Text: John 5:1-18 (see below)
This healing story is the final of four consecutive stories in the first portion of John’s Gospel that reveals Jesus reaching out to all sorts and types of people – a leader of the Jews, a woman of Samaria, a Gentile officer in Galilee, and a crippled man in Jerusalem. The welcome of our Lord is inclusive of all types of people, races, nationalities, conditions. There is no one outside of our Lord’s embrace.
So much information is packed into these eighteen verses that could keep the reader occupied for an entire day! I want to reflect on one moment in the story that occurs after the healing.
Here is a man who has been living on a mat for 38 years. Think about that for a moment. For almost four decades this guy had been sick with an illness that he could not overcome. He was living amongst the invalids of Jerusalem – the blind, the lame and the paralyzed. The pool near the Sheep’s Gate was thought to have healing powers. The belief was that an Angel of the Lord would stir up the water and the first person in the pool would be miraculously healed. Can you imagine the commotion when somebody realized that the water was “stirring?” There must have been utter chaos.
Jesus heals this man – no water – no angel. A simple command from the Lord of Life: “Rise, take up your pallet and walk.” The man did so. We find out in the next sentence that this healing occurred on the Sabbath!
What strikes me is the reaction from the authorities who John refers to as “the Jews”. Here is a man who had been ill for almost forty years, living in squalor on a pallet and now could walk for the first time in many years. The authorities blinded by self interest and the affairs of state scold him: “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” Hold on, what did they say?
Really, guys? A man that you have known was ill for 38 years is now walking around like new and the best you can do is criticize, scold, and condemn? I laugh out loud every time I hear those absurd words.
Do you know any people in your life who act like the "authorities" in this story? Perhaps it’s you at times? Perhaps it’s me at times?
Miracles of God are happening all around us, all the time, every day. Are you aware of them? Do you take the moment to see them? Or are you so entrenched in “the law”, the daily “grind” of life that you have become blind to the amazing, awesome events that God is accomplishing today in our world.
I discovered a prayer written by members of the Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit, Michigan that speaks to being open to God’s presence in our daily lives:
Open my eyes to … The Spirit of God dwelling within and enlivening all creation and created beings. Open my eyes to the world as You see it.
Open my eyes to …Injustice. Injustice in the world. Injustice within myself. The hidden corners of life. Details no one else wants to touch. The suffering within my community. The needs of my brothers and sisters.
Open my eyes to … Look beyond the obvious, the jaded, and the seductive. See the dignity of every person I encounter. Appreciate the gift of each moment that I am alive.
Open my eyes to … The face of God in all humanity. Your beauty and grace in all people. The wonderment of your Presence that I may see that which my heart longs for in You. The wonder at God’s glory in every strand of life and every particle of creation so that I might know, and share, God’s love in the world.
Open my eyes to … See Your face in the face of others. Spark goodness in each person I meet. Accept differences. Experience the holy that surrounds me. Learn to love one another.
Love One Another – Brian
Every Person is God’s Work
Francis de Sales, patron saint of writes and editors
We must never undervalue any person. The workman loves not that his work should be despised in his presence. Now God is present everywhere, and every person is His work.
Source: brainyqoute.com
John 5:1-18
After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Take up your mat and walk.” ’ They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take it up and walk”?’ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.’ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am working.’ For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
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