
There is no condemnation
in Christ. We have the affirmation in Christ that we are whole. That’s right, whole. Not a messed up body with something
missing. We are whole. The world
has a problem with that. They say if you don’t measure up to certain standards
you are less then whole. Where do we look to for the standard for what
is whole? We look to Christ, not people, not even other Christians. Paul says in II Corinthians 10:12 “We do not dare
classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure
themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves they are unwise.”
Christ is the standard, even the crucified Christ who was bruised and beaten.
People can look at the cross and say the answer is “no” because of Christ’s suffering. But the answer is “yes” because of Christ’s suffering.
We are not made whole in spite of Christ’s suffering but because of it.
Therefore I am not whole in spite of my disability but because of it. This
is why we boast about our weakness not strength. Echoing Paul’s statement,
“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”. When I give my life to Christ
I offer my body as a living sacrifice. This includes my whole body including my disability.
When a sacrifice was offered to God in the Old Testament it had to be a spotless lamb, perfect and
without blemish. When Jesus was offered as a sacrifice, once and for all, He
was perfect and without blemish. That sacrifice is done, completed. Therefore, my body does not have to be perfect. I do not have
to worry about having the perfect body, the perfect mind, or the perfect heart in order to be a living sacrifice to God. My disability, my imperfection, is my sacrifice. My gift of disability, which God has given me, is my sacrifice back to God.
Suffering
Suffering is not the result of sin but it is
for Christ. Paul says in II Corinthians 1:5:
“For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort flows”. Christ’s suffering and comfort over flow into our lives. How can we know comfort if we do not first know pain? We are
not immune from suffering. We should not be afraid or ashamed of suffering. Suffering is a natural part of this gift of life God has given us. As my pastor Russell Johnson once said, “pain is inevitable, misery is optional”. I
will have physical pain, there is no way around that but I choose how I react to the pain.
I can cry to God to heal me or I can view it as a blessing. And not just
physical pain but also the emotional pain that comes from having a disability. The
pain that is the result of rejection and not measuring up to others. I can buy
into that lie of not measuring up and be miserable as a result of it or I can choose to rise beyond that pain and misery and
live my life in confidence through Christ. My suffering is a blessing because
after I go through my suffering I am not the same person I was before I started. As
a matter of fact, I need my pain. My pain is part of what makes me who I am. It is part of my identity as a divine creation.
Without pain and suffering there is no personal growth. As a matter of
fact “Temporary pain is the corollary of spiritual growth”. I learn from my pain. I learn how to care for my body through my physical pain and I learn how to care for my soul through my
emotional pain.
Sometimes
we want a quick remedy to our pain like taking aspirin for a headache. We look
to Jesus for this quick remedy and then get mad when the healing does not come. We
want to run away from our pain instead of embracing it. By doing this we turn
Jesus into a quick fix, or as I call it “popping Jesus pills”. People
have done this for me when they want to pray for me. It is as if they gloss over
the problem. They seem to be so eager to pray that they do not even take the
time to find out what the problem is. They just want to use Jesus to fix
it. Jesus does not make all of our problems go away. In fact, Jesus makes our lives more difficult. “Take
up your cross and follow me” is not an invitation to an easy life.
Paul viewed his suffering for Christ and he proclaimed this to everyone else. “I am in chains for Christ”. Paul goes even further to say
that suffering is not a curse, but a gift. “For it has been granted to
you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him”. Suffering does not beget
more suffering, it begets comfort. This is the beginning of where we see the
paradox at work. Comfort comes from suffering.
How can we even know what comfort is without suffering? Let us not run
away from suffering but embrace it. God prefers our honest struggling as opposed
to us pretending all is well. Notice the order in the Philippians
verse. There must be suffering before there can be comfort. Suffering is not necessarily the result of disobedience. It
is the exact opposite. It is becoming like Christ. Suffering and comfort intertwine
like the crown of thorns on Christ’s head. His suffering begets our comfort. According to Mark the first thing Jesus did after his baptism was suffer. After the baptism occurs Mark records in Mark 1:12-13, “At once the Spirit
sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan”. It is this suffering that marks the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and sets the stage for the rest
of his ministry to be characterized by suffering. The King of kings’ ministry
is not one of glory, it is one of suffering. How much more are we called to suffer?
