Karma is a lie.

Karma, the sense that what happens to you is just recompense for what you have done or what your parents have done, is part of our sense of justice. It is a clear part of Eastern Religion: the observation that reflective men have made in trouble that they have hurt others, that they deserve this, is fairly universal.

Only the psychopath does not say this: but that one, who has dedicated himself to evil, rejoices in the suffering of others and sees not the warning.

But Karma is a lie. What matters is if one is chosen from the beginning. Christ here chooses a blind beggar: and the Pharisees reject him.

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”

(John 9:1-17 ESV)

Now, what do we do about the disabled? Those who suffer? Those who beg? Do we have humility, and see ourselves there, but for the gifts we did not deserve?

Yes the choices we make have consequences in this life and the life beyond. It is not by our words we are judged, but by our actions, and by our actions we are all damned.

And this is why the Pharisees are in error. Not as much for wanting to keep the sabbath, but for not understanding that they remained fallen. They are equal with the most disabled within society: in fact, the blind man can now see that Christ is the full and final prophet while the question the legitimacy of healing on the day of rest and healing.

But, you say, the Pharisees died two thousand years ago, leaving us a shattered Temple and the Talmud. True. But we tend to legalistic competitions, trying to find a place where we can call ourselves righteous, and from that position justify our hatred of others.

We find oppression where there is none: we spend our energy tilting at windmills. We fight each other when winter is coming.

[A quick note. No, I don’t make these things up. I just look on twitter and find them. Usually within a minute or so. The haters are getting a little too obvious]

Self righteousness makes one blind. We start arguing with God that he is unjust, forgetting that Karma is a lie, because if Karma was true we would all be in hells of our own making. The very fact we are able to love, and work, and enjoy the simple pleasures of the season is due to the mercy of God.

Our actions have condemned ourselves. We can only beg for mercy. And the only mercy that exists is when the penalty for our wrongdoing is paid: for that we can only thank Christ, who in our place suffered and died.