Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason -- Sunday April 6, 2003
A man approached a little league baseball game one afternoon. He asked a boy in the dugout what the score was. The boy responded, "Eighteen to nothing--we're behind."
"Boy," said the spectator, "I'll bet you're discouraged."
"Why should I be discouraged?" replied the little boy. "We haven't even gotten up to bat yet!"
We chuckle over the innocence of that child's answer. He does not yet know enough about life to be discouraged with a score of 18 to 0 in the top of the first inning. Just let him grow up to become a Chicago Cubs fan and things will change!
Contrast the attitude of the boy at the little league ball game with that of the man in the story we find in our text for today.
John 5:1-9
9Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath day.
This is a picture of both helplessness and hopelessness.
The man has been ill for 38 years. We don't know how long he has been at the pool of Bethesda ( which means house of mercy). But is must have been a long time.
There was the belief or perhaps we might say a superstition that an angel would come periodically and stir up the waters. When that happened, it was believed, whoever got into the water first would be healed of whatever illness, sickness or infirmity was destroying their life. I think it is important for us to recognize that this is something that they believed to be true. And because they believed it to be true a multitude of people gathered around the pool hoping that they might be the next one to be healed. There were so many people that they built five porticos or shelters for the people while they waited for the stirring of the water.
This is very telling for us because it indicates several important things for us to consider today. There are many people who believe things that are not true about God, His Word and how He works. Fore example, There are many people who think of God a sitting in heaven with his finger on the smite button. In their view, God is just waiting for the opportunity to zap them. It betrays a view of God that has nothing to do with the God of the Bible. God is gracious, loving, kind, compassionate, gentle to those who trust Him. We could go on to describe God in a wonderful, loving way. However, many people don't see God in that way. In their view, there will never be anything good coming from God and God does bad things to them. “Why did God do that to me?” is their cry.
Think for a moment about their belief about the angel. The implication exists that God did not really care about them because the angel only came periodically and when he did there was healing only for one person. For the others there was no hope. Like the man Jesus confronted with his illness, they had no one to help them. They were helpless and therefore hopeless.
Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for the feast of the Jews…probably the Passover celebration of the second year of his public ministry. While he is there he goes to the pool at Bethesda on the Sabbath day and confronts this man who has been sick for 38 years.
When Jesus saw the man lying there he knew that he had been there a long time. He knew the man. He knew the man and his sickness. He knew the man and his sickness and the duration of the sickness. Omniscience is going to meet up with Omnipotence in the life of this man and the result will be a sign performed before the rulers of Israel. And the man will receive the blessing of physical healing and spiritual renewal.
Jesus asked him a powerful question: “Do you want to get well?” This is a question of desire. What do you desire? What do you want God to do for you? Do you want to get well? Now. Lets look at this for a while. What happens to the man if he actually gets healed of his sickness. Let's suppose that he gets well. He has been at the pool for most of those 38 years without any prospect of getting well. He would have to beg for alms to survive on from those people who would come to the pool of Bethesda.
What will happen to him if he gets well?
He has not worked in 38 years. If he is healed, he will have to find a job.
What happens if he gets well? What skills does he have that would be sufficient to care for his financial needs?
His family has had to care for him for all those years. His relationship is one of dependence upon his family. What happens to that relationship when he is well?
He has in his misery a fairly comfortable life. He can just wait for his chance to get into the water even though his and charity will provide for him.
Do you want to get well seems to be a silly question. However, Jesus is quite serious in his question to the man. It is as if Jesus is asking are you willing to pay the price that will come with the healing you desire?
Do you really want it?
The man was waiting for the coming of an angel to stir the waters with the hope…and not a very good one at that…that he could actually find a way to get there into the water first. And who should come to him but the Master of the Angels Himself came his way and with compassion in his heart asked if he wanted to get well.
The man's answer is one of helplessness and hopelessness. “Sir, I have no man to “throw” me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” There is not thought of a gentle lowering of the man into the pool…no he views it as a hasty effort to cast him into the pool. But he has no one!
