The Lame Man Healed.

THE LAME MAN HEALED.

John 5:1-18.

THE NEED (John 5:1-5). A man who had had an infirmity for 38 years lay by the Spa of Bethesda. So did many other people, each with challenges of their own. There was nothing special about this man as opposed to anyone else.

DIVINE SELECTION (John 5:6). Then Jesus arrived on the scene, singled him out and asked whether he really wanted to be healed. It was a reasonable question: some beggars make their living out of being sick. There is also a temptation for all of us to revel in that which draws attention to ourselves.

PREVARICATION (John 5:7). The man’s evasive answer was that he was waiting for someone to carry him down into the water: but there was no-one. It is easy to resort to popular means for healing, but sometimes we need to look within ourselves to see if there is a deeper spiritual reason for our suffering (John 5:14). Do we really want the touch of Jesus in our lives?

DIVINE COMPASSION (John 5:8). Jesus graciously reached into the man’s situation, and commanded him to get up. There was still nothing to commend this man to Jesus, no indication of an acknowledgement of his deeper need. The incarnation is all about what Jesus came to do ‘while we were yet sinners’ (Romans 5:8; Ephesians 2:13).

RECEIVING THE WORD (John 5:9). The healing took place as soon as the words left Jesus’ mouth. It was not conditional upon anything within the man. It only remained for the man to obey.

MAN-MADE RULES (John 5:10). The Jewish leaders challenged the man for carrying his bed on the sabbath day. This was one of their own man-made rules, which they treated as being equal with God’s law.

INGRATITUDE (John 5:11-13). The healed man blamed “He that made me whole.” When the authorities asked the man who had said, “Take up thy bed and walk,” the healed man did not know.

A GRACIOUS WARNING (John 5:14). Jesus later found the healed man in the temple, and warned him that there is a “worse thing” that might befall him if he does not forsake his sin!

MORE INGRATITUDE (John 5:15). Sometimes we spite the hand that healed us. Unlike the nobleman in the previous episode, there is no indication that this man entered into the deeper reality of a trusting faith in Jesus (cf. John 4:53). Instead, this healed man effectively betrayed Jesus to the religious authorities.

UNCARING HYPOCRISY (John 5:16). The Jewish leadership therefore persecuted Jesus, “and sought to slay Him, because He had done these things on the sabbath day.”

JESUS AND THE FATHER ARE ONE (John 5:17-18). “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work,” answered Jesus. The Jewish leadership totally understood Jesus here to be making Himself “equal with God,” but chose rather to use this as an excuse “all the more” to seek to kill Him!