Healing Encounter John 5:1-15

Many years ago, one of my pastors preached a deeply meaningful sermon on God’s healing. He started with the description of the miraculous types of healing—instantaneous, radical, awe-inspiring. We all leaned in, grasping and gasping toward those stories that capture our imaginations, dreams and wishes. Then there was the final healing—release from this present, mortal body and into the new eternal life. We all relaxed in the hope of this final stage of our salvation existence. But then he took us to another place. This place was the one that did not have all the gilded glory and glittering hope. This was a different type of healing work—that of God’s sustaining grace and provision. God’s healing power is also demonstrated in how he sustains us through the unpredictable, during the unimaginable, alongside those who suffer with chronic disease, and partnering in all our suffering. The Apostle Paul related what Christ communicated to him in 2 Corinthian 12:9. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Today we are going to look at a passage of Scripture that appears to house all three of these aspects of healing. You will want to open your Bibles to John 5. The Apostle John placed this story just after his first recorded healing by Jesus—the healing of a royal official’s son (4:43-53). The powerful official had tracked Jesus down and begged him to heal his son—and Jesus did. John moves quickly to a counter-story of a man whose status was not of privilege nor did he have anyone truly advocating for him.

Let’s read John 5:1-3.

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.

John does not seem to be particularly concerned about which festival Jesus was at. Perhaps that would have detracted from the location and particulars of this event. The location was a pool that had been considered by Jewish people as miraculous. Scholars and archeologists both describe historical references and discoveries in this regard. In fact, verse 4, which is usually cited as a footnote because it was in less reliable manuscripts, gives this very account. The NIV footnotes it in this way: “and they waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.” The Wycliffe Bible Commentary also cites a similar Eastern superstition that probably preceded the time of this story.[i] In today’s narrative, disabled people gathered around a particular pool near the Sheep Gate. Imagine with me this scene. Is it hard for you to picture this kind of gathering? Many of us are not often around the indigent and especially around large numbers of them. Does it make you feel uncomfortable or move you to see this kind of suffering and need? It did not make Jesus uncomfortable and it did move him. Indeed, he deliberately walked right into the midst of them! The name of the pool, with its varying origins, means House of Olives, House of Mercy, House of Grace. How appropriate—and even more so after this encounter.

Then, in verse 5, John describes a particular man. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. Thirty-eight years! Craig Keener opens up the reality that “the man had been sick there longer than many people in antiquity lived.”[ii] Later the man himself described his situation: “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred.” (v. 7) Oh, how this man needed healing!

And Jesus saw him. In verse 6a John wrote: When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time . . .” Imagine with me Jesus, the Healer, walking into an area where many were demonstrably in need of healing. What must that have been like for his great and loving heart? Let’s go back to one of our categories of healing. Had not God sustained all of these people in their conditions—rich or poor, mobile or immobile, believers or unbelievers? They were at least well enough to get to a place where they thought they might have the opportunity to be healed. When Jesus sees us, he sees us all the way through. He sees every need—physical, psychological and spiritual. And he wants our engagement in the process.

John 5:6-9a

When 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?”

“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.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

In three straightforward commands, Jesus refutes superstition and demonstrates his power over brokenness, illness, time and place. He did not need the water. He did not need that precise location. He did not need an angel. He did not need assistance or permission! His word alone heals. His power alone heals. His presence alone heals! His grace, indeed, is sufficient!

What appears to be a ridiculous question asked by Jesus to a man, who had struggled to even get near this “magic” water, may have been more of a device for engagement. Jesus had stood back watching, had learned about his case, and then approached him. Do you want this? This was a simple question that was hungering for an honest answer. The man’s own assessment of his resources was narrow and small. He thought that he just needed someone to help him get up and that he just had to be faster. He was still focused on his present, small reality and limited resources. But One stood by who was all resource and all power!

Three commands required three responses. The man got up. He picked up his mat. The man walked. This is the hard evidence of immediate healing, one of the three types of healing. This is one of those glorious, spine-tingling, wave-the-hanky-in-the-air moments! We could stop right here. But what is it like to live healed? How do habits and patterns have to change? What adjustments will need to take place in the community, the family, and life? How about the religious community’s response to these kinds of things?

John 5:9b-13

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

John here introduces one of the arguments that the religious leaders would use from this time forward to accuse Jesus and eventually be part of leading to his wrongful conviction and death. Sabbath-keeping was one of the indicators that someone was following the law of God. They were so focused on the breaking of this law, that they missed not only the miracle, but the person of the healed man and the Lord of the Sabbath! (See Matthew 12:8.)

In John’s account this is so early in the ministry of Jesus that it appears that even his reputation has not quite spread to the extent we see later on. Jesus was nondescript, he was like us in many respects—indistinguishable in a crowd. Not many knew his name yet. But how they had to reckon with that power!