It is alright
to struggle. The Bible calls its readers to do so. The writer of Hebrews instructs
us to endure hardship as discipline for God is treating you as His children. These trials that we face as
people with disabilities actually bring us closer to God. When we suffer God
suffers with us. The God who suffered on the cross helps us because of
that suffering not in spite of it. God knows what it is like to suffer. As the song says God came down to us “to know what it’s like to hurt”. This is the God we cry out to for help. The
disabled God who suffers with us. A God who does not suffer with us, who does
not know what it is like to hurt, cannot help us. Dietrich Bonhoeffer knew what
it was like to suffer in the depths of the Nazi concentration camps. He looked
for God in that suffering and came to the conclusion that “Only the suffering God can help”. God's power is incarnational as the God who is with us in our suffering and brokenness. The God who suffers is the disabled God. Therefore, the disabled God is the only God we can look to for help.
Perhaps the greatest example of suffering in
the Bible is Job. Job has three friends that are trying to “help”
him through his time of trial. However, the viewpoint of Job’s three “friends”
is skewed. They believe Job suffered as a result of sin. They believe the righteous always prosper while sinners always suffer and the suffering implies sinfulness
while prosperity and success imply righteousness. I have known so many in the
church and in mainstream society who share this same attitude. People who have
said that the only thing keeping me from avoiding suffering, indeed the only thing keeping me from avoiding my disability
is a lack of faith. However, Job attributes his suffering as coming from God. Note his words, “The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks their
poison; God’s terrors are marshaled against me”. Job recognizes that his suffering
comes from God, or at least with God’s permission but there should not be any blame towards God. There should not be any blame
on anyone. Of course, no one wants to suffer but suffering is good for us. Suffering helps us to grow and mature.
After
attributing his suffering to God, Job goes on in the very next chapter to say that his suffering is the result of sin. “If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of men? Why have You made me your target?” Job even seems to believe that
his suffering is the result of sin. I do not think this is a contradiction with
chapter six as much as it is Job looking for answers. It is easy to see
how people with disabilities could consider themselves to be targets of God who “afflicts” them with disability,
especially in a society where disability is considered to be an affliction. I
am not debating that people with disabilities experience intense physical pain. I
know I do. But the disability does not need to be and should not be considered
an affliction. We will discuss affliction in more detail later.
When we suffer we all want to ask “why”
and Job is no different. Job asked God for an answer and towards the end of the
book he becomes very angry with God and demands an explanation for what has happened to him.
God gave no explanation to Job as to why he suffered. God owed Job no such explanation. The why of the suffering was not the important issue at stake, it was Job’s
perseverance. This is the lesson we learn from Job, not to pray or expect for
suffering to leave us but to persevere through the suffering.
Encounters with God.
Let’s tackle a difficult area. Where do disabilities come from? Are they the result of sin? Are they some kind of cosmic mistake
or do they come from God as an intended part of creation? If we look, particularly
in the Old Testament, we find instances where the disabilities seem to be the result a person’s encounter with God. First of all consider Jacob in Genesis 32. This
is possibly the first incident of a disability mentioned in the scriptures and it was not the result of sin or an accident. Jacob was disabled as a result of his encounter with God. The angel dislocated Jacob’s hip. Here we see a major
difference between the Old Testament and New Testament. The disabling condition
itself rather than the healing of the disabling condition is the result of the encounter with God and no healing of Jacob’s
hip takes place.
The next book of the Bible makes it more emphatic
that disabilities do come from God and that there are times when fear keeps people from using their disabilities as a gift. Consider Moses during his calling in Exodus 3.
