In Jesus Holy Name May 25, 2019
Text: John 5:16-18 Redeemer
“Who’s Replacing Sabbath Rules?”
Several years ago we replaced our wooden shake shingles on the roof of our home. We used better quality shingles. The old wooden shakes really looked nice but were not very fire resistant. Our new replacement shingles look nice, and they come with a 50 year warranty. I don’t think we will be there that long.
We all know that things we own need to be “replaced” from time to time. A new toaster, newer television, cell phone, car. This “replacement” idea is exactly why John tells us that Jesus healed people on the Sabbath. Jesus was replacing Jewish rules that they thought earned them entrance into heaven with Himself. Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes into the Father’s presence except through me.”
At first reading There’s a wonderful story in John 5 that brings this issue to the surface. Jesus had come to Jerusalem during one of the yearly feasts. Thousands of pilgrims were there from throughout Israel. While he was there, he paid a visit to a place called Bethesda, “the house of mercy.”
It was a pool near the Sheep Gate in the northeastern section of the city. Five colonnades (or porches) were built by the pool. As one writer put it, it was the Jewish Lourdes of that day. The Jews believed that an angel would come and periodically stir the waters. The first person to enter the water after it had been stirred would be healed of his diseases.
So hundreds of sick and infirm people gathered around the pool, waiting and hoping for the water to be stirred. On the day that Jesus passed by, he met a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. When he found out how long the man had been paralyzed, he asked only one question, “Do you want to be well?”
On the surface it seems to be a bizarre question. Why else would the man be there? Of course he wanted to be well. Was Jesus insulting his intelligence? No, not at all. He was asking a very serious question. He was asking because it was entirely possible that the man did not want to get well.
The man answers this way: “Do I want to be healed? That’s a crazy question. Why do you think I’m here? You must be new here. You don’t understand the problem. Every time the water is stirred, somebody else beats me to the water. I’m never able to get in the pool first…It isn’t my fault, I don’t have any one to put me in the pool. Jesus “Do you really want to be healed….because your life will change.”
Jesus is saying, “Do you really want to be changed?” If the answer is yes, then miracles can take place. If the answer is no, then even Jesus cannot help you.
Change is scary. It takes a lot of faith to truly want Jesus to change you.
Sometimes it’s easier to stay the way we are than change. Just ask anyone who attends AA. Here at Redeemer there are ten AA groups that met every week. It is scary to change. Ask anyone who attends “Celebrate Recovery”.
Jesus said: “If I make you well, you can’t be a beggar anymore. If I make you well, you can’t use your illness to get special treatment at home. If I make you well, you won’t get all that sympathy anymore. There’s a price to be paid for being well. Do you want to change?
“You’re right. It is hard to change. It’s scary because you get comfortable with the way you are—even if you know that the way you live is not good.
Ahh! But there must be more to this story. So I asked myself… Why is John telling me about this particular paralyzed man at a pool in Jerusalem? John only three healings by Jesus in his entire Gospel. (read Matthew 4:23-25) Jesus heals hundreds, thousands. So why is John only telling three? The Royal official in Capernaum’s son is healed. (chapter 4) This man at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, (chapter 5) and finally the man born blind in John chapter 9. Two of the three happen on a Sabbath.
By now, either because of your attendance at Bible Classes or from hearing other sermons you know that the Jews were deeply serious about keeping the 10 commandments. So much so they developed another 613 other rules that helped them keep the 10 commandments. They believed, like many Americans, that keeping the rules earned you points with God. This is why at so many funerals you hear these words: “He was a good man”. Which translated means “he kept the commandments better than most or as best he could.” And that should be enough to get one into heaven.
Well, no. God the judge of humanity requires perfection. The Jews in the 1st century wanted everyone to keep the Sabbath rules to earn God’s blessings. If every Jewish person kept the Sabbath perfectly for two Sabbath’s the Messiah would come.
Even though it was the Sabbath day, the designated day of worship and rest, Jesus decided healing the man was more important than letting him suffer. In less time than it takes to tell, Jesus commanded the invalid to get up. Pick up his bed and walk. Without hesitation, without physical or occupational therapy, without years of remedial exercises in the hospital, the man got up and walked down the street with his light little bed tucked under his arm.
Well, actually, I don’t know if it was a light, little bed. I do know he carried it and when some of the super religious types saw what this ex-invalid was doing, they went ballistic.
