John 5:1-18

Relax, Read and Reflect

Prayer- Lord, Open our hearts and open our minds and help us learn. Go-Fight-Win. Amen.

The Healing at the Pool

¹Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. ²Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda^a]'> and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.^b]'> ⁵One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"

⁷"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."

⁸Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." ⁹At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."

¹¹But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' "

¹²So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"

¹³The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." ¹⁵The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Life Through the Son

¹⁶So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. ¹⁷Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." ¹⁸For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Jesus comes to Jerusalem and continues to do miracles. Near the gates of town there were some pools, basically watering troughs. People needing miracles would hang around these pools, and angles would come down and "stir the water" and whoever got in first would be healed.
As Jesus worked his way through this crowd of people he met a invalid on a mat that had been waiting for a miracle for thirty eight years. Since he had no one to throw him in the water when it became stirred, people always jumped ahead of him. Jesus asked if he wanted to be cured and the man said yes. Jesus then told the man to get up and take his mat and go home. No big show, no organ in the background, not even a prayer. The man got up, picked up his sleeping bag, and went home.
On his way home the religious leaders stopped him and told him he could not be carrying his sleeping bag, it was the Sabbath and a day of rest. The man said the Man who healed me told me to pick up and go home, so that was what he was doing. They asked who told him and he did not know, for Jesus had slipped away.
Jesus came back to the man later to tell him to stop sinning now that he was healed. The healed person ratted Jesus out to the leaders and they confronted Jesus about healing on the Sabbath. Jesus said "My Father works everyday, and I too am working." This meant that Jesus was now saying he was God, and this upset the Jewish leaders.
Sometimes we get used to things happening at particular times, we get into habits. Miracles should happen at church, or when lots of folks gather around and lay on hands. Jesus works all the time! We should be aware of this and be grateful for it.

Question:
1. How could a man wait thirty eight years for a miracle?
2. If you had to wait that long and some stranger said get up and go home, would you?
3. Why did this piss off the religious leaders so much?

Prayer- Lord, help us to see your work everyday. Give us the strength and wisdom to do God's work whenever and wherever we see the need. Go-Fight-Win. Amen