Moses squabbled with God about going before Pharaoh and tried to use his disability as an excuse not to do it. “Moses said to the Lord, ‘O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither
in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and
of tongue.’ The LORD said to him, ‘Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf of mute? Who gives him sight or makes him
blind? Is it not I the Lord”. How easy it is even for us
to look at our own disabilities as weaknesses or something we should be ashamed of, as Moses seemed to be of his. We use our disabilities as excuses not to excel, succeed, or do God’s will. There is even more significance to this passage. This is also
the first place where it is hinted that God actually creates people with disabilities and that disabilities are an intended
part of creation. Not the result of sin.
Not some accident. This is very difficult for some people to grasp, I
think, because we as a society tend to view disabilities as wrong, there is something wrong with a person with a disability
because they are not like everybody else, therefore disabilities cannot be a part of creation.
This assumption needs to be challenged.
Moses believed
he had a speech impairment and therefore was unqualified to speak to the people. However,
after being with God Moses did speak to Aaron and the leaders of Israel. It never says that the speech
impairment was healed or taken away. The word of God came through the
speech impairment. There is an evangelist with cerebral palsy by the name of
David Ring. When David speaks he does not apologize for having a speech impairment
and he does not seek to be healed of it. The Gospel and the Truth still gets
told through the speech impairment not in spite of it.
We are
still left with the question of where do disabilities come from? There are actually
three possible answers to this question. The first is that disabilities are the
result of sin. Several members of the modern church still hold this view. This belief comes from the false mindset which says “because that person
is not like me there must be something wrong with that person”. If this
way of thinking is followed out to its logical conclusion then a person who sins less then another should have less of a disability
then the other. It would also follow that all people with disabilities must be
terrible sinners even more so than anybody else. This sounds ridiculous but this
seemed to be the disciples’ frame of mind in John chapter nine. At the
beginning of the chapter the disciples see a man who is blind along the side of the road and they ask Jesus “Rabbi,
who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind”. Jesus replied,
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this was done so that the glory of God may be shown in his life”. Jesus completely destroys an ages old misconception that disability is the result
of sin with one simple sentence. Not only is disability not the result of sin
but Jesus dissolved all sin by means of his disability on the cross. “The theological assumption that (a person’s)
suffering is punishment from God creates a burden of guilt and shame that reinforces the societal rejection of the disabled
body as repulsive”
Granted
there all places in the gospels that seem to suggest that disabilities are the result of sin.
The first twelve verses of the second chapter of Mark tell the story of the healing of the paralytic lowered through
the roof. The first thing Jesus tells him is that his sins are forgiven. I do not believe that the purpose of this statement is to draw a correlation between
this man’s sins and the fact he is paralyzed. If there was a correlation
then everyone who sins should be paralyzed. The first thing Jesus does is not
to offer to heal the man first but to forgive his sins. Jesus did not come into
the world to heal people but to forgive them of sins. This is not a correlation
between disability and sin, it is the exact opposite. The point is the sin on
the inside, not the disability on the outside. There is not even an indication
that He was going to heal the man at all until the Pharisees began talking about Jesus committing blasphemy for forgiving
sins. This leads us to ask the question, was the healing for the man or for the
sake of answering the Pharisees? We assume that the man who is paralyzed wants
to be healed because he is going through the trouble of being lowered in through the roof, but the man is silent through the
whole experience. He is a minor character in both Luke and Mark’s
version of the story. He only serves as an example for Jesus’ confrontation
with the Pharisees. When this role is over he simply walks out of the house and
is never heard from again. Why doesn’t he stay with the crowd or ask Jesus
questions about what just happen. The answer is actually simple. The focus of the story is on Jesus and the Pharisees, not on him.
In John 9:1-7, Jesus
and the disciples see a man blind from birth. The disciples ask Jesus who sinned,
the man or his parents that he was born blind. Jesus replies, “Neither
this man nor his parents sinned but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life”.(verse 3) This verse seems to negate the assumption that disability is the result of sin. Not only that but it also implies that the disability serves some function in the
man’s life. How then do we rectify this with places that Jesus does seem
to associate disability with sin such John chapter five? The first eleven verses
tell the story of the healing of an invalid by the pool at Bethesda. Why does Jesus heal this man? There were a great number of
people there who were disabled sitting by the pool. Why does Jesus only talk
to and heal this one person? Perhaps this occurred for a specific purpose in
this man’s life, not because it was wrong for him to be disabled. If the
point is that it was wrong for the man to be disabled than why aren’t the other people who are disabled at the pool
healed as well? We see once again that the nature and extent of this man’s
disability is defined by the society he is in. He wants to be healed because
everyone keeps practically trampling over him as he is trying to get down into the water.
