The One Who Remembers the Way to Your Door (John 5:1-17)
Main Idea: God loves you, and God is working to make you well.
Text:
We believe something quite extraordinary. God wants to speak to us.
One of my favorite things to do is to spot gospel themes in books, movies, stories, quotes. I love finding God in the stories we tell each other.
Today, though, we’re just looking at a quote. Here’s the quote:
Oh my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger.
Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions.
There is one who remembers the way to your door:
Life you may evade, but Death you shall not.
You shall not deny the Stranger. -T.S. Eliot
Have you ever loved someone, but you just couldn’t get through to them? But I promise you, in this life or the next, there is One who knows how to get through.
Today, we’re going to cover one of question that Jesus asked. But we can’t be quick with the question, because I actually think it’s harder to answer than what we might first think by looking at it.
John 5:1-6
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” (John 5:1-6)
This happened during one of three major feasts in Jerusalem. All kinds of people were crowding into Jerusalem. And there’s this pool. It’s roughly 50 feet deep, right outside the temple. Here, a bunch of people gathered. Sick people.
This was probably a superstition at the topic for desperate people, that whoever got in there first, they would be well. All these people believed that this pool was their lottery ticket. This was their only hope.
Most of the world is pretty skeptical about our beliefs. They think the Bible is not true. But archeology has uncovered one area after another area in the New Testament. Prior to the 1800’s, no one believed that the pool of Bethesda was real. But they discovered the pool of Bethesda in the late 1800’s.
Anyway, Jesus asks this man, “Do you want to be well?” You can either believe Jesus was asking an obvious, rhetorical question. Or, you can believe that Jesus asked it for a reason. I’m of that type. It’s a more difficult question to answer than what we first think.
This guy’s been this was for 38 years. He’s got all kinds of habits around his life that dictate the way he lives. Not only that, Jewish culture was very big on taking care of people who were disadvantaged. You were taken care of by everyone else.
I work at a prison, and there’s something called being “institutionalized.” The real world, the world of change, is scary.
I honestly believe that if a baby in the womb had the choice of whether to stay in the womb or to leave it, the baby would choose to stay.
So this man might have had reasons that he didn’t want to be well.
And maybe we aren’t unlike him. Following Jesus means change.
I have all kinds of lifeless habits. It is hard to think that we need to change things. So when Jesus comes to you, and asks, “Do you want to be well?” I don’t think it’s as easy to answer as what we might imagine. We have a hard time seeing ourselves as the helpless man who totally needs God’s help. But that’s the truth of the Scriptures.
John 5:7-13
The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. (John 5:7-13)
Jesus calls this man from stagnancy, to movement. Jesus is going to call you into life, action, and movement. We turn Christianity into a spectator sport. “I go to church on Sunday, and I sing about the Christian life, and I talk about the Christian life.” But that’s as silly as singing songs about how delicious a bacon cheeseburger is, but never eating the bacon cheeseburger. Christianity is more than talking about Christianity.
Jesus forces this man into a conflict. He told him to pick up his pallet and carry it. This was the Sabbath. He would be confronted by Jews. If you’re following Christ, He’s going to send you into conflict. He’s going to send you to being at odds with the world. The world’s not going to like what you believe, not going to life how you behave, not going to like what you stand for.
For the Pharisees, the movement of God did not look like the norms that they expected. Sometimes God’s movements don’t look like we expect.
John 5:14-17
Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” (John 5:14-17)
Jesus sought this man out in the biggest city in Israel, during one of the busiest times of the year. Later on, Jesus looked for this one man and found him.
Whether you’re a Christian or a non-Christian, God is always doing that with you. He’s not only looking for you, but He will find you. He knows the way to your door.
Jesus cares about our circumstances, but there’s something deeper that must be dealt with, and that is sin. This is a call to repentance. Repentance is an action word. It meant, “About face.”
God loves you, and God is working to make you well.
