John 5: An unexpected saviour

Are you ready for the unexpected?

Quite some time ago there was a road safety campaign along the lines of “are you ready for the unexpected?” This campaign from the UK had a similar theme.

That old campaign’s tagline always confused me, because when I thought of unexpected events on the road I thought of meteorites suddenly crashing right in front of my car. How can I prepare for that?

But, of course, that’s not what the safety campaign was about. It was about those events that are out of the ordinary, but can still be dealt with. But only if we’re ready for them.

If you’ve done a defensive driving course you’ll know some tips to be ready for the unexpected, such as these. Things like keeping your distance, avoiding distractions, and so on.

We can’t expect all of the unexpected, but we can be as prepared as possible to deal with it safely when it comes. After all, we’re talking life or death situations on the road.

Today’s passage in the Gospel of John is talking about the same sort of thing. Here we encounter two groups of people who are completely unprepared for Jesus. As a result, both groups handle their encounter with Jesus very poorly. For them, he is an unexpected saviour.

Of course, John has already prepared his readers for this unexpected behaviour and resulting rejection. At the start of his Gospel we wrote of Jesus:

John 1:11 NLT

11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.

So, reading John, we are expecting Jesus to have some problems with the Jewish people. But it’s still rather surprising how this happens.

I want to look at this account from three different angles; three different contexts. Each context will teach us something so that we can be ready for the unexpected. The three contexts are:

The historical context

The religious context

The theological context

Historical context

Let’s dive in to the first part of John chapter 5:

John 5:1–9 NLT

1 Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. 5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” 7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.” 8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” 9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath,

This first part of the chapter gives us the historical context.

Jesus is up in Jerusalem for one of the religious festivals.

Just north of the temple grounds (which you can see on the middle left of this image), was a large double-pool called the pool of Bethesda. As the account makes clear, this was an alternative location of healing. Alternative to what, you might ask. An alternative to the temple, of course. There is evidence that this was a shrine of a pagan God of healing after the time of Jesus, and such places are usually founded on older pagan shrines, so it is likely this was a place of pagan healing in Jesus’ time. The sick man’s account of the operation of the healing pool certainly sounds like that of a typical, ancient, pagan healing pool.

When Jesus asks the sick man if he wants to be healed, his reply, “I can’t, sir,” reveals his fixation on the legendary healing properties of the pool. The temple and the God of all creation who dwells there, doesn’t even enter his mind.

Just to be clear about what’s happening here: this man has not asked Jesus to heal him; he has shown no faith in Jesus; he barely pays attention to him; and yet Jesus knows his condition; he knows that this man has been unable to move freely for thirty-eight years! That’s virtually an entire lifetime!

Jesus’ response to this indifferent reply is completely unexpected to us. After all, doesn’t Jesus require people’s faith before he can heal them? It’s equally unexpected to the sick man. Jesus tells him to get up, take his mat, and walk out. And he does—instantly and effortlessly. It’s almost as if he’s always been able to walk.

There are many unexpected aspects to this brief event: that Jesus was here at this pagan pool rather than in the temple; that Jesus healed someone who barely acknowledged him, let alone placed their faith in him; that the healed man seems completely unmoved by his healing.

Of course, the whole point of the Son of God coming as the man Jesus was to go into the world, the world where sinful, lost people lie helpless. So, when you think about it, of course Jesus was here, rather than in the Temple. As Ian said last week, Jesus was smashing down the walls between God and man.

And it is Jesus who has the power to heal, not our faith. God may choose to graciously constrain himself on the basis of our lack of faith, but our lack of faith doesn’t prevent him from doing anything. God can do whatever he wills.

As for the healed man’s motives for his behaviour, well, that’s still unclear at this stage.

What does this say to us?

Before we move on, what does this event have to say to us?

We need to question ourselves:

How often are we so fixated on a particular form of salvation that we completely ignore Jesus? How often does his unexpected grace towards us go unrecognised?

