Pick up your mat!

John 5:1-18

8 Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 Immediately the man was well, and he picked up his mat and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.10 The Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It’s the Sabbath; you aren’t allowed to carry your mat.”

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

12 They inquired, “Who is this man who said to you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?”13 The man who had been cured didn’t know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away from the crowd gathered there.
14 Later Jesus found him in the temple and said, “See! You have been made well. Don’t sin anymore in case something worse happens to you.” 15 The man went and proclaimed to the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the man who had made him well.16 As a result, the Jewish leaders were harassing Jesus, since he had done these things on the Sabbath. 17 Jesus replied, “My Father is still working, and I am working too.”

Interestingly, John goes into a lot of explanation about the location of this miracle.  The number of colonnades, the size of the crowd, even the myths surrounding the location. It was a pagan temple and some translations of the Bible include this explanation in the 4th verse: “They waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.” 

Most translations omit this fourth verse because not enough of the ancient biblical manuscripts include it.  So while it may not be truth, it was true that the myth existed.  And that was enough to convince the guy in this story that he was an outsider.  Born lame, the guy had never been given a fair shake in life.  When the story opens, he is 38 years old.  We don’t know how long he’s been laying on a mat at the pool, or how he got there.  We don’t know if he has a home to go to at night or if someone brings him food.  We only know the desperation of his situation—he hangs out among the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed and among this crowd, he is singled out by Jesus as “one who had been in this condition a long time.”

See the contrast that John is making here.  The pool is beautiful, so beautiful in fact that it has inspired myths of supernatural healings, so beautiful that even the ugliest people can’t stay away.  And that is who they are.  Regardless of the compassion you and I may want to extend to them, in their day in their condition, they are the ugly.  And if you’ve been told every day for 38 years that you are ugly, you believe it.  So here in this most beautiful of places are the most degraded of society.  “The place spoke of the possibility of miraculous healing, of the remote chance of divine healing; but it was at best spasmodic, and at worst an idle dream.” (Tom Wright, John for Everyone)

But if we are really going to picture this scene with the eyes of our hearts, we must visit our pools. Your pool.  Your last ditch effort.  One more opinion.  One more counseling session.  One more pill.  One more lottery ticket.  One more drink.  One more attempt to fix you with your effort.  Hope stirs. Hope lifts.  Hope disappoints.

Hope. Lost.

Then the hope of the world walks onto the scene. The pool still reflects your distorted visage, but another kinder, gentler face appears just over your shoulder.  “In a flash, he does what the pool stood for but what it hadn't been doing very successfully.  And just like the official’s son, and the storm, a word is all it takes.  A command.”  The command to get up is the same word that means resurrection.  One by one, Jesus is resurrecting the cosmos. (Tom Wright, John for Everyone)

Today, the lame get up and walk.  Don’t miss the sign.

And don’t miss the signs all around us.  Beautiful sanctuaries, distorted souls. We are the blind, lame, and paralyzed.  Jesus, his Holy Spirit, is asking each of us a very important question today:

Do you want to be made well? 

Bill Myers supposes the following about miracle working: “But on more than one occasion he discovered people really didn’t want to be healed. Oh sure, they said they wanted help, but those were merely words. In reality, their crippledness had become their identity, the trademark of who they were. And for those afraid of losing their identity, who in their heart of hearts really didn’t want to be changed, the infirmity won’t leave.”  Even if the physical is healed, the physical breaks again because the soul is still sick. (Fire of Heaven)

Now we may each have a physical infirmity that we want God to heal.  And He may yet, for he is able.  But my concern as I type this is the condition of our souls, for Jesus warned, do not fear those who can kill the body, but fear that one who can kill both body and soul.  Our flesh will fail.  But if we have placed our life in Christ, we will live, body and soul.  So, it is important, says the sign of the miracle at Bethesda, that we allow Jesus to heal the inner brokenness, or as he said, “something worse may happen to you.” Maybe what Jesus is asking is, “Will you walk away from your bitterness, your resentment, your hurt?”

And that may hurt our feelings.  It may seem like Jesus is testing us.  Or it may seem like Jesus doesn't want to heal our physical problems.  Maybe this doesn't fit our notion of what God ought to be doing for us.  This action from God typically upsets religious folks like us.  The religious leaders in the book of John are mad because Jesus healed on the Sabbath (a questionable violation..is commanding healing work?) and then the man walked with his mat (a clear violation of the Sabbath code).  To which Jesus simply explains, “My Father is always at work.”  Jesus wasn't acting the way they thought a proper Jew (never mind Messiah) ought to be acting. 

That doesn’t seem to bother Jesus.  Jesus explains that he can’t be worried about their incredulities and insistence upon the letters of the law.  He has work to do. 

Could it be that the reason God created space for us to rest, that is Sabbath, was so that he could come to us and heal us and put us on the path to whole living.  Are there times, even as we sit in our sanctuary and hear the Holy Spirit speak to us, that we leave choosing to do nothing about it because…(it would be a lot of work). 

So here's my own little thought.  Jesus tells the guy to pick up his mat.  And it gets him a lot of trouble.  After all, mat-picking-up-and-walking offends sensitive religious sensibilities.   So, it must have been important for the guy to pick up the mat.  Maybe the importance of removing the mat was to solidify for the guy (and anyone else paying attention) that he wasn't coming back to the pool.

