If you hang around Jesus long enough, you'll realize that he isn't interested in a popularity contest. He's not a politician, he doesn't play by those games. It’s one of the things about Jesus that drove the religious leaders nuts. No matter how much pressure they put

on him, he wouldn’t fold. They couldn’t get to him and so they decided they were going to have to shut him down.

In fact, the scene we’re going to look at today ends with: “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him…” That’s a shocking ending; what pushed them over the edge?

In the passage from John 5, we see four shocking elements:

1) The Intractability of the Disease

2) The Controversy of the Sabbath

3) The Superficiality of the Healing

4) The Audacity of the Son

The Intractability of the Disease: Jesus finds a man with a disease by the pool of Bethesda. The man asks not for healing, but to be brought to healing pool. And instead of bringing him to the healing, Jesus brings the healing to him. Jesus commands him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” Not only does the man stand, he hoists his bed and walks. Jesus is once more wielding the power of the Messianic Age, because in Jesus the Kingdom of God is at hand. You'd think this was something to be celebrated by the religious leaders, but the opposite happens.

The Controversy of the Sabbath: The religious leaders response to the healing of Jesus misses the forest for the trees. In their zeal for obedience to the law of God, they were oblivious to the Son of God in their midst. But what's also shocking is how quickly the man who was healed walks away from Jesus.

The Superficiality of the Healing: The healed man may have lost Jesus, but Jesus hasn’t lost him. What could be worse than decades of misery as an invalid? Sitting feet away from the healing you need, but knowing you’re powerless to reach it on your own? Day after day, having your hopes dashed again and again; what could possibly be worse than that? It is this: if the man's sin runs unchecked, a worse fate awaits. His physical ailments were just the tip of the iceberg. He thought his biggest problem in life laid in his crippled limbs. But Jesus is showing him the deeper problem, the real disease that lies within. Sin cripples our souls, and if it’s not dealt with, it will cripple us for eternity far from the presence of Jesus, who is the only one who can truly heal us. By calling out this man's sin, Jesus is inviting him to deal with the deeper disease and illness within. Unfortunately, he wasn’t ready to go receive Jesus' offer, So he closed off, ran away and turned Jesus in. And now the religious leaders come after Jesus.

The Audacity of the Son: The religious leaders accuse Jesus of working on the Sabbath. Jesus could have responded a number of ways, but he says something shocking: “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” In essence he's saying that God the Father works on the Sabbath, and so he does too. He’s saying the exceptions that apply to God also apply to himself. Jesus is ultimately claiming the prerogatives of Deity for himself. Not only is he Messiah, he’s claiming to be the Son of God with all the rights and privileges thereof.

What's our takeaway? Jesus is our Healer, our Sabbath, and our God.

The reason so many of us find ourselves sitting by the pool, so close to the healing we desperately need and yet we’re so far away, is because we cannot bring ourselves to look to Jesus, and in surrender, vulnerability, and desperation say: “I have no one to help me; I can’t get there on my own; would you help me, Jesus?”

Jesus has never left that prayer unanswered.

Four shocking elements:

• The intractability of the disease

• The controversy of the Sabbath

• The superficiality of the healing

• The audacity of the Son

Takeaways:

• Our disease runs deeper than we know.

• Outside-in can never really heal us.

• Jesus is our Healer, our Sabbath, and our God.