John
5:2-11, 16-18
Now
in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha,
which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and
paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When
Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said
to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 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
making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Stand
up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his
mat and began to walk.
Now
that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is
the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” But he answered them,
“The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’”
Therefore
the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the
sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am
working.” For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him,
because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own
Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
Can
you imagine a President of the United States that did not believe that Jesus
was God?
A
President who didn’t believe that the miracles of Jesus were authentic but
rather were myths?
A
President devoted to the teaching of Jesus — but not always agreeing with how Jesus
was interpreted by the biblical sources?
Can
you imagine a President who saw the four gospels as "untrustworthy
correspondents?"
Thomas
Jefferson struggled with the Biblical account of Jesus --- so he created his
own gospel by taking a sharp instrument, perhaps a penknife, to copies of the
New Testament and pieced together his own account of Christ’s philosophy.
Much
of the material Jefferson elected to not include related to miraculous events,
he rejected anything that he perceived as “contrary to reason.”
Including the resurrection stories
Thomas
Jefferson did what many of us want to do at times —- excise from our minds
things that don’t make sense or cannot be proven.
Last
week, I had the privilege of teaching the re-confirm class.
It
is a class for adults who want to go over the same material that the youth are
learning in confirmation.
It
was my first chance to teach the class and I found it fascinating.
What
I realized is that:
·
They
have the same questions that the youth have — they just have better tools to
articulate those questions
·
They
are not always sure what to do with the things that don’t make sense
But
what fascinated me the most was an explanation given why our youth struggle so
much with accepting what they read in the Bible
What
was shared was that students today are taught in school that they must prove
things.
Papers are written with the need to
PROVE a position
How does one PROVE what is
written in the Bible?
Even
John understood this in his conclusion to his Gospel in Jesus’ encounter with
Thomas — when he said (20:29)
“Have you believed because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
It
is understandable how Jefferson could then conclude that we should remove all
those un-provable stories from the Bible —
but then again — maybe he was missing the
point
John
has only seven miracle stories in the Gospel while the Synoptic Gospel's have over
30 different ones
John
not only excludes many of the miracles in the synoptic Gospels, but he sees
them as having a very different purpose
In the synoptics they are there to win
people to Jesus
That is not John’s purpose
John
does not even call them miracles
He sees them as SIGNS
Let
me elaborate a little
In John there are 7 Signs — in
biblical times numerology was very important
7 = wholeness or completeness
In John there are 7 "I Am"
sayings
I don’t think it is a
coincidence
Bart
Ehrman says:
Jesus does not do as many miracles in John as
he does in the Synoptics, but the ones he does are, for the most part, far more
spectacular. Indeed, unlike in the Synoptics, Jesus does nothing to hide his
abilities; he performs miracles openly in order to demonstrate who he is.
Jesus
performs miracles openly in order to demonstrate who he is
What
do these signs say about who Jesus is?
For John —- there is always more than what
is visible to the eye
I
find the first sign in John’s Gospel fascinating — It is the story of Jesus and
his mother attending a wedding together in the small community of Cana
It
is the elements of the Cana story that are so intriguing.
Jesus
and his disciples, who have been down in the Jordan valley with John the
Baptist, return to the Galilee to join a wedding celebration.
Jesus’
mother Mary and his brothers are already there (2:12), so it seems to be some
kind of “family affair.”
Indeed,
Mary seems to be at some level officially involved in the celebration as a kind
of co-hostess since she takes charge of things when the wine planned for the
occasion, unexpectedly runs out, indicating either that the crowd was larger
than expected or that things became quite festive, or both.
Mary
turns to Jesus and tells him take care of the problem
Jesus
finds nearby six stone jars (not the typical clay jars) that could hold 20 or
30 gallons of water and he told the servants to fill the jars to the brim.
After
filling the jars, he instructs them to draw off some of the water and take it
to the headwaiter
John
2:9-10 (The Message)
When the host tasted the water that had become
wine (he didn’t know what had just happened but the servants, of course, knew),
he called out to the bridegroom, “Everybody I know begins with their finest
wines and after the guests have had their fill brings in the cheap stuff. But
you’ve saved the best till now!”
In
some ways this is one of the strangest stories in the Bible surrounding Jesus.
We
all know the point of the story isn’t that Jesus is the life of the party and
if you run out of wine Jesus will bring the good stuff
But what is John trying to tell us?
What
is hidden beneath the surface that a literal reading won't tell us?
I
believe there are a couple of key concepts here
·
John
seems to imply that if we do as Jesus tells us to do — then our ordinary lives
can become extraordinary
·
Jesus
took stone jars, not clay ones, because stone jars were used for ritual
cleansing. Jesus seems to be saying that
he will cleanse us of the impurities in our life if we will follow. Or as Hamilton put it: “life in Christ is
richer and more joyful than the ritualistic religion of first century Judaism.”
