On Sabbaths and Superstitions

INTRODUCTION

Read John 5:1-18

There’s two different parties in this passage:

1. Paralytic man

2. Religious leaders of Israel

On the surface, it seems like these two parties are completely unrelated…they appear to have nothing in common.

But by the end of this passage, it’s apparent that whatever their differences are, they share the same foundational problem.

And their problem reaches beyond them…it’s your problem and my problem as well.

In the end, I think every one of us wants what we could call wholeness. We want true wellness. And we place our hopes and efforts in whatever we believe can bring us wellness.

There’s a lot of things that compete for our hope…that offer us the solution to bring us happiness, wholeness and rest:

- Money

- Job

- Relationship

- Sex

- Cult of physical health

What this passage confronts us with is this simply message: Jesus is the only one who can bring us true wellness. The power to fix life’s problems is located in the person of Jesus Christ.

Setting (5:1-5)

- Jesus’ ministry gaining more attention

- He’s already stirred up some controversy

o 2:13-22 – cleansing the temple

o 4:1-3 – baptizing more than John the Baptist

Verse 1

- Jesus was in Galilee (4:46-54)

- Now heading to Jerusalem

- Feast of the Jews – the reason for his travel

Verse 2

- Introduced to pool of Bethesda

o 2 pools

o Located NE of city by “Sheep Gate” near temple complex

o Roughly size of football field and 20 feet deep

o Surrounded on all sides by porticoes with one dividing pools

- Jesus apparently traveling by pools

Verse 3

- Porticoes served as welcome shelter for multitudes of invalids

- 3 categories:

o Blind

o Lame (from disease)

o Paralytics (from physical defects)

- Must have been an aweful sight…multitudes of invalids, sheltered beneath the canopies of the porticoes, perhaps packed so thick one could hardly walk among them

- Why were they there?

Verse 4

- According to this verse, they were there to be healed

- Verse 4 not present in most modern translations

- Doesn’t appear in the better NT manuscripts—nothing before 400 BC

- Probably a scribal note explaining verse 7—ended up in the text

- Even though it’s not original, it’s still helpful for understanding the historical context and religious climate of the time

- NT era Judaism was not void of religious pagan superstition

o Judaism was quite fascinated with angelology

o Located nearby was the Roman temple to Asclepius and the pools well known for use in pagan healing rites

o Popular legend was that angels stirred the water on occasion and would heal the first person to enter the water

o The myth was bogus…the stirring came from underground springs

o But it was enough to attract a multitude of destitute invalids with the hope that if they could just enter that pool first, they would be healed

Verse 5

- One such man introduced

- 38 years as an invalid—perhaps from birth? Longer than I’ve been alive!

- Had been there a long time (v. 6) yet was never able to enter the water first (v. 7)

- His condition was so hopeless that every time the water moved, no matter how hard he struggled to squirm over the sea of bodies resting under the porticoes, he could not get in the water fast enough

- Like so many others, he had turned to myth and pagan superstition as his only hope for change

- He was the epitome of hopeless, frail humanity seeking wellness and healing in the empty promises of pagan superstition

Verse 6

- Here comes Jesus

- He sees this man and knowssupernaturally his plight

o 2:23-24 he knew what was in man’s heart—needed no human testimony

- To anyone, this man is just one of a mass of bodies strewn about…nothing sets him apart from the others

- But for some reason, Jesus engages him

- He asks a profound question…”Do you want to be healed?”

o Seems silly, but it’s far deeper than it seems

o “Healed” = “well”…do you want to become well?

- “Jesus was walking through a great multitude of sick people gathered around what was superstitiously considered to be a sacred place of healing, unrecognized by the sick as the Creator of the universe.”

