Two amazing things happened in John 5:1-14. First, Jesus healed a man at the pool of Bethesda. Sick and crippled people sat around the pool waiting for an angel to stir the waters so they might be healed, but this man, having no one to help him, could never get into the water in time to receive the healing. He'd been trying and failing for 38 years. That is a long, long time.
One day, Jesus came along and asked the man a strange question. "Do you want to get well?" The man did, but could not see any way to find the help he needed. He was trapped in his illness. But Jesus did not need the waters of Bethesda to heal. He just gave the man a simple command. "Take up your mat and walk." And he did. He stood up and his 38 years of suffering were over.
That is when the second amazing thing happened. The miracle took place on the Sabbath and the Jewish leaders had a fit. Why? Because this man who had been seeking healing for 38 years picked up his mat on the Sabbath after Jesus healed him. A man had been healed but all they were concerned about were their human rules. Nothing in God's law prevented a man from picking up a mat on the Sabbath. They had added their own laws to those of God and created this silliness.
And they care about their rules and their power and control more than they cared about the man. They were more concerned that their authority had been violated than that a man had been healed.
May we care about people as we do God's work. It ought never be about power and control, but always about God's love for sinful people who need him.
Father, thank you for the example of your son who served and healed without regard to anything religious men added to your word.
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