OUR FATHER WHO IS OUR HEALER

The Lord Jesus returned to Jerusalem for a religious feast and while in the city, He came across a man who had been paralysed for thirty-eight years and He asked the man if he wanted to get well.

The paralysed man explained to Jesus that he had been trying to get into the pool of Bethesda in order to be cured of his malady but he could never quite get into the pool at the right time.

Jesus commanded him to get up, pick up his mat and walk and the man was instantly healed and he was able to get up and pick up his mat and walk.

As the man moved about, the religious leaders noticed the infraction of the law of the Sabbath and they informed him that the law forbade the carrying of mats during the Sabbath.

The man told the enforcers that the man who had healed him of paralysis also told him to pick up his mat. During the conrontaion, Jesus had slipped away and the man could identify to the religious leaders who was healing people and authorizing them to carry their mats and walk.

The book of John chapter 5 verses 1 - 15 describes the occasion this way;

1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the

 Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] [b] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

In an unusual move, Jesus tracked the man who had been healed and followed up with some advice. Jesus told the man that now he was well, he should stop sinning in order to prevent a greater calamity to befall him

The man original condition came about as a result of his participation with sinful activities and all of that had been over-ridden by the authority of Jesus but Jesus cautioned him that to continue in his sin would expose him to the risk of even greater harm. 

The man went and identified Jesus to the authorities.

Amen.

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