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Friday
March 29th, 2024
L&T Opinions Page

gary damronMY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron

 

The past few weeks have been a “walk through Galilee” where Jesus journeyed. As we mentioned, much of his ministry occurred in the area of Capernaum, but there were times he traveled to a few other locations. This week the focus will be on one particular miracle and its setting in Jerusalem. 

Regarding miracles – there’s the story of a little boy who went to Sunday school. Afterward his dad asked, “What did you learn today?” “Well,” reported the boy, “God sent Moses to sneak behind the enemy’s lines and lay a pontoon bridge over the sea. After all God’s children hurried across, Moses called in a drone strike and blew up the bridge and Pharaoh’s soldiers.” 

His dad was taken aback and tried to clarify if that’s really what children were being taught. “No,” admitted the boy, “but if I told you the way the teacher told it, you’d never believe it.” The stories become believable as Jesus reveals himself as the Son of God. 

Throngs of people followed Jesus, not because they loved him, but because of miraculous things he did. Even his enemies did not try to deny them, though some attributed his works to magic or sorcery. Miracles were part of the job description, if you will, for a Messiah. Archaeological discoveries such as the Dead Sea scrolls have helped authenticate prophecies concerning his coming. 

Jesus’ friend John called the miracles “signs”. The setting for one happening was in Jerusalem, by the Pool of Bethesda. In the past, naysayers used John chapter 5 to disprove the story of the man healed there. The location description in scripture is specific –  “Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes” (John 5:2). 

For many years, no such site was found. But in the late 1800s an archaeological expedition began to unearth a pool – near the sheep gate also known as Jehoshaphat’s gate. What they discovered was not a pentagon-shaped structure, but a long rectangular one. There is, however, evidence that center supports held up the middle, which would mean there were five rows of columns. 

Underneath the pool was a series of tubes which carried water fed by a natural spring. During the Roman period, a pagan shrine stood nearby. It seems the priests may have been able to manipulate in secret the bubbling of the waters, to make their movement appear supernatural. 

Jesus’ system of miracles was absent such gimmicks. He asked the man - who had been carried there every day for 38 years – “‘Do you wish to get well?’” (John 5:6). The first step is to admit our own efforts have been ineffective. This man offered some excuses, but the second step is to answer Christ’s crucial question honestly. 

There could be reasons an invalid – physical or otherwise – would not honestly wish to get well: There develops a familiarity with the problem. We even come to identify with our weaknesses – “oh, I’m just a workaholic” or “I have this bad temper”. There may be discouragement after years of dealing with the problem. And there could even be a type of reward that goes with it – our control over caregivers, lack of responsibility for our actions. 

At any rate, the crippled man by the pool gave the right answer, that he was totally unable to help himself. So, the third step Jesus directed was for him to act. “‘Get up, pick up your pallet and walk’” (John 5:8). The Greek tense indicates, “and keep walking”.  

One further lesson: don’t be surprised if folks are not happy we’re healed. Immediately, religious leaders stopped the man and told him, “‘It’s the Sabbath. You can’t carry your bedroll around. It’s against the rules’” (John 5:10). 

Jesus later found the man and told him, “‘Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you’” (John 5:14). The big question each of us must answer: Am I focused on a performance-based System for dealing with my problem, or on a gracious Savior? 

Like the man at Bethesda, which means House of Grace, we’ve done nothing to be “worthy” of healing, and in fact we’re incapable. But with grace He offers the gift of wholeness, and each of us has a bedroll to carry. 

LETTER TO THE EDITOR, Reita Isaacs, Liberal

 

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