But what about us?  How many mats have left lying at our pools of desperation?  We plead, we beg, we cry, we vow.  We may even get up.  But we return to the mat because it possesses our identity.

Laura heard Jesus calling her to pick up her mat this week.  This is what she wrote to me:

I wanted you to know that I am doing better, that I am trying to stop negative thoughts / fears / anxiety from nesting.  I am trying to put everything at His feet, even though I really have no clue on how to do this... I have done the other way for so long... Try to explain why I am still at the pool, why I cannot get healed - like it was something I had tried but failed at.  I understand, between your sermon and Hunter's last week, that all I must do is ask for healing and forgiveness.  I cannot do anything to make me "deserve" it; it is a gift.  I believe that God has healed/forgiven me - maybe a long time ago when I first asked, or maybe that day in your office, when I really felt that some of my burden was lifted.  But regardless, I have been healed/forgiven.  I should get up and walk.  I should pick up my mat and head to the cross.  But I don't know how.  I am scared.  I wonder if the lame man was scared, or if he hesitated.  He didn't know how to walk, so do you think that Jesus gave him faith at the same time?  

I am ready to be healed, and I am ready to participate in a total renovation :)
I am picking up my mat, because I don't ever want to come back to this place...

Yes, Laura.  That's what healing is.  Being able to walk is temporary.  Faith to pick up your mat is eternal.  And that's what Jesus is up to.  That's the motivation behind the smile you see on his face in the reflection at your pool of desperation.  Jesus loves you and he has made your healing possible.  By grace, he is giving you faith.  

In the name of Jesus, get up.  Pick up your mat.  Don't come back to the pool.

(Thank you Laura for allowing me to use our correspondence.  I see the powerful transforming work that Jesus is doing in you.  You are radiant.)

The Cross

The power of the cross. What does a cross say to you when you see one? As a piece of jewelry, as a wall ornament, as tag on a storefront or business card? Do you assume the owner of the object or business is a believer in Jesus? Or do you even give it a second thought?
Have you ever applied all the powerful meaning to the symbol that it is due? Have you assumed, upon seeing a pretty cross necklace, a cross on someone’s back windshield, or a cross tattooed on their arm that they are attempting to communicate: I am a believer in the Lord Jesus! I have been healed, forgiven, and made into a new creation! I place all my faith in Jesus of Nazareth. I not only believe he is who he says he is (Son of God), but I believe he will do what he says he will do (prepare a place in God’s Kingdom for me). I believe that he loves me and I love him with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength!
Maybe we don’t apply that much meaning to the crosses we decorate our lives with because we don’t live our lives with all that meaning. What if we did? I shared in an earlier blog that we recently moved into a new house. A neighbor came over to help me hang pictures. The wall art I have for the family room is predominately crosses or religious themed art work that people have given me or I have collected from churches or mission fields we served in. After about the 3rd box of crosses, she stood up straight, wiped strands of hair from her eyes and said, “You have a lot of crosses.” I laughed. I do. I got to thinking about that fact and said after a minute, “I guess I find my identity in the cross. It’s what I preach, it’s how I live, it’s who I am. Each cross reminds me of some relationship or some experience that has sharpened my faith.”
“That’s really neat,” she responded. “I have a lot of crosses too. I remember where I got most of them I think, but I don’t think I’ve put that much thought or meaning into it.”
Now, I realize that many of the crosses that decorate our environments are just that…decoration. A million people a day see them and one in a million gives it a second glance. Does that cheapen the cross? Does it lessen its value, its power, its meaning? Some have argued that it does. “We shouldn’t wear crosses as jewelry or clothing. Tattoos of crosses are inappropriate (at best), and even the number of crosses in a sanctuary should be limited!” And I agree that we should not cheapen such a beautiful symbol in gaudy or heretical displays.
But I would also argue that the power of the cross remains constant, even if the observer is unaware of it. Each cross proclaims: healing is available; faithfulness is possible; love is what matters most.

John 5: Do you want to be healed? That’s what Jesus asked the man who, for 38 years, had sat immobile at the healing pool of Bethesda. Unable to get to the water himself and without anyone to assist him (broken and lonely), he had resigned himself to a life of begging. Do you want to be healed? So resigned in fact, that when Jesus asked this question, his first response was not ‘Yes!’. It was to argue why he wasn’t already healed…he was a victim of his circumstance. I am glad Jesus’ question wasn’t then (nor is it today), “Why haven’t you healed yourself yet?” Jesus’ death on the cross makes healing available to every person: “But He (talking about Jesus) was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5)”

2 Timothy 2:13: “Even if we are faithless, God is still faithful because he cannot be false to himself.” Jesus’ death on the cross was not just necessary for our healing. It was also necessary for our atonement. Our Creator made a covenant with us. God has remained faithful. We have consistently broken the covenant. The terms of the covenant were death to all who broke the covenant. But God loved the world so much that came into the world as a human not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. God was able, by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross to keep the terms of the covenant. And this makes a way for us to resume a faithful relationship with God…and everyone else in our lives.

1John 4:16: “… God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” The most powerful force in the universe is the love of God. Nothing is able to stand in the face of God’s love, and yet because of God’s love we are able to stand in the presence of God. A beautiful irony! Do you believe God loves you? You, with all your fears, failures, beauty, brains, scars, struggles, ideas, dreams…you? God loves you. It’s what matters most.