Healing At Bethesda

1. The Weariness We Carry

A group of pastors once met in small circles to share their lives. One question asked, “What do you enjoy doing in your spare time—how do you relax?” Again and again the answer came back: “Spare time? I don’t have any.”

We fool ourselves if we think this nonstop pace makes us more effective. The average office worker receives over 220 messages a day—emails, calls, texts, ads, interruptions. A global survey of 1,300 managers found that one-third suffer ill health from stress and information overload; for senior managers it rises to 43 percent.

Sometimes exhaustion becomes dangerous. The Exxon Valdez spill, Three Mile Island nuclear mishap, and Chernobyl all happened in the middle of the night. Before the Challenger shuttle launch, NASA decision makers had worked twenty hours straight and slept only two or three. Fatigue distorted judgment and cost seven astronauts their lives.

And the greatest danger may be what overwork does to our souls. Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “Some of us have made an idol of exhaustion. The only time we know we have done enough is when we’re running on empty and when the ones we love most are the ones we see the least. We offer our calendars to God in lieu of prayer, believing that God—who is as busy as we are—will understand.”

What’s the answer? How do we find rest and renewal, not only for bodies but for our souls?

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2. Time or Space?

Technical civilization is about conquering space—building, acquiring, producing. Yet, as the Jewish thinker Abraham Joshua Heschel observed, “It is not a thing that lends significance to a moment; it is the moment that lends significance to things.”

To gain space we spend time, forgetting that time is the heart of existence.

From the beginning God sanctified time before space. At Sinai He called His people holy, and only after they made the golden calf did He command a sanctuary in space. Most holy places—mountains, temples, forests—are spatial. But the Sabbath is a cathedral in time, a weekly foretaste of eternity. Six days we wrestle with profit and production; on the seventh we care for the seed of eternity in our souls. The world may claim our hands, but our hours and hearts belong to God.

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3. House of Mercy Without Mercy

Open with me to John 5:1-3.

It is Passover, year 31 A.D. Pilgrims flood Jerusalem and its great Temple. Near the Sheep Gate lie two pools called Bethesda—“house of mercy.” In 1935 archaeologists uncovered these pools. Legend said that when an angel stirred the waters, the first to enter would be healed. So the sick gathered—waiting, competing, even wishing others might die so they could be first.

It was Sabbath. And through the Sheep Gate—where sacrificial lambs entered—the Lamb of God walked in. Few noticed.

Among the afflicted lay a man paralyzed for 38 years. Jesus asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

The man replied, “I have no one to help me. Someone always steps down before me.”

Then Jesus said, “Get up. Pick up your mat and walk.”

Immediately he was healed. Strength surged into his legs; joy leapt in his heart.

The religious authorities met him not with celebration but with cold accusation: “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat!”

They never asked, “How were you healed?” Their focus was on rules, not redemption.

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4. The Signature of Seven

Why such outrage?

To our modern ears it seems strange. But at stake was the seventh day itself.

The number seven is woven into creation.

Seven colors form white light.

There are seven basic musical notes, seven crystal forms, seven groups of elements in Mendeleev’s table.

Yet the seventh day is unique: it is not marked by a natural phenomenon like moon or tide. It exists only because God declared it holy (Genesis 2:2-3).

Leviticus 25 describes sabbatical years and the Jubilee—seven times seven years followed by freedom and restoration. From creation onward, seven signals completion and relationship.

The Sabbath was given before sin, before sacrifices or ceremonial law.

Ceremonies deal with sin and sacrifice; the Sabbath celebrates creation and love.

Jesus summed the law in two commands: love God and love neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40).

Love requires time together. Sabbath is the weekly appointment where love is nurtured.

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5. Sabbath Lost and Found

Over centuries, Sabbath joy was buried beneath thousands of human rules. By Jesus’ day, over 2,000 Sabbath restrictions existed. Two famous examples:

• Spitting on the ground was forbidden—someone might inadvertently water the soil.

• An egg laid on Sabbath could not be eaten, though it might be sold to a Gentile.

Into this legalism Jesus declared, “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17). He healed on Sabbath to restore its true meaning—a day of mercy, not merit.