35 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
35 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
|
+++
|
|||
|
|
title = "John 5:1–15"
|
|||
|
|
date = "2026-02-16"
|
|||
|
|
+++
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/John5.1-15)
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The legend goes that an angel sometimes causes the water in the Pool of Bethesda to move about, and whoever is first into the pool when he does is healed.
|
|||
|
|
What's difficult is that some manuscripts include John 5:4, which explains this, and others do not.
|
|||
|
|
So did John actually write it, making it inspired and free of error, or was it added later by those who knew the legend and wanted to explain why there were a bunch of disabled folks around the pool?
|
|||
|
|
Ultimately, we don't know, but it also doesn't matter for the purposes of this narrative.
|
|||
|
|
There's no evidence that an angel couldn't do this thing, or that God can't ordain a standing, repeatable miracle.
|
|||
|
|
When things like this are so vanishingly rare that they might as well not exist, we should live in the expectation that we won't experience anything like it, but also be open to God working in mysterious ways in our lives.
|
|||
|
|
Miraculous healings are documented in modern times, so we can ask for them even when it is usually the will of the Father to do otherwise.
|
|||
|
|
We trust in His goodness and sovereignty in all things.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The actual point of the story is Jesus's authority to heal on the Sabbath.
|
|||
|
|
This time, Jesus doesn't ask whether the lame man believes Jesus can heal him.
|
|||
|
|
He just tells the man to get up and take his bed with him.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This makes the Pharisees upset with the man when they see him.
|
|||
|
|
They understood that the Israelite kingdoms had been conquered and exiled because of a failure to keep God's Law that was revealed to them through Moses.
|
|||
|
|
In error, they thought they could keep God's love upon them by keeping the law as perfectly as possible.
|
|||
|
|
This caused them to put hedges and safeguards around what the law required so that there was no possiblity the law would be transgressed.
|
|||
|
|
The law said, "Do no work on the Sabbath", so they took "work" to mean "don't pick anything up", or "don't let your wife look in a mirror, or she'll pluck out a gray hair."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The man deferred to Jesus's authority because He had healed him, which is a reasonable thing to do.
|
|||
|
|
He didn't know who Jesus was at the time, but if God had given this man the power to heal him, then He should also be able to tell him to carry his bed on the Sabbath.
|
|||
|
|
Even more, Jesus later tells him to "sin no more", which further expands on His authority.
|
|||
|
|
Whether or not this man was lame because of past sin is irrelevant to the certainty of God's judgement and wrath on sin if he persisted in it.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* * *
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Give us the grace to follow Your ways to the very end.
|