John 5:8-15
Then Jesus said to him,
“Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once
the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took
place was a Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It
is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” But he
replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and
walk.’ So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it
up and walk? The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had
slipped away into the crowd that was there. 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.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had
made him well.
One of the most remarkable
things about this passage is in verse 14, the text says that Jesus found this
man (again) after he had been healed. Why did
Jesus go looking for him a second time? He
found him the first time at the pool of Bethesda and healed him and sent him on
his way, shouldn’t that be the end of the story? What
else does Jesus want with this man? John
indicates that Jesus actually went looking for this man again. Jesus knew
exactly where to find him, the Jewish law required a person that had been
healed to go to the Temple and make a thank offering to God. Apparently,
Jesus was not through with this guy just yet. When
Jesus catches up with him, He says a very curious thing, “See, you are well
again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”
There are some who interpret
this passage to mean that this man’s condition was the direct result of his
personal sin, and that God had actually afflicted him for 38 years until Jesus
showed up and healed him. Now there are some sins and behaviors that can and do lead to
serious physical consequences, even death. However,
what we don’t want to do is assume that anytime something’s wrong it must be
your lack of faith, trust or lack of belief. That’s a very dangerous thing to
say. Jesus in fact balances this out because He makes it very clear that
sometimes things happen and it’s no one’s fault. In John
9, Jesus heals a man who had been born blind. “His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi,
who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?’ Jesus
answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so
that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
Let’s be clear, Jesus is NOT
threatening this man. He is NOT saying that if this man steps out of line again, God
is going to strike him down even worse than before, He is NOT saying that!
So what is Jesus saying? First
he reminds the man that he has been healed, “See you are well again.” The
word translated well actually means whole (in fact many modern translations
translate it as such). Jesus is telling this man that he has been restored, made
completely whole physically, and spiritually. The second thing Jesus is
does is to give a rather strange warning to this guy, “Stop sinning or
something worse may happen to you.” I can’t
help but ask the question – what is worse than 38 years as an invalid? I can’t
think of too many things from a human point of view to be honest. However,
an eternity apart from God is infinitely worse than any fate you can imagine
for any length of time on earth. What is
worse? To be separated from God for all eternity, that is worse!
Finally, Jesus is telling this
man WHY he has been made whole. Jesus
has not just healed his body so that the man will have a few years of relative
physical comfort. Think about this for a minute, if Jesus had showed up at the
pool that day and said to the man, “I forgive you”, but done nothing at all
about his desperate physical condition, most people would think that pretty
insensitive of Him. But how much more tragic would it have been if Jesus only healed
the man’s physical body, but done nothing at all for his soul? So what
if the man walks around for a few years, if he is headed for an eternity apart
from God!?
This is never Jesus’ primary
agenda! Jesus is after a much deeper healing than whatever physical
disease or disability this man had suffered from, He is after a healing of his
soul. Jesus is showing this man (and us) that the physical miracle is
really a gateway to the greater miracle – a transformed heart! This is
the real miracle, because this is the real disease (sin) that disables us
all. This man has been made whole so that his life may be lived for
the glory of God.
Pastor Jeff Frazier
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment