John…on Love

“I love going to church every Sunday, it’s where I get my fuel for the rest of the week!” We have heard this said by many of the older crowd for years. I heard this as a child from a man who stood up in a testimony service (anyone know remember those?) and say this many times. But he never talked about Jesus. He also was a grump from Monday through Saturday.

Is going to church a mere fueling ground? Does the work of our Father stop on Sunday? (Or the Sabbath?) Who are we every day? Do WE want to get well, take up our bed, leave our past and move on in His Spirit? These are thoughts, although maybe random, but thoughts to be considered none the less as we read the next episode of John’s story of Jesus, the Son of God, at work, even on the Sabbath!

John 5, The Message
Even on the Sabbath
5 1-6 Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?”

7 The sick man said, “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.”

8-9 Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.

9-10 That day happened to be the Sabbath. The Jews stopped the healed man and said, “It’s the Sabbath. You can’t carry your bedroll around. It’s against the rules.”

11 But he told them, “The man who made me well told me to. He said, ‘Take your bedroll and start walking.’”

12-13 They asked, “Who gave you the order to take it up and start walking?” But the healed man didn’t know, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd.

14 A little later Jesus found him in the Temple and said, “You look wonderful! You’re well! Don’t return to a sinning life or something worse might happen.”

15-16 The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. That is why the Jews were out to get Jesus—because he did this kind of thing on the Sabbath.

17 But Jesus defended himself. “My Father is working straight through, even on the Sabbath. So am I.”

18 That really set them off. The Jews were now not only out to expose him; they were out to kill him. Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was calling God his own Father, putting himself on a level with God.

The Jews, God’s chosen people, totally missed the excitement of a man healed, sins forgiven, walking and talking, after 38 long years of sitting in the alcove of sickness. All they could think about were their man concocted rules broken while the Son of God worked on, showing them the full extent of God’s intended law and love for His people. Mmm.

Dear Heavenly Father, Help us to see You and Your Word as You intended. Don’t let us get so principled in our doing that we miss Your promises in our being. Go with us. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit so we may see more, be more and do what pleases You for all the right reasons. In Jesus Name, Amen. I believe.