Focal Passage: John 5:2-11, 19-21
Words like restoration, restitution and reparations are “hot topic words” these days.
Often, they are used in ways that are harmful and unrealistic. At other times, they are mocked as impossible goals. These words have been politicized. Though Jesus seemed to be uninterested in using political means for spiritual ends, He was consummately interested in restoring the lives of broken people. Take for example the paralyzed man of Bethesda.
Restoring the helpless (John 5:2-7). Paralyzed for 38 years, this unnamed man of Bethesda was living by a pool near the Sheep Gate of the city. He was not only physically impaired, but he was spiritually dead, putting his hope in a myth that at the stirring of the pool by an angel he could slip in and be healed. It never happened.
But he was not alone. Just as Isaiah (Isaiah 6:5) confessed, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips,” the paralytic was surrounded by others who were impaired people. He, and they, were unable to save themselves, a picture of the sinner’s predicament — sinners cannot save themselves.
Surprising the restored (John 5:8-11). Jesus engaged the helpless paralytic with a seminal question (John 5:6), “Do you want to be healed?” How insensitive of Jesus. Jesus would have failed a seminary pastoral care class. You don’t ask a paralyzed man if he wants to get well.
Shrum
But Jesus knows our hearts. He knows that we can live in such a condition for so long that we think it impossible to be healed and made whole. Jesus wanted to know if this man still possessed the desire to be restored. His meager answer — “I don’t have a man to put me into the pool” — indicated he longed for healing.
Jesus does more than he expected. Jesus would be the man to push him into new life, not in a mythical pool of healing but into the healing powers of the Spirit of God. He ordered him to pick up his mat and walk. And it happened just like that!
Made physically whole, was this man made spiritually whole? Physical healing does not automatically mean spiritual wholeness. This question is answered in John 5:14-15 when Jesus forgave his sins. Jesus always does more for us than we ask.
Pleased to give life (John 5:19-21). God is not stingy. He loves pouring out His mercies on helpless, hopeless sinners. Jesus is like God because He is God. Jesus asserted to those who watched Him heal the paralytic that He does all that the Father shows Him to do. Unlike the spiritually anemic religious leaders of His day, Jesus tells them that He only does what the Father does (v. 19) and what the Father does is give life to the dead.
Further, God the Son and God the Father love each other and act in concert to save and redeem sinners (v. 20). Jesus even went so far as to promise to do even greater things. He promised to give life to the dead (v. 21). Jesus’ life-giving power is under His control as He gives “life to whom He wants.” Sinners are unable and unwilling to come to Jesus. Yet, Jesus is willing and able to save the helpless and hopeless. Thank God. B&
