As Jesus traveled to Cana (the village in Galilee where He transformed the water into fine wine), he was met by a government official, a Gentile, from Herod’s court. This man had heard a rumor that Jesus had left Judea and was heading to Galilee, and he came in desperation begging for Jesus’ help because his young son was near death.
He was fearful that unless Jesus would go with him to Capernaum (20 miles away), his son would have no hope.
Jesus said, ”My word is not enough; you people only believe when you see miraculous signs and wonder.”[1]
The official replied, “Sir, this is my son; please come with me before he dies.”
Jesus said, “Go home. Your son will live.”
He believed the word of Jesus and returned to his home. Before he reached his village, his servants met him on the road celebrating his son’s miraculous recovery.
The official asked, “What time did this happen?”
His servants replied, “Yesterday about one o’clock in the afternoon.”
At that moment, it dawned on the father the exact time that Jesus spoke the words, “He will live.” After that, he believed; and when he told his family about his amazing encounter with this Jesus, they believed too. This was the second sign Jesus performed when He came back to Galilee from Judea.
Jesus led His followers to Jerusalem where they would celebrate a Jewish feast together. In Jerusalem they came upon a pool by the sheep gate surrounded by five covered porches. In Hebrew this place is called Bethesda. Crowds of people lined the area, lying around the porches.
All of these people were disabled in some way; some were blind, lame, paralyzed, or plagued by diseases; and they were waiting for the waters to move.[2] They believed a heavenly messenger came to stir the water in the pool. Whoever reached the water first and got in would be healed of his or her disease.”[3]
In the crowd, Jesus noticed one particular man who had been living with his disability for 38 years. He knew this man had been waiting here a long time.
Jesus said to the disabled man, “Do you want to be healed?”[4]
The man replied, “Kind Sir, I wait, like all of these people, for the waters to stir. But I cannot walk. If I am to be healed in the waters, someone must carry me into the pool. Without a helping hand, someone else beats me to the water’s edge each time it is stirred.”
Jesus replied, “Stand up, carry your mat, and walk. ”At the moment Jesus uttered these words, the man was healed—he stood and walked for the first time in 38 years. But this was the Sabbath Day; and any work, including carrying a mat, was prohibited on this day.
The Jewish Leaders said to the man who had been healed, “Must you be reminded that it is the Sabbath? You are not allowed to carry your mat today!”
The formerly disabled man replied, “The man who healed me gave me specific instructions to carry my mat and go.”
“Who is the man who gave you these instructions?” The Jewish leaders asked, “How can we identify Him?” The man genuinely did not know who it was that healed him. In the midst of the crowd and the excitement of his renewed health, Jesus had slipped away. Some time later, Jesus found him in the temple and again spoke to him.
”Take a look at your body; it has been made whole and strong. So avoid a life of sin, so that nothing worse will happen to you.” The man went immediately to tell the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the mysterious healer. So they began pursuing and attacking Jesus because He performed these miracles on the Sabbath.
But Jesus said to them, “My Father is at work. So I, too, am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
As I said last week, I think the main purpose of these miracles is to show the deity of Jesus. In the verses that follow this passage, Jesus and the Pharisees have it out about this issue. Today I am going to use these miracles to look at four topics embedded in these miracle stories. I think you will find that I’m only scratching the surface, and I encourage you to read, pray, and meditate on this passage on your own.
God’s good law was never meant to hinder or obscure grace.
The Pharisees completely ignore the lame man’s comments about his healing. All they see is that Jesus broke the law – specifically, their traditions added to the laws that defined how to use God’s law on their terms rather than God’s terms.[1] Jesus heals a man who had been sick for apparently decades, and they don’t realize they are in the presence of the Lord of both the Sabbath and of sickness. All they can say is, “How dare you help him on God’s day. You are working!”
We must be careful. Like the Pharisees, we can create our own set of laws that add to the Bible’s teaching and then use our standard as a measure of not just our righteousness, but the righteousness of those around us. If we begin to so value our additional moral definitions and constraints that we can’t see the goodness of God at work, we are in trouble.
I don't mean we should discard God’s good Law as it applies to us today. Jesus came to fulfill or perfect the moral heart of the Law (Matthew 5:17). The Law is a good thing when rightly understood and followed (it’s a schoolmaster, says Paul[5]), but it’s not the ultimate thing. It is meant to guide us toward a Savior.
