John 5:1-9
After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3 In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 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?” 7 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.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
If you visit Jerusalem and stop by St. Anne’s church, they will show you the deep excavation that has revealed the ancient pool called Beth-zatha, or Bethesda. (Slides) Bethesda means “House of Mercy.” In ancient time, this pool would stir every now and than, and when it does the water becomes medicinal, but only for a moment. The Bible says that the angle of the Lord would come down seasonally to stir up the water and the first of those that jumped into the water at that moment got their disease cured. It’s the nature’s remedy for human malady.
So, many people of various diseases waited on the five porches of the pool of the House of Mercy for the stirring of the water. Some people obviously slept there to wait for the moment because no one knew when the water would stir. It was not daily or weekly, but the Bible says, it was seasonally. It must be like those geysers in the Yosemite Park that just erupts intermittently, but unlike the Old Faithful that has the predictable timing. So the sick were waiting there like waiting at the hospital.
Don’t think that we don’t have similar instances in today’s world.. I visited Bill Lundsten at the hospital this week and Evelyn told me that they had to wait in the emergency room until nearly midnight to get a room. My father was there a month ago and it was the same. He was there about 10 o’clock in the morning and didn’t get a room until 10 o’clock at night. If you go to the hospital nowadays, you just don’t know when you will get a bed, and in Bill’s case the neurologist didn’t come to see him until the third day morning. When the doctor came, he didn’t even bother to read the chart but start asking what happened. Hello! There is a chart that tells everything!
The scripture today teaches us three actions of Jesus Christ that we must learn as his followers.
1. Pay Attention
The pool of Bethesda was like a hospital, but of course it was much worse. The Bible says, in verse 3, that there were many individuals laying on the porticoes—blind, lame, and paralyzed. They were waiting there for the water to stir so that they can jump in. There is a guy who has been lying there for 38 years. Every time the water stirred, he tried to jump in but he couldn’t because he was paralyzed and couldn’t move fast enough. People just cut in front of him and jump before him and left him behind. By the time he helped himself to the pool, it was too late.
Year after year he waited there. Nobody helped him. It reminds me of the story Mike sent me years ago. It was about a very successful young man who just bought a brand new Jaguar, XK8. One day as he speed through a city street, a brick flew out of the alley way and smashed on his front door. He stepped on his brake, backed up to where the brick came out of, stopped his car, and found a kid standing there crying. He grabbed the kind on his neck and said, “Do you know what you just did? That’s a very expansive car. Can you afford to pay for the damage?”
The kid cried miserably and said, “My brother and his wheel chair have fallen into the gutter over there, and he is stuck under the wheel chair. I can’t help him out and every car that passed by here drove in high speed and nobody gave me attention.” The man suddenly calmed down and walked with the boy over to the gutter and helped his brother out. Then he drove home slowly with an awakened mind. He never fixed that door in order to remind him of not to pass through life in high speed and miss the things that matters most.
The scripture we read today said that Jesus came to Jerusalem to observe a Jewish festival. The Bible didn’t say which festival, but it is most likely the Passover. Most people came to Jerusalem to celebrate at the temple and passed by the poor and the sick in high speed, but Jesus came to Jerusalem and visited the hospital. He paid attention. He noticed this man in a deplorable condition. This man has been bedridden for 38 years. In those days the average life span must be about 38 years only, but his man has been in bed for that long. You can see him so sick and tired of being sick and tired. He was obviously senior of the House of Mercy, where no one has yet shown him mercy.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we must pay attention!
Friends, have you been driving through life in high speed and forgotten to pay attention? Paying attention is very important because on the judgment day, that’s what Jesus is going to ask you. Have you paid attention?
According to Jesus, this is what the judgment day look like:
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Mt 25:31-46)
So on the judgment day, Jesus is going to find out if you love others enough to slow down and pay attention. Don’t pass by life with high speed and one day we might stand in front of Jesus and ask, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’
One of the biggest lessons that we need to learn this morning, as followers of Jesus Christ, is to imitate his attentive attitude. Verse 6 says, “When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time.” Jesus “saw him and new that he had been there a long time.” Do you see and know when someone is suffering, abandoned, and forgotten by the high speed society?
Have Mercy
Jesus then asked him, “Do you want to be made well?” It seems like a strange question, but if you look at Jesus healing stories, almost all of them have to do with the willingness of the sick. The Hebrew word for mercy means taking someone else’s suffering into your own womb, so that you will feel what he or she feels. Jesus wants to listen to his pain so that he can have mercy on him. “Do you want to be made well?”
Jesus also wanted to make sure this person wanted to be made well because some people wanted to have an excuse to beg and not to work for a living. Jesus wanted to heal, but he never forced those who don’t want to be healed healed. It is the same spiritually, God wants us to be saved, but He never coarse us to be saved. He gives us a choice. We also need to give other people a choice. Most of the time when a person is willing to be healed, he or she is half way healed.
The man answered, “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.” He is saying, “Sir, my problem is not about having no will, but about having no friends. I am paralyzed, and I need a friend to help me. I have done what I could by myself, but in vain.”
Yes, it might be a dog-eat-dog world, and everyone is rushing for the opportunity to get a piece of wealth and prosperity. There is nothing wrong with pursuing our goals in life, but in the process, we sometimes become so self-centered that we miss the big picture and the most important things in life. Everyone is looking out for number one, and no one is showing mercy to this man that has been sick for 38 years.
This man just had a step between him and a cure, but no one has the charity to say, “Sir, you case is worse than min, why don’t you go now, and I will stay till the next time.”
3. Encourage Instant Action
Jesus found out about his willingness and have mercy on him. So he healed him. Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
The Bible says, it was a Sabbath Day. According to the law, you are not supposed to work. Jesus didn’t wait until the next day to heal him. When you have mercy you act right away. Not only that, Jesus asked that man to take action right away. He asked this paraplegic to stand up, take his mat, and walk.
Jesus doesn’t like to see us taking no action after we are saved. He said to all of us to rise and walk. He wants to see the completion of transformation by having us taking action in a new way of life.
In the same way, when we help other people and transform their life, don’t let them delay their action, but encourage them to start taking action right away. If someone tells you I want to lose weight, ask them to start right now. One who is healed from inside must change and take responsibility on the outside immediately. A person that has a new life should not linger in the old life.
