Wednesday, March 8, 2023

Today’s Scripture Reading 
John 5:1–18

After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When 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?” The 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.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later 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.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath.

But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God. (NRSV)

Reflection

“Stand up, take your mat and walk.”

These aren’t Jesus’ first words to the man by the pool. But they are words that meet him exactly where he’s at. He’s been asked “Do you want to be well?” and reacts with a description of his problem as he sees it: He doesn’t have anyone to bring him to the pool, and when he tries on his own, others move ahead.

Multiple commentaries I’ve read suggest the man answers as he does through disbelief, and then only to bemoan his predicament. Or they offer other ways his reply is lacking.

But why do we question his explanation of what he needs? What stands out to him about his situation?

What he cannot do.
That he has no one to help him.
Other people’s lack of care.

And Jesus hears him, sees both his perceived and deeper need, and responds directly. “Stand up and walk.” Meeting all his concerns and then more. Healing doesn’t depend here on the man’s faith. Jesus’ decision to heal is outside any order we might see.

Healing miracles challenge our ideas of how the world works in a very concrete way, and we can see a parallel here between the man’s not responding to the larger vision of healing that Jesus offers and, later, people’s unwillingness to see new ways of life suggested by Jesus, new possibilities.

Lent is a time of preparation and a time when we are confronted with our limitations. What needs healing as we journey toward Easter? Where might our vision of healing, and of possibility, need broadening?

Prayer

God of love, may we recognize your offer of healing, even when it reaches beyond our vision, extends past our imagination. Help us move on your response, even when it seems, at first, impossible. Amen.

Written by Simon Crow, Program Manager, Discipleship and Small Group Ministry

Reflection and prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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