This is a different sort of sign, isn’t it?  No one is coming to Jesus asking for something.  In fact, it is Jesus who asks the question here in this story of healing.

Do you want to be made well?

There is no joyful response on the part of the man who can now walk after a lifetime of not being able to walk.  There is no walking and leaping and praising God here.  There is no overt response of faith, even, apart from the fact that he went to the temple afterward.  A good place to be.  There is no “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief here.”  The man doesn’t even know who it is that healed him until Jesus finds him later in the temple. 

What is going on here?  We said last week that these sign stories that John gives us in his Gospel (significant and miraculous though they are) point to the truth about the Word made flesh, whose glory we have seen, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.  What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

“After this, there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.”  The Word made flesh goes up to Jerusalem.  The sign that happens there is more than the sign.  Someone has said this – “This is a sign, not an instantaneous solution to all health problems, or an alternative to caring for the sick, or something to be always replicated in similar situations, or even a critique of what was going on at Beth-zatha.”  We said last week, “Jesus is life.”  What does this sign and the following conversations tell us about who Jesus is and he kind of live he gives?  Let’s ask for God’s help as we come to His word today.

Who Is Jesus?

What has come into being in him was life.  “Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate, there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes.  In these lay many invalids – blind, lame, and paralyzed.  One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.”

Throughout the story of God, we learn that God is creative.  God creates.  Toward the end of the spring, the ladies of Blythwood held a wonderful event one Saturday called “Spring Into Creativity” at which they showcased some of the ways in which they exercise their creative or artistic sides.  We are made to be creative, being made in God’s image.  God’s creative activity did not stop at Creation.  When things went wrong for humanity, God went to work to bring us back.  Creating.  Making.  God told Abraham, “I will make of you a great nation through whom all the nations of the world will be blessed.”  God spoke to the people of Israel through the prophets in words like “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (Is 43:19)  One day a voice will be heard from the heavenly throne and the voice will say, “See, I am making all things new.” (Rev 21:5) What has come into being in him was life.  “When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, 'Do you want to be made well?” 

Do we want to be made well?  Do we want to be made whole?  Do we want to be made new?

There are a couple of ways to consider this question.  I don’t think it’s too much to say it’s the question of our lives when it comes to Jesus.  One way is to consider the question on a humanity-wide level.  Jesus goes to this man and speaks to this man at this point of need.  The man is in a position from which he is unable to extricate himself.  Suffering.  Lost.  Jesus approaches him and asks the question, “Do you want to be made well?”

The other way to consider the question is to make it personal.  “Do I want to be made well?”  Do I feel that I need to be made well or made whole?  Do we say “I’m good,” to which I would reply, “Are you really good?”  The one in whom we may know life is asking, “Do you want to be made whole?”  If you’ve been following Jesus for quite some time, do you want to be made well?  Do you want to be made whole?  Do you want to be made sound?  From what action/way of thinking/attitude do we need to be delivered?

“Do I want to be made well?”  We do well to consider the question.  The paralyzed man may not so much be an example for us in this story, but let’s not be too too hard on him.  We can get so lost in our problems that we don’t know what we want, or even hear the question.  This man was in the most dire of circumstances, to the point where he doesn’t even answer the question.   No matter what you think of him, there’s a sadness to the situation.  “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”  No one is for him.  Everyone is against him.

The thing is, though, Jesus is before him.  Jesus is for him.  New life is in the air.  If we take nothing else away from today, know that God is for you, and that making whole is what God does. 

Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”  At once, the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.  God speaks, new life happens.  Jesus says it, I trust it.  Stand.  Rise.  Take up your mat and walk in newness of life.  This is the good news portion of the story, and I think we do well to pause here for a few moments and ask the question, “How has Jesus made you new?  How is Jesus making you whole?”   And be thankful.  Jesus meets this man later in the temple.  As I said earlier, there’s no overt profession of faith on this man’s part here (or even knowing who Jesus was, for that matter), but it’s good that he goes to the temple.  Jesus finds him there, we read, and said to him, “See, you have been made well!”  From his fullness we have received grace upon grace.  Jesus reminds the man of grace.  Don’t forget this!  This is the most important event of your life!  Live in gratitude for this!  We have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.  So Jesus also brings the truth to the man.  “Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”  Now go live out the grace that you have been gifted. 

So far, so good news!  Now the bad news.  It’s not really that bad, though, as it gives us a chance to consider…

What Kind of Life Do We Have In Jesus?

Here’s the bad news.  “Now that day was sabbath.  So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.’  But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’  They said to him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk?’  Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. What is going on here?  Not working on the sabbath is a command that goes all the way back to creation.  “And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.” (Gen 2:2)  Hear the command from Exodus 2 and how it goes back to the creation story – “Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.  Six days you shall labour and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.  For in six days the Lod made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.” (Ex 20:8-11)  Keeping the sabbath was one of the most visible ways for the people of God to show their loyalty.  They were even exempted from Roman military service due in part to the sabbath law.  One of the ways the sabbath law rest had been interpreted was that no burden should be carried outside the house (Jer 17:22).  Literally, as in this man carrying his bed.  So why does Jesus do this sign on the sabbath instead of waiting a day?  The aftermath here highlights opposition to Jesus.  John’s use of “the Jews” here signifies Jesus’ opponents, not all Jewish people at the time or in perpetuity.  There will be people who oppose Jesus based on strict adherence to religious tradition, or love of self, or love of money, or pride, or …  The people in our story are so caught up in their way of thinking that they fail to see the new thing that is taking place.   The now-walking man tells them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’”  Note that these opponents of Jesus don’t say, “What do you mean, made you well?? You’ve been paralyzed 38 years!  What wonderful thing is happening here??”  Instead, they ask, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up and walk.’?”  Not only is this man healing on the sabbath, but he’s encouraging others to break the sabbath laws too!

I said this sabbath activity is the bad news, but it’s not really bad.  It gives Jesus the opportunity to say something about his life, and by extension, the lives of those who are in him.  The ancient rabbis had come up with another interpretation of the sabbath law, which was that it didn’t apply to God.  God’s work of sustaining life went on, even on the sabbath, and this was ok.  This came out of Psalm 121:4, 7-8  - “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep… The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.”

His opponents started persecuting Jesus because he was doing such things on the sabbath.  Jesus’ answer represents the first time he speaks of the unity between himself and his Father.  No matter what day it is, it’s a new lifetime and God is at work!  But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.”  That’s what time it is.  His opponents were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.

The thing with Jesus, the Word made flesh, and God the Father - it’s not simply about equality.  Two people can be equal without having anything to do with one another.  It’s about shared work, relational dependence, loyalty and obedience no matter the circumstance, and the outpouring of divine love.  The relationship between Father and Son is where “Not my will but yours be done” meets “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”     “Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.  The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished.”  Greater works.  More signs.  New life.  Resurrection life.  Jesus breathing the Holy Spirit on his followers and saying, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

The kind of life we are talking about in Jesus is life lived in loving communion with God, Father, Son, and Spirit.  I don’t have a story to illustrate it.  We’ll never come to an end of understanding it, but we are made new in it.  We are made whole in it.  Jesus will compare it later in John to branches abiding (remaining/resting) in a vine.  A living connection in which we know life.  May we be coming to know it even more this summer with four signs still to come.  May this be true for all of us.

Amen