March 11, 2023
I Don’t Need Help I Can Walk on My Own!
“A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, Do you wish to get well? The sick man answered Him, Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, Get up, pick up your pallet and walk. Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.” John 5:5-9 (NASB)
It is worthwhile to observe in chapters 5 through 7 of this Gospel, begin a shift in the attitude toward Jesus. A reservation to Him begins in chapter 3:26 through 4:1-3. Outright rejection will be summed in 7:52. In the following chapters, we will see shifting. This begins when Jesus conducts the healing of a sick man by the pool at Bethesda. Then begins an attitude of hostility toward Jesus. It intensifies in chapter 6 to the point some followers will become unwilling to accept Jesus’s teachings, and then abandon Him. By chapter 7, will begin the hardening of opposition toward Him as they try to arrest Him. Jesus knew the mission His Father placed Him on and was willing to stay the course up the point of His death.
Scripture doesn’t provide insight of what age the man at the pool was when he met Jesus. We only know, “A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.” Thirty-eight years? Most of us would consider this longer than our entire work career if he were of work age. If not, by age 38 most of his career time would be over. In fact, if someone knew he had been at the pool, it is likely he would have be ostracized, and never hired. Jesus was not surprised though. “Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition.” The Bible tells us the man was unable to move toward the water without help. Imagine each time there was an opportunity to get in the pool, someone got in. Imagine his disappointment. Another opportunity lost to one faster to the water. Jesus broke Jewish law and broke the binding effect his body had saying, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” Note, Jesus didn’t say, “Let me help you into the water and make sure you get healed,” or “Let me throw you into the water quickly before someone else.” He returned what was missing for 38 years, his mobility. He didn’t need help from the water, he received healing from the Water of Life. “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” It’s like Jesus saying, “Get up. Now, go on your way, this time walking!”
When Jesus comes to heal, He doesn’t have our drive-through mentality. He meets with each of us personally. Each of our salvation experiences are personal. He meets us where we are, just like the man at the pool. When He comes to us, He already knows the answers to our condition. He is The Answer. He doesn’t need to confer with anyone else or seek counsel. He is the One who made it possible. He meets us where we are. He speaks individually to each of us. Then He tells us “Get up,” we have been healed. This is an interesting thought for each of us today. Some of us are still lying around on our pallets like we haven’t been healed. We seem to be waiting for something to spur us on. We have been given our marching orders, and He has spoken, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” “The proof of spiritual cure is our rising and walking. Has Christ healed our spiritual diseases, let us go wherever he sends us, and take up whatever he lays upon us; and walk before him.”[1] “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”
[1] Matthew Henry and Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Jn 5:1.