John 5.1-9
A link to an audio of this talk
1. Jesus sees this man.
That is important.
There are many people who are sick by the pool by the sheepgate. But Jesus chooses this one man. He has been ill for 38 years. We are not told what his illness is, but he obviously cannot move himself easily.
And Jesus sees him.
We’ve noticed that before. In John 1, Nathaniel comes to Jesus, and Jesus says to him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
It is a bit enigmatic, but it seems that Jesus is saying something that is incredibly significant for Nathanael. He had noticed Nathaniel and he knew Nathaniel. It is enough for Nathaniel to make the pretty dramatic declaration: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (John 1:47-49)
What is interesting in this passage is that whereas Nathaniel is told about Jesus and comes to Jesus, Jesus comes to this man, even though the man is showing no faith in Jesus and doesn’t even know who Jesus is.
But Jesus sees this man, comes to him and, knows him – really knows him.
But what about me?
How do I know that Jesus has seen me?
I don’t know whether you have heard of or remember Billy Graham. He was a man of great integrity and a remarkable evangelist. When I was an undergraduate at Durham, we went to Sunderland football stadium to hear him speak to about 20000 people. I went with some friends who were seeking God. I was not particularly impressed. In my 19 year old arrogance I felt that I could have spoken just as well. But at the end hundreds went forward to make a commitment to Christ. And I spoke with some of my friends who went forward and asked them why. And they each said something like this: There were 20000 people in that stadium, but he seemed he was speaking to me personally.
That is not a skill you can learn. There is not a rhetorical equivalent of the Kitchener poster – you know the one that says ‘Your Country needs you’ and his finger points at you wherever you stand. Or the Mona Lisa eye effect where it seems that, wherever you stand, she is always looking somewhere to your right.
That can only be done by the Holy Spirit.
The fact that you are here, and that you are asking that question, means that he is working in you, that he has seen you, and that he knows you.
Why has he seen me and not the next person?
Why did he focus on this one man and not the others who were lying by the pool at the sheepgate?
I don’t know. But the mystery of God’s election is this. God never chooses one person instead of another person. He chooses one person for the sake of the other person. When God chooses Abraham, he tells him that through his descendants the world will be blessed. Not X instead of Y, but X for the sake of Y.
Perhaps Jesus has seen you for the sake of your partner or your brother or sister. He has chosen you to love them, to serve them, to care for them, and maybe to draw them to him.
2. Jesus knows this man
He asks the man, ‘Do you want to be healed?’
The man’s answer has been interpreted differently
Many of the early church fathers argue that his answer emphasizes the man’s persistence. He hasn’t given up. He has been there 38 years, trying to drag himself to the water to be healed, and he is still there. And they urge us not to give up on prayer.
But in our more psychologically introspective and therapeutically aware culture, many today would emphasize the fact that Jesus knows this man and so asks him exactly the right question. ‘Do you want to be healed’. And the man, if you notice, does not actually answer the question. He does not say ‘Yes’.
It seems that he has learned helplessness. He has allowed himself to become a victim.
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.” John 5:7
It is all the fault of others. I can blame them that I have not been healed.
Or perhaps he does not really want to get well. He has become used to the life at the sheepgate. Or maybe he has given up. People promised him so much, and he doesn’t want to be disappointed again. Or perhaps he was simply now not prepared to change.
It does seem that Jesus knows this man. He knows what is going on in his heart. Later, after he is healed, Jesus meets him and says, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” (John 5:14)
That is very unusual. On at least two other occasions Jesus specifically tells his followers that just because bad things have happened to someone, it does not mean that they have sinned in a particular way, or that they are any worse than anybody else.
We know that certain behaviour causes illness: There is a connection between illness and smoking or alcohol or drug misuse or promiscuous sex or compulsive over working. But we must be very cautious before we point the finger. If I point my finger, there are always three fingers pointing back at me.
But Jesus does know this man, and he can challenge him.
And Jesus knows us.
He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows our pride and our disappointments, our fears and our longings. He knows our self-destructive and other-destructive behaviour.
And he challenges us, ‘Do you want to be made well?’
Do you want to be made whole? Do you want the life that I can offer?
