…and the truth will set you free
Days run together this time of year, when the celebration of the birth of our Savior is sometimes overshadowed by parties, and “holiday” symphonies, and other activities that would separate us from God’s Word. Indeed, it has been five days since I have actively entered into a study of the Word. Oh, I read the Word, doing the initial preparation yesterday for teaching this coming Sunday, but I have not actually studied the Word in about a week. And I know better!
John 5
The Healing at the Pool
1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.[b] 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well? 7“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ “
12So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Can you even begin to imagine what it would be like to be an invalid for 38 years? My mother-in-law wore an ileostomy bag for 38 years. I have known people since then who had to wear a bag for 6 months following surgery, and it was almost more than they could tolerate. Thirty-eight years of being an invalid. How could anyone after that length of time hold out any hope for the future?
The invalid in this scripture had clearly lost hope that he could enter the waters and be healed, for others always made it into the water before him. Yet, he continued to come to the pool each day, seeking his miracle. And his miracle appeared in the form of a man named Jesus. When Jesus inquired as to his health, the man said I have no one to help me into the pool, and Jesus replied, take up your mat and walk, for you are healed. There was no need of the healing waters in the pool of Bethesda, for the great Healer was present.
The pool of Bethesda was near the Sheep Market Gate and the waters were said to be stirred by an angel. When the waters stirred, people entered the pool to receive their healing. In Hebrew, Bethesda means “House of Mercy” and in Greek it means “House of Grace.” Either way, Bethesda was a place of hope, a place of healing, a place of grace.
The next important fact in this scripture is that the city officials were unconcerned about the healing of the invalid–instead, they were offended that the man picked up his mat on the Sabbath, an action prohibited under the Law. Oh ye of little faith–what Jesus says is healed, is healed–what Jesus says is good, is good. If Jesus healed on the Sabbath, that pretty much ends the discussion of what can be done on the Sabbath and what is prohibited.
Can you see beyond the Law into the House of Grace? If not, go to your Lord in prayer today and ask that He fill you with a spirit of grace and mercy.
The Journey
I watched the Showtime special “Letting Go of God,” a 2 1/2 hour monologue by Julie Sweeney where she takes a journey of faith, and subsequently unbelief, in her quest for answers about God. Raised a Catholic, she began by loving God, by trusting God, by believing bad times were made bearable through the love of God.
Julie attended a year long Bible study at her local parish and came face to face with some insurmountable evidence, for her, that we are not God’s creation, but instead, He is ours, something to help us make sense of our existence, indeed, our presence in this universe. She concluded after much study and even searching out other religions that God cannot exist, or if He did why would we follow such a God who exacted His own son’s death in order to save flawed man whom He created?
The special was filled with Julie’s own brand of humor, and some of it was laugh out loud funny. There were other times when her pain was palpable, as she struggled to make sense of the good, the bad and the ugly that is this thing called life. Toward the end I thought perhaps she was going to come full circle, and finish by reconciling herself to God.
We have all questioned, if not the existence of God, at least the fundamental question of why bad things happen to good people. I answer this by saying we are born into a world dominated by sin, and that sin colors everything around it, like washing a red sweater with white linens. But then, I believe–I have always believed, and I always will believe in God. I have not always followed, but I have always believed and am convinced I will leave this world tenaciously clinging to this faith I have held so dear.
Where the Bible does not make sense, I lay down the cloak of faith and walk right across the muddiness of what appears to be illogic or at least incontinuity. Where God’s wrath seems to overshadow His love, I wrap myself in the blanket of hope, knowing that what I do not understand now will ultimately be made known to me.
I wrote the poem, “The Journey,” this morning and am posting it here today in lieu of my daily Bible reading. Not that I won’t read the Bible today–I almost certainly will. But then again, it is faith that drives me onward, and faith will ultimately lead me home.
The Journey
Written after watching “Letting Go of God”, a monologue by Julie Sweeney,
Stumbling through the darkness of confusion, tumbling into the light of reason she questioned everything she had been raised to believe. She loved God, always had but science taught her to look elsewhere for answers and no one told her some puzzles have no ready solutions. So she slipped silently from her raft of faith and into the blue-black waters of the intellect, where faith takes a back seat to logic. She turned her back on the God of her father, and set out on a journey of self-actualization, a pilgrimmage she continues to this day. She still uses phrases like, “Thank God,” although more out of habit than belief. She teaches her child we are each some cosmic accident and that is sad, I think, but I believe that children have the knowledge of God even before they have reason to believe, or the ability to reason. I pray that she will find her way, that God will intervene some day and she will return to that first love a child has for her Father. For the first love is the best love, and we should not be detoured on the pathway to righteousness, not by science, nor reason, nor anything.Going Home
Jesus Heals the Official’s Son
John 4:43After the two days he left for Galilee. 44(Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 45When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there.
46Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
48“Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
49The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
50Jesus replied, “You may go. Your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.”
53Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and all his household believed.
54This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.
Have you ever tried to return home after being away for a number of years? I’m not sure whether home changes that much, or if our memories of home are skewed by sentimentality, but in any even, home is never quite the same when you return as it was when you left. Thomas Wolfe said, “You can’t go home again.” Jennifer Nettles and Jon Bon Jovi sang a song that asks the question, “Who says you can’t go back?” Kathy Mattea sings, “I want to go back and wash my face, deep in the river of my old home place, I want to walk in the waters that once gave me life.”
Jesus knew the difficulties of returning home again. He was fully man and fully God, so I would imagine as a boy,and as a teen, there were times He did things that did not point toward His being the Savior of the world. His brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors undoubtedly would have a hard time as seeing Him as the Messiah.
When Jesus arrived in Galilee, He was welcomed, and soon approached by a man who asked that his son, who was near dying, be healed. Jesus’ reply was, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will not believe.” Does that response seem rather cruel to you? I have to admit, this is not what I would expect Jesus to say. Where is the compassion, where is the love we have come to expect?
Remember, though, that Jesus had just traveled through Samaria where the people believed on Him without any signs, without any miracles. It must have been frustrating to Jesus that He came to do so much more than heal the sick and raise the dead, yet the crowds were clamoring for Jesus to heal the body, when He really came to heal the soul.
Are you sick in body and seek the healing touch of Jesus? Then ask for His healing, but remember His primary mission upon this earth was to seek and save the lost. That mission has not changed. Does Jesus still heal today? Of course He does, but He longs to reconcile you to the Father. May that reconciliation, that redemption, be your primary focus as you seek after the Savior.
World Overcomer
Watching the Florida/Alabama game, I noticed Tim Tebow has a Bible scripture taped across his face. John 16:33, which in essence says that in this world we will have trouble, but be not dismayed, because Christ has come to overcome the trouble of the world and through Him we can be world overcomers. What a great promise and what a great testimony!
I don’t watch nearly as much football as my husband. I had, of course, heard of Tim Tebow because he won the Heisman Award a couple of years ago, winning against Darrin McFadden from Arkansas. But what I did not know is that he often wears scripture while playing football.
When was the last time you shared your testimony with someone else? How did you share your love of God? Was it by passing out a tract with Scripture? Probably not–I haven’t seen anyone do that in years, but I think we should start the practice anew. Did you share your story with another over a cup of coffee? Or did you take someone a bag of groceries who would have gone hungry otherwise?
We pass up opportunities every day to share the gospel, but the good news is, there will be another opportunity tomorrow. Will you take it?
Could this be the Christ?
Being raised in church from an infant, I never knew a time when I did not believe in Jesus Christ. There have been times in my life when I have not followed Him, not allowed Him to be my Lord (my master), but I have always believed.
The Disciples Rejoin Jesus
John 4:27Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ[a]?” 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
Many Samaritans Believe
39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers.
42They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
In our Scripture today, John 4:27-42, we see the results of Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well. Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel at the time the Assyrians captured that kingdom in 722 B.C. More than 20,000 young men were carried off to be slaves (Daniel, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abdednigo among them) and the rest began to intermarry with the Assyrians. The result was what the orthodox Jews believed to be an impure race who still used the Torah as their basis for religion, but worshipped other gods as well.
It is now 750 years later, and there is much animosity between Jews and Samaritans. It is for this reason the Samaritan woman expresses surprise when Jesus, a Jew, speaks to her. Although Samaria lay between Judea and Jerusalem, most Jews traveled out of their way to avoid going through Samaria. Not so with Jesus.
In yesterday’s lesson we saw that Jesus confronts the woman with her past, and acknowledges to her that He is the Christ. She leaves her water jar behind and goes to tell others of this man, and asks, “Could this be the Christ?”
Indeed, the disciples return with food and Jesus tells them He has no need of food–His food is to do the will of the One who sent Him. As usual, the disciples are in the dark and wonder if someone else has brought Jesus food while they were away. Jesus tells them the fields are white unto harvest, and it is time to reap what is sown.
In the meantime, the woman from the well has told many of her encounter with Jesus, with an interesting result. Some people believe in Jesus, the Christ, just from her re-telling of the story. Others go to Him and ask Him to remain in Samaria. He does so for two days, and at the end of the His time there, they said to the woman that now they no longer believe just because of what she said, but because they have seen and heard for themselves that Jesus is the Christ.
What a wonderful revelation when we recognize that Jesus is the Christ! And, if the fields were white unto harvest then, can you imagine how ready they are now to be harvested? May we be as obedient as the woman at the well, who repented of her sins and went straight away to share the living waters with others.
Seeking Holiness 