Knowing and understanding what the Bible says about disability is pivotal as we strive to be better equipped for the lifelong journey with our friends and families in the disability community. In this week’s episode, Garett discusses the topic of disability theology while focusing on a few verses from Scripture that have been helpful for him and his family.
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Quick links:
What Does the Bible Say About Disability? (Ability Ministry)
Jesus and Disability: A Guide to Creating an Inclusive Church by Chris H. Hulsof
Unexpected Blessings: The joys and possibilities of life in a special needs family by Sandra Peoples
Disability and the Church: A Vision for Diversity and Inclusion by Lamar Hardwick
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Transcript:
Hey everyone! Welcome to Key Ministry: The Podcast. My name is Garett Wall and I’m grateful to be your host this week as we open God’s Word and discuss the topic of disability theology. Today’s conversation will focus on creating a starting point and a foundation for a better understanding of what the Bible says about disability. We’ll look at a few verses from Scripture that have been helpful to me, and my family in our journey and I’m hopeful they’ll be helpful to each of you as we seek to faithfully follow Jesus while navigating disability ministry.
Today’s conversation is for anyone and everyone. Perhaps you’re listening today while on your own disability journey and you’re seeking to better understand why God created you the way that he did. Maybe you’re a mom or a dad or sister or a brother of someone with a disability and you’re trying to find clarity on how God would allow your loved one and your family to experience a particular disability. Or maybe you’re a pastor or ministry leader or volunteer who wants to help our friends and families in the disability community, but you don’t fully grasp God’s plan for disability.
Whatever your connection and perspective may be as it relates to disability, God, and the church, knowing and understanding what the Bible says about disability is pivotal as we strive to be better equipped for the lifelong journey with our friends and families in the disability community. We’ll be focusing on a few specific verses from Scripture today, but this certainly isn’t an exhaustive list of what the Bible has to say about disability. There are links to additional resources and books in the show notes that can help you continue this conversation long after today’s episode ends.
I’m thankful for the clarity of Scripture in my own life as a believer and follower of Jesus, as a husband and father in a family impacted by disability and as a minister seeking to shepherd our friends and families in the disability community. My hope is that today’s conversation will encourage you to dig deeper into God’s Word for an even better understanding of God’s plan to use disability for his glory and to better recognize the ways he wants to use you and your church to accomplish that plan.
So, what does the Bible say about disability? What does the Bible say about disability and the church? What does the Bible say about God’s plan in disability? To answer those questions, we’re going to talk through five Biblical truths of disability theology and allow Scripture to guide us so let’s dig in and get the conversation started.
I think the best place to begin is the very beginning when God created mankind. Our first Biblical truth is this – We are all wonderfully made in God’s image. Genesis 1:27 says “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” From the very beginning, God created man and woman in his image. God was the original blueprint and yet in his creativity, he made each of us unique. No two people are exactly the same, yet each and every person is still made in the image of God.
To further echo the point that we’re all wonderfully made in God’s image, Psalm 139:13-14 says, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” The psalmist is praising God for his wonderful human creation. The works of God in and through his creation are wonderful and the psalmist’s own soul knows it to be true. As we think about the impact of these verses in the context of disabilities and special needs, nothing changes from God’s perspective. He didn’t make a mistake when he created you or your loved one or your friend with a disability. There is no footnote or asterisk attached to the verse with a clarifying point for someone with a disability. This Biblical truth encompasses all people—we are all wonderfully made in God’s image.
Our second Biblical truth says God allows disabilities for his purpose. I’ll be honest, this is one that can be difficult to understand and even accept at times. How could a perfect God be directly connected and even responsible for allowing disabilities to exist in the lives of the people he created? If God really loves people, how could he allow them to be impacted by disability? It must be the Enemy—Satan—who is responsible and should get the blame for disability, right? Well, we know that the entrance of sin into the world in the Garden of Eden is to blame for the suffering around us today. And while suffering is certainly a consequence of sin, our own sins and the sins of others, that’s not the end of the story on suffering. We’re reminded by verses like Romans 5:3-5 and James 1:2-4 that suffering is used by God to sanctify us and to test and grow our faith. No circumstance and no diagnosis and no amount of suffering is too severe to be used by God for good.
