Day Seven: Take Up Your Bed and Walk
Read John 5:1-18
In John 5:1, we are told there was a “feast of the Jews.” We don’t know exactly what feast was being celebrated, but we do know it was the Sabbath, and it is that fact that made Jesus’ actions so controversial on this particular day.
The Bible teaches in the fourth commandment that we are to keep the Sabbath Day holy. While we are given some direct instruction biblically on how to do this, the details are not overly prescribed.
By the time of Jesus, the Jewish leaders had become so obsessed with maintaining the letter of the law that they had developed an overwhelming and intricate set of additional rules that defined what a person could and could not do on the Sabbath.
On this particular Sabbath day, Jesus approached a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. For nearly four decades, that man had not only lived with an incapacitating weakness, but he had succumbed to an overwhelming sense of hopelessness.
He spent his days among the forgotten of society, lying beside a pool of water, hoping that the legends people told of miraculous healings might come true. This was a place that respectable people might avoid so as not to associate with such a motley crew. Yet, into that pit of despair, Jesus marched.
When Jesus asked the man whether he wanted to be healed, the invalid could not even find it in himself to say, “Yes.” He simply reiterated his hopeless situation as one who had explained himself many times before. Into that relentless cycle of hopelessness, Jesus—the Word of God made flesh—speaks. Then, a miraculous healing occurs, and the man’s body is fully restored.
At this point, we ought to expect the people to be celebrating. A healing of this magnitude could only be of God. However, the Jewish leaders were enraged that Jesus broke one of their rabbinic traditions by healing on the Sabbath. Even the man who was healed seems to show very little appreciation for Jesus, as he repeatedly informs the authorities of what Jesus had done.
Jesus succinctly cut through the fog of rabbinic tradition and the lack of gratefulness of the invalid and said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
We are prone to make the same mistakes as the religious leaders and the man who was healed.
So often, God does the extraordinary before our very eyes, and we never pause to appreciate it. He orchestrates our lives in ways that bring about His glory and our good, yet so often, we never take a moment to appreciate God’s hand in it all.
We fly through life at breakneck speed, wondering why God is not doing more. We often complain that our trials are too long, that his presence feels too distant. Like the blind man, sometimes we even turn to false measures to get our prayers answered.
All the while, God has been sustaining our every breath, guarding our souls, interceding for us, and so much more. We must not be so careless as to miss the hand of God. We must learn to slow down, reflect, see God at work, and offer God true thanksgiving.
The Bible teaches in the fourth commandment that we are to keep the Sabbath Day holy. While we are given some direct instruction biblically on how to do this, the details are not overly prescribed.
By the time of Jesus, the Jewish leaders had become so obsessed with maintaining the letter of the law that they had developed an overwhelming and intricate set of additional rules that defined what a person could and could not do on the Sabbath.
On this particular Sabbath day, Jesus approached a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. For nearly four decades, that man had not only lived with an incapacitating weakness, but he had succumbed to an overwhelming sense of hopelessness.
He spent his days among the forgotten of society, lying beside a pool of water, hoping that the legends people told of miraculous healings might come true. This was a place that respectable people might avoid so as not to associate with such a motley crew. Yet, into that pit of despair, Jesus marched.
When Jesus asked the man whether he wanted to be healed, the invalid could not even find it in himself to say, “Yes.” He simply reiterated his hopeless situation as one who had explained himself many times before. Into that relentless cycle of hopelessness, Jesus—the Word of God made flesh—speaks. Then, a miraculous healing occurs, and the man’s body is fully restored.
At this point, we ought to expect the people to be celebrating. A healing of this magnitude could only be of God. However, the Jewish leaders were enraged that Jesus broke one of their rabbinic traditions by healing on the Sabbath. Even the man who was healed seems to show very little appreciation for Jesus, as he repeatedly informs the authorities of what Jesus had done.
Jesus succinctly cut through the fog of rabbinic tradition and the lack of gratefulness of the invalid and said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
We are prone to make the same mistakes as the religious leaders and the man who was healed.
So often, God does the extraordinary before our very eyes, and we never pause to appreciate it. He orchestrates our lives in ways that bring about His glory and our good, yet so often, we never take a moment to appreciate God’s hand in it all.
We fly through life at breakneck speed, wondering why God is not doing more. We often complain that our trials are too long, that his presence feels too distant. Like the blind man, sometimes we even turn to false measures to get our prayers answered.
All the while, God has been sustaining our every breath, guarding our souls, interceding for us, and so much more. We must not be so careless as to miss the hand of God. We must learn to slow down, reflect, see God at work, and offer God true thanksgiving.
Posted in Lent
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