.jpg)
The story begins with hope.
A pool, near the sheep market, whose name was Bethsaida, having five
porches; this was no ordinary pool.
Occasionally, an angel descended from heaven, entering the waters and
“troubled” them, whoever was first to enter the pool after this event, was
cured of “ANY” disease they had. John’s
exact words in verse 4 referring to this healing … “whosoever then first after
the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he
had.” Let’s say that again … “was made
whole”. So for example, a paralytic
would no longer be paralyzed. A person
missing an eye, would by miracle have the eye restored. With this level of miracle, those beyond the
realm of medical science were sure to surround this pool at all times waiting
for their chance at a healing. This was
a place of hope, when there was normally no hope left.
John makes no dispersions regarding this pool, the angel who
stirred the waters, or the people who hoped to be healed. This was not considered by John, to be mere
superstition, it was considered to be real.
Makes one wonder, if it still holds true? Of course, in order for those who were lame
to enter this pool, they would require assistance. Interesting that those who provided
assistance on the Sabbath day do not appear to be condemned for it by the leaders
who would soon be criticizing Christ, but that is jumping ahead a bit. John instead introduces us to a particular
man beside this pool who had been there for 38 years. We do not know if this is how old the man
was, or just how long he had been afflicted with his disease. Perhaps his parents brought him there as a
child. Perhaps when he first arrived
there, he had someone to help him get in.
But whether he and his helpers were just not fast enough or not, over
the years, those who thought to help him out had left. At this point, he was alone. He was within sight of healing of his
condition, but fully unable to take advantage of the healing offered. Close, but without hope. I believe it was for this reason; Jesus
singles out this particular man.
In verse 6 Jesus asks … “Wilt thou be made whole?” As usual, the words of Christ carry so much
more meaning than we first ascribe. The
question of Jesus was beyond the physical infirmity this man had carried the
majority of his life. This question was
for more than just the man there at the pool who had lost all hope. This question was for you. This question was for me. Are you tired of the condition you find
yourself in? Tired of the pain you
embrace with the choices you make, and the desires within you, you are unable
to control? Are you ready for relief
yet? Are you ready to be made
whole? This is something you cannot do
for yourself, and something only Jesus can do for you, within you, and perhaps
in spite of you. For those without hope,
for those who realize the futility of trying to make themselves whole, here is
Jesus plainly asking the obvious truth – Are you finally ready to be made
whole?
But being human, and thinking only in the terms of humanity,
this man would not answer this question from a spiritual perspective but from a
practical human one. Like the woman at
the well, he had not comprehended yet the full meaning of the question posed to
him, and did not yet know it was more than a man that asked it. So the man in verse 7 explains his
predicament … “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into
the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.” Perhaps Jesus is offering to help the man
into the pool. Perhaps Jesus just needs
to understand that while he wants to be healed, he is unable to heal himself,
and no one is willing to help him.
Perhaps if Jesus does not want to take the time to help him into the
pool, He might at least have pity on him and offer him some spare change before
He goes on His way. The man stated his
case, and in it, reveals his lack of hope.
But Christ did not enter this world, to part with spare
change, or leave those without hope in the condition He encounters them
in. No, far from it. The Father who watches every bird in every
tree, and knows every cow on a thousand hills, had not forgotten this poor
suffering man by the pool. The Father
who sits on His throne in heaven, felt deeply for this man. The Father directed His Son, to this pool,
and on this day, for a reason. Re-creation
is the only way we will ever be made whole.
Re-creation is the only method by which that we who are broken can be
restored to what He intended. This man
had suffered long enough. When all hope
was gone, enter Christ to restore it once again. No-one should think of themselves beyond the
restorative power of Christ, or beyond the love of His Father. Jesus wastes no time in verse 8 responding …
“Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”
The gift had been bestowed.
And the results of it happened in an instant, as it did in the original
creation of our world. Verse 9 says … “And
immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: …“ There was no delay. There was no “half measure” of this
gift. The man did not arise BEFORE he
was made whole, he was made whole first.
The paralysis was gone. The
deformity was gone. He looked and felt
as good as new. Health entered his body
in such a full measure, he had no basis for comparison. When the creator God is allowed to re-create
what we have broken, it is fully restored.
