Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent - March 12, 2013
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
John 5:2 – 9
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.
38 years ago what were you doing?
What was life like for you?
Did anything life-altering happen for you?
38 years ago this spring I was a high school junior in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At just about this time of year, we went to the state tournament in Oklahoma City to play for the state championship in basketball.
A couple of months later, I met a young man on a golf course who was about four years older than I. He was playing alone, as was I, but that day we formed a fast friendship, and met for golf several more times over the next few weeks. It was an unexpected encounter that led me into the Church a few months later.
That stands out most in this Gospel story for me today . . . the thirty-eight years. It feels like a lifetime. For the man at the pool, sickness may have been everything he knew.
What about you? Thirty-eight years ago . . .
John 5:2 – 9
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.
38 years ago what were you doing?
What was life like for you?
Did anything life-altering happen for you?
38 years ago this spring I was a high school junior in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At just about this time of year, we went to the state tournament in Oklahoma City to play for the state championship in basketball.
A couple of months later, I met a young man on a golf course who was about four years older than I. He was playing alone, as was I, but that day we formed a fast friendship, and met for golf several more times over the next few weeks. It was an unexpected encounter that led me into the Church a few months later.
That stands out most in this Gospel story for me today . . . the thirty-eight years. It feels like a lifetime. For the man at the pool, sickness may have been everything he knew.
What about you? Thirty-eight years ago . . .
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