This passage uses the man’s blind condition to make a point about spiritual blindness and to draw a distinction
between spiritual blindness and physical blindness. In verse 3 physical blindness is refuted as a sign of sin, in
verse 41 claiming to have spiritual sight when one does not is a sin. The able-bodied
church who rejects people with disabilities on the basis of their disability may be in more need of healing than those with
the disabilities. Then
comes the verse that is troubling. In verse 14 Jesus does seem to associate the
man’s disability with sin when he says “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you”. When compared with chapter 9 this may sound like a contradiction but let us consider the spiritual aspect. If this man keeps on sinning, the consequence will not be the disability of his body,
but the forfeiture of his soul.
We have established the fact that disabilities
are not the result of sin. Now let us consider option number two concerning the
origin of disabilities. This option would suggest that disabilities are the result
of some cosmic accident and there is no rhyme or reason to it. This would be
the same as fate or as society would put it “getting the short end of the stick”.
If this were true then that would mean that God has no control over who we are, that there is no divine design. It is easy for Christians to look at our bodies and praise God that we are fearfully
and wonderfully made by our creator. Does this only apply to bodies without disabilities? Of course not. If people without disabilities
are created with a divine purpose then so are people with disabilities.
This leads us to the third option, that disabilities
are indeed a part of God’s divine creation. God tells the prophet Jeremiah,
“before I formed you in the womb I knew you”. I believe this does not just
apply to Jeremiah but to all people. We are all formed in the womb by God, even
those of us who are born with disabilities. Not only does God form us with disabilities,
God knows we will have disabilities even before we are born. This my cause
us to ask why are people born with disabilities? There may be a whole host of
possibilities. My own belief is that I have been given this disability so that
God’s glory may be shown in my life. Let us not forget the lesson
we learn from Job, who are we to ask God “why?”. It is enough for
me to know that God’s ways are beyond comprehension.
My disability
is a blessing, a gift from God. It is not a mistake. My disability teaches me to rely on God as the source of my strength.
Why does God allow this? Why does God allow suffering or weaknesses at
all? Paul says in II Corinthians 1:9: “But
this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God”. Suffering
and weakness lead to self-denial and dependence. We are forced to look for hope. If we rely on ourselves, on our own physical and mental strengths, we fool ourselves
and we fail. Not that these strengths are bad but society has taught us to rely
on these strengths alone. What if we do not have physical or mental strengths
by society’s standards? Are we failures?
Is a person with a disability less of a person because he/she lacks the ability to rely on their own strengths as much
as a person without a disability? What makes a person “created in the image
of God”? Is a person with a disability not in the image of God or less
of the image of God? Also a person with a disability can choose to blame God
for his “misfortune” or use his “gift” to draw closer to God.
This is often a process. The best example of this that I know of comes
from the movie “Forrest Gump”. Lieutenant Dan, brilliantly played
by Gary Sinise, is destined to become a great soldier and to die on the battlefield.
However, he does not die but he does lose both of his legs and becomes, in his words, “nothing but a damn cripple”. His destiny is dramatically altered. Who
does he blame for this? God. He
resents God for the loss of his legs. He resents God for sending him the Christians
who pity him by telling him to look forward to “walking beside Jesus in the kingdom of heaven”. As the movie goes on a transformation takes place. Lieutenant
Dan had been asking a familiar question for people with disabilities, “where is God in all of this?” As Forrest narrates in the movie, “God showed up”.
God showed up in the form of a storm in the ocean. As Forrest and Lieutenant
Dan are on the shrimp boat when the storm hits, Lieutenant Dan literally wrestles with God in the form of the storm. He wrestles with God over his disability, over the loss of his future, over the loss
of his manhood. This is not an easy process for him to go through but shortly
after the storm he does reach a point where he “makes his peace with God”. When he did this Christ came near not in spite of his disability but because of it. God allows these desperate trials so that Christ might come near and give us the grace
to lead us to victory.