And for us it is a good question to ask. Our current life may have its problems, but it is the life that we are used to. And to choose to be ‘made well’ will involve change. Not necessarily big changes to begin with, but we need to be prepared to be honest – about our past, our behaviour, our dependencies, our priorities and our hopes.
And we need to be willing to let him disrupt our old life and shape our new life.
I have recently learnt the words of the BCP confession from morning and evening prayer – it is helpful because it means that I can say the words wherever I am. And it contains the words ‘and grant O most merciful Father, that for his sake, we may live godly (God-centred), righteous (living in a right relationship with God, others and this creation) and sober (disciplined) lives to the glory of your holy name’.
Do we want to be made well. It is all very well learning those words, even saying them, but am I really prepared to pray those words?
3. Jesus tells this man to stand up and to walk.
He has been ill for 38 years. And Jesus clearly deals with the root of the problem.
He doesn’t lay his hands on him
He doesn’t even speak a word, ‘Be healed’
He simply says, “Get up, take up your mat, and walk”
In other words, he is saying, “It is over to you now. You have been ill for 38 years, but I am setting you free. You can get up and walk, but you have to do it.”
This is the Sabbath day. The Lord of the Sabbath does the work of the Sabbath on the day of the Sabbath. The work of the Sabbath is about setting people free. In the Old Testament the Sabbath was the day that they remembered how they had been set free from slavery in Egypt. For us, it is the day we remember especially the resurrection of Jesus.
The new Sabbath, the day that Jesus rose from the dead, Sunday, was the day when Jesus makes it clear that he has set us free from the power of sin: that power which grips us and holds us: ‘the good I want to do I cannot do’, as Paul writes.
It is the day we are set free from the condemnation of sin, the guilt for sin which paralyses us: he died and rose for our forgiveness.
And it is the day we are set free from the consequence of sin: eternal death, and we are set free to live the new life.
Jesus sees us, knows us, comes to us and he sets us free. But now we have to be prepared to listen to him and work with him.
It really is time to stop lying on our spiritual mats, to get up and to walk.
A link to an audio of this talk
1. Jesus sees this man.
That is important.
There are many people who are sick by the pool by the sheepgate. But Jesus chooses this one man. He has been ill for 38 years. We are not told what his illness is, but he obviously cannot move himself easily.
And Jesus sees him.
We’ve noticed that before. In John 1, Nathaniel comes to Jesus, and Jesus says to him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
It is a bit enigmatic, but it seems that Jesus is saying something that is incredibly significant for Nathanael. He had noticed Nathaniel and he knew Nathaniel. It is enough for Nathaniel to make the pretty dramatic declaration: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (John 1:47-49)
What is interesting in this passage is that whereas Nathaniel is told about Jesus and comes to Jesus, Jesus comes to this man, even though the man is showing no faith in Jesus and doesn’t even know who Jesus is.
But Jesus sees this man, comes to him and, knows him – really knows him.
But what about me?
How do I know that Jesus has seen me?
I don’t know whether you have heard of or remember Billy Graham. He was a man of great integrity and a remarkable evangelist. When I was an undergraduate at Durham, we went to Sunderland football stadium to hear him speak to about 20000 people. I went with some friends who were seeking God. I was not particularly impressed. In my 19 year old arrogance I felt that I could have spoken just as well. But at the end hundreds went forward to make a commitment to Christ. And I spoke with some of my friends who went forward and asked them why. And they each said something like this: There were 20000 people in that stadium, but he seemed he was speaking to me personally.
That is not a skill you can learn. There is not a rhetorical equivalent of the Kitchener poster – you know the one that says ‘Your Country needs you’ and his finger points at you wherever you stand. Or the Mona Lisa eye effect where it seems that, wherever you stand, she is always looking somewhere to your right.
That can only be done by the Holy Spirit.
The fact that you are here, and that you are asking that question, means that he is working in you, that he has seen you, and that he knows you.
Why has he seen me and not the next person?
Why did he focus on this one man and not the others who were lying by the pool at the sheepgate?
