13 November 2013, CMA (Edited: 12 July 2017)
#INeedHealingFreedomRest #CompetitionIsWearingMeOut #JesusProvidesAndSaves
#BeenWaitingForLong #JesusIsCallingAreYouListening
John 5:1-14, quoting from Bible Gateway:-
" The Healing at the Pool
5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesdaand which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 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?” 7 “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.”8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 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.” 11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” 12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” 13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. 14 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.”
Commentary
Here we encounter an ultra-competitive world. People with great needs, waiting for their needs to be met - amid fierce worldly competition (v7). “Waiting”, amid fierce worldly competition, is greatly wearing them out. Some of us can relate to this very well, in today’s life. (BTW, the man here has been waiting for 38 years for healing - here is an article on "waiting" I wrote)
Then, Jesus enters the scene with liberating GOOD NEWS! He comes with freedom, healing, rest, and in the broader scheme of things - life in abundance (In John 8:32 Jesus says “Truth shall set you free”; In Matthew 11:28-29 Jesus says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”; In John 10:10 Jesus says “ I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”).
This applies to all of us - When the worldly competition starts to wear you out - look to Jesus for your needs!
I believe the TWO calls (John 5:6 - “Do you want to get well?”, John 5:9 - “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk”) from Jesus is for all who have not yet reconciled with God. That is, the first call “Do you want to get well?” is a reminder for the need to repent and reconcile with God (as Jesus says in 5:14 “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you”). And, the second call "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk" is the follow-up call to take the next step towards life in abundance.
So, contrary to what you may feel in the moment (i.e., God has abandoned/forgotten you - as the man, invalid for 38 years, here may have thought), Jesus is calling you (John 5:6, John 5:9) towards life in abundance - Are you listening?
I was discussing this passage with a group of “to-be” doctors/health-professionals. I remember saying to them - Just as we see here, many will come to you for healing, as if you are this “pool”. And, again and again you will be reminded you are “insufficient”, as healers, and these people need to be pointed to Jesus - God/Lord of all physicians, at the end of the day. And, also, the so-called “remedies of the world” (pool here; your medicine prescriptions) are “just patches” in the bigger scheme of things - sin is what needs to be dealt with, eventually, to make a person whole in the light of eternity! (John 5:14: “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” Mark 9:47: "It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell") So, pray for your patients too, so that they may know the true healer.
From the entire Book of John we learn:- Just like Jesus did, we also need to reach out to those in need around us, with the good news of the Gospel.