The man who was healed against his will

John 5.1-18 

We are studying John because he tells us that believing in Jesus is how we get LIFE. And throughout the gospel of John this theme of LIFE runs like a river. In fact Jesus says that he is the Giver of Living Water – and by this he was referring to his Spirit – who he gives to believers. It is the Spirit who makes a person spiritually alive and able to willingly drink the water of Life that Jesus gives. This eternal LIFE is not postponed until after we die – it is available HERE and NOW in the midst of this wilderness that we travel through in our lifetime.  Here is a poetic description of this Reality, in Psalms: 107. He turns a desert into a pool, dry land into springs.  And in Isaiah: 43 I will make a way in the wilderness. I provide water in the wilderness, to give drink to my chosen people.

Someone may be asking: How do I drink? First, you have to realise that you are spiritually thirsty.

• ·       Spiritual thirst is restlessness – a feeling of dissatisfaction, feeling we haven’t found our place.
• ·       Spiritual thirst is unease – a feeling of foreboding – a sense that things aren’t right and that everything is about to go wrong.
• ·       Spiritual thirst is loneliness – a feeling that nobody REALLY understands us.
• ·       Spiritual thirst is frustration – a feeling that we can’t put things together in our lives – we can’t achieve ‘flow’ so that one thing leads to another smoothly.
• ·       Spiritual thirst is bitterness – a feeling that others have wrecked everything for us.
• ·       Spiritual thirst is guilt – a feeling that we done bad things and we are powerless to fix them up.

You get the picture! Jesus quenches all that thirst – and more.

Today’s study is warning and encouragement. Warning not to miss the grace of God when he makes it available. Encouragement to receive the fresh start, the purpose and excitement of the life Jesus offers.

In chapter 5 we read that Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast.  Inside the walls of Jerusalem was the pool of Bethesda fed by a natural spring. The pool has been excavated and you can see the remains of it in Jerusalem, today. Around the pool complex were covered walkways – colonnades – and there were steps down into the pool, cut from stone. 

In those days there was a superstition that the waters had healing properties.  This attracted crowds of sick and disabled people to gather there in hopes of a cure. It seems that whenever the spring became more active and the water bubbled up, people thought it was a sign.  They jostled to be the first into the water – because they believed that the first people in got the healing.

John describes crowds of broken people there: the blind, the lame, the diseased – people hoping for a possible miracle.

This was not a spa where people came to pamper their bodies – this was a sink-hole of human misery. - Abandoned and damaged humanity clung to its edge.

If you were fit and well, this was a place you avoided. Those coming up to Jerusalem for the feast wouldn’t be seen dead there. But Jesus would.  He came into a world of misery to be ‘seen dead’ here. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, said Isaiah the prophet.  He carried our illnesses and diseases.  And in 1 Peter 2.24,25. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree (wooden cross), that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.  By his wounds you have been healed.   

There’s no ugly, shameful problem that you can’t open up to Jesus. He carried your misery into the grave - and to exchange it for his own clean life.

You can stop soaking in the festering pool of your miseries. He has come with his spring of living water – his spiritual life - to bubble up lively within you.

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On the day Jesus visited that pool, a crippled man got healed. But getting the use of his legs back was not an end in itself. Jesus’ healing miracles are signs—they point to something far better than the physical healing itself.

Jesus heals the cause of the damage in the minds and bodies of people.  But this man doubted.

Later, Jesus searched out the man and told him plainly the purpose of the miracle. It wasn’t just about disfunctional legs – it was about his heart!  Jesus said: “Look, now you are well. Stop sinning—so that nothing worse happens to you!”

From what we observed of this man his sins included: Blaming others and making excuses for himself.  In a word, he was unwillingness to take responsibility for his life. 

Did you notice how the man responded to Jesus’ question when they first meet?  Jesus: “Do you want to get well?”  

Now, you’d think a man in his position would have replied: ”Oh, I long to be well! I dream of being well! Yes, of COURSE I want to be free of this disability!  I want a proper life! For too long I’ve have lain around unable to move and live!  I want to work! I want to make something of my life.”

But no. He had a different response: Blame.  “I can’t be healed because no one will help me down into the pool.  They’re all so selfish around here—they me push aside so I can’t drag myself down into the pool while the water is bubbling. By the time I get there it’s stopped.” 

