Do you want to get well?
John has Jesus teach in the context of Jewish festivals
This story is all about the revelation of God in Jesus on the Sabbath Read John 5:1-15
John 5:1-15 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie--the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When 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."
8 Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."
11 But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, `Pick up your mat and walk.' "
12 So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 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." 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Background on pool called Bethesda
Colonnades or porticoes to shade the crippled
Perhaps built by wealthy grateful healed persons
Legend is born by explanations to experiences - ripple in water, subterranean spring or - angel (no vs. 4)
Why not stand in the pool 24/7 - because it didn't work
Did Jesus believe in curative powers of the shrine -
Did the religious people?
Healing shrine at Lourdes - exit littered with crutches and casts - be more convincing if littered with prosthetics
What disables a person -
Do you want to get well?
What disables a person? Broken body? Defeated mind?
Career invalid needs to ask himself:
Do I want to get better?
Jesus always asks great questions -
Do you want to get well?
I don't ask - Is your car broken - do you want your marriage to work, do you want to pass Math?
1st response - blame - I have no one to help me
Don't throw pity parties
2nd thing - Banking on legend - miracle cures
The man didn't need the pool, he needed Jesus
Jesus' stern response "get up!"
Remember last week - Go Home!
Jesus doesn't mince words
38 years with little or no hope replaced by a strict command Get up - quit begging
The man is instantly healed - but this isn't a story about healing, there were dozens there not healed
Jesus is more concerned with crippled ideas of Sabbath
Fixing Religion - Messing with Tradition
The Sabbath every 7 days - defined your lifestyle. What did God intend for the Sabbath?
What kinds of things were illegal to do on the Sabbath? look in a mirror - Sabbaths journey 3000 feet from your house - cord or wire connecting house and barn - burden work size dried fig - no shower for fear of cleaning the floor - pick up a child - but not if the child held a stone
An orthodox Jewish web site lists 39 categories of work
Burning - light a fire - stove - starting an engine - turning on an electric light
Writing or tearing - can tear a package to get food - but avoid tearing through letters on the package
Cooking - but you can warm food if you don't light a fire or turn on electricity
Sewing tearing, tying or untying a permanent knot - so ties and shoes are AOK
Plowing - planting - spitting may part the soil and considered plowing
Reaping, harvesting, threshing, and winnowing
Selecting - may not pick out bad fruit from good, but may eat only the good fruit leaving the bad
Shearing - cutting hair, fingernails, combing pulls out hair
From their website - The Sabbath is more than a mere set of rules. It is another way of life completely, totally divorced from weekday life. When put in handbook form, a different life style may seem very difficult and complex. When lived, however, it is really very easy.
Don't be too hard on them, do you remember Sabbaths laws - Blue laws
No movies, dancing, stores - liquor -Chick-fil-a
Sabbath was broken - not by violating the rules but by violating its purpose.
MK 2:23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
25 He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."
27 Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
3:1 Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."
4 Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent.
5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
What does it mean that God rested?
Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy?
What makes it holy? - to do good - to save life
God still works on the seventh day - rain, birth, grow - recreation!
Sabbath is a blessing not a curse - An oasis not oppression
Religious people - do you want people to get well?
Pick up mat and walk was a crime against the Sabbath
How is it we get preoccupied with laws of religion while people are being healed
Or do you prefer them to be invalids 38 years = a way of life
Why more concerned with the violation of the Sabbath than the miracle
At the end of the story Jesus finds him in the temple.
It had been out of bounds for the last 38 years
He had just gotten done making excuses - "The man who made me well said to me, `Pick up your mat and walk.' "
Stop sinning or something worse will happen- was that the sin - making excuses?
Return to original question - Do you want to get well?
Quit making excuses
Make godly use of the Sabbath - do good - save life - heal
Next Step
So what - do you think you have an excuse -
I don't know the Bible well enough
I can't speak well
I don't have many friends
Get up!