You know that we can treat church as a substitute for the saviour! We can become so fixated on singing, or serving, or studying that we forget who it’s all about.

So, what can we do to be ready for our unexpected saviour? Let me suggest two things:

1. Be focused on God’s presence

First, we must be focused on God’s presence.

The sick man was focused on this possibly pagan pool, ignoring the looming presence of God’s temple—the place where God came to encounter his people. Of course, there is no temple today, but rather the Holy Spirit has made each of us temples. But how often do we meditate on this? How often do we seek to encounter the indwelling Holy Spirit in prayer or worship? If we busy ourselves with external work, whether it be supporting our families or supporting the church, won’t we miss the Holy Spirit’s internal work on our souls? Won’t we miss the moment we are freed from thirty-eight years of bondage?

The Spiritual Practices that we talk about each month are ancient practices designed to help us focus on God. This past month we have been focusing on prayer. There are, of course, many types of prayer, but all prayer is communication with God. If we wish to communicate with God, we must first come into God’s presence. Jesus gave us helpful advice when he told his disciples:

Matthew 6:5–8 NLT

5 “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. 6 But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. 7 “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. 8 Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!

Prayer is about God, Jesus said. It’s not about us. It’s not about our performance, and it’s not about our words. The focus must be on God. When we’re focused on God, we’re ready for his work in our lives, even if it’s unexpected. I would not have been ready to move to Tokyo as a young adult, one year out of uni, if I hadn’t first prayed for God to get me out of a spiritual rut. And I’m sure you all have similar stories.

2. Recognise God’s work and its significance

The second thing we must do is to recognise both God’s work and its significance to us.

The healed man paid no attention to Jesus, allowing him to slip away unknown, and he then seems to have taken his healing for granted, being more interested in getting the Jewish leaders off his back than in getting to know his saviour.

The author of Hebrews describes the Christian perspective this way:

Hebrews 12:1–2 NLT

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

Just as Jesus could endure the infinite horror of the cross only by fixing his eyes on the infinite reward of eternity with the Father, we too can only thrive in this broken world by recognising the past, present and future work of Christ, our redeemer.

So, to avoid the mistake of the sick man in the story who ignores his saviour, we must focus on Jesus’ presence and recognise that he’s not just a good guy, but he is our saviour.

Then we will be truly ready for any wonderful, unexpected thing that Jesus chooses to do in our lives.

The religious context

The second context is the religious context. That context becomes very clear as we continue to read on in John chapter 5.

John 5:10–16 NLT

10 so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!” 11 But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” 12 “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded. 13 The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” 15 Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules.

Again let’s be clear about what is happening here. A man who couldn’t move for 38 years is instantly healed, to the point where he can carry around a sleeping mat, and the religious leaders first concern is that he is carrying that mat on the Sabbath! When we are confronted with the unexpected, with events that challenge our understanding of the world, isn’t it sad how often we respond by focusing on trivialities? Why do we do that? Because those trivialities are in our control, and we feel that we have to be in control. That’s what the religious leaders are doing: desperately trying to maintain control. That’s why they jump on the healed man’s reference to the one who healed him. John’s amusing aside of how Jesus had disappeared into the crowd emphasizes both the healed man’s disinterest and Jesus’ humility.

When the healed man encounters Jesus later (finally in the temple) and is rebuked for some unspecified sin, he immediately rats Jesus out to the authorities, probably hoping to avoid any further trouble. Instead, that trouble finds Jesus as the leaders attack him over the Sabbath.

I’m sure you’ve heard many accounts of how the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ time had constructed elaborate rules around the Sabbath. These were intended to help faithful Jews obey the fourth commandment, which says,

Exodus 20:8–11 NLT

8 “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

This is a pretty detailed commandment, and you would think that would be enough, but the rabbis had obsessed about the definition of “work,” to the point where they had created 39 different classes of activity that were considered work, and carrying a mat fell into one of those classes.