But you don’t have to trust my word on this one. Let’s look at Exodus 4:11-12 where Moses is trying to convince God that he’s chosen the wrong person to lead his people into the Promised Land. Like a child trying to convince his parents to change their mind, Moses argues several points with God before eventually saying “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Moses confesses that he not only lacks eloquence in the way he speaks, but that he also may have a speech impairment. God replies by saying to Moses, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” God’s response points directly to the lack of faith from Moses in that moment while also declaring his power and control in all things. Despite suffering from his own perceived limitations, Moses was equipped by the Lord for a purpose that glorified God.
With our third Biblical truth, we turn our focus to the New Testament where Jesus said disabilities exist to glorify God. In chapter 9 of the Gospel of John, we find Jesus and his disciples walking near a man who was born blind. As they near the man, the disciples asked Jesus “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Like many in the first century, the disciples were under the impression that blindness was a direct result of specific sin in someone’s life, so they asked Jesus to help them understand who was at fault. They were likely surprised to hear how Jesus replied when he said, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
There was certainly sin present in the lives of the blind man and his parents, but those sins were not the reason for the man’s lifelong physical blindness. As we discussed earlier, the suffering we experience in this life is a result of a sinful, fallen world but that same suffering can also be harnessed and used for the glory of God. In the case of the man who was blind from birth, Jesus not only healed him from his physical blindness, but he also healed him from his spiritual blindness while including him in his earthly ministry in a powerful way. The lives of our friends in the disability community have great value and God wants to be glorified in them and through them just as he does in everyone.
The fourth Biblical truth focuses on the challenges that come with disabilities and says this—though God wants to be glorified in it, disability is not easy. The journey through life for a person with a disability and for those who are caring for someone with a disability can and will be difficult. Every phase and chapter of life for anyone directly impacted by disability brings an inevitable cycle of physical, emotional, and spiritual adversity. We live in a world that can be very unwelcoming to the disability community, but there’s hope in Jesus.
The apostle Paul reminds us of that hope in his second letter to the Corinthians when he describes a thorn given to him in the flesh. He describes the thorn as a messenger of Satan to harass him, but he also says its purpose is to keep him from becoming conceited. Three times Paul pleaded with the Lord asking him to remove the thorn. However, rather than remove the thorn, God replied by saying “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” And how does Paul respond to God’s plan to use weakness to perfect his plan? Paul answers God by saying “Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Disability is not always easy, but God’s love and goodness provides the help and compassion needed to perfect his plan in this life.
That takes us to our fifth and final Biblical truth: our churches are incomplete without the disability community. We know that the Great Commission in Matthew 28 compels us as believers and followers of Jesus to take the Gospel of Christ to all the nations. And we know that life with a disability is not always easy, so the church should be leading the charge to take compassionate action for the disability community. In the same way the paralyzed man in Mark 2 and Luke 5 was taken to Jesus by his four friends, our churches should be opening pathways for our friends and families impacted by disability to meet Jesus and find belonging in the church.
When that happens, we experience a more complete version of who the church is and how God has designed it to function. Paul reminds us of the importance of every person and every role in Christ’s church in Romans 12:4-5 where he says, “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” God has equipped our friends and families in the disability community for the purpose of taking the Gospel to all the nations and without them in our churches, we are incomplete.
There is much more we could say and share on this topic, but we’ll stop there for today. To recap our five Biblical truths on disability theology:
We’re all wonderfully made in God’s image.
God allows disabilities for his purpose.
Jesus said disabilities exist to glorify God.
Though God wants to be glorified in it, disability is not easy.
Our churches are incomplete without the disability community.
I pray each of these five truths are an encouragement to you as you seek to better understand God’s plan and purpose in disability. Remember, this is only the beginning of the conversation on disability theology and not an exhaustive list of the many things the Bible has to say about disability. I invite you to visit our show notes at keyministry.org/podcast where you will find a complete transcript of today’s episode as well as links to books and other resources to help you as you learn more about what the Bible really says about disability. Have a blessed day and I hope we can talk again soon.