·
This
full extraordinary life is available right now — not just in the future
What
is amazing, is these same concepts are found in the second “Sign” story that I
want to look at
This
is one of my favorite of the "Sign" stories in John
Jesus
has made his way back to Jerusalem for his 2nd (of three visits)
This is one of the big differences
between John and the Synoptic Gospels
In the Synoptic Gospels Jesus only goes to
Jerusalem once (at the end of his ministry)
In John, Jesus travels to Jerusalem three times
Jesus
is near the sheep gate — near the modern Lion’s Gate (or St. Stephen’s gate)
It
is the Sabbath — and that will become an important detail
The
location of this sign is the Pools of Bethesda the remains of which are still
visible today
It
was believed that this was a place where one could experience healing — thus
people would gather in the hope that they might be the next one healed.
The
Pools of Bethesda are described as having five porticoes — a puzzling feature
suggesting an unusual five-sided pool, which most scholars dismissed as an
unhistorical literary creation.
Yet when this site was excavated, it revealed
a rectangular pool with two basins separated by a wall—thus a five-sided
pool—and each side had a portico.
This
story about Jesus’ miracle suggests a long history of healing at the site.
Roman
medicinal baths constructed at the Bethesda Pool only a century or two later
reflect this continued tradition.
When Christians controlled Jerusalem in the
Byzantine and Crusader periods, they liked to mark the sites of Jesus’ miracles
and other important events in his life, so they added a chapel and churches
that now cover the Bethesda Pool complex.
The
way the story is told it was understood that the first person to enter the pool
when the waters were stirred up would supposedly be cured of his or her ailment
We
are told that there was a man who had been ill for 38 years who had been coming
to the pools for a long time hoping to be cured.
Jesus
sees him and asks him a profound question: “Do you want to get well?”
The
truth of the matter is, many of us don’t want to be made well
We like our addictions, our illnesses,
our whatever it is that ails us
But
this man wants to be cured — he says to Jesus
“Sir, when the water is stirred, I don’t have
anybody to put me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody else is
already in.” John 5:7 (MSG)
The
very next thing we see is Jesus — seemingly ignoring the superstition
surrounding the water AND the man’s complaint as to why he’s still there after
38 years — telling the man to get up, pick up his mat and walk --- Notice,
Jesus does not put him in the waters.
What’s
lost in the translation from Greek is that Jesus’ words to the man carry the
implication of an order — almost like that of a commanding General to a
private.
Immediately
the guy was on his feet — mat in hand — heading toward the Temple
It
is at this point that we can begin to see the deeper meaning John has been
leading us toward.
"DO
YOU WANT TO GET WELL?”
With
this question, Jesus meant to get both this ailing man’s attention and ours — to
help us see a truth which is too often overlooked.
Jesus
knew that healing and moving forward in transformation was going to require the
paralytic man to move into territory he’d never known.
His
circumstances were sad and unfortunate, and undoubtedly he’d wished, wanted,
and even prayed to be able to walk thousands of times over the last 38 years.
But
Jesus knew that not everything about being healed would be easy.
There
would be some results of his healing that would be a challenge.
For
instance, he was immediately going to be accused of being a sinner by the
religious leaders.
Why? Because he was breaking the law
by carrying his mat on the Sabbath
Yet,
when we read the story carefully, it appears that Jesus very intentionally picked
a Sabbath to heal the man
We
Jesus trying to make a point to the religious leaders?
Was he trying to push their buttons?
It really seems so
Jesus
is seems is trying to open the eyes of those who get wrapped up in the law and
fail to see God's grace because of it.
Sometimes we cannot see what it right
in front of us.
Hamilton
reminds us of this with a story about Vincent Van Gogh's masterpiece painting:
Starry Night
The
painting shows a town and a church at night --- I am sure you are familiar with
it.
Above
this beautiful scene is the most amazing sky: the moon and the stars whirl like
pinwheels above the town.
Many
see the lights in the sky representing Jesus --- the light of the world --- or
maybe just the light of God's love (Van Gogh was a very religious man)
Most
of the houses in the village have this light in them as well --- perhaps signifying
the light of the Christ in the hearts and lives of the people.
But
what is striking is that the church ---
the church which is at the center of the
painting ---
the church has no
light.
Many
believe this is Van Gogh pointing out that the church of his day often seemed
to lack the love of God --- so he painted it as a cold building without the
light of Christ in it.
He
suggests that the church is more concerned about following the letter of the
law --- than being a conduit for the light and life of Jesus.
John
seems to be asking us --- is the light of Christ shining through our lives, or
are we so captivated by following the rules --- that the light and life of God
is diminished.
And
from that moment on, John tells us, the religious folk redoubled their efforts
to get rid of this troublemaker
To
get rid of the one who to them seemed to lessen God because he failed to follow
all the rules.
And
not just get rid of him --- to put him to death.
Because they could not hear the question Jesus
was asking them: Do You Want To Be Healed?
Pick
up your mat, Jesus says --- and be made well.