Verse 7

- The man doesn’t know who he’s speaking to

- His hope is still fixed on the pool which he’s never been able to enter

Verse 8

- So Jesus commands – abrupt and authoritative

o Get up

o Take up your mat

o Walk

- Offering him a new identity – carry what has always carried you

Verse 9

- The order of events is very important here

o Immediately he was healed

o Then the man got up, grabbed his bed and walked

- The man’s healing wasn’t based on his faith or trust

- Nothing indicates his mindset shifted or hope moved to Jesus

o Verse 13 – no idea who Jesus is

o Verse 15 – sells Jesus out to save his own skin

- Jesus commanded him to rise then gave him the ability to do so

- In a millisecond, 38 years of atrophy was reversed

- This was no faith healing, this was a grace healing

- In that moment the man’s entire paradigm of life is confronted

o He had spent his entire life waiting for God’s power at a pool

o He is the epitome of hopeless humanity leaning on the devices of the world for help

APPLICATION

- That’s our story as well

- We were those who were hoping in anything we could to find happiness and wholeness

- While we were still in the throes of our delusion, that’s when Christ met us

- It wasn’t anything we did—it was entirely by God’s grace

o Rom 5:6-10

- How often we find ourselves diving right back into that pool after Jesus has brought us out…

Transition

Story seems over, until we read the end of verse 9

- “Now that day was the Sabbath”

- With that comes a brand new complication

Verse 10

- Enter the Jews – religious authorities of Israel

- New group, but same problem

o Lame man placed hope in a pool of water

o Jews placed hope in their ability to keep the law

- They see man carrying mat – confront him

- Not lawful on Sabbath

- Jews were excellent rule-keepers

- But they were even better rule-makers

- Sabbath was central to their rule-making

- 39 series of laws

o Looking in a mirror forbidden (gray hair)

o False teeth

o Couldn’t carry handkerchief, but could wear one

o Debate over wooden leg

o Travel forbidden – 1,000 yard limit

o Spitting

- They see this man carrying his bed

- They aren’t concerned that he’s been healed

- They are only concerned that they are breaking their definition of keeping the Sabbath

Verse 11

- Man’s answer isn’t any better

- He deflects—“It wasn’t my idea!”

Verse 12

- But now their attention has shifted

- Forget someone carrying a mat on the Sabbath

- There’s someone healingon the Sabbath—that’s WORK!

- They inquire who this man is

Verse 13

- Man has no ideas

- Jesus had slipped out during the commotion of the healing

- John 1:10 – “Was in the world, but the world did not know him”

Verse 14

- Sometime later—not sure how long

- Jesus finds him in temple

- His question in verse 6 – “Do you want to become well?”

- His assertion in verse 14 – “See, you are well!”

- “Sin no more…” – not saying his condition was based on personal sin

- Sin = theological

- Healing didn’t deal with the real problem…you may be physically well, but that’s not the primary issue—sin will lead to something worse than physical disease

- Really asking…will this change you?

Verse 15

- Apparently not

- Reports Jesus’ identity to Jews

- His healing was physical only

- Compare that with the blind man healed in John 9…true faith

Verse 16

- Jews begin persecuting Jesus

- Their concern is for their tradition

- They had witnessed God’s power, but it didn’t impact them

Verse 17

- Jesus’ response uncovers their blindness

- Jews thought they were protecting the law

- Really, they were missing the entire point

- Sabbath founded in Gen 2

o Pictures man at rest with God in perfect fellowship

o Broken by sin in Genesis 3

o Never mentioned until the giving of the Law

o Sinful man can’t be at rest with God

o Thus, only until redeemed Israel enters into covenant with God can Sabbath be instituted

- Sabbath Day was weekly picture of what God was doing in the world to restore fellowship with humanity—bringing the world back to what was lost

- Jesus’ words capture that reality

o Father is working until now

o Redemptive history chronicles God working to restore what was lost

o Jesus, as the revelation of God, is working the Father’s word

o IF JESUS RESTS, THEN MAN WILL NEVER REST

- Jews don’t understand

o Reject the miracle as legitimate because it was executed outside of their tradition of what God’s will was

o Their hope is that by keeping the law, they can attain that rest on their own

- Rom 10:1-5 – zeal without knowledge

Verse 18

- Seeking to kill him

o Because he broke Sabbath

o Because they recognized his claims—equality with God

o John 1:11 – “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him”

CONCLUSION

- Sometimes unbelief looks like a man waiting for magical waters for healing

- Other times, it looks like people who are convinced they have it together enough when they really don’t

- Either way, you miss who Jesus is

- Where are you placing your hope?

- Where do you turn?

- Do you turn to what the world has to offer?

- Do you rely on yourself?

- Do you see that the source of all peace and comfort and healing and protection and joy and forgiveness—wholeness—is not found in a thing but in a person?

- Cling to Christ—if you know him, cling to him.