Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent -- April 5, 2011
John 5:1 – 16
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 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. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 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?”
“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.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 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.”
But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
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.” The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.
Like many of the Jesus-stories in recent daily readings, this text offers several possibilities for exploration.
It makes no sense that this man laid beside a pool of healing water day by day. Day after day healing water bubbled up offering him wholeness and mercy, yet for 38 years he did not receive it for himself. It is the first clue that the story is about more than the healing of the body.
More than healing for his body, this man needed healing for his spirit.
When Jesus cautioned him after the healing about returning to his previous ways (“stop sinning”) or he would find himself in a more paralyzing state (“something worse may happen to you”) than before, there is a clear reference to the man’s spirit or attitude.
To be physically healed is one thing that few of us would reject. I’ve never met anyone who wanted to remain in a physical infirmity, or who wanted to return to a previous physical infirmity after an experience of physical healing. We welcome the physical healing and then move on.
But I have met plenty of people – and I find myself here very often – who beg for a healing of spirit, but then return to a previous, more comfortable and manageable state after that spiritual breakthrough. The future can seem very frightening. Its unknowableness intimidates us and makes us feel small in its presence. We’d rather have some control, some ability to manipulate our own destiny.
It is a very real regression that tempts all of us. Before you are tempted to judge this man – who in the scriptures is portrayed in a pathetic light – consider how you have returned to something that you thought behind you.
And if you have never been tempted to return to a previous state after some wondrous God-movement in your life, you may not have ever consciously received a truly whole-making God act in the first place.
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 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. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 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?”
“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.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 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.”
But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
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.” The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.
Like many of the Jesus-stories in recent daily readings, this text offers several possibilities for exploration.
It makes no sense that this man laid beside a pool of healing water day by day. Day after day healing water bubbled up offering him wholeness and mercy, yet for 38 years he did not receive it for himself. It is the first clue that the story is about more than the healing of the body.
More than healing for his body, this man needed healing for his spirit.
When Jesus cautioned him after the healing about returning to his previous ways (“stop sinning”) or he would find himself in a more paralyzing state (“something worse may happen to you”) than before, there is a clear reference to the man’s spirit or attitude.
To be physically healed is one thing that few of us would reject. I’ve never met anyone who wanted to remain in a physical infirmity, or who wanted to return to a previous physical infirmity after an experience of physical healing. We welcome the physical healing and then move on.
But I have met plenty of people – and I find myself here very often – who beg for a healing of spirit, but then return to a previous, more comfortable and manageable state after that spiritual breakthrough. The future can seem very frightening. Its unknowableness intimidates us and makes us feel small in its presence. We’d rather have some control, some ability to manipulate our own destiny.
It is a very real regression that tempts all of us. Before you are tempted to judge this man – who in the scriptures is portrayed in a pathetic light – consider how you have returned to something that you thought behind you.
And if you have never been tempted to return to a previous state after some wondrous God-movement in your life, you may not have ever consciously received a truly whole-making God act in the first place.
Comments
Post a Comment