When we finally humble ourselves and accept the healing within us that
He so longs to give us, it is healing complete.
It is our stubborn refusal to accept our helplessness that keeps the
restoration of God at bay. In trusting
our own ability to just say no to sin, our failures are destined to
repeat. But when we let go of our own
disease, and look to healing from Jesus, He never fails to deliver. His restoration is full and complete, and the
only thing that will ever enable us to rise.
It was not the power of the man that enabled him to rise, it was the
power of Christ. So it will always be.
This should have been an occasion of great rejoicing in
Jerusalem. It was in heaven. The Father who so longed to see the misery of
this poor man brought to an end, had finally been able to witness it. Angels would sing. The Father would be filled with joy. The man was getting a new life, one he could
scarcely remember or understand.
Everything he had known, had been swept away in an instant. This should have been a celebration of
renewal and recreation. But from the
perspective of those who spent their lives studying the law of Moses,
ironically from the religious leadership of the day, the MORE pressing concern
was not this man’s healing, it was the timing of when it occurred. Verse 9 continues “ … and on the same day was
the sabbath.” While this was no
inhibitor to joy in heaven, it would prove to be a source of major contention
in the religious capital of the world.
And enter the negative-Ned’s. These were people who in all probability knew
this man by the pool without hope. They
knew his former condition. They may have
even offered him spare change while walking by on occasion. But now, faced with his obvious physical
restoration, they completely ignore his restoration and focus only on the fact
that he is carrying his bed on Sabbath.
Talk about poor and blind and naked; talk about a complete lack of perspective;
talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water; but this is what happens
when the focus of your life is based on law, and not on the love that was
behind it. So they say … “The Jews
therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful
for thee to carry thy bed.” The
accusation has been made.
We, of course, would like to think we would have told those
priests and leaders where they could go if put in a similar condition. We would like to think we would have the
strength to defend ourselves, and particularly the gracious Lord who had just
intervened on our behalf. But this was
no small accusation. It was not beyond
the realm to know that this group of accusers might quickly degenerate into an
irate mob bent on stoning this obvious law breaker, for not adhering to their
understanding of the law. Religious
zealotry often gives way to violence for those who refuse to comply. And in this, is the doctrine of Satan
defined. Satan is not about freedom, he
about control. Satan does not offer you
a choice, he enslaves your very will.
Satan has no problem using the sacred word to be the instrument of your
hate, your intolerance, and ultimately your demise. Any way that Satan can get you to forget
about love, and embrace hate (even if “righteous” hate) is a win for Satan, and
a loss for you and for God. It was
entirely probable the answer this man gave might determine if he would actually
get to live that life that Christ had just restored to him. And so like Adam before him, the man passes
the blame. His body had been restored,
but the job was not yet finished. He
responds in verse 11 … “He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said
unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk.”
When under the pressure of life and death, move the attention away to
someone else. In this case, blame the
God who just healed you, for what you are doing.
This new fact of course, was more disconcerting to the
religious leadership than just the guy “breaking” the law. A person who ordered folks to break the law
was a bigger threat to their authority than the law breaker himself. So they respond in verse 12 … “Then asked
they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk?” They needed to find this person and correct
them, or punish them if they refused to accept “their” truth. Keep in mind the understanding of the Jews on
this point was universal. From their
point of view the “truth” about how to keep the law was plain, accepted by
them, the man, and everyone around.
There was no debating the “truth” of their wisdom and understanding,
there was only the need to see it enforced, even on pain of death. And religious persecution is born in the
world: then, as it is now.
How many modern Christians embrace feelings of disdain,
anger, and perhaps even hatred for those who refuse to comply with “our”
truth? There is no debating “our”
truth. After all, we have studied the
scriptures and developed our doctrines over time, we know we are correct. Those who refuse to see “our” light, must
somehow be lesser than ourselves, doomed to eternal loss, and beyond the love
of God. Those who refuse to accept “our”
truth may even need to forfeit their lives, so that none of our number ever
become corrupted by their teaching of different values and morals. And this thinking leads to centuries of
persecution by Catholic Christians against those who would not submit. It leads to Protestant Christians persecuting
smaller religions, and minorities for years, and gays in our age. It leads to 9/11 as devout misguided
Islamists decide the “great Satan” must be punished. Anytime religions embrace violence for those
who refuse “their light”, they become religions of Satan, and abandon the God
of love in so doing. This was the hard
lesson of the Jewish faith in the time of Christ, and remains the hard lesson
for Christianity in our day.
