Compassion for all?
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
John 5:8-9 (NIV)
One day Jesus turned up at the pool of Bethesda which was a place where crippled people lay waiting because there was a belief that when the waters were moving the first person who entered the water would be healed. The Pool had an upper and lower pool. The lower pool was used for purification before entering the Temple and was supplied with rainwater that collected in the upper pool and could be emptied down to the lower one.
Jesus approached a man lying there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. “Do you want to get well?” Jesus asked (v.6). Focused only on getting into the water, he replied that he hadn’t anyone to put him in the pool. Jesus just told him to get up, pick up his mat and walk. And so he did (vv.8-9). But he didn’t know who had healed him as Jesus slipped away through the crowd that had gathered around. A bit later Jesus caught up with him in the temple and warned him not to sin again.
Because the healing took place on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders, unconcerned about a miraculous healing, criticised the man for carrying his mat. When the man later found out it was Jesus who healed him, he dutifully went and told the Jewish leaders it was Jesus. (vv.9-15)
When the One with the power to heal came into his life, this man appeared to have no faith. When Jesus finds him in the Temple he cautions him not to sin again, but there is no record of the healed man thanking Jesus, or of him showing joy at his healing and becoming a follower of Jesus, unlike others who were healed. Yet Jesus was willing to heal him.
Let’s take encouragement from this. We pray for our sisters and brothers in Christ, and we pray for our families, our friends and others we hear about, and we pray whether they are believers or not. But given the example of Jesus healing this ungrateful man, surely we can be confident if we present someone who will not ‘take up their mat and follow Jesus’, that nevertheless he hears, and may well grant whatever our request is for them.
Prayer
Father, may we be sensitive to times you intervene for us and heal us – that we always turn in worship and give thanks. And our thanks that you will always hear our concerns for those who do not yet acknowledge you – yet. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
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Study by: Hilary Buck About the author: |
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Local congregation:
Grace Communion in Lewes
The House of Friendship
208 High Street
Lewes
BN7 2NS
Meeting time:
Sunday 11:00 am
Local congregational contact:
Hilary Buck
Email: lewes@barryLike us on www.facebook.com/Grace Communion Lewes
Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church