The wisdom of this world
would say…”the better the day the better the deed”; but the
saying continues…“the flesh and the devil are on this agreed.”
So much for worldly wisdom! A great theologian by the name of
Matthew Henry, has written…”the better the day the worse the
deed” (see Luke 13.10-13)! To put it another way, the world would
say that…”man was made for the Sabbath”, while Jesus would say
that…”the Sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2.27)!
There is a difference
between Jesus and us, and that is, that we Believers tend to still
look at the matter through the eyes of the Law, while He, through the
eyes of our just God! Do you realize that there is a big difference
between justice, and the law? Of course you do! In my dictionary, a
law is defined as…”a binding rule of action established by
authority”, while justice is defined as…”having the quality of
integrity and fairness”, and more specifically…”the freedom to
yield where conditions permit, even when appearing to break the
letter of the law while preserving the spirit of the law”.
That’s our God…that’s
Jesus, celebrating God’s power, as we see Him doing throughout the
Gospels. He never dis-respected the law for His own purposes…to
heal or to feed, or to meet any urgent need, simply for His own
glory. In fact, rather than disrespecting the law, He told us
clearly, in Matthew 5.17-19, that He came to fulfill the conditions
of the law, offering His very self as the perfect and the final
Sacrifice for the sin of mankind…something that the law could never
accomplish. But let’s get to the crux of this passage.
Jesus had an eye for
troubled people; and He had a heart for troubled people. And if He
was in downtown where-ever today, He would be scanning the crowd and
He would instinctively be drawn to the one of us with the greatest
need. And the first question He would ask is…
1. “Are you withered
and waiting?”, Jn. 5.3
Of course you are! We all
are; especially before we receive Jesus! We can’t even begin to
imagine a world without sickness and setbacks, yet that’s exactly
how this world was created to be, and was, until Satan got us in His
clutches! And from that time on, sickness and sadness and setbacks.
You see, sin is like an iceberg, having its visible part…blindness,
deafness, cancers, demon possession and even death. Then, there is
the underlying foundation of sin, which is not visible to human
comprehension…the heart that is in rebellion against, and far from,
God. So Jesus came to deal with the physical manifestation of sin,
to prove He had the power to deal with the foundation of sin…man’s
heart (Matthew 9.5-)!
The letter of James 1.15
describes the situation like this…”when lust had conceived, it
brought forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death”!
All our human condition, including our physical sicknesses, are a
by-product of original sin; it’s not the will of God that any of us
die a physical death, except because of sin. After all, Jesus,
during His walk on this earth, healed the sick, and wept at the death
of His friend, Lazarus; just as, when we die, our family and friends
will grieve our departing, and we, their’s. So He knows exactly
how we feel in those same circumstances that He lived through.
Of course, sickness and
death can come upon us as the result of our own sin…drunken
driving, smoking, sexually-transmitted disease and a host of human
problems. And that could very well have been the case with the man
described for us here in the opening verses of chapter 5, as we read
Jesus’ command to him in vs. 14, to…”go, and sin no more!”
Jesus really does have a
desire for men to be made whole; He wants to take us from where we
are to where we need to be, and sometimes that involves half a
lifetime of serving “the world, the flesh and the devil”. In
this man’s case it was from a 38 year bondage to his disability,
and he was just one of many that were there, lame, lost and alone,
waiting for a miracle of grace when “an angel…troubled the water”
(vs. 4). They were a wretched and a rugged group…blind,
stiff-necked and hard-hearted, so that all they could do was wait for
someone to come and take pity on them and help them to that pool,
dog-eat-dog!
You know, there have been
times when I’ve been laid out on the porch (vss. 2,3), and I admit
that, just like that lame man, it is a pretty lonely place to
be…until Jesus walks by! In that time I was like the “certain
man”, found there in vs. 5 of our passage, and Jesus took the time
to question the obvious…
2. “Wilt thou be
made whole?”, Jn. 5.6
This man was disabled, he
was desperate and he was often disappointed, not being able to get to
the water in time to be healed. And that was his state, year after
year, for 38 years, as he laid beside that pool, completely
dependant, but having no one to depend upon. And not only that, but
everyone around him was in the same deplorable state…just as
desperate as he, and it showed every time they pushed him aside in
order to be healed themselves! Surely this man had been able to get
close to the pool once in awhile, but he always seemed to come up
short. That’s so like people in the world today; some even in the
church today…withered and waiting.
I believe that almost
everyone, if given the opportunity, would say that they wanted to go
to heaven when they die; but they’re not willing to go God’s way,
so they end up falling short. Remember, it’s all about Jesus! Of
course, this man wasn’t looking for Jesus, but thank you, Lord,
Jesus was looking for him! Oh, he wanted to be healed, and he was so
desperate, but his desperation only resulted in repeated
disappointment. But along came Jesus…”Wilt thou be made whole?”
Now there’s a silly question to ask a disabled and disappointed
man! But you must realize that the Lord will only make you whole
when you ask to be made whole. It’s a little like the question my
father used to ask me, in reverse…”Do you want a spanking?!”
Well Dad, let me think on that awhile. But really, it’s a good
question. You see, when Jesus gives us an opportunity to talk things
out with Him, we had best get our hearts ready for the question!
In this man’s case, he
had a lot to consider… he had never had to go to work in 38 years;
he depended on others for all his needs and he didn’t even have to
get up in the morning if he didn’t want-to. Now if he was to be
healed, he would have to start looking for work, he would have to
start getting his own meals and making his own bed…”Let me just
think on that a minute, Jesus!” Well, when it comes to our
spiritual walk with the lord, we have to consider a very similar
question…”Do you want more than you have?” Some Christians
don’t, you know, because they’ll have to start praying and
reading their bibles and start getting involved in the lives of
others; and all that will take more of their time, and leave less
time for the hockey game!
Many people are
spiritually impotent (vs. 3)…they have a spiritual infirmity, just
as real as that man’s physical infirmity (vs. 5); and they either
don’t know it, or they don’t care! Well Jesus says that, if you
want to be the kind of person you were born again to be, then you
need to spiritually get up off your spiritual bed, and walk with Him!
You know, this man had little hope for a healing, for 38 years…”But
then, Jesus said unto him, Rise, take up your bed and walk!” And
vs. 9 says that immediately, he did exactly as he was told to do;
after all those years, all that was required of him was a childlike
faith, and obedience to the Lord. You know, most people refuse Jesus
for that very reason…a lack of faith in God’s concern for them
and a lack of faith in His ability to make them whole (vs. 6). The
fact of the matter is, we don’t need to be withered and waiting,
there on the porch with Jesus walking by, just wanting us to have a
little talk with Him…that’s all!
In our next lesson…”Sin
no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee!”
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