Sunday May 9, 2010 John 5:1-18

Welcome, the wind is terrible today. I’m surprised I have hair left on my head after going outside. I also discovered that the gnats are in full hatch as I got attacked by them yesterday while in my garden. Now my head itches too. Our Text for Sunday is the alternate text of John.
John is using signs to point to the identity of Jesus and provides 7 of them in his gospel. This is Jesus’ third miracle (sign) in John.

V1 There is a festival in Jerusalem for the Jews and Jesus attends.

V2-4 There is a pool by the Temple called Bethzatha with five porticos. The sick and lame lay there because they have a belief that an angel would occasionally stir the waters. The first one into the pool after the angel had stirred it would be healed. This pool has been found and is being excavated. John’s description of it is quite accurate.

V5 A man lies there who has been paralyzed for 38 years. This is a long term condition not a recent one.

V6 Jesus asks to us what seems to be an odd question, “Do you want to be made well?” We would think “Why of course he wants to be made well” but maybe he doesn’t. To be made well would be to change his entire life, he would now have to work and not beg. Maybe he is comfortable with his situation. Maybe Jesus wants to give him hope and heal him? We don’t know why the question was asked and maybe for good reason. Think about it, do we want to be made well? Do we want to change our lives and all that it entails? I think a lot of us say “no I’m ok where I’m at, I can deal with it.” To be made well means to change.

V7 The man responds with a reason why he can’t be made well, there isn’t anyone to help him to the water first after the angel stirs it. Someone always gets there first. He didn’t answer Jesus directly with a positive or negative answer but he does indicate he has the desire to be made well.

V8 Jesus tells him to “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” Jesus doesn’t wait with him until the water is stirred and then get him in before anyone else. He told the man what to do and the man’s obedience in doing it healed him.

V9 At once the man is healed. He got up, took his mat and walked. Can you imagine his surprise, delight and excitement? He didn’t need the “magic” water for healing. Jesus had healed him. I would have liked to have been at the pool. Were others healed by entering the water or were they just hoping the healing true? (The power of positive thinking – The Secret) Then this man is actually healed. He had been a fixture there for quite a few years and must have been known to the regulars that waited there. Imagine their surprise.
This happened on a Sabbath. No one was to work on a Sabbath and healing this man was considered work. Jesus had broken the Sabbath law that the Pharisees had put in place with their oral tradition. Jesus had also told the man to break the law by carrying his mat. This too was prohibited.

V10 The Jews notice the man who had been healed is carrying his mat. How could they focus on the carrying of his mat and ignore the miracle of healing?

V11-12 The man replies that Jesus told him to carry his mat. He is trying to deflect their anger at him, for the broken rule, to someone else. They want to know who was the man that told him to do this.

V13 The healed man didn’t know it was Jesus and Jesus had disappeared into the large crowd.

V14 Later Jesus finds the man in the Temple. This was the first time in 38 years the man could have entered the temple, prior to this he was excluded because of his illness. Possible he went there to thank God for his healing. Jesus told him to sin no more. This didn’t mean that his condition was caused by sin but that the healing was a sign of his forgiveness from God. They thought to be sick or lame were curses from God for something they had done and healing was a sign that the curse had been lifted. Jesus is reinterpreting this to connect healing with forgiveness. If you are outwardly healed-something touchable-you are inwardly forgiven-something unseen. If you could see the lesser thing, the healing, you could believe the greater thing, forgiveness, had occurred too.

V15-16 The man told the Jews it was Jesus who had healed him and they started to persecute him for healing on the Sabbath.

V17-18 Jesus responded that his Father was still working on the Sabbath and so was he. At this the Jews fly into a rage because now Jesus has equated himself with God. To do this was blasphemy. No man was equal to God and to claim such was to warrant a death sentence.

The most shocking thing to me is they ignore the man’s healing. How could anyone miss this? Even today wouldn’t we be shocked if a person paralyzed for 38 years was walking around carrying something? Think of the famous people we know who are paralyzed and if we saw their healing there would be a stir amongst us I hope. The leaders choose to ignore this miracle and gripe about a broken rule. They are running around trying to figure out who broke the law. Have you ever observed that; a person in an uproar over an infraction of their own rules while something bigger is happening? Do people not sit in Churches and gripe about petty things? While people are complaining and griping God is acting and we will miss it if we don’t close our mouths and open our eyes.