I don’t know. But the mystery of God’s election is this. God never chooses one person instead of another person. He chooses one person for the sake of the other person. When God chooses Abraham, he tells him that through his descendants the world will be blessed. Not X instead of Y, but X for the sake of Y.
Perhaps Jesus has seen you for the sake of your partner or your brother or sister. He has chosen you to love them, to serve them, to care for them, and maybe to draw them to him.
2. Jesus knows this man
He asks the man, ‘Do you want to be healed?’
The man’s answer has been interpreted differently
Many of the early church fathers argue that his answer emphasizes the man’s persistence. He hasn’t given up. He has been there 38 years, trying to drag himself to the water to be healed, and he is still there. And they urge us not to give up on prayer.
But in our more psychologically introspective and therapeutically aware culture, many today would emphasize the fact that Jesus knows this man and so asks him exactly the right question. ‘Do you want to be healed’. And the man, if you notice, does not actually answer the question. He does not say ‘Yes’.
It seems that he has learned helplessness. He has allowed himself to become a victim.
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.” John 5:7
It is all the fault of others. I can blame them that I have not been healed.
Or perhaps he does not really want to get well. He has become used to the life at the sheepgate. Or maybe he has given up. People promised him so much, and he doesn’t want to be disappointed again. Or perhaps he was simply now not prepared to change.
It does seem that Jesus knows this man. He knows what is going on in his heart. Later, after he is healed, Jesus meets him and says, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” (John 5:14)
That is very unusual. On at least two other occasions Jesus specifically tells his followers that just because bad things have happened to someone, it does not mean that they have sinned in a particular way, or that they are any worse than anybody else.
We know that certain behaviour causes illness: There is a connection between illness and smoking or alcohol or drug misuse or promiscuous sex or compulsive over working. But we must be very cautious before we point the finger. If I point my finger, there are always three fingers pointing back at me.
But Jesus does know this man, and he can challenge him.
And Jesus knows us.
He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows our pride and our disappointments, our fears and our longings. He knows our self-destructive and other-destructive behaviour.
And he challenges us, ‘Do you want to be made well?’
Do you want to be made whole? Do you want the life that I can offer?
And for us it is a good question to ask. Our current life may have its problems, but it is the life that we are used to. And to choose to be ‘made well’ will involve change. Not necessarily big changes to begin with, but we need to be prepared to be honest – about our past, our behaviour, our dependencies, our priorities and our hopes.
And we need to be willing to let him disrupt our old life and shape our new life.
I have recently learnt the words of the BCP confession from morning and evening prayer – it is helpful because it means that I can say the words wherever I am. And it contains the words ‘and grant O most merciful Father, that for his sake, we may live godly (God-centred), righteous (living in a right relationship with God, others and this creation) and sober (disciplined) lives to the glory of your holy name’.
Do we want to be made well. It is all very well learning those words, even saying them, but am I really prepared to pray those words?
3. Jesus tells this man to stand up and to walk.
He has been ill for 38 years. And Jesus clearly deals with the root of the problem.
He doesn’t lay his hands on him
He doesn’t even speak a word, ‘Be healed’
He simply says, “Get up, take up your mat, and walk”
In other words, he is saying, “It is over to you now. You have been ill for 38 years, but I am setting you free. You can get up and walk, but you have to do it.”
This is the Sabbath day. The Lord of the Sabbath does the work of the Sabbath on the day of the Sabbath. The work of the Sabbath is about setting people free. In the Old Testament the Sabbath was the day that they remembered how they had been set free from slavery in Egypt. For us, it is the day we remember especially the resurrection of Jesus.
The new Sabbath, the day that Jesus rose from the dead, Sunday, was the day when Jesus makes it clear that he has set us free from the power of sin: that power which grips us and holds us: ‘the good I want to do I cannot do’, as Paul writes.
It is the day we are set free from the condemnation of sin, the guilt for sin which paralyses us: he died and rose for our forgiveness.
And it is the day we are set free from the consequence of sin: eternal death, and we are set free to live the new life.
Jesus sees us, knows us, comes to us and he sets us free. But now we have to be prepared to listen to him and work with him.
It really is time to stop lying on our spiritual mats, to get up and to walk.
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