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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” fellow pilgrims;
The light at the end of the tunnel of the global Coronavirus shut down seems visible, at least in some parts of the world. What will the ‘new normal’ be like for you and all of us as, things begin to slowly open again? We’ve been in this ‘twilight zone’ of uncertainty for so long, haven’t we? It might be similar to what Jesus’ close friends felt, especially in the 40 days between His resurrection and His ascension. In that time, each day brought great uncertainty: would they see Him today? What should their priorities be now? What would the rest of their lives be like because of Jesus?
Because for them, in the past many months Jesus had been their daily companion and the center of their lives, I believe they spent time, whenever even two or three of them were together, reminiscing about Jesus. Perhaps you’ve noticed, John’s account of Jesus’ life is quite different from Matthew, Mark or Luke. So over the next few days, I’d like us to look at some of those memories of Jesus which John alone shares with us. I love how John has some unusual insight into Jesus’ life and how He impacted the people whose life He touched, even if it was only for a few moments.
John chapter 5 is one of those remarkable experiences. John tells us it took place in Jerusalem at a place called Bethesda. I’m happy to tell you this is another one of those accounts which helps to validate the Bible as true. For centuries skeptics wrote off this chapter since there was no evidence of such a place. Until… archaeologists digging in Jerusalem discovered what they are fairly certain is this pool which was surrounded by 5 covered porches. At the end of our reflection today, I’ve included a link to an archaeological explanation of this remarkable discovery. Here’s a picture of Bethesda today:
John gives us no reason for Jesus going to this place, except the area around the pool and the 5 covered porches, were filled with people who had given up on doctors. They laid here each day hoping for a miracle. One of these was a man who’d been crippled for 38 years. John tells us nothing more about him. Not his name or the cause of his paralysis, or how he got to this pool each day. All we know is that his life was defined, by him and most everyone who knew him, by his paralysis and his helplessness. Perhaps in the last several weeks some of you have begun to feel like this man might have felt.
Do you know anyone living like this man? In the paralysis of hopelessness? I’ve heard reports that in this Coronavirus time alcohol and drug consumption has skyrocketed, even recently suicides. Without the distractions of work, sporting events, restaurants, gatherings with friends, and all the other things which normally keep most people running through life in a frenzy… the emptiness and ugliness of their lives has been undeniable, and many people can’t handle that reality without some anesthesia, strong anesthesia!
John invites us to join Jesus, John and some of the other disciples here, as they enter the Bethesda pool area, and see this gathering of hopeless people: “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 38 years. When Jesus saw him, lying there and learned that he had been in this condition a long time, Jesus asked him ‘Do you want to get well’? (John 5:3-6)
If you had heard Jesus ask the question, in this place filled with hopeless, helpless people, what would you have thought? Perhaps… ‘what a ridiculous question to ask here’? And yet, look around your world today my friends, is it possible you know some people, who like these, have given up hope? Their desire to ‘get well’ has rusted away with time, and they have simply settled for the harsh reality that their painful existence will never change, that their only hope is to somehow keep covering it over with something that numbs the pain?
Or, let’s be honest…we hate to think it, but it’s true. For some people, unemployment, dependence on other people, purposeless living, addiction, has been their way of life for so long, they can’t imagine having a job to work everyday, living without a drink or a pill or a syringe, being self-sufficient, perhaps even carrying the responsibility of other people. In truth, the question frightens them… no, they can’t imagine anything other than what has been their painful, drudgery normal for so long.
But what if… what if Jesus walked in to their Bethesda and asked them this question “Do you want to be well?” Do you notice the question is not, ‘do you want to be restored to what you were before the problem’? No, this is not about returning to the past or even a better version of the past, this is about looking forward to a new and better future, a future in which you are WELL. It means whole, healthy, vibrant, living life as God designed your life to be lived!
Do you remember John wrote in John 10:10 that Jesus said: “The thief comes to kill and steal and destroy, but I have come that you might have life and have it to the full.” So what does this life look like in Jesus’ mind, as He looks at you and me, my friends, and especially those living around us in the paralysis of hopelessness? What is Jesus’ vision for your life and mine…today, tomorrow, 5 years from now?
John tells us the cripple man’s answer for Jesus’ question, showed where his many years of hopelessness had brought him. “Sir’, the invalid replied, ‘I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred…” Evidently in this place there was at least the belief that an angel might come and stir up the water of the pool and whoever got in first, might be healed. I presume this man was unable to move very much without assistance, thus he would have been carried to this place and ‘home’ again each day. He was dependent on others for everything. He could not possibly see himself ‘well’ without the help of others.
