John 5:1-15 Wrong choices – even when presented with the truth and a miraculous change of circumstances, people can make the wrong choices.
I am currently hampered by a badly broken wrist. However, in the best Blue Peter style, "here’s one I prepared earlier."
Do you recall any of your childhood friends? I recall a close friend from infant school; we were both 9 years old, and the highlight of our summer days consisted of searching for empty discarded pop bottles and returning them to the shop to retrieve the deposit....it seems we were green before anyone understood what it meant!
It was quite a profitable pastime and kept litter down, although that was hardly our primary concern... but the local sweet shops' penny tray certainly was!
My recycling friend was a Jehovah's Witness, or at least her family was, including her elder sister, so I assumed she was as well. Neither our friendship nor our extra pocket money arrangement was affected, but I do remember the occasional "I can't do that" comment.
Sadly, I lost contact with her once I started Grammar School, though I did run into her sister some 17 years later in the town where I had moved during my marriage. As we exchanged pleasantries, I inquired as to whether she maintained any connection with the JWs. She appeared heartbroken as she said, "Oh, I left."
I wasn’t a Christian at that time, so didn’t think to press her further.... I wish I had now, but as I hadn’t any alternative to share, we both smiled and moved on. Since then, I haven't seen her, but I'm curious about how the whole experience has impacted her.
My childhood friend and her family were in the grip of false religion and choices had been made.
In John chapter 5, there is an account of someone who had a choice to make, although if you ever sat through Sunday School, that’s probably not what you find memorable about this story; as a child, the 38 years that this man had been sick seemed like forever (in fact, if you were 5 or 6, you thought anyone aged 38 was ancient!)
Usually, people would respond with things like, "if you are willing, Lord", or at the very least, "yes please"... this guy just told Jesus that he couldn’t get down to the water in time... he wasn’t interested in Jesus or who he was, his interest was in getting into the water first, he had bought into the superstition of the water mysteriously stirring ....but Jesus was interested in him... he was so interested that he said to him in verses 8-9
“Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”
And at once the man was healed,
and he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath.
…and that was the problem….as verse 10 continues
……So, the Jews said to the man who had been healed,
“It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”
The man’s immediate response was that he had been instructed to carry it by someone else, the man who had healed him. Because he didn't know who it was, he couldn't answer their question of “who is this man?”
The Jews were unconcerned with the man's ability to walk. They couldn't care less that he had been cured after 38 years of suffering from a disease. These men were obnoxious and indifferent, showing nothing but contempt for this man, believing that he was in that condition because God had punished him.... but more importantly, they showed nothing but contempt for Jesus and His work. Who did it? Who told you that you could carry your bed around with you? Who told you that you could lift your bed? Who is the man who told you that?
Jesus had healed the man and then walked away because there was a crowd. It was as if he had come just for this one man... as indeed he had... And Jesus continues to search him out, to complete what he had started. John says that Jesus finds him in the Temple, within a massive crowd of people. When Jesus finds the man, he finds a man who is now walking around and probably telling everyone what has happened to him. However, the man has no idea who did this, he has no idea where the power, where the healing came from... but then Jesus finds him with the words "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. " Jesus comes to him with a sobering warning; "look, you’ve been made well. Now you need to change, to go in a different direction, away from the sin that held you down. " In other words, "listen, you think 38 years of illness is bad, but that’s nothing compared to the wrath of God in hell you could experience forever."
Jesus wanted to do so much more than just heal a man... he wanted to save a man and show his glory. Twice Jesus seeks this man out, twice he speaks into his life, once to heal and once to work on his salvation.
But what did the man do? What was his response to the compassion and offer of salvation? When he should have worshipped Jesus, what did he do? ....he turned Jesus in, he betrayed Jesus to the Jews....he picked sides, he chose the wrong side. Despite his healing after 38 years of suffering, despite hearing a warning, he walked away and acknowledged his allegiance to the Jews who hated Jesus.
He has no intention of worshipping Jesus. He had no intention of following Jesus. Perhaps he wanted to put himself back in the good graces of the Jewish leaders because he violated the Sabbath, perhaps to ingratiate himself back with the religious establishment. For whatever reason, he turned Jesus in. He prefers what he had before, what he still has, to what Jesus offers him. Such is the influence and power of false religion.
And this is what we see so many times. The healings may come despite people’s lack of interest in Jesus. The man at the pool was healed not because he had faith, he didn’t even know it was Jesus, but because Jesus had compassion for him.
We pray for our loved ones, our friends, the names on the prayer lists. We pray because we have compassion for them. We believe God heals, as indeed He can, but we also pray in the hope that healing may be the catalyst that causes them to believe in Jesus, the thing that ignites a desire to change, to go in a different direction, away from the sin that holds them down. We struggle to understand why sometimes, despite the fact they are sometimes healed, they never move towards Jesus... why they make the wrong choice.
Sometimes healing just isn’t enough for them. It didn’t seem to be enough for the man at the pool. Despite being an invalid for 38 years, considered to be a sinner by the Jewish leaders, and being ostracised by everyone around him, his immediate desire seemed to be to get back into favour with the authorities.
We must remember, of course, that the main priority of Jesus wasn’t healing, but salvation. Physical healing is always going to be a major concern for us, but to God, the salvation of our soul is a much bigger deal.
And it was the salvation of the man at the pool that concerned Jesus, it concerned him enough to return and to search specifically for the man and to warn him of his need to repent and go in a different direction.
The bible doesn’t tell us any more about the man; after the death and resurrection of Jesus, did he, like so many, eventually see what he couldn't see that day?
Will our friends and family eventually see what we see so clearly now?
We continue to pray that they will, that God will break down the resistance in their hearts, that he will grant them what it takes to see the truth of the Gospel, the change of mind that can see and receive the truth.
So, let us not give up praying for our loved ones. The ministry of intercession is a lifelong calling, and we must not assume too much when it comes to human beings, if there is breath in their body, their story is not over.
Therefore, let us “always . . . pray and not lose heart”. Luke 18:1
God is always faithful, and we must also be faithful, we must be faithful to our loved ones and continually petition God on their behalf. He will not allow any of our labour according to his precepts to be in vain, no matter what the result is that he determines in his wisdom. 1 Corinthians 15:58
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