The Weekend, October 24 –
We
have come to the weekend in our reading thru the Gospel of John. Our reading for these two days is from John
4:43 – 5:18. Please read the passage first and then come back to look at it
again.
After the encounter with the woman at the well, John continues to point us to
Jesus’ interactions with people. Today’s
reading is about two people – a well-to-do official (probably from Herod’s
court) and a no-named lame man. The
official is in Galilee, where Herod spent much of his time ruling over Israel. The
no-named lame man is in Jerusalem, sitting near the Temple gates, begging – it
was his only way to survive. What each
man had in common was their need – a need neither one of them was able to
provide on their own.
“…he
came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum, there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus
had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and
heal his son, for he was at the point of death” (4:46-47).
John
tells us Jesus arrived in Cana where he had turned the water into wine – his
first sign. When this official hears
Jesus is back, he seeks for him because his Son was near death – “The
official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies” (4:49). The word “official” comes from the Greek
word basilikos, which would normally mean a “royal or noble
official”. He traveled some twenty miles
from Capernaum to get to Cana – for one reason – to find Jesus and ask him to
heal his Son. When he found Jesus, he
was imploring him to come down and heal his son. The word translated “implore” is a better
rendering of the word “asked”. He didn’t
come with the authority of a court official, but as a father who begged Jesus
for help.
Jesus’
first response seems harsh – “you want signs and wonders and yet you won’t
believe” (my paraphrase of 4:38). My
brother Ed’s comments are helpful: “Jesus’ statement in verse 48 is meant for
the multitude. Some among the Galileans followed Jesus because he was able to
do miracles. He was more of a ‘show’ to
them than a Savior.” Ed’s right because
the “you” is plural, not singular, and so Jesus is talking to a crowd that must
have come when they saw the official looking for Jesus. Many knew of Jesus, but not many believed him
to be the Messiah and none that he was “God incarnate”.
John
doesn’t tell us how the man reacted, but he must have been somewhat stunned
when he heard Jesus’ words: “Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.”
The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way” (4:50). While many in the crowd were looking for a
“show”, Jesus speaks a word, and the official “believes and went back home”. John uses the word “believe”, or “belief” over and over in his
narratives. Many times it meant people
thought Jesus was telling the truth, but, it was “believing in Him” that
alone led to saving faith. The
Samaritans (4:41) “believed in Jesus”, and so put their faith in him as the
Messiah, the Savior. This official “believed”
the word, and walked away probably wondering, but, as an official, believed
that His word was enough – i.e., Jesus said it, I believe him!” He walked home – a twenty-mile journey –
arriving the next day.
“As
he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was
recovering. So, he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and
they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The
father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.”
And he himself believed, and all his household” (4:51-53).
Now we
see the difference in believing. He had
heard Jesus’ word and believed it, but as he finds out that the fever left his
son the very hour that Jesus had said “your son will live”, he
believed! Now his faith was firmly a
belief that was in Jesus as Savior, Messiah, Lord. John adds – “This
was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee”
(4:54).
As we
turn the page to chapter five, John doesn’t indicate how long Jesus stayed in
Galilee. Another feast of Israel brought
Jesus back to Jerusalem, and a fourth personal encounter that Jesus now has
with a lame man near the Temple.
“After
this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now
there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda,
which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of
invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an
invalid for thirty-eight years.
(5:1-5).
John
writes with a very clear descriptive memory.
It was a feast, probably one of the three fall feasts, and by the Temple,
there was an entrance called the “Sheep Gate”, which in Aramaic is “Bethesda”. Bethesda means “house of grace”, or “house
of outpouring”. Around this gate sat
blind people, lame people, paralyzed people.
As invalids, they were forbidden to be brought into the Temple
proper. Their families carried them to
the gate because pilgrims would walk by on their way to the Temple and
hopefully the pilgrims would be generous in giving money to them. One of the invalids is a man who has been
lame for thirty-eight years.
Part
of verse 3, and all of verse 4 do not appear in most translations, because they
are missing from the earliest Greek manuscripts. The King James Version did put in verse 4 –
which said that the lame man was “waiting for the moving of the water, for
an angel of the Lord came down and stirred it”, and whoever got into it
first was healed. The man must have
believed it, for he explains his lack of healing on the water not being
stirred. Jesus walks towards the Temple
with his disciples, and he is moved to “see this man”, among the many who
begged there. Moved by the Spirit, Jesus stopped, looked
down at the lame man, perhaps stooped down to look at him, and asked him if he
wanted to be healed. Why?
“When
Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time,
he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 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 going another steps down before me” (5:6-7)
I’ve
always been struck by that question.
Wouldn’t you think the answer would be “Of course, Yes”? Yet that is not
how he answered Jesus. The key may be in
the words “Jesus knew”. Did Jesus know
something about the man that made him ask first? Perhaps stuck in this
lifestyle for so long, the man didn’t have any other way to look at what life
could be. It’s a lesson I learned as a Pastor a long time
ago. Sometimes people can carry such a
burden in their lives for such a long time that they cannot conceive of it no
longer being a part of their lives.
What’s obvious is that he does not see in Jesus the one who was about to
heal him!
“Jesus
said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man
was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath” (5:8-9).
My
brother Ed makes an important note about this. “the miracle occurs on the
Sabbath, which to the Jewish leaders was a violation of the Mosaic Law, because work had been done. Now, think about it. Jesus could have simply said to him,
‘Get up, leave you mat!’, but he didn’t. Keep in mind, Jesus always has a reason and/or
purpose for what he does and what he says.”
“So
the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not
lawful for you to take up your bed.” But he answered them, “The man who
healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” They asked
him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” (5:10-12).
Soon,
the man is confronted by the Jewish leaders for carrying his mat on the Sabbath.
These were not ordinary Jews or pilgrims.
The word “Jews” is “ioudaioi”, referring to religious leaders who
scouted the Temple to make sure the law was being kept. There were 39 Sabbath regulations that laid
out the demands of what it meant to “keep the Sabbath”. The problem wasn’t with the fifth
commandment, the problem was the burdens they legalistically laid on it. They looked at the man carrying his mat and
can’t see that a man who was just healed.
They only want to find out who this “sabbath-breaker” was - “who told
you to get up and walk with this mat in your arms?” The man didn’t know who Jesus was, and Jesus
had not stuck around to introduce himself to him. Yet, later Jesus found him in
the Temple and spoke to him about being well (5:13). Because Jesus “knew” the man, his warnings on
not “continuing to sin” (5:14), shouldn’t be read as anything more than a
reminder that God’s grace is received with thanksgiving and obedience. Nevertheless, the man, probably feeling he’s
in trouble, returns to the Jewish leaders to point out Jesus to them
(5:15). John ends this section in
another commentary:
“And
this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things
on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now,
and I am working.” This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to
kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling
God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (5:16-18).
Legalism
kills the Spirit. God’s grace is only
hindered by the legalist who cannot see past their own rules. Jesus has once again demonstrated that people
matter…all kinds of people. John let us
see four personal encounters people had with Jesus. First with Nicodemus, a Jewish Pharisee. Then a Samaritan woman, an outcast of the
Jews! Then to a royal official in Cana, where
Jesus speaks healing over a young boy twenty miles away. Lastly, Jesus to an invalid – forbidden from
being in the temple – who after healing sees him worshiping in the Temple. Jesus is reaching across ethnic and social
barriers, to Jews and non-Jews, the named and the unnamed, the somebodies and
the nobodies – because - “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him… will have eternal life” (3:16).
Peace
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