Who Sinned?

One tiny boy that Anna saw in the clinic in Haiti stuck out to me. He was maybe about 4, the same age as Jack but much smaller. His teeth were rotten; four molars and four front teeth to be extracted. If sin is the corruption of God’s good creation, then why is there this effect of sin in his mouth? In John 9, the disciples asked Jesus, “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” So, who sinned, this child or his mom? On the surface, he has cavities because he drinks too much juice. Of course, then, it’s his mother’s fault; she sinned, she’s the one who lets him drink the juice. That’s how I was raised to think about sin; it’s all about individual choices. Her sinful choice to not properly take care of her child caused his teeth to rot. 

I no longer believe that the answers are so simple. When you look beneath the surface, you realize that tooth rot was not as big of a problem in Haiti until little plastic bags of sugar water became cheap and easy. Companies, some from the US, exploit the poor by selling sugar that rots their teeth to children and parents who don’t know any better. They don’t know because they have little to no education. His mom didn’t have Health Ed in school; she doesn’t see a dentist regularly. How is she to know that drinking juice causes cavities? Now deeper. Economic inequities cause her lack of education; there is no free public school in Haiti. Corruption in government and economic sanctions over the years, including a crippling debt load that drives inflation, destroyed Haiti’s economy. Racism and fear are part of that, as well as greed and abuse of power. 

So who sinned? The UN and IMF, the US government, the juice companies, the corrupt Haitian government, the mom, or the bacteria? Rather than looking for who is to blame, like the disciples and the Pharisees, we must learn to recognize the greater forces that shape individual decisions. People are caught up in destructive systems created by a thousand little individual choices of unkindness and self-interest, “systems of sin”. The Bible refers to this as “powers and authorities.” (Eph. 6:12) Systemic sin is impossible to avoid and difficult to overcome. “We are all sinners” not simply based on our choices, but also based on systems we participate in and prop up because we don’t know, don’t care, or think we don’t have the power to break. If you are involved in the system of capitalism and international free trade, like say you order things off Amazon; if you enjoy the freedom and wealth of the US built at the expense of our neighboring countries, then you are culpable in this system of sin. We are all sinners in need of grace.

Jesus derails the blame game by pointing instead to an act of mercy, “that the works of God may be revealed in him.” Jesus heals the blind man in Jerusalem and thereby reveals God’s work in opposition to the hypocrisy of the Jewish government that values safety over justice and adherence to rules over mercy. When Anna pulled this baby’s teeth, she showed that an act of mercy is more important than following systems that value safety over mercy and that say who deserves mercy. Such an act is God’s work to oppose systemic sin in Haiti. It is only possible by God’s grace. Grace forgives us for our complicentcy in sin, grace enables us to do works of mercy, and grace empowers us to work against the systems of sin in our world. A thousand little acts of mercy, made possible by God’s grace, is our best hope for overcoming sin, for joining in as God brings the reign of God on earth, as it is in heaven.