In verse 13 we find … “And he that was healed wist not who
it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place.” I love the use of John’s words “conveyed
himself away”. I can almost envision a
teleportation away from the pool. In any
case, knowing what was about to happen, I imagine Christ was looking to avoid
an all-out riot. In any case, the man
was so consumed with his physical restoration, that he had not bothered to find
out “who” it was that healed him. And in
the near term, he had lost that opportunity as now Christ was gone. But like He longs to do with us, Jesus is not
satisfied to leave the restoration unfinished.
Jesus instead seeks out this man, in order to offer him counsel.
In verse 14 it reads … “Afterward Jesus findeth him in the
temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a
worse thing come unto thee.” Jesus
wanted to share with this man, that his physical restoration alone was not the
only goal of Christ. He wanted Him to be
made whole spiritually. A healthy body
is no protection against the destructive nature of sin, in some ways our health
can be made to serve sin. The mind and
heart was the true target of this restoration.
Christ longed to restore those, to offer him the blessing of freedom
from sin. As always, it was Christ who
sought this man out again. Like with us,
it is God who comes looking for us. It
is God reaching out to us, longing to finish the job he begins with us, longing
to get us to see there is something more important than even our health.
But like many of us who sometimes refuse to see, we take the
gifts of God, and what we do with them is to our shame. Verse 15 is perhaps the saddest words encountered
in the writings of John to date, a prequel for Judas, a postscript for us that
an offer of salvation is not always accepted.
This is particularly true if we side with our traditions and
understanding of “the law” more than with the Lawgiver. I can only believe that the healed man was a
resident of Jerusalem, and so no wanting the continued wrath of the Jewish
leadership focused on him. He went the
extra mile and returned to his accusers to give them the name of the person who
ordered him to take up his bed and walk.
You will note, this was the actions of this man on his own, no one
ordered him to do this. Some amount of time
had already passed between his original confrontation with his accusers and
Christ seeking him out once again. But
verse 15 reads … “The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which
had made him whole.”
Like Adam before him, this man now blames the gifts of God
for his own behavior. He takes no
personal accountability for his own actions, passing responsibility to the Man
who told him to take up his bed and walk.
He ignores his own healing, and decides to report the name of this Man,
back to the accusatory mob, in effect betraying Christ to what is sure to be
certain death, without any pressing need to do so. This is the result of an understanding of
“truth” in the absence of the love behind the truth. Here for Judas to see, is what it looks like
to betray the Son of God, to the religious leadership bent on His
destruction. Here is what it looks like,
to be restored, and to throw away that restoration and embrace tradition over
truth. Here is what it looks like to be
offered a new life, and then spend that new life by betraying it. This lesson was for more than the 12, it was
for us. A restoration discarded, leads
to a betrayal of God, and of ourselves.
To choose to ignore what God has just done for us, miraculous as it may
have been, and return to our version of “truth” instead of embracing Christ,
leads to the betrayal of God and of ourselves.
A restored body, and a corrupted spirit, is of no value.
And the results of this man’ decisions were also
immediate. Verse 16 reads … “And
therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had
done these things on the sabbath day.” Betrayal
complete. The man appears to have
ignored the counsel of Christ, and the results of his identification of Christ
to the angry leadership has the predictable response. And perhaps even more sad, the love of God
the Father in seeing to the healing of this man is ignored, by the religious
leaders of the day. An event of joy is
turned into an event of hate. An event
of celebration turned into a cause of persecution, and conspiracy to commit
murder. How sad that those who had the
“truth” would believe the “truth” required defending to the point of committing
murder to protect it. Real “truth” needs
no such defense. But it would get worse
…
No comments:
Post a Comment