Walk with the Lord who has authority to heal.

 

Sermon for Trinity 14, September 5, 2021

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

John 5:1-14  After this, there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  ²Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Aramaic, which has five colonnades.  ³Within these lay a large number of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—who were waiting for the movement of the water.  ⁴For an angel would go down at certain times into the pool and stir up the water.  Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.  ⁵One man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.  ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been sick a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”  ⁷“Sir,” the sick man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.  While I’m going, someone else goes down ahead of me.”  ⁸Jesus said to him, “Get up!  Pick up your mat and walk.”  ⁹Instantly the man was healed.  He picked up his mat and walked.  That day was the Sabbath.  ¹⁰So the Jews told the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath!  You are not permitted to carry your mat.”  ¹¹He answered them, “The one who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”  ¹²Then they asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?”  ¹³But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.  ¹⁴Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Look, you are well now.  Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you. (EHV)

Walk with the Lord who has authority to heal.

Dear fellow redeemed,

            Our world has been dealing with a pandemic now for over a year and a half.  People are frustrated.  Many are scared.  We see friends and neighbors accusing others of not caring, of not doing enough to protect themselves and others from this still mysterious disease.  At the same time, many people are tired of government overreach.  People are tired of being told what they should or shouldn’t do, especially when those proclamations have flip-flopped so often over the many months.  Lives have been destroyed both by the illness and by the various actions taken to try to stop it.  Possible cures are proffered by less than reliable sources long before they can be shown to work.  Real protections are manufactured, then oops, maybe not so fast.  The cure is still out of reach. 

If we think these past eighteen months have been hard to deal with, imagine the frustration of waiting for a miracle cure—decade after decade— watching anxiously only to see someone else jump ahead in line—time after time after time.  Someone else gets the miracle healing, and while you are glad for them, for you, it’s one more disappointment in a lifetime of disappointments and pain.

What a heart-wrenching scene we have before us in this text.  That was not a hospital.  There was no doctor present with a new drug or special talent for healing, but John tells us that a large multitude of people had been brought to Bethesda.  It was their last hope.  They had no place else to turn.  Every one of those people was basically hopeless without any other help for their conditions.

Jesus was going up to Jerusalem to attend an unnamed Jewish festival.  As He was arriving, He went by this place that had become famous for its occasional healings.  We are not told much about it.  Apparently, however, God had this visit planned a long time before Jesus arrived, for in preparation, God would send an angel to agitate the water, and the next afflicted person to enter the pool was healed of whatever affliction he was dealing with.  But, only one could win each lottery.

Out of the mass of suffering souls, Jesus picked one man and asked him a question that some might consider rude: “Do you want to get well?”  That crippled man had to wonder what was wrong with this stranger to ask such a question.  Why would he be at Bethesda if he didn’t want to be healed?  How cruel it must have seemed if the man thought Jesus was implying that he hadn’t tried hard enough.  We can hear the anguish in the man’s reply: “Sir,” the sick man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.  While I’m going, someone else goes down ahead of me.”  Someone like me might have said, “Can’t you see that I’m broken?  Can’t you see that I can’t get myself down to the pool in time?  Do you think I haven’t been trying?” 

People like me need to learn to Walk with the Lord who has authority to heal.

Sometimes, people will tell you that Jesus saves but you have to believe.  They make believing a work you must do to be saved.  The evidence here shows us that it isn’t the strength of our faith that saves us.  That man didn’t know who Jesus is.  He didn’t ask Jesus for the miracle.  That cripple was trusting in the water to heal him and trusting in himself to get down to the pool.  For thirty-eight years, his trust had gotten him nowhere and frustration was eating at his soul.

There are many things we could talk about here.  One is that faith is a gift of God, and sometimes a person is saved after having believed in Jesus and God’s promises for years.  On the other hand, Jesus can and does save some who hadn’t yet believed simply by speaking a few words to the person, or over him as in baptism.  Either way, we don’t create our own faith for “faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)  The encouragement for us is to use the gift of faith to Walk with the Lord who has authority to heal.