Of course he didn’t know Who was standing in front of him asking him the question. “Immanuel”, the God who had created this man and the entire universe, was talking to this crippled man and as Gabriel had told Mary, “Nothing is impossible with God”. (Luke 1:37) Do you believe that is true, my friends? How strongly do you believe it?
May I ask us to pause here a moment friends? While you and I may not be physically crippled, have the last several weeks of constant Coronavirus news, and the lifestyle change you perhaps have had, caused you to see yourself differently than when life was so busy? This morning, right now, I invite you, I challenge you to let Jesus ask you the question… “Do YOU want to be well?” Just let that simmer in your soul… what does it mean for you? What does Jesus see in you and me that He would like to heal so we are ‘well’ by His definition? Completely WELL?
John reports that “Jesus said to the cripple, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
“At once the crippled man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked…” (John 5:8,9)
As we read further in John 5, we discover the man didn’t even know who Jesus was! When asked by some skeptics why he was carrying his mat on the Sabbath, and how it was that he was cured, all he could say was, “The man who made me well told me to pick up my mat and walk…” My friends, if Jesus has done some amazing, life changing things in your life, how do you explain it? How often do you celebrate it? And how do you describe the relationship He and you have today?
John tells us that later that day, Jesus encountered the formerly crippled man, again. John writes: “Later, Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘See you are well. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.’ The man went away and told the Jews it was Jesus who had made him well.” (John 5:14,15)
May I ask, does your understanding of God reflect this encounter? Do you see Holy, Majestic, All powerful God sitting up in heaven in His throne room watching you, and just waiting for you to sin, and when you do, then He unleashes some punishment on you? Is that what Jesus is saying to this man? Was his paralysis a punishment from God? Had God given him a second chance at life, but would God be quick to re-impose the curse of paralysis, only worse the next time, if he sinned? Oh my dear “Walking with Jesus” friends, that is what so many people believe about God…and they fear both their failure and God’s anticipated punishment! Please hear me…that is not a true picture of God! Part of the reason Jesus came to earth was to help us know God for who He really is!
I believe John’s life was dramatically impacted by the powerful truth of the LOVE of God as he came to experience it through Jesus. That’s why he referred to himself as “the disciple that Jesus loved.” John had a temper. He and his brother had the nicknames “the sons of thunder”, and once suggested to Jesus that He ‘call down fire from heaven to destroy them‘, when the people of a Samaritan village had not welcomed Jesus. (Luke 9:51-55) But as Jesus and John spent time together, John changed and he became known both as “the disciple that Jesus loved” and the ‘disciple of love’.
John writes more about the love of God, and gives us more stories about Jesus loving people than any other Biblical writer. I think this verse which John wrote, gives us a deep look into his changed heart: “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loves us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:9,10)
Jesus was not warning the man that God was just waiting for the chance to punish him, rather Jesus was inviting the man to live a whole new life, a life free from the ravages of sin, a full life lived in relationship with God, in the overflow of God’s love, God’s grace. And more, allowing this love of God to overflow out of his healed, transformed life, onto all the people his life touched!
It is Satan who is waiting to punish us with shame in our sin. He is the one who wants us to live crippled lives, grieving lives, shame filled lives. He and his demons are the ones who accuse us and attack us and tempt us to say and do the things which enslave us in the bondage of regret and self-condemnation.
But the resurrected Jesus, who defeated sin, Satan and death, offers us new life, healed life, hopeful and purposeful life, abundant life! This man’s new life was now possible both because he was physically healed and had a life changed story to tell of Jesus’ impact on his life, but also because a relationship with the resurrected Jesus would change him forever, for all eternity!
John’s account of this man is only 15 verses. He never surfaces in the Gospel accounts again, at least he’s not pointed out to us, but I’ve often wondered if this healed man was in the crowd the day Jesus came riding over the hill on the donkey, and did he shout in his loudest voice, “Hossanna, blessed is He who come in the name of the Lord”.
Was he in the crowd that Friday morning as the angry mob shouted “Crucify Him”, as bloodied Jesus stood near Pilate, bound and beaten to pulp? Did this man then shout “No…this is the man who healed me, he can heal you too!”
Was the healed cripple in the crowd and watched Jesus carry His cross through the Jerusalem streets. Maybe this healed man even stood at a distance looking at Jesus hanging on the cross, paying for His sin.
This much we know… on that day when Jesus asked him a simple but penetrating question, “Do you want to be well”, his entire life changed in a moment… because Jesus unleashed His power into this hopeless man’s life. Now what about you and me my friends… what would Jesus like to do in our lives today? What would change the rest of our lives, if He was to ask us… “Do you want to be well?
I suggest we each take some time, right now, to open our hearts, our ears, our lives to Jesus and what HE would like to do to make you and me fully WELL today!
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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