Move!

There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be well?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me." Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your mat, and walk." Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

Now that day was a sabbath. So, the Jews said to the man who was cured, "It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat." He answered them, "The man who made me well told me, 'Take up your mat and walk.'" They asked him, "Who is the man who told you, 'Take it up and walk'?" The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there. After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, "Look, you are well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse may happen to you."

The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath. (John 5:1-16)

This scene at the pool with the sick man is a memorable one well-acted in the television production, "The Chosen."  This action occurred during the “feast of the Jews,” with “the Jews” looking for the man who cured on the Sabbath.  “The Jews” then began to persecute Jesus.  This is all quite anti-Jewish, and anyone reading this account for the first time likely would conclude Jesus was not a Jew. 

These verses were from the Gospel of John. I’ve already highlighted trouble at the synagogue with Jesus’ followers being expelled.  They believed he was the Christ, the Messiah.  Most Jews did not.  Oil and water so to speak.  

Clearly, if someone is ill and can be healed, does it really matter if that healing occurs on the Sabbath?  We Christians cannot understand this concept, but Jews of Jesus’ time did and lived by it.

We must be careful when we read John – and at times Matthew – to discover the animosity between the followers of their Messiah, Jesus, and those who waited for the Messiah to come.  We non-Jews can easily miss this distinction.

Deacon David Pierce