So the Law is for our good and God’s glory. If we use it to undermine our good or obscure God’s glory, we have misunderstood the Law. We have to be really careful that we don’t add to it and by so doing make it something it was not meant to be. There’s a point where Jesus says of the Sabbath, “You thought you were made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for you.”[6] As in, you missed the point of this Law.
In the situation with the lame man, Jesus did not break the law of God. He revealed the heart of God. In so doing, he broke an add-on that should not have been added on. The Pharisees heard “work on the Sabbath” rather than “lame man made whole.” Norma McCorvey (of Roe v Wade) came to Jesus while smoking with a pro-life dude in a parking lot. The Pharisee hears “smoking”; grace hears “came to Christ.”
Jesus responds to both our faith and our frailty.
I know we talked about this last Sunday. It’s not my fault that the next stories just keep making the same point. I had a list of six different incidents last week in which faith and frailty were both on display. Here’s two more.
The royal official sought Jesus and asked for his help. When Jesus told him that his son would be okay, it seems that the best translation would be to say the official trusted his word. He had faith in Jesus’ power, which was at least a start. After he found out about his son’s healing, he ‘believed’ again, but this time he and his entire household appear to believe Jesus was Lord. He went from believing in Jesus as healer to believing in Jesus as Lord.
The lame man didn’t even know who Jesus was. This man made no cry for help.[7] He didn't grab Jesus and say, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" like the blind men did. When Jesus asked if he wanted to be healed, he basically dodged the question (more on that later). The text doesn't record that he ever worshipped Jesus as a result of being healed, yet Jesus healed him, encouraged him, and equipped him to give a testimony.
If you wonder if you have enough faith for God to act on your behalf, take heart. Don’t assume that God has given up on you, even if other people have – or if you have. Pray; ask God to move and work in you to build your faith, follow the disciplines that the Bible says will strengthen the faith you have been given (prayer, scripture reading, obedience, fellowship with God and others), but don’t forget - God moves in in our faith and in our frailty. He brings us life and hope not because we are strong enough and good enough, but because He is.
“Do you want to get well?” is a question we must all answer.
The Bible does not unpack the lame man’s personality or life story, but that has not stopped commentators from speculating for 2,000 years J Many have offered the following observations, and my thoughts will build on this.
· The rabbis said, "The sick arises not from sickness, until his sins be forgiven."[8] Clearly Jesus didn’t think that was always the case, as this is the first time we see Jesus mention sickness in connection with sin. When Jesus told the lame man to avoid sin so that nothing worse would happen to him – something he doesn’t say to anyone else he healed - it makes me wonder if this man chose to do something sinful that made him lame. If so, that’s a stigma that will follow you.
· Interestingly, he was probably taken care of decently by the Jewish community. A story in the Talmud gives us some insight[9]:
"A beggar once came to Rava who asked him 'What do your meals usually consist of?' 'Plump chicken and matured wine' answered the beggar. 'Do you not consider this a burden on the community?' asked Rava. The beggar retorted: 'I do not take from them – I take what God provides.' At that moment Rava's sister, who had not seen him for 13 years, appeared bringing him a fat chicken and matured wine. 'Just what I told you!' said the beggar."
That story is one of many in Jewish literature that captures some of the tension in the Jewish community, God commanded them to take care of the poor and lame; sometimes they did a bad job (read the Old Testament prophets), but sometimes they took care of them so well that it was advantageous to be poor or lame, and the broader community became resentful.
· When Jesus asked if he wanted to be healed, many commentators note that the lame man dodged the question.[10] He didn’t say ‘yes’. He basically responded, “I don’t have any friends.” Perhaps he has given up hope; perhaps he’s actually not ready to be healed. Either way, after decades of being lame, he’s at a public site used by Jews and Gentiles as they await an event more based on superstition than anything else. He has no family or friends who care enough to get him to the front of the line. That’s not a good sign.
James Baldwin wrote, “Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch.” Why? Because with great healing comes great responsibility (sorry, Spider-Man.).
· If he became well, the community provision would go away.
· He couldn’t complain about his circumstances.
· He couldn’t resent those who didn’t care enough to help him into the water.
