After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 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 going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’”12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
The Savior speaks to fishermen, Pharisees, adulteresses, noblemen and the lame. All of those who seem to be so different in the eyes of men, some of high status and others of low. Some who are filled with pride, others who are filled with complete hopelessness. Whether they are lost because of fame, position, power or lost because of shame, discouragement and loneliness, they are all the same, they all need a Savior. Just like us.
Yet sometimes when Jesus is speaking to men, he says things that we have to know shocked them, or confused them. Think of his words and try to put yourself in the place of these folks: To the fisherman Peter, “You are Simon son of Jonah you shall be called a ROCK.” Peter must have thought, “Oh a Rock…what?”
To Nathaniel, “Most assuredly I say to you, hereafter you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” To the Jews, and this we know messed them up and confused them to no end: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.”
To Nicodemus: Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. And remember Nicodemus was wondering how in the world a grown man could get back into his mother’s womb. To the woman at the well: “If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you Give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water!” To the nobleman in a panic because his son is dying, “Go home, your son lives.”
As this chapter opens, Jesus has gone to a feast, which feast is uncertain, but nonetheless, we note the frequency of our Lord’s attendance at Jewish feasts and his respect for the Mosaic ordinances…He is fulfilling the law…for us.
These were appointed by God and so long as they lasted, Jesus gave them honor. The Lord goes to the pool and sees this man and continues with his custom of speaking and asking questions that reveal far more of his intentions than ever the person might have imagined.
What a question Jesus asks him! “Do you want to be made well?”The man has been ill for 38 years. The Savior’s question must have made his heart jump with anticipation.
Have you ever walked into a room, stood there without the faintest idea why you walked into that room? Some have argued that the man had been there so long, that more than likely he had forgotten why he was there, so long he waited…so much disappointment that he lay there with no hope and had for all practical purposes forgotten why he was there. Perhaps.
But here is the picture of complete and utter helplessness, and the man knows it and confesses his own impotence. First, he speaks to the fact that he cannot help himself. He is lame and cannot move to the water at the appropriate time. He, in and of himself, has no hope of cure. Then he says that he has no help, he has no one to lift him. His hope in someone else, another person, to help cure his disability, is worthless…he has no one.
Here is the confession of mankind. No hope in self, no help in man. I see all of humanity in this man…staring into the face of perfection and confessing total helplessness.
Let’s pause: We know what is going to happen next, don’t we? Blessing beyond his wildest imagination…but do you see that it did not and would not come to him apart from his confession of his condition? No hope in self. No help in man. And then the blessing of heaven.
This is the gospel…this is what we are being made to understand, no hope in self, no help in man and once we know this, confess it, then comes the blessing of heaven! It is why we confess our sins, that we might again acknowledge to God that in ourselves our condition has not changed, but in Christ, there is blessing, healing and restoration. This is what the kingdom of heaven brings…this is why Jesus came. Just as the Lord said to the dry bones, dry bones, live, and they came alive. Just as He says in the darkness, let there be light and there was light.
Now, he speaks to the sinner and says, get up…and walk. Grace now empowers you to do the impossible. The Lord speaks and there is no arguing, there is no hesitation at the word of Jesus, this man believes Jesus and does exactly what the Lord says. We have to remember, he has not walked in 38 years and here is Jesus saying, get up and walk…and he does.
No sooner does the Lord speak the words, than the man did exactly what the Savior commanded him to do. That is the response of faith. It hears the words of Christ and it humbly obeys.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer knew early that Hitler was evil and eventually was executed for his resistance to the evil dictator. But the impressive thing about Bonhoeffer was his commitment to obedience…Purposed obedience to the word of Christ. I want to read parts of this to you if for no other reason to whet your appetite. Bonhoeffer wrote: “Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God—the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God.”
Is that us? Are we those who want only to make the whole of our life, an answer to God’s gracious call? Exclusive allegiance to God??? Or this, Bonhoeffer wrote about the way people worship success: “In a world where success is the measure and justification of all things the figure of Him who was sentenced and crucified remains a stranger and is at best an object of pity. The world will allow itself to be subdued only by success.
It is not the opinions which decide but deeds. Success alone justifies wrongs done…with a frankness and off handedness which no other earthly power could permit itself…the figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard. God is not interested in success, but in obedience.”
Bonhoeffer would say that, that which was missing from the life of Christians in Germany was the day-to-day reality of following Christ with every ounce of ones being in every moment and every part of one’s life…Christ must be brought into every square inch of the world…or the Christ whom one was bringing was not Christ at all but a tawdry man-made counterfeit. (pg. 248)
The Christian life begins here, with this man, hopeless and helpless and it is lived in the power of grace and the fortitude of faith that says, I will follow Jesus in obedience…in everything…all the time.
Prayer: Father, I would go where You want and do as You desire. I pray that this day You would slow me down, that I might proceed with wisdom. I pray that Your Word would saturate my thinking and therefore, my doing. Keep me in a state of prayer throughout the day and bring to me true friends who desire Your honor and glory and help me to attain it. Father, all of this is Your doing and Your gift, I receive all You have with joy and thanksgiving, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Song: Amen