This leads us
to deal with one of the fundamental questions of theology: why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good people have disabilities? How can God have the
nerve to alter what we perceive to be our destinies? Lots of people ask these
questions. I give no answer because I believe these questions are ridiculous
and do not warrant an answer. The first thing wrong is the question’s assumption
that there is such a thing as a good person. Jesus himself rebukes this assumption: “No one is good except God alone”. Secondly it reinforces a kind
of competition system. Assuming that there is such a thing as a good person then
if one person is more good than another, then the first person deserves more rewards.
How do we define how good a person is? The same way we define how whole
or deformed a person with a disability is? How arrogant of us to make these judgments
but we have to feel good about ourselves by thinking that we are good and whole people.
This is the remnant of the “I’m OK/You’re OK” psychology.
Biblically speaking we are all not ok. We live in a fallen world and we
are destined to not be OK at least by the world’s standards. As my teacher
Dr. John Wallhausser is fond of saying, the Christian version of this self-help psychology should be “I’m NOT
OK and You’re NOT OK, but that’s OK”. There have been times when I have thought about by disability and I have asked the age old question “why
me, Lord?” and the response comes back, “why not?” To paraphrase
God’s question to Job, “where were you when I created disabilities?”
We are called
to “endure hardship”. We are given trials so
our faith may be proven genuine. Our trials result in praise to God and
thus Jesus Christ is glorified through our suffering. Indeed we are called
to suffer for God because Christ suffered for us. Glorifying Christ in the midst
of our struggles purifies our faith and results in praise to Christ who suffered for us.
I do not have to fit into some definition of what the world or even the church considers to be a whole body. I am created with a whole body rather I have a disability or not.
Likewise, those who become disabled latter on in life still have whole bodies.
Life will have struggles for those with disabilities and those without. Jesus
himself guarantees this in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble. But
take heart! I have overcome the world!”
Indeed Jesus did overcome the world by virtue of his disabling death on the cross and the resurrection. Jesus was and is glorified in and through the crucifixion.
At the original ending of Mark, the one without the resurrection
appearance, Jesus’ divinity is revealed as he dies on the cross. In the
crucifixion Jesus is revealed as the vulnerable, suffering God and we never see Him again.
I’ve said
before that I consider my disability to be a blessing. That may seem strange
but my disability is a testing of faith. I do have trials that are directly related
to my disability. I have aches and pains.
I have difficulty walking in certain weather conditions. Sometimes people
cannot understand what I am saying. I also have certain cognitive delays that
affect my memory and perception. I have a choice as to how I react to all of
this. I could say “Woe is me. God has made me suffer” or I could
praise the Lord for my suffering and thus for my salvation. James says to “consider
it pure joy” when we face trials because our “faith develops perseverance” and perseverance is what makes
us complete. Perseverance is patience in
the midst of suffering. As has been stated before we
are all called to suffer and “blessed is the man who perseveres under trial” for he will receive the crown of
life. The crown of life replaces the crown of thorns that is the result of suffering
but you have to go through one to get to the other. Again, there is no Easter Sunday without Good Friday. Wholeness
does not mean the removal of disability, but rather finding meaning in disability.
“The Social Definition of Disability”
As I began writing and developing this book I
knew that one of the most difficult parts would be explaining how the disability theology described in this book lines up
with the healing stories in the gospels. I mean how does my thesis that people
with disabilities do not need to be healed coincide that with all the healings of people with disabilities in the gospels? The most striking thing that I have discovered about the healings in the gospels is
that they are of a wide variety and scope. There are healings that Jesus performs
that are asked for and there are healings that are not asked for. There are places
where disabilities seem to be associated with demon possession or sin and some stories where the disabilities are clearly
not associated with any of these.
