A story was told about two shoes
salesmen trying to break into the African market. Both went to survey the possibility
of breaking into Africa with their brand of shoes. Having surveyed, one of them
wrote back to his boss saying, “Bad place to market shoes. Can’t see anyone wearing
shoes here.” The other salesman reported saying, “Great market, potential for a
breakthrough sales, nobody wears shoes yet.” It’s all a matter of perspective. What
would you have said, if you were present at the scene when that paralytic was
healed at the pool of Bethesda? Wouldn’t you have rejoiced with him and give
thanks to God? One would have thought everyone would rejoice with him, but it
was not the case. Some Jews saw the incident as the breaking of a Sabbath law. It
was for this reason that they intensified their opposition to Jesus. They were
seeking all the more to kill Him because Jesus had claimed to be acting on the
Father’s instruction and therefore had made Himself equal to God. They failed
to realize that Jesus is not only making Himself equal to God, He was and is
indeed equal to God. Unwittingly, the Lord had sealed His death warrant in the healing
of this paralytic
It’s true that the healing took
place on a Sabbath, but couldn’t they rejoice with a man who could not walk for
38 years but now could? It’s all down to perspective. We must not be overly earthbound
till we cannot see that God can break through into our circumstances. Hear what
the healed man said when he was questioned by the Jews! He exclaimed to them,
saying, “He who made me well
was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’” The Jews then wanted to know who and where Jesus was,
for He had quietly slipped away. By the reply of that man, what do we know
about him? Verse 14 implied that he was a sinful man. His sinful lifestyle when
he was young must have debilitated him for 38 years. Verse 7 seems to indicate
that he was the kind of person no one wants to help into the pool. What’s
discomforting was that he did not even stand up for Jesus when the nit-picking
Pharisees questioned him concerning the Lord. The only reason we could see as
an excuse for him was that he did not know Jesus yet. However, he was a very fortunate man because it
was Jesus who had sought him out afterward. So verse 14 says, “Afterward Jesus found him in the temple
and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” This suggests that
the Lord was not very confident that he would follow through with the spiritual
reality he had just experienced. Never mind this man but what about us? Will we
follow through with Jesus, and His given spiritual realities, now that we have encountered
Him?
The question Jesus asked this man
was “Do you want to get well?” This is the same question He is still asking of
us today. But let us tweak the question a little for our sake. “Do we want to
get better?” Do we want to progress further and go deeper with the Lord? The
instruction to the man is still very valid to us, “Do not sin any longer, so
that nothing worse happens to you.” How can we go further with the Lord if we
do not deal with the daily flaws of life? Jesus can give us the strength to
overcome our weaknesses to enable us to live for Him daily. All we need to do
is to come to Him daily, to find strength to live in His all sufficient grace.
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