Pool's Closed (2)

We find healing when we let go of our pools and follow the one who heals.

We don’t find healing in some-thing but some-one.

Set the Scene

Sucker

They say:

A sucker is born every minute.

This is the phrase that came to mind when I watched this section of The Chosen.

Today’s clip comes from Season 2, Episode 4.

The Episode begins with an accident that leads to paralysis of one of two brothers.

It shows the upbringing of these two brothers and how their lives took very different paths.

One becomes a Zealot and the other ends up seeking healing at the pool of Bay-zee-tha-zz-ah (Bethesda).

As you watch, pay attention to John writing this account down and the reluctance and misunderstanding of the man.

Let’s take a look: [Show Clip]

This miracle is only recorded in John’s Gospel.

Here’s the story as told by John in John 1:1-15.”

GOD

John 5:1–15 (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,

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.

Did anyone catch that verse 4 is missing?

Moment of Nerd

The earliest manuscripts do not have this verse.

4 for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.

[Show image]

We know it was probably a spring (like the one that fed the Pool of Silom) bubbling up to the surface.

This is what made me think of the sucker being born every minute.

It’s also how I first interpreted Jesus’ interaction…

He thinks the man is a sucker.

Then, I realized something horrifying… I’m also a sucker.

The one who is hurting will look anywhere to find healing.

Undergraduate – get rich quick… amazed that I alone was given this secret…

Amway: pyramid scheme dinner…

sales people played off of human desire for power and security

What are the “pools” you are trying to find healing or Wholeness in?

Investing…Wolf of Wall Street…George…penny stocks

These supplements…or this workout

This life-changing program and author or that diet or that cosmetic routine

This degree or that job

House or that car

What is My Pool? What is Your pool?

The one who wants healing must leave the pool and follow the healer.

This scene portrays Jesus being kind of harsh.

For good reason…

Jesus knows this man is putting his hope in the wrong thing.

He knows the paralytic - like us - has a hunger for wholeness.

…which is why we can become fixated on the pool…whatever it is.

For me, a big part of this miracle is the man remembering there is more to life than being paralyzed at the pool.

“There’s a sucker born every minute.”

Yes…

…including the one who thinks a sucker is born every minute.

Marx thinks religion is the Opiate of the masses.

Others think Communism is the Opiate.

We escape when learn: True life/wholeness is found in following Jesus.

We find healing when we let go of our pools and follow the one who heals.