Another question that often troubles people is why doesn’t Jesus heal everyone?  Why did He pick out just that one man from the masses of suffering?  Maybe you have asked why God doesn’t grant you the miracle you want.  To some extent, the question cannot always be answered.  However, as our Creator, God has the perfect right to do with us as He pleases.  He has said, “I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.” (Exodus 33:19) 

The Lord led the prophet, Jeremiah, to the potter’s house to observe the potter forming a pot out of a lump of clay, but when the pot didn’t please the potter, he would crush that lump to make something different, and the Lord said, “House of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does? . . . See, like clay in the potter’s hands, that is what you are in my hands, house of Israel.” (Jeremiah 18:6)  Now, that may not feel very comforting, but God also assures us that He disciplines those He loves.  The writer to the Hebrews encourages, “Endure suffering as discipline.  God is dealing with you as sons.  Is there a son whose father does not discipline him?  If you are not disciplined (and all of us have received it), then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” (Hebrews 12:7-8)  Discipline often isn’t pleasant to live with when we are going through the pain, but God is using it for our eternal good. (Romans 8:28)  Therefore, even when we don’t understand why God doesn’t intervene in our earthly troubles, we know He is working it all for our everlasting good.

Jesus told the sick man who longed to be healed, “Get up!  Pick up your mat and walk.”  Instantly the man was healed.  He picked up his mat and walked.”  In the blink of an eye, a body that had been weak, crippled, and hurting for thirty-eight years was fully restored.  The man who couldn’t drag himself from his bed to the edge of a pool stood up and picked up his bed roll.  He could walk.  He could go home to his family and friends with the joyous news that he was completely healed.  He could carry a weight and go back to work.

And then, we see the other side.  As soon as the poor cripple was restored, Jesus’ enemies went on the offensive.  “The Jews told the man who had been healed, ‘This is the Sabbath!  You are not permitted to carry your mat.’”  Healed, but accused.  Rejoicing, but shamed.  What was the poor man to do?  Yet, here too, we get some good news.  Just as Jesus healed that suffering man, He could also heal the Sabbath.  I know that sounds a bit strange, but the Jews had made the Sabbath a trap and a stumbling block for God’s people.  The Sabbath was intended to be a day of rest, a day to focus on the joy of God’s goodness and mercy, but the Jews made it a curse.

Jesus’ words at another time the Jews were accusing Him of violating their Sabbath laws apply well here, “If you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.  For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:7-8)  Relying on law, we would be doomed, but Jesus is our Rest, our Sabbath, our hope, our life.

That accused man wasn’t able to tell his accusers who had healed him, because Jesus had slipped away through the crowd.  Rather than confront the accusers in front of those healing souls, Jesus waited until a more appropriate time.  But, notice where Jesus found that healed man—in the temple.  Most likely yet that same day, the restored man made his way to the temple, most likely offering up his thanks to God for the healing and for the Man who healed him.

Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Look, you are well now.  Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you.”  What does this mean?  Jesus wanted the man to recognize the new life he had been given, so that the torments of hell would never touch him.  Previously, that man didn’t know Jesus.  Previously, the man relied on himself and the luck of the draw for healing and life.  Now, he had met the Lord of Life face to face.  Jesus wanted him to walk in the love of God forever.  The message to all Jesus heals is to turn away from the old ways of sin and turn away from trying to achieve salvation by your own efforts.  Turn to Jesus—walk with Him who alone gives life that doesn’t end and healing that won’t fade away.  Walk with the Lord who has authority to heal. 

Of course, we know that the restored man would again face death later in life.  Just like all of us sinners, he would die.  Jesus was speaking about something more important that physical healing.  Jesus was concerned for souls, that man’s soul and all of ours.

Here on earth, we will have trouble.  Here on earth, we may, or may not, be restored physically.  However, a time is coming when in the blink of an eye the bodies of all who believe in Jesus will be restored never to fade again.  You see, Jesus didn’t enter the world to fix the problems we face here on earth.  Instead, Jesus came to win our release from this place of suffering and death. 

Christ bore the sins of the world so that you and I don’t have to carry that load.  Jesus bore the stripes and the curse of death you and I and everyone else deserved, so that He could rightly, justly judge you righteous and holy in His sight, so that you may go to your rest in peace knowing that when the trumpet sounds on Judgment Day, and our Savior says, “Rise up!” all who have believed in Him will walk in glory forever where there will be no more pain, no suffering, no sin, no sorrow, and no death.

There is no lottery to try to win in salvation.  There is nothing you must do to get yourself healed from the curse of sin.  Jesus handled it all for you and me on a cross outside of Jerusalem.  The faith you were given at Baptism and in hearing the Gospel of our Lord has made you whole in the eyes of our heavenly Father.  He has called you His child and marked you as a member of His kingdom.  Have no fear of the accusers.  Walk with the Lord who has authority to heal.  Amen.

After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who called you into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you.  To him be the glory and the power forever and ever.  Amen.