So, this much we know about this man—he was further down than down—because not only did he have paralysed legs - but he had bitterness with it.

There IS a lot of sadness in our world. There are a myriad of personal human disasters in and around us.  But something worse than these sad conditions is when bitterness and blame take root.

Heb 12.15: See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.

Deuteronomy 29.¹⁸ Be sure there is no man, woman, family, or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of the nations. Be sure there is no root among you bearing poisonous and bitter fruit.

Of course this poor invalid was to be pitied—he had been paralysed most of his life and presumably had to crawl or drag his lifeless legs on crutches (it doesn’t seem that he even had a relative who cared enough to push him around in a cart.)  Of course he was to be pitied.  And Jesus took pity on him. But even more than legs that worked, he needed to repent of his sins. 

He had been paralysed for 38 years and he’s been at the pool a long time - long enough that he’d given up. Hanging around the pool had become his normal. He’d made a nest there.  He’d come to terms with his misery.

There are bars like this. The same group come week after week to replay the same old opinions and complaints. Originally they went there to cheer themselves up - but time passes, nothing changes - and finding no joy, they rely on the alcohol to dull the pointlessness of their lives.  

Some don’t even make it as far as the pub. Their crowd is a virtual crowd—their only friends are the characters on Coronation Street, or their avatars in their computer games.

They are people together, alone.

It is a terrible thing to get into a rut. We were never meant to have boring lives.  We are meant to use up our lives for a good purpose – and that purpose is to join Jesus in building his Kingdom.

Do you remember another disabled man – Bartimaeus, the blind man at Jericho? We meet him sitting on his ragged coat, begging at the side of the road while the mainstream of life flowed on by him. Then Jesus came by! Bartimaeus heard the commotion of Jesus, his disciples and a lively crowd approaching. Bartimeaus cried out – loudly - persistently: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped. He called Bartimaeus over to him. Bartimeaus threw off his coat, jumped up and ran in the direction of Jesus’ voice.  Jesus asked him: What do you want me to do for you?  Bartimeaus replied Teacher! I want to see!  Jesus restored his sight, telling him, Your faith has saved you.

Suddenly, Bartimaeus was no longer a ragged spectator—he left his mat and joined Jesus’ followers. He was no longer on the sidelines—no longer sitting in the dark. Now he was at the centre of God’s work.  He had a reason for living.

That is where Jesus wants you and I. Jesus said to people whose pointless lives had crushed them to weariness: “Take up my work and learn from me—for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my work is a good fit for you and it will not crush you.”

This was the possibility that Jesus put to the man in our chapter.  He walked into the midst of the tangled mess of broken people by the pool - he stepped up to this man - One Particular Man.

Jesus does his work one life at a time. He doesn’t sweep crowds into the kingdom – he works new birth in individuals – LOTS of individuals who become a great cloud of witnesses.

This man was healed against his will--or at least without any faith on his part.  It is not at all clear that he went on to be healed of heart. There is nothing that comes out of the man’s mouth that indicates he believed in Jesus.

When the religious authorities challenged him for carrying his mat on the Sabbath (one of their ridiculous rules) the man got straight back into excuses and his blaming others: “I didn’t ask to be healed, a man did it, then ORDERED me to pick up my mat and walk.”

After Jesus had found the healed man again and told him to ‘stop sinning’, he didn’t stop--he carried on with his blaming:

He hurried straight back to the authorities to report Jesus. This man was offended that Jesus had laid on him the responsibility that his new-found mobility would bring. He was now expected to do something with his life.

As a result of the man narking on him, Jesus came under strong attack from the religious authorities for healing on the Sabbath. Jesus’ response was to talk about his WORK. 

V17 Jesus said, “My Father is still working; and I am working also.”  This is why the Jews began trying all the more to kill him. Not only was he breaking their Sabbath but he was even calling God his Father, making himself equal to God.

Application

Each of us must lay aside - repent - of our reluctance, our excuses, our blaming of others, and all our bitterness – so that we can be a Bartimaeus who jumps up ready to engage with Jesus in his work – not be like the man by the pool who settled down into his miserable excuses and blaming.

Jesus is calling each of us here this morning to leave our soiled mats cast off our ragged coats and be clothed with his new life.