Something that I would like the reader to keep
in mind as we look at these healing stories is that I support a social definition of disability rather than a physical definition. What I mean by this is that it is not the person’s physical characteristics
that define the nature and extent of a disability, rather it is society’s reaction to those characteristics that determines
the nature and extent of a disability. The German theologian Jürgen Moltmann states that people with disabilities simply have difficulties
and mainstream society composed of the strong declare them to be disabled on the basis of these difficulties. In other words it is that society of the strong
that determines rather or not a person is disabled. The reaction of society to
the disability also determines the extent of the disability. If a person who is in a wheelchair tries to enter a building that is not accessible then the fact that
the person is in a wheelchair makes a huge difference. However if the building
is accessible than the wheelchair and the disability become inconsequential. There
is no such thing as being “confined” to a wheelchair. That wheelchair
enables that person to be mobile. If they were not in a wheelchair (and still
had the disability, of course) then the person would be “confined”. Rosemary Garland Thomson suggests:
“Disability is a reading of bodily particularities in the context of social power relations … [an] attribution
of corporeal deviance – not so much a property of bodies as a product of cultural rules about what bodies should be
or do.”
Disabilities should not
be viewed as afflictions. An affliction is defined by Webster as a condition
that causes stress. Most people with disabilities would probably agree that their
disability causes them stress in all sorts of ways including physical pain. However,
what causes even more stress is society’s reaction to the disability. If
I am “afflicted” with a disability then the nature and depth of that affliction is defined by society’s
reaction to it. If society reacts with fear and dismay this could lead to their
shunning of or pity of me due to my disability. Thus in this situation I would
be afflicted by society’s ostracization of me. Although if society reacts
in an accepting manner then the disability is not an affliction at all. In the Bible healings restored people to social participation and inclusion within
the Body of Christ. Without this healing there was no such inclusion. In Biblical times people with disabilities were ostracised because of their disability. Would they have requested healing if they had been included within society in the first place?
Keeping in mind this social definition of disability,
let us try to approach the healing stories in the gospels with fresh eyes. The purpose of any of Jesus’ miracles is to verify who he is, not necessarily
the healing of the person. All told there are 25 miracles in the gospels
(counting those stories that are repeated in the synoptics only once). The majority
of these are healings of a physical nature. There are ten healings of disabilities,
ten healings of sickness, three healings of demon possession, nine miracles over nature, and three raisings from the dead. So it would appear that the emphasis of healing in the gospels is on physical “infirmities”
including disabilities. This is probably due to the fact that the healing of
physical infirmities was the greatest need at the time.
Matthew
20:29-34 is a good example of the social definition of disability. This story
is also found in Mark 10:46-52. Let us try to put ourselves into this passage
where two men who are blind receive sight. A large crowd is following Jesus. The two men who were blind are sitting along the roadside. The thing to notice is the social situation of these two men. Everyone
else is walking and running down the street while these two men sit there probably getting dust in their face. And this would not just happen today. Think of how many times
they have been forced to sit along the roadside and beg. Not by virtue of their
blindness but by society’s reaction to their disability. This is even seen
in the crowd’s reaction to the two men’s request to be healed. The
crowd tells them to shut up. It is not their physical condition that is
debilitating, it is the place their society has put them in due to their physical condition.
When their physical impairment was healed they received something far more greater than their site, they received the
respect of their peers and the end of their time as societal outcasts. What if
their society had accepted them with their blindness? How would this story be
different? Would it still be important for them to be healed? The people who are
healed are accepted back into society only on the basis of their healed bodies. They
are granted no rights in society with their disability. They are granted these
rights only after their disability is healed. This makes one wonder, instead of healing the disability
why didn’t Jesus heal the community practice of ostracizing those with disability?
Mark 7:32-35 presents another
good example of the social definition of disability. Some people brought Jesus
a man who was deaf and could hardly talk and the people who brought the man begged Jesus to heal the man. Of course the man probably could not speak for himself but how do we know what the man wanted. Those around him who seemed to have made the decision for him to be healed defined the nature of this man’s
disability. The same thing happens again with a man who is blind in Mark 8:22-26.
