Healed After 38 Years!

Healed After 38 Years! You're Not Down - You're Either Up Or You're Getting Up! Our Bible verse to examine today is John 5:1-16 HCSB. "After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five colonnades. Within these lay a large number of the sick — blind, lame, and paralyzed — waiting for the moving of the water, because an angel would go down into the pool from time to time and stir up the water. Then the first one who got in after the water was stirred up recovered from whatever ailment he had. One man was there who had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to get well? " "Sir," the sick man answered, "I don't have a man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I'm coming, someone goes down ahead of me." "Get up," Jesus told him, "pick up your mat and walk! " Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk. Now that day was the Sabbath, so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "This is the Sabbath! It's illegal for you to pick up your mat." He replied, "The man who made me well told me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' " "Who is this man who told you, 'Pick up your mat and walk'? " they asked. But the man who was cured did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. After this, Jesus found him in the temple complex and said to him, "See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn't happen to you." The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began persecuting Jesus because He was doing these things on the Sabbath." Here's a couple of definitions to start with:  * Jerusalem = "set ye double peace" * Bethesda = "house of mercy" or "flowing water" * Kairos (time) = a fixed and definite time, the time when things are brought to crisis, the decisive epoch waited for.       A double peace means physical and spiritual peace. You could think of it this way, "on earth as it is in heaven." Bethesda was known as a place for people to get healed. The healings only happened at unknown times. The times came and went before everyone was healed. Only the first one to dip in the stirred-up waters was healed.      One guy had been disabled for 38 years. He had some excuses why he was never able to get into the water first and be healed. Jesus didn't focus on the excuses, he just told him to do three things, "Get up, pick up your mat and walk!" Many teachings in the Bible leave us with a lot of questions. Perhaps the man said thank you, but we don't read about gratitude. We know he was a sinner, because when Jesus met him in the market he said, "See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn't happen to you."      What does the healed man do next? It appears the man, after meeting Jesus, immediately goes to the Jewish leaders and says it was Jesus who healed him. There's no way to know for sure, but it seems the man was more interested in gaining favor with religious leaders than he was in giving thanks and praise to Jesus. As soon as he told them about Jesus, the persecution of Jesus began. He must've known from the accusatory interrogation the Jews gave him about carrying his mat on the Sabbath that the religious leaders were only looking to cause trouble.      For crying out loud, a man crippled for 38 years was healed! That's good news worthy of celebration, but instead we have the beginning of persecution. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Questions To Ponder 1. Did the disabled man have a victim mentality? When Jesus asked the man, "Do you want to get well?" He answered with excuses. 2. Did the man appear to gain a personal relationship with Jesus? We don't read about him saying, "Thank you!" or "Let me go with you!" 3. If something good happens to you and somebody is unhappy about it, would you trust them? 4. Is the man's failure to physically get to the water an example of failed human effort without the spiritual effort of pursuing the mercy and Grace of God? 5. Would you wait 38 years as people jumped in the water before you? 6. Was it really about the water stirring or the Spirit of God stirring in people who were spiritually hungry enough to just believe? 7. How can you create "double peace?" Thanks for your time. Go do something nice for somebody. Jesus loves you and so do we. biblebob.org