Let’s return to the three questions above. What is it like to live healed? How do habits and patterns have to change? What adjustments will need to take place in the community, the family, and life? Certainly, these are things that require some processing and working out.

Jesus recognized and identified one other issue in this particular man’s life. And it required a fourth command. This is where we must be very cautious about assigning sin to every illness. Scrolling through the many stories of healing in the New Testament, there can be found healing that is not tied to sin. But in this case, Jesus identifies it clearly. In John 5:14 we read: Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” There was further work to be done. For this man’s immediate healing to be sustained, and for the final type of healing to be secured, there had to be heart-cleansing that day and every day forward. Eternal salvation is secured by the power of God in a believer’s heart and by that believer’s faith and living relationship with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It is not a “one and done” matter. It is entering into the on-going relationship with the One who saves us daily and will keep us eternally.

We do not know if this man obeyed the fourth command given to him by Jesus. We can hope that he did. This command is given to all who believe so that we will live in relationship with God and by the power of the Holy Spirit until that final, eternal healing. The man was quick to tell the religious leaders, though. While some commentators, cast this in a negative light—that of “telling on” Jesus to keep the man’s community status in tact—others think differently. Jirair Tashjian, in the Illustrated Bible Life, wrote:

If we consider the original Greek of the verb told in this verse, it may give us a better handle on the question of the healed man’s motives. The Greek verb is used four times in John and always in a positive sense. It would be more accurately translated “announced,” “proclaimed,” or “made known.” ... it seems reasonable to conclude on the basis of the positive tone of the verb that this healed man had no ill intent, and that he may even have become a follower of Jesus.[iii]

In this great story, penned by the beloved disciple John, we are able to explore the three types of healing: the sustaining grace and provision of God, the miraculous and instantaneous, the final and eternal healing. Perhaps today you need some healing. Won’t you look up to see Jesus seeking you out in the crowd? Won’t you accept his command by faith? Won’t you live in his promise and provision and live by faith until you enter into his great rest?

Today, also, let us pray together for the healing of our world during this pandemic. I invite you to pray this prayer aloud. It starts with the ancient Jesus Prayer and expands out.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on all nations.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on your world.

Amen.

I invite also invite you to view and listen to this powerful prayer in song entitled “Kyrie (Lord Have Mercy)” written by Charles Billingsley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU5IiDilVtE

M.R. Hyde

Copyright 2020

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[i] Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, 1990, p. 1082.

[ii] The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, Intervarsity Press, Downer’s Grove, IL, 1993, p. 275.

[iii] Illustrated Bible Life, Commentary on John 5:1-15, The Foundry Publishing Company, Kansas City, MO, 2020.

Grave Misunderstanding

Grave Misunderstanding

Matthew 27:62-66, 28:11-15, John 20 

“There can’t be any misunderstandings . . . not anymore,” said the chief priests. It was the day after that man Jesus had finally been silenced. And really silenced he was. Dead. Dead and cold in the grave. The guards and the crowd had assured them that at his arrest Jesus had been utterly abandoned by his disciples. All of them had fled away that night. Someone remembered one of them named Peter had been in the courtyard during the trials, but he had vanished, as well.

You might think that this would have satisfied them. It should have really, except for one thing. This Jesus had said something that troubled them deeply.

Matthew, when writing the story of our Lord’s life, remembered it this way.

           

Matthew 27:62-66

The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

You see, these leaders, both the religious ruling council and the Roman ruler Pilate, had encountered this unusually ordinary man in a most extraordinary way. They themselves had looked into his eyes, heard his responses and didn’t know quite what to do with him. As always when you encounter Jesus you either believe in him or you mark him off your list as just another odd blip on the radar.

I guess if they had radar, they knew that that blip was gone. But their concern was that some misunderstanding would occur—a grave misunderstanding. They knew the terror and the value of rumors. They knew that if word got out that he was alive then the disciples of this odd man might rally and re-emerge into the community, spreading heresy and division. And then, whether he was alive or not they would still have trouble in the city.

           

So, they laid a trap—it was in the form of a seal around a rather large stone at the mouth of a particular grave. You see, if anyone tampered with the seal it would become immediately evident that someone was trying to pull a great hoax. Everyone in that room that day knew it was totally impossible for anyone to come back to life—particularly after the gruesome death of crucifixion. The man was gone. Now their primary concern was control over the rumor that might erupt at any moment.

But they were still a day away from the first Easter.

 

And then it was Easter morning. The women had come to pay their respects as usual. It was very common for people to visit the grave the first few days after burial. They came in their sorrow, with the visual memories of their beloved and tortured Lord scorched into their brains. Oh, how he had suffered! They wanted to weep by his grave one more time. And then a most dreadful thing happened. 

John relates the story in this way from John 20:1-10.

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

John pens a few words that strike wonder in our hearts. He often referred to himself as “the other disciple.” And when he looked on the empty grave and the clothes just lying there on the ground, in his heart and for the first time, he really believed. But for Peter and the women who had been at the tomb of Jesus, there was a grave misunderstanding. They did not yet connect the words of Jesus with the truth about Jesus.

