John 5:1-9
Verse 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.
Yesterday we talked about a time that a Pharisee tried to trap Jesus into do what he thought was breaking the law of the Sabbath. But Jesus didn’t heal the man to simply go against His host. In today’s reading we see Jesus going to Jerusalem to celebrate one of the Jewish festivals that required the men of Israel to journey to the Temple city. Jesus wasn’t just going for the celebration though, He had a mission to change people’s lives both physically and spiritually. This journey into Jerusalem was going to change one man’s life after many years of living with growing hopelessness.
Our passage today talks about a man who has sat by this pool for some time hoping for a time that he would be able to get into the water first so that he could be healed by the Spirit. As the years went by he likely grew more and more hopeless about the opportunity to be healed. He was leaning on his own understanding and his own ability to make a healing happening. But then came the Christ!
Christ walks up, sees this man and knows he has been an invalid for thirty-eight years. It doesn’t say that he had been crippled since birth just the number of years, this could mean that his seeing others moving into the pool on their own ability made him remember the way he had been able to move around once upon a time. If that was the case it is likely that he would have been fighting some bitterness over his condition. We also don’t know why he was an invalid and if by an injury suffered at the hands of someone else that could also mean bitterness against the person that caused the disability.
It is so easy after being afflicted for lengths of time to start feeling bad for ourselves, thinking about all the things that we can’t do and feeling jealous of those that can do them. But this kind of thinking is just as unhealthy, or maybe more so, than our injury. Jesus saw the man past his injury and sought the truth of the man’s heart and asks the man a key question we should all answer, “Do you want to get well?” Whether it is from bitterness or affliction we need to seek the One who can heal us from the pain. Only Jesus can make us well.
Making It Personal
What are you bitter about in life? What is holding you back from being all that Christ has called you to be? What do you need to talk with Jesus about today?
Making It Personal Kids
Has anyone ever hurt your feelings? Do you still hold onto that hurt and withhold forgiveness from them? Doesn’t Jesus want you to forgive like He does?
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for not holding our sins against us. Convict us of ways that we are choosing to stay in our hurt instead of giving forgiveness and seeking healing. Help us want to be healed. In Jesus’ name, amen.