Jesus’ understanding of the Sabbath was quite different, as his actions and statements made clear. But in this confrontation Jesus doesn’t argue about the definition of work, but rather presents an unexpected defense for his attitude to the Sabbath.

Let’s read on:

John 5:17–18 NLT

17 But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” 18 So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.

What on earth?

Why didn’t Jesus say, “look your Sabbath rules are just human rules; focus on God’s word, not your own?” After all, he says that elsewhere. Instead he equates himself with God, making a bad situation worse (at least in terms of his relationship with the religious leaders).

We should pause here to explain something about the Jewish understand of God and the Sabbath. You see, the rabbis of Jesus’ time accepted that God worked on the Sabbath. They understood this from at least two pieces of evidence: that human beings were born on the Sabbath, and only God can give life, so he must be doing that work on the Sabbath, and that human beings died on the Sabbath, and only God can judge the dead, so he must be doing that work on the Sabbath, too. So they knew that God worked on the Sabbath, but they reasoned that, since the whole world was God’s home, he was merely doing some light maintenance, and so wasn’t violating the Sabbath.

That’s why, when Jesus appeals to God’s continue work, and says that his is more of the same, the Jews immediately understand his claim to be equal to God. (And perhaps even in competition with God.)

It’s also why, in Jesus’ following explanation that we’ll read in a moment, he points to the way that he brings life and judges the dead—exactly the same activities that the rabbis understood God as doing on the Sabbath! He really wasn’t messing around with this claim to be equal to God the Father, was he?

Let’s look at how Jesus confronts the leaders:

John 5:19–23 NLT

19 So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished. 21 For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants. 22 In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge, 23 so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father who sent him.

You see what Jesus is doing here? He’s identifying himself completely with God: like the Father he gives life and judges the dead. But in the process, he is pointing out how he is not a rival to God, rather he is completely unified with the Father. Jesus does nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing.

To read John chapter 5 is to hear Jesus claiming to be God, and to be one with the Father. There are people, such as members of Christian cults, who say that Jesus never claims to be God. I don’t know how they can read John 5 and say that. The Jewish leaders clearly understood that Jesus was claiming to be God, so it’s hardly a new interpretation.

But, yes, this is unexpected. The idea that God would come as a humble man—the son of a carpenter, an itinerant preacher. And at the same time God the Father is still in heaven! How weird is that?

And yet how important it is that we understand that Jesus is not merely a miracle worker or a wise teacher? Jesus insists that his identity as God must be accepted, no matter how unexpected that may be.

Nonetheless, Jesus does seem to understand how strange this appears, and in the last part of the chapter he gives an apologetics presentation. Apologetics is the discipline of giving reasons for why the Christian faith is true and trustworthy. It’s an important but often neglected discipline, not just for those who don’t believe, but also for those who do.

I wish I had time to unpack Jesus elegant list of evidences for his identity. He appeals to God the Father, John the Baptist, the Scriptures, the famous law-giver Moses, and his own miraculous deeds.

Despite this abundant evidence, the Jewish leaders stubbornly refused to accept Jesus’ identity. It’s as if a multi-million dollar lotto winner wanted to reject their winnings because the number they had won with wasn’t the number they had intended to enter. That’s the sort of stubborn craziness we’re talking about.

What does this say to us?

What does this say to us?

We engage in this sort of stubborn craziness all the time. Why? Because we value being in control above everything else. When God offers us paradise, but it costs the loss of control over our own lives, we balk. Even as Christians we struggle with this. There are many stories I could share about how we fight God for control, but since this is Father’s day, let me talk about the struggles of being a father.

I have one daughter, Atalia. She is in her third year of university. You would think that, after several years away from home, I would have stopped worrying about her. In fact, before she moved out, I was looking forward to the freedom of being an empty-nester. How silly such thoughts now appear.

The thing is, as a father (or a mother, of course), we care about our children, and we want the best for them. And yet the world is such a crazy, chaotic, unjust place. We are so much more aware of that than they are. And so it is tempting to hover over our kids, protecting them in a carefully controlled environment.

