September 25, 2011--Story

John 5.1-16

Beth-zatha today

5After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.²Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes.³In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.⁵One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”⁷The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”⁸Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”⁹At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath.¹⁰So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”¹¹But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’”¹²They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?”¹³Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there.¹⁴Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”¹⁵The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.¹⁶Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath.

Thoughts:  Do you want to be made well?   What a question.  Of course I want to be made well, healed of my infirmities, healed of my prejudices, healed of my hatreds, healed of my rationalizations....hmmm.  Do I want to be healed?   This is such an interesting question that Jesus asks the man at the pool.  In truth, the man never does answer the question before Jesus has ordered him to pick up his mat and walk!   

Questions:  What would be different in your life if Jesus "healed" you right now?   Do you think rules are made to be broken or are you a stickler that things are done RIGHT!   Why do you think Jesus purposely healed on the Sabbath?  Couldn't he had come back the next day?   When have you allowed the "rules" to get in the way.