· He may need to address sin in his life (if that’s what’s going on here).[11]
· Perhaps the pity of others mattered more to him than he cared to admit.
Jesus’ question is loaded with insight into human nature. It reminds me a bit of God’s question to Adam and Eve: “Where are you?”[12] I can envision Adam thinking, “Where am I!?!? Hiding from… oh. I’m hiding from you. What have I done?” If my reading of the lame man is correct, I suspect this question was meant to take the man into the rabbit hole of his own heart and mind. “Do I want to be healed?!?! Of course I…well…? How on earth is that not an easy answer?”
If we aren’t careful, we can begin to want to keep our sickness.
· Have you ever avoided doing something you didn’t want to by stretching that cold or flu out one more day?
· Have you ever used a stressful day at work to get out of some chore at home that you could have done?
· I found pretty quickly that “I had a heart attack” was a really easy way to not do something I could do because everybody will give me the space.
· Have you ever used something from your past as a crutch, a way to justify something you are doing now that you know you should change? (“I know I’m really fixated on money and things, but I grew up poor!” ) And you like being able to justify, so you avoid prayer, counseling – you know, the things that might help.
· Have you found that the attention and care you get when life is not going well has started to translate into life never going well because you’re afraid that you won’t get the same attention and care?
If we are not careful, our physical, spiritual, or emotional illnesses can become such a core part of our identity that we can’t imagine life without it – and aren’t sure we want to imagine life without it. I am not saying we will automatically do that, or there’s not times that life is relentlessly hard. I’m saying we have to be careful.
Sometimes, we don’t really want to get well because where or who we are feels like home, or we have learned how to leverage our inability or brokenness or weakness to our favor. Being healed will involve an upsetting of the status quo. It may even mean we have to take ownership of some things in our life that had been out of our control.
A practical example: I have dealt with tiredness for years since my heart attack. At times, it was significant enough that my productive time of day was over by noon. I had to nap for hours, and my concentration when I was awake wasn’t good. If I avoided napping, it didn’t help, because I was miserably tired. So, the rhythm of my life changed. It had to. I didn’t like that rhythm, but I learned to be comfortable in it.
A couple months ago, I began to have trouble napping. I just wasn’t as tired as I used to be. Then I got some new meds for a different issue, and my sleepiness went away even more. You’d think this was good news, but it was unsettling. I had my schedule figured out. Now, suddenly, there might be hours more per day where I was not sleepy, and what would I do with my time? And I had started to like a couple hours of downtime. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to be less sleepy. It took a while to adjust.
A more serious example: I want to be free of self-righteousness. I can get into the habit of seeing the headlines of the scandalous things that happen to other pastors, and I can adopt the attitude of the Pharisee: “Thank God I’m not like that.”[13] I want to be free of that. But…..I deal with a fair amount of self-doubt and self-criticism. And it’s in those moments of self-righteousness that I feel good about myself comparatively. It’s my time to pat myself on the back. Do I want to be healed? Yes? No? (Just so you know, this issue has been added to my prayers. “Help me be free of self-righteousness. Help me want to be free.”)
Jesus is offering an observation that is of eternal importance then and now: some people love their sin so much that they would rather remain spiritually sick than be made well. “Do you want to get well?” is a question that must be answered honestly.
· Do you want your marriage to be better even if that means when Jesus begins to heal the sinful dysfunction that you bring to it, you might have to do the hard work of repentance, and counseling, and accountability?
· Do you want Jesus to heal you of your addictions even if the means he uses include rehab and accountability?
· Do you want Jesus to fix your relationship with your kids (or parents, or family, or friends) even if that means owning the damage you cause with your sinful words and attitude and doing the hard work of character development?
· Do you want Jesus to free you of that anger, that lust, that pride, that bitterness that has been such a close friend for so long?
· Do you want Jesus to free you from constantly living in fear that the sky is falling because of whatever the current culture war is in the headlines?
If you go to Jesus and he heals you, you are surrendering the right to always and relentlessly blame your kids, your parents, your spouse, your family of origin, the economy, your friends and use them as excuses for what you give yourself permission to do.[14] You may need to address the fallout from sins others have committed against you and/or the fallout from the sin you have done to others. It will be disruptive and unsettling. Do you want to be healed?
