John 5:1-18 (NIV)
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed—and they waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Reflection:
Why couldn’t Jesus have come just a day earlier or a day later? Why did He have to heal the crippled man on the Sabbath and get the Pharisees all upset? While the Pharisees tried hard to maintain their sense of order and righteousness through their rules and regulations, it seemed as if Jesus was intentionally rocking their “boat” trying to pick a fight. We too, like the Pharisees, want a sense of order over our surrounding circumstances. We feel threatened when our world gets “rocked,” we regulate our needs, and we maintain control by creating our own rules to avoid problems, embarrassment or even inconvenience. But, Jesus is not like that. Because Jesus knows our deeper need for salvation and healing, He breaks down all the barriers for our sake. He sees us as more important than rules or regulations. He works and heals undeterred by time, convenience or opposition, in order to give us the true, everlasting rest that comes only from Him. God is at work all the time.
Response:
Even with our pharisaic tendencies to create and control our own order, how wonderful it is to know that Jesus knows our real need and is always at work for us. How truly amazing it is to believe that He loves to heal us, restore us and give us rest. Let’s take a moment to search our hearts and confess our sinful tendencies to the Lord. May we surrender our hearts to the Lord and welcome the Holy Spirit to heal and restore our hearts.