Would you believe? If you had watched him die, if you had seen his still and cold body, if you had attended the funeral service, would you believe?

Word got out rather quickly that something was amiss at the tomb of Jesus.  The guards who had been at the tomb came back to the temple with a rather fantastical story. They talked with wild-eyed rapidity of a great earthquake. They told of the angels whose clothes were brilliant and stunning like lightening and how the angels had rolled the stone away in an instant and sat down upon that stone. 

All of this was terrifying to the priests. They could not understand how this happened. Certainly, these soldiers had been hallucinating. Everyone knows that once someone is dead for three days they are gone. So, something had to be done. 

In Matthew 28:12-14 we see exactly what they did.

When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed.

Even with the eyewitness testimony of their own trusted guard, these religious leaders refused the truth. They misunderstood the grave. They saw and believed what they only wanted to see and believe—a cold, dark grave and a stolen body. They didn’t see that it was a doorway to life.

Even Jesus’ disciples had such a hard time with this. They had had relatives who had died, children who had passed far too early, friends who had been in horrible fatal accidents and none of them came back life. But their friend Jesus was more—far more—than just another friend who had died. He was the Savior of the world, fully human and fully divine, who bore in his body all of our sins so that He could rise again to bring life to everyone who would believe on Him.

You might say to me, “Preacher, that’s a pretty big pill to swallow. I don’t know if I could ever believe what you are telling me.” So, for right now, don’t listen to me, listen to others who had the same grave misunderstanding.

John 20:10-29

Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Sometimes through our own tears that we cannot see clearly. What we perceive as the end may not, in fact, be the end. Mary had heard Jesus’ prophesy that he would rise again on the third day, but it had not registered.  Truth is kind of funny that way.  If we are not open to a new way of thinking we just might miss it.

But Jesus did not want Mary to miss it, so he called her by name. It was in the wonderful familiar voice that Mary’s heart was finally opened to the truth. He was alive! He was well! And he wanted to be with them all. Then she did what any good evangelist would do, she ran and told her friends what had happened. Her misunderstandings and tears had been cleared up by the living presence of Jesus Christ.

           

John remembered more and made sure to carefully write it down for us.

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Jesus was different after the resurrection. He still had the scars from the crucifixion. He still had his recognizable face and voice. But he was operating under resurrection power now. Walls, doors, and stones were no longer of interest to him. He only wanted to be with his beloved disciples. He appeared to them, graciously, wondrously, beautifully. And in the midst of their fears of there present life and the threats that still hung in the air, he spoke only peace to them. Peace. Peace. Peace. When they heard his voice and saw the wounds and experienced him one more time in the flesh, then they rejoiced. All their misunderstandings were cleared up by the living presence of Jesus Christ.

But there was one person who was not there. We don’t know why he wasn’t there. His name was Thomas and he clearly did not understand.

Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”  Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Thomas needed proof. He wanted the empirical evidence. He wanted to touch Jesus before he would believe. And so, Jesus gave the great gift of understanding. Jesus didn’t have to, but he wanted to. And all of Thomas’ grave misunderstandings were cleared up by the living presence of Jesus Christ.

And now I want you to listen to me. I believe that Jesus is alive today. I believe that he is our risen Savior that he died and rose again on the third day having paid the full price for my sins and yours.

You see, I write to you today for the same reason John wrote these words.  He wanted everyone who heard the story of Jesus to believe. John 20:31   But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. 

           

You see, John and I, and many other people in this world, understand something today. We don’t look on the cross of Jesus and think that’s just the end of his life. We don’t look on the arrest of Jesus and become dismayed that his ministry ended in such disgrace. We don’t look on the grave of Jesus and think that something sad has happened and that there is no solution.

Just as Jesus said we could, we have experienced the power of the resurrection in our lives. We have received the full and free salvation of our souls and the forgiveness of every one of our sins. We have believed and received life in His glorious name.

And let me tell you something, I have never regretted believing in Jesus. I now understand that His grave is the doorway to resurrection life.

You may have some grave misunderstandings about Easter, about Jesus. Maybe you think that he was just a good man, a good teacher. Won’t you believe today that he’s far more than that—that He died for you and, more than that, he took what was supposed to be the end and made it into a new beginning for you?

Maybe your grave misunderstanding today is that Jesus would never forgive you of your sins. You feel unworthy. You feel you have gone too far. You feel that no one should ever forgive you. Here’s the truth. He went all the way for you. He went lower than any sin you could ever commit to purchase your salvation.

 

Maybe your grave misunderstanding today is that you need physical proof of His resurrection. But, as Jesus said, if you believe without seeing you will be more blessed than those who have seen and believe. Why not give a try today?

Maybe this is the Easter that your grave misunderstandings can turn into belief in our Risen and Living Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen

M.R. Hyde

Copyright 2020

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