“What are you doing? It is the Sabbath! What you are doing is work! Our laws forbid you from carrying your mat on the Sabbath!
That’s why there is more to this story.
Read the conversation between Jesus and the Religious Jews.
John 5:16-18
There it is. Jesus is making Himself equal to God. Now a year later Jesus is again in Jerusalem at the Feast of Dedication. (read John 10:22-33)
Back to our story. It is true that God wants mankind to rest on the Sabbath. God rested on the 7th day after creation. God knows that we human beings need a day of rest from the stress of life, work and politics. A day of rest was created for us. Jesus reminds them and us “God is always at work in our human story. God is always at work in our world.” Intuitively we know that God is always active in human history. Sometimes we only realize it when we stop and look back over our shoulder. God no longer takes a day off.
We are to set aside a day each week to join in community to worship our
Lord and Savior. A day of worship, for us is now Sunday. It is a way to remember that Jesus rose from the grave on Sunday the day after the Jewish Sabbath.
When Jesus heals the son of a non-Jewish Royal official in Capernaum, His message was clear. God is loves all people, Gentiles as well as Jews. God’s blessings are for everyone, no matter their ethnicity. Jesus is replacing Jewish ownership of God’s grace. In chapter 5 Jesus is replacing the Jewish 613 plus Commandments as a way to earn God’s love with faith in Jesus.
Jesus told them: (read John 5:24-29)
In John 9 when Jesus heals the man born blind he also forgave the man his sins. The Jewish theology was clear. No one could forgive sins but God alone. It was God Himself who told Moses to place blood over the door frames of the homes of the Israelites in Egyptian slavery and it was the blood that saved their lives from death. It was God who told Moses to create the tabernacle and the daily sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins. It was God who promised Solomon that he would always reside in the temple in Jerusalem. (I Kings 8 & 9)
Thus the temple in Jerusalem, the home of the Creator of the Universe is where one worshiped, where one received the forgiveness of sins. Jesus is replacing the temple with Himself on the cross. At His death the temple curtain was torn in two form top to bottom. No wonder the Jewish religious leaders wanted Jesus dead. They knew He was making Himself equal to God.
Throughout His life Jesus kept the commandments we have broken. He resisted the temptations we give into. He carried broken commandments that we should be punished for to the cross. God made him our substitute. I love substitute basketball player who makes the final shot with 1 second left on the clock to win the game. Jesus transfers to us His righteousness by faith. (II Cor. 5:21) Just as a blood transfusion in surgery saves one’s life so the blood of Jesus shed on the cross is the transfusion that promises each believer forgiveness and thus peace with God, the righteous judge of eternity.
God has a story. It began with Adam and Eve who needed to be rescued from death. Notice all the great stories pretty much follow the same story line. Someone is in distress. The invalid at the pool of Bethesda. Adm and Eve. You and me. Our broken commandments ruin our families. Our broken commandments ruin our friendships, our marriages. Our broken commandments sometimes ruins and destroys our careers. Someone needs to be rescued. You and me. Rescued from sins that destroy our relationships. Sometimes the story, the hero dies. That is what Jesus did. He is our hero. Our substitute. He dies so that we might have life, both now and forever in the New Heaven and New Earth.
God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Jesus died for us.” (Rom. 5:8) John begs us to understand that Jesus is our “replacement”.
This process of “replacement” culminates in the “redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:23) This is more than a rescue of our souls out of bodies when death comes knocking on our door. It is more than the promise of Jesu to the thief on the cross: “today you will be with me in paradise”.
It is more.
When Jesus rose from the stone sealed tomb on that first Easter morning it was with a glorified resurrected human body and soul. Faith in Jesus means more than “sins” forgiven. Faith in Jesus means more than “broken ethics” forgotten and erased. Faith in Jesus means: Well listen to His words. “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me, has eternal life and will not be condemned. He ahs crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, the time is coming when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.”
Based on these words of Jesus and His resurrection. The Apostle Paul writes: “Our citizenship is in heaven. We eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control will transform out bodies to be fashioned like His glorious (resurrected) body.”
This is the ultimate “replacement”. This is what we long for. Your health and mine cannot hold out forever. Age will conquer you. One by one our friends and family slip from our grasp. Our work will remain unfinished. There is a happy ending. Eternity has been placed in your heart and mine. Jesus has opened the doors to eternal life.