Jesus' response is found in three, quick sharp words in the original language of the text:
Arise…get up…act on my command.
Take up your pallet…take with you the possibility of a relapse. Make no provision for going
back to where you were before.
Walk…do the very thing you have been unable to do. There will be no rehabilitation here. There will be no need for time to strengthen the muscles in the legs. Walk…right now.
Immediately the man became well and took up his pallet and began to walk.
What application can we make of this for our own lives?
What does the question: “Do you want to get well?” have to say to us? Last week we looked at the thought that we have to “Let Jesus do it”. What would take place in our lives if He really did do the things we desire for Him to do?
Does God really care enough for us to do that in our lives? What picture do we have of God…Is he really our loving, caring Heavenly Father or do we see him as one who is just waiting for us to mess up so that he can squish us?
What do we do when there are situations in our lives which seem to be hopeless?
It could be a lingering illness troubling us or a loved one.
It could be the ravages of time affecting an aged parent. Alzheimers would be an example of that. No hope for one we love who is helpless in the face of the disease.
It could be a damaged relationship with a family member or in a marriage. We are not immune to these kinds of break downs in our relationships.
What would we do if Jesus asked us if we really wanted it healed? What changes would we have to make if He really did it? Restoration would demand something of us. Would we pay the price for it to really happen?
The question for all of us is this: Would we really want things to change? What would happen if they did? Could you live with the results…What changes would be required?
As we go back to our text, what does the man receive from Jesus? He gets physical healing yes, but he also gets spiritual healing as well. How do we discover that? Well, Jesus slipped away from the crowd that gathered there at the pool after the man was healed. Later he finds him in the temple and he tells him ”Behold, you have become well (and still are); do not sin any more, so that nothing worse will happen to you.”
It is interesting that the man's sin was the cause of his illness. His sin of over 38 years was the cause of his illness.
Now, we must recognize that all illness is not the direct cause of our personal sinfulness. It is the product of a sinful world in which we live and we understand that bad things can happen to good people just because they live in this world. But his illness was directly related to his sin.
His healing had nothing to do with his faith. Jesus healed him. Obedience came first in his walking and carrying his pallet. Faith came to him later.
He has been made well. He has walked to the temple. When he left the pool of Bethesda he was obediently carrying his pallet. And he was charged by the Jewish Authorities with violating the Sabbath day by carrying his pallet. His carrying of the pallet was the proof of his healing
The Jewish leaders had it all wrong. They thought God only cared about their traditional ways of keeping the Sabbath. They thought they were doing him a service by enforcing the Sabbath according to those traditions, regardless of the impact upon God's people.
Notice if you will, that the Jewish leaders never saw the man who was healed of a terrible disease, as a result of the compassion of God for his people. All they saw was a man carrying his pallet on the Sabbath. What they forgot is this: there is no Sabbath where sin and misery can be found. And when questioned about who it was who had healed him, the man did not even know. But he did know this: that the man who had healed him had the authority to command him to carry his bed on the Sabbath without violation the law of God. He had received the power of healing and the pardon for his sin at the same time. What a blessing he received and they missed it all.
The sign John gives us in the account of this miracle has to do with the real authority of Jesus. He could run counter to the false traditions of the Jews and not transgress God's law. All the while he could turn men's hearts to the authority given him as he healed men's bodies and pardoned their sins and set them free from spiritual bondage. It was there for them to see. That was the sign. And the Jewish leaders missed it.
There is a lesson in this for us today as well: We must keep our hearts open to the Word of God so that we never elevate our traditions to the level of His Word. We must not fall into the trap of having faith in our faith instead of having faith in Him and His Word.
There is hope for us no matter how difficult the challenges we face physically or spiritually.
As Vice President, George Bush represented the U.S. at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev's widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev's wife performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed: She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband's chest.
There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband.
In a world filled with hopelessness, Jesus Christ offers hope to the hopeless. It is yours for the taking…all you have to do is to invite Him to sit on the throne of your life, to be your Savior and Lord. He will forgive your sin and give you a new life…on of hope and blessing.
-- Dennis Gleason
