Caring For The Uncared For

CARING FOR THE UNCARED FOR

(John 5:1-9)

One of the greatest spreading issue in the end of 1996 which was frightening for

Surabaya was “AIDS injections”. Rumors had it that victims of AIDS walk around with a

used needle poking random people at malls so that they will get AIDS too. This scared

many people from going to malls.

The motive behind that rumor is unknown, but according to reporters, there was

business competition amid malls. Such „competition? makes people lose control. They

attack one another. Whoever is strong, wins, and the weak is oppressed. To be victorious,

they were not reluctant to achieve it by means of cruelty. The end justifies the means,

which is what competition is.

On January 2, 1992 something quite shocking to Indonesians happened in Aspen,

Clublodge, Colorado. The problem was quite trivial, not a world war; there was a small

fight between two old friends who had known each other for 20 years. The argument was

not a big deal, but the thing is, these two people are famous figures.

Ratna Sari Dewi, the wife of ex-president Soekarno fought with Voctoria Marie

Osmena, also known as Minnie. Minnie?s face was scarred from Dewi?s broken glass

pieces. The problem was not clear, but reporters concluded that the problem was jealousy

and vengeance that started in August of the previous year. Their anger exploded when

they were accidentally invited to some party. As a result of that fight, Mannie demanded

about US $10,000 from her old friend, Dewi. In addition, Dewi got jailed for 34 days.

According to Dewi, the problem could not possibly be resolved.

“Competition” is nothing new. Two thousand years ago, this happened. It did not

take place in some big city like Jakarta, Surabaya or Medan, but by a small pool, called

Bethesda. A pool that was only about 40 square meters.

Apparently at the bottom of that pool, there is an underground current that

sometimes creates bubbles causing the water in the pool to move by itself. People at the

time were sure that such a thing was caused by angels. Whoever goes in first after the

water moved will be healed completely.

We can imagine when the pool water moved, then people by the pool will fight to

be the first one into the pool. Around that pool, there were many people of many

diseases. John wrote about a blind person, a cripple, and of course many others.

Different criteria of the sick people

Some ill people were strong enough to rush to the pool at anytime. Some were

very sick that they could not move much, but they had siblings ready to help them get

them to the pool. Some were weak, without siblings, but they had money so they could

pay people to help.

Then what about our poor fellow here? He was a cripple, without siblings. There

was no „taking turns? to get to the pool. There was no line as to who goes first. Toleration

was not tolerated. They were all selfish. Who had money won. It is then not surprising

that this cripple had been there for 38 years lying and waiting.

Thirty eight years is not a short time. In that time many things must have been

forgotten. Maybe some had said that they were not even born yet 38 years ago. Maybe

some could say that Jakarta was not as crowded 38 years ago. That is almost the same

amount of time that Israel journeyed through the desert (Deuteronomy 2:14). It is indeed

quite a long time that it?s even hard to imagine. But our friend there waited for 38 years

without any change. He would have been still there had Jesus not helped him. Jesus gave

him His hand, and had mercy on him.

Were there not many people there? Indeed there were many people walking

around, but none of them wanted to see the cripple. They were busy with their own

business. If they got cured, they would have left that place. They felt as if they had no

time to help the others. So we should not be surprised if he had been there for that long.

Jesus was different, while everybody ignored him, Jesus really cared for him. The

Bible says that it was a time after some Jewish celebration. We are not sure what

celebration it was. But according to the Jewish custom, there are three celebrations:

Easter, Pentecost and The Feast. Every adult Jew who lived within 20 km of Jerusalem,

by law was required to celebrate these three occasions. If chapter 6 was written before

chapter 5, then we can deduce that the celebration meant in this passage was Pentecost,

because chapter 6 talks about how Easter was coming (John 6:4).

When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, he was alone; His disciples? whereabouts are