Bear with me, some of you will relate.  Growing up in the fifties and sixties, church kids were given a set of “don’t” rules that applied specifically to Sundays.  These rules were decided upon by the “elders” of our family.  The rules were sanctioned and approved by the elder who was a preacher.  At least that’s how it was in my family.  As kids, if we questioned the rules, the response was, “Well, we asked Uncle Frank and he said no.”  Discussion was over.

Here are some examples— “On any given Sunday”

Girls wore dresses to church.  Boys wore slacks with their best “church shirt.”  After Sunday morning church, the dresses and slacks with shirts were hung up to stay nice before Sunday lunch.  After lunch we could play outside until 4pm.

At 4pm we were called back inside to clean up, take off play clothes and put back on our church clothes. We were then headed to Sunday night church. Youth Group was at 6pm followed by Sunday night church at 7pm.  The service was a bit more “informal” with more songs, personal testimonies, and a lot of prayer to take care of all the prayer requests given that morning. We would close with a condensed but just as passionate sermon from the preacher.  This would “hold us over” until Wednesday night Bible Study.

The “nevers” included:

• No swimming on Sundays—unless okayed by Uncle Frank or another elder. Running through the sprinkler was later accepted by my “liberal parents.” (In the backyard where no one could see. Ha!)
• Never go swimming mixed with boys and girls for sure.  We took turns.  This was the rule for all the days of the week at church camp—even though we went to a public pool.  Go figure.
• No play clothes could be worn to church, only your “Sunday best” to be at our best for God.
• No going to ball games on a Sunday.
• No shopping, doing business of any sort, or writing checks on Sundays.
• Never read the Sunday paper before church. After lunch was okay.
• Never leave newspapers or magazines laying on top of the Family Bible on the coffee table after reading.
• No eating out on Sundays to make someone else work.
• Never work on Sundays unless your earthly boss has threatened loss of your job.

The “always,” however, enrich my life to this day:

• Always give thanks when food is served because it is God who provides all.
• Always pray immediately for those who ask for prayer.
• Always find ways to help those who are in need.
• Always pray for the lost.
• Always pray before making decisions in life from buying groceries to the purchase of a home, from which college to attend to what job to take when offered.  God provides it all and delights in all the details of our lives.
• Always give a tithe of what God has provided for this is one of our acts of worship to the One who owns it all.

In this passage, Jesus reiterates that he must do what God does who is always at work on behalf of his people.  Manmade rules that are merely ceremonial, meant to judge and reprimand with fines to the rule makers and are not helpful to people, are set aside by Jesus.  Jesus teaches that it is God who commands.  It is God who loves people, all people.  His desire is for us to love Him back.  God must be first in all we are and in all we do.  Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath but the religious community do not accept Him.

John 5, The Message

Even on the Sabbath

^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.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

“Do you want to get well?”

“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.”

Jesus encounter with this man defied all rules and traditions about the pool.  It seems there is more to Jesus’ question: “Do you want to get well?”—are you ready to live differently after 38 years—relying on God’s power instead of the superstitions of the world?  Are you ready to leave this behind?  

Getting well means doing what Jesus says, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.”  The man obeyed and he was healed on the spot.

But all this happened on the Sabbath.  Uh, Oh. 

The greatest commandments according to His Son, Jesus, who was sent to save us from manmade rules of oppression as well as the sins of our own making, are these:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” –Jesus, Matthew 22:37-40

Simply put:  1. Love God.  2.  Love Others.

Jesus has come to redefine the intent of God’s commandments to His people. In doing so, Jesus also demonstrates what loving God and others in intimate loving relationships looks like.  Jesus is our greatest example of doing exactly what God, the Father, tells His Son to say and do at the right time and place—all for the glory of God!  Jesus is in relationship with God. Jesus loves people and draws them into a relationship with the love of God in Him!

Jesus points out the differences of belief and attitude.  Commandments of God trump manmade rules because commandments were given because of God’s love for His people. His commands protect us from each other.  His commands provide help and health. If we are ever confused, return to the Number One Commandment:  Love God with all your heart, mind, and soul.  When we do, the other commandments will make perfect sense from our perfect God. 

Manmade rules for the Sabbath were created by those seeking power and position with the desire to lord it over people.  Their added rules to God’s Law had little to do with giving God glory.  The ones in charge accused or working on the Sabbat because he did what Jesus told him to do—pick up your mat and walk home.  They missed the miracle of God!  They missed the message of His Son. I wonder sometimes how much of God we have missed when our focus is more on the adherence to our manmade traditions and rules.  Yikes.  When manmade rules exclude, criticize, judge, and punish, they are probably not of God.

John’s gospel is drenched in the love of God.  “We love God because He first loved us.”  We cannot love others if we do not know and love God first.  (See 1 John 4) God IS love.  To know God is to know love.  We cannot love each other if the love of God is not in us.

Simply put:  1. Love God.  2.  Love Others with the love of God in us.

The encounter with the rulemakers and God’s Son was not pleasant but expected.  Jesus came to fulfill the Law God created not oppose it.  But they were blinded by power, position, rank of honor, and pride. 

Lord,

Help us to know the difference and be different.  Help us not to conform to this world but to follow what you say—even it is on a Sunday!  I offer my life to you, as an offering.  Cleanse my heart.  Remove all the attitude that is not of You.  I want to get well and stay well!  Renew my mind that transforms my behaviors.  Refresh my soul with your new mercies that heal and repairs.  Restore the joy of your salvation at work with me.  I love you with all my heart, mind, and soul.  Help me to love others like you love me at all times!

In Jesus Name, Amen