What I love about Jesus is that he healed the man even though Jesus got a somewhat evasive answer. I wonder if the question was meant to challenge something in the mindset of the lame man. Almost as if Jesus was going to not only heal his lameness, but he was going to begin a process in the lame man to confront his heart. In my imagination, I can see this man leaving healed (yay!) while also hearing Jesus’ question in his mind. “Do I want to be healed?” He has to challenge himself. Maybe he didn’t. And if that ‘s the case, and he’s honest, there is healing on the other side of that of a different kind.
God intends for our past to point others to Jesus.
Jesus told the lame man to pick up his bed and walk. What better conversation starter was there to point toward Jesus? I can see people who knew him saying, “What on earth happened? How is this possible?” It’s a guaranteed way for this formerly lame man to point to Jesus. That now unnecessary bed was meant to be a sign pointing to Jesus, an opportunity for others to hear about what Jesus can do – and so point to the Jesus as Lord.
We don’t carry our beds, but we have equivalent opportunities. One of the best ways to point toward the awesome majesty of Jesus is to let people see what God has done in our lives. It’s one thing to say that Jesus saves and heals; it’s quite another to show that Jesus does these things.
· People need to know that God can deliver from pornography – which means people like you have to tell them how he delivered you.
· People need to know that God can heal and transform people with destructive personalities and habits– which means people like you have to tell them how God has healed or is healing you from your destructive personality and habits.
· People need to know that arrogant, judgmental fools can be refined and matured – which means people like you have to tell them how he has turned or is turning the arrogant, judgmental fool that you were into a humble, grace-filled ambassador for Jesus.
· People need to know that those who are spiritually dead in their sins - hurting those around them, imploding through bad choices, ignoring or shaking their fist at God – can be forgiven, restored, and transformed into the likeness of Christ. And that means people like you have to tell them about you.
An author named Asia Mouzone said, "Never silence your testimony. It's meant for someone else; not you." God’s plan is for even the most broken parts of our past to point toward Jesus. ‘Believing’ and ‘trusting’ includes surrendering our shame, our guilt, our pride to the only one who can heal us.
The Father is at work. We are meant to take up the beds to which our brokenness had condemned us and carry it with us to a world that needs to see that Jesus saves.
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[1] “Jesus detects in the royal official a faith that desires a miraculous cure but that does not truly trust him.” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)
[2] “The temple authorities undoubtedly did not approve—after all, sacred pools at healing shrines characterized Greek cults like that of Asclepius—but popular religion often ignores religious contradictions that seem clearer to official religious leaders.” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary of the New Testament)
[3] I changed the order of this verse for our reading to make it more clear that this is what the people believed; this does not mean it was true. “The material about an angel of the Lord stirring the water and bringing healing appears in some early manuscripts, but not the earliest. Thus v. 4 should not be considered part of Scripture. Still, v. 7 (which is in all manuscripts) shows that people believed something like what v. 4 reports.” (ESV Global Study Bible) “See NIV text note, which includes text that does not appear in the oldest and best manuscripts; but v. 7 shows that it matches a popular belief at the time. Intermittent springs that fed the pools may have stirred the water. But how the pool worked is not essential to the story.” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)
[4] “Sadly, some may prefer to remain infirm in order to have license to complain, to avoid responsibility for their lives, or to continue exciting the pity of others.” (Orthodox Study Bible)
[5] Galatians 3:24-27.
[6] Mark 2:27
[7] “It is not stated that faith in Jesus was required of the man, as was the case in many of Jesus’ miracles (Matt. 9:22; 13:58; Mark 6:5, 6). The focus here is on Jesus’ power.”( ESV Reformation Study Bible)
[8] Barclay’s Bible Commentary
[9] “Begging and Beggars,” http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0003_0_02291.html
[10] Other commentators see his response as one of faith, but he had no idea who he was talking to, so that doesn’t make sense to me.
[11] Commentators have different opinions on this. That seems to be implied by the text. However, Jesus may be telling him that if he thought being physically sick was bad, it was nothing compared to the sickness and result of sin. Or both J
[12] Genesis 3:9
[13] Luke 8:9-14
[14] I am NOT saying these things have no influence on us. They absolutely do. I’m talking about settling into a place where we avoid asking God for healing, and then using our agency to follow the Holy Spirit’s lead to get the help we need.