Peter and John
also change a man’s social condition in Acts 3:2-10. A man “crippled”
from birth was being carried to the temple where he was put everyday to beg. Notice how this man is treated, like an object. He has no
decision of his own, no dignity that is his own. Society has literally “put”
him there to beg. Society has arranged it so there is nothing else that he can
do. This begs the question, what is the healing for? Is it for the man’s physical condition or his place in society?
He does not ask to be healed, he asks for money. Did the possibility that
he could be healed ever occur to him? Although he does not ask Peter to heal
him, he is happy to be healed. Of course he is, he no longer has to rely on others
to carry him and he no longer has to beg.
There are places
in the gospels where disabilities are clearly associated with demon possession.
Matthew chapter nine tells of one of these times. “While they were
going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. And
when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke” and again in chapter 12, “Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who
was both blind and mute, and Jesus healed him so that he could both talk and see”. These passages clearly associate
being blind and mute with demon possession. However, the point of these
passages does not seem to be to point out that disabilities are the result of demon possession but rather to set up the eternal
struggle between Jesus and the powers of darkness which Jesus overcomes. In Matthew
this begins the story of Jesus and Beelzebub, the point being that demons cannot drive out demons. In Mark’s version of Jesus and Beelzebub there is no healing at all. In
Luke’s version of Jesus and Beelzebub it does not say that the man was mute.
It says the demon in that man was mute but when the demon was driven out the man could speak. There is no reaction from the man at all in any of the stories. Another
place in the gospels were a disability is associated with demon possession is Luke 13:10-13. Jesus encounters a woman who had been crippled by a spirit for 18 years. She did not ask to be healed.
The stories
mentioned above do not say anything about the people’s social position nor do the stories say anything about the people’s
reaction to their healing. The people with the disabilities play a minor role
in these stories. This is clearly seen in the first healing story in the
gospels in the ninth chapter of Matthew. Some men bring a paralytic lying
on a mat to Jesus. A couple of things to notice.
The man never asks for healing. Also, others bring the paralytic to Jesus. We do not hear anything from the man himself and the only response the man gives is
to pick up the mat and go home. Does the man have any choice in this? What would your choice be? Consider the point of view and
the social condition of the man: lying on a mat, unable to move on his own, constantly relying on others for his daily needs. Of course there are no accommodations available to him. While he does not ask for healing he does not argue about Jesus doing it either. Curiously we also see no response from the man being healed except that he did what Jesus told him to do
which was to pick up his mat and go home. In Mark’s and Luke’s version
of the story the people watching react to the healing but the former paralytic does not.
The story of the man with the shriveled hand in Matthew 12:9-14 is another example of where the person with a disability
takes on a minor role. The man does not ask to be healed. As a matter of fact that man performs no action at all except to stretch out his hand. What about the man? What were his feelings about the matter? These questions go unanswered. The man’s
disability does not seem to be the point of the passage, rather the point is if it is right or wrong for Jesus to heal on
the Sabbath. Many of the stories are not focused on the people being healed, they are focused on Jesus. Matthew is not focusing on the man’s disability
on this passage, rather he is focusing on setting the stage for the confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees.
With the Passion and Cross
he experiences and shares to the full the greatest drama of the person with disabilities: extreme solitude and rejection-exclusion
on the part of others, experiencing injustice and abandonment. http://www.vatican.va/jubilee_2000/jubilevents/jub_disabled_20001203_scheda1_en.htm
And it is on the Cross that
the Son of God reveals himself, definitively and fully, (Mk 15, 39) giving the hope/certainty of God’s concern for man. http://www.vatican.va/jubilee_2000/jubilevents/jub_disabled_20001203_scheda1_en.htm
Burton Cooper, “The Disabled God”, Theology Today 49 July (1992)
pp, 173-182 Taken from: "The Disabled God? How a theological anthropology that embraces human disability changes how we image God." By John
C. Ward, BSc. (Zool.), Grad. Dip. Lib. Stud., BD. http://members.iinet.net.au/~srcperth/ward.htm
Donald Stamps,
ed, Full Life Study Bible (Grand Rapids: Life Publishers International, 1992), p. 752
