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[d] 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13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.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.”
As chapter five 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.
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. We see ourselves in this man…We see all of humanity in this man…staring into the face of perfection
and confessing total helplessness. 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. Brothers and sisters, 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.
Have you stopped being amazed at the love of God the Father? Have you stopped standing in awe and what He has done for you and how it could be that you…could be forgiven
of all your sin? We were no different than this man…our ability was as lame as this man’s legs, and there was no one who could help us!
The Lord speaks and kind of like we saw last week with the nobleman, there is no arguing, there is no hesitation at the word of Christ 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 Christ 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.
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. Is that us?
The Pharisees are not even interested in the fact that a man, lame for 38 years now walks! All they care about is that this man is walking with his mat, which was
forbidden by THEIR laws. For the first time in the Gospel of John, we have an incident revealing the fundamental opposition to Jesus on the part of the Jewish religious leadership. And we have here, as well, the evidence that it was a religiousopposition.
This is, of course, the bitter irony of the Gospel story, it was the religious people, the devout people, the very people who should have welcomed the Lord Jesus with
open arms and understood his mission, the people who should have been thrilled at the knowledge that the Messiah had come among them. They should have rejoiced with all their hearts at the kindness Jesus had shown to this miserable man; should have marveled
at God’s power; should have wondered in humility what was happening among them…
…they should have fallen at the Savior’s feet to worship him, and, instead are quibbling about the fact that this man, paralyzed for thirty-eight years, and now walking…was
violating their understanding of Sabbath sanctification. But they care more about their own made up rules, their own understanding of what it means to be religious.
This is what religious unbelief often does. It hides behind laws, thinking to be safe. The law about burdens was speaking of the burdens of one’s trade, of a man’s
work. They decided that even carrying a roll or a mat is a
violation. But just as we said that we are not unlike the lame man, so we must say that for many, if not for the grace of God that has humbled us, we would be no different that these
Pharisees who seek to be self-justified instead of God justified.
Brothers and sisters, this is what a religious, self-righteous spirit does, it is critical, it looks at everyone else and is quick to see them as defined by their
faults…by their sins…by all that they don’t understand but that I so piously do understand. It exalts self, this critical spirit, it has no place for love and Christian charity and worse yet, because it is always critical of others, it never, never deals with
the sin in its own heart.
Oh, be careful of this spirit…I know that it is close to all of us. The Pharisees question the man and he cannot defend the action of taking up his bed and walking,
for his enemies were learned men, they were to put it bluntly, better arguers than he was. The man could only say in his defense, “Look, the guy who made me well said to me, take up your bed and walk.”
What a great defense! I am only doing what Jesus said. That is the only defense we need! Jesus has made me whole and now, we do what He calls us to do!
Prayer: Father, while I see myself in this lame man, I also see Your mercy and grace in Jesus that has made me whole and given me new life! Help me to walk in the
hope of the new life that Christ has given! I pray that everything in my life would point to Jesus and that I would rejoice in a life of obedience to Him who has given His life for me, in Jesus name, Amen.
Hymn: All to Jesus I Surrender