But what does this say to our children about our trust in God? After all, we aren’t really in any more control of the world than our kids are. And we really have no control over their choices, no matter how hard we might strive to. But if we can step back and show our faith in God’s provision and protection, engaging in prayer instead of pampering, intercession instead of interfering, then won’t our kids benefit? When they see that we don’t merely “resonate” with Jesus, but that we know him as the way and the truth, won’t they see God at work in and through us?

It is worth remembering the apostle Peter’s advise in his first letter:

1 Peter 5:6–7 NLT

6 So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. 7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

The theological context

Now lets hurry on to our final context, the theological context.

In John’s gospel, Jesus performs only seven miracles. John calls them signs. John hastens to explain that

John 20:30–31 NLT

30 The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.

In order to understand why John deliberately chose each of his seven signs, we need to ask: what does this particular sign say about Jesus being the Son of God, the saviour of humanity? What does this miracle say that is unique to it?

So what does this third sign tell us? How does it help us believe that Jesus is the Messiah?

In his first sign, turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana, we saw how Jesus was lord over creation. Just as he is the one who causes the plants to grow, with the same power he can transform water into wine without the intermediate steps of growing, harvesting, crushing and fermenting grapes. We also saw how unexpected this was (except, of course, to Jesus’ mother).

In the second sign, again at Cana, Jesus showed that he had power to heal, and that that power was not constrained by location. He is the healer of the world. Again, this was unexpected. The father had requested that Jesus come to heal his son, but Jesus insisted that the man return to his family trusting that his son would be healed. The demonstration of that power brought faith to the whole family.

This third sign illustrates Jesus power over both pagan Gods and the absence of faith. You could say that this sign demonstrates Jesus sovereignty. His authority and power are absolute, nothing can stand against them: no other supernatural power, and no human effort or will.

Of course, Jesus often constrains his power when people refuse to believe, but it is his choice not to act, rather than an inability to act.

We often forget this—we forget how powerful Jesus really is. His humble humanity makes it easy to see him as being limited like we are. But that is simply not true. Even in these first three signs we can already see that Jesus has power over all creation, his power is not limited by his physical presence or location, and his power is not limited by supernatural enemies or a lack of human faith—it is sovereign and absolute.

What does this say to us?

What does this say to us?

Jesus has power over every aspect of the universe, and of our own lives.

How humbling is Paul’s word to the Ephesian Christians,

Ephesians 2:8–10 NLT

8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

We can’t take credit for our position as God’s children—that is all God’s work. The only difference between us and those who don’t know Christ is the grace of God. Even the good deeds we do through the power of the Holy Spirit were planned for us by God. Now, I’m not trying to teach reformed theology, I’m simply sharing what the Bible tells us. God is sovereign. He rules over everything, and it is his choices that matter.

Jesus is not just a preference, he is king.

That seems unexpected to us, especially us in the modern Australian context, where our own choices mean everything. Even the Australian aged care system is called “My Aged Care!” But the church is not called “my church” or “our church.” The church is called the Body of Christ, or, as here at Burleigh, the “Church of Christ.”

Let’s recap. We must focus on God’s presence through prayer and other means, we must remember the significance of God’s work, we must let go of our own desire to control everything and trust God’s control, and we must recognise that Jesus really is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

The point is, our lives are not our own. When we understand this, we are ready for the unexpected working of our Lord Jesus. In fact, we will be expected the unexpected. And how exciting is that? What thrills do we yet have to experience in the hands of our loving God?

Prayer

Remember Jesus’ teaching on prayer that I mentioned earlier? Well, immediately following this, Jesus told his disciples how to pray. So let us pray this wonderful prayer from our Lord together:

Matthew 6:9–13 (ESV)

9 ...

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

10 Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread,

12 and forgive us our debts,

as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For yours is the kingdom and the power

and the glory, forever.

Amen”