The unnecessary barriers

Career plans

The year was 2002 and I was studying engineering at Newcastle University. I was in my second last year, and getting to that point where I really needed to start thinking about what I was going to do when I graduated.

I was doing civil engineering, and this can take you in a number of directions such as geotech work, water engineering, road design, construction work to name a few. At various times, each had their own appeal to me. But in this second last year, an opportunity came up which I thought sounded perfect for me.

Wyong Council were offering a part time role to someone finishing off their engineering degree. I could do my final year over two years, while earning money and gaining valuable experience.

I felt this was one of those God moments. One of those moments where God opens the door you need. I just had to remember to trust him because he always delivers.

I started thinking about the logistics of spreading my final year over two years. The logistics of working on the Central Coast. I thought about how this will set the direction of my career.

God is good!

But...

...after sitting the interview, this job that I thought God had gifted to me… well… I didn’t get it.

God did actually guide me into a job, but it wasn’t the one I thought it was.

I want you to know, planning is a good thing… but there is a big pitfall that comes with it.

We can sometimes get ahead of ourselves. We make assumptions for how things are going to work out.

We forget an important step - what is God doing in this moment? Take away the assumptions, and just look, where is Jesus?

The magic pool

Well, I want to take you to a magic pool.

Of course, it’s not going to be called a magic pool. And people would use much better theological language to describe it, but it kinds of boils down to what is essentially is magic.

We’ll get to the specifics soon, but the magic pool becomes the focus of peoples plans. You see, the magic pool can fix people. Again, I’m perhaps using rather crude descriptions, but this is what it did.

You wait till the water swirls, which is evidence an angel is stirring it, and then the first one to dip in gets healed.

Isn’t God great!

Isn’t it wonderful God has given such an amazing magic pool.

In Jerusalem

Well, let’s actually explore this for ourselves.

We’re now in John 5, having seen some pretty amazing encounters with two very different people in the previous chapters.

The last one was while Jesus was travelling north into the Galilee region, but now Jesus is taken back to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.

Interestingly, while John is usually specific about which festival Jesus is attending, on this occasion, he leaves it ambiguous, the three major contenders being, Passover, Pentecost or Tabernacles. But I guess it’s not really important.

We’re instead transported to a relatively little known part of Jerusalem.

The pool I mentioned a moment ago.

We’re told it’s near the Sheep Gate, and it is covered by five colonnades and it goes by the name Bethesda.

Interestingly, up until a few centuries ago, this some thought this pool wasn’t a real place because they couldn’t find it in Jerusalem, but in the nineteenth century, some archaeologists actually found the location which of course were just ruin by then.

What we know about the pool mostly comes from this passage.

Now I want you to look at verse 4 for me.

Actually, you might notice, depending on your translation, that instead of verse 4, you get a footnote.

The footnote gives us verse 4, but in the NIV, it doesn’t make it to the main text.

Now, let me just explain what’s going on here.

You see, when the books of the Bible were written, say like John’s gospel that we are looking at today, the original bit of paper, or more accurately, papyrus, has not survived. Papyrus was not a very durable material, and it was written some 2000 odd years ago.

But copies were made, and we have very good evidence to show how accurate each copy was. We have many early copies dating back to just a few centuries after the original was written, and if you compare all of the copies, they are almost identical. Except that occasionally, we get a discrepancy between copies. When the discrepancies are noticed, in the NIV, and most other reliable translations, you get a little footnote.

That’s what’s happened here for verse 4. Some manuscripts have it, and some don’t.

In the case of verse 4, the verse describes for us how the pool was understood to work - and this is why I described it earlier as a magic pool.

It says: “From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.”

A good working hypothesis is that this pool was fed by a natural spring, and occasionally a gush of water would come from the spring, causing a disturbance in the water. As the disturbance was happening without any wind, the assumption at the time must have been that it was something supernatural happening.

Now, the bible neither confirms nor denies whether any healing actually took place as a result of this phenomenon, but it is quite clear that many people at the time did believe in the healing powers of the water.

Verse 3 tells us that there were many disabled people who would wait by the pool, hoping to be the next one in so that they could be healed.

The cripple

In verse 5, the narrative directs us to one particular person who had been there for 38 years. That is a very long period of time, and you could imagine that length of time would have really taken a big toll on this man.

In verse 6, this man comes to the attention of Jesus.

We’re not actually told exactly why Jesus chose to give attention to this man, particularly as there were many to choose from. It could be assumed it’s because of compassion, knowing just how long this man had been here.

But particularly when we get to the end of this passage, we might again ask why Jesus chose this man.

Perhaps Jesus has a point to make with him.

Whatever the case, the question Jesus asks is quite an interesting one. He simply asks: “Do you want to get well?”

Do you want to get well?

Let’s briefly pause on this question, because, you know what, sometimes I wonder whether people actually want to get better.

Think about whatever situation you’re facing. It might not even be health related. Perhaps it’s a financial burden, or relationship problems, or something else.

If someone asks, do you want your problem fixed, your going to answer, of course I want it fixed.

Except sometimes we’ve grown so accustomed to our problems… we’ve adjusted our lives around our situation, that it would be hard to change.

But another aspect of it, is that we might not want to change because we might have to do something we don’t like doing.

Do we actually want to change?

But it’s interesting to hear the man’s reaction to the question do you want to get well.

You might have thought he’s just answer - well, of course… but you see, this is where he’s thinking has become so rigid.

He has now spent so much of his life next to this pool, that for him, this is the only way that healing will come.

To get well, is to get in the pool.

The miracle

Now, in many of the other miracles involving Jesus, Jesus commends the person for their faith and will sometimes attribute the miracle to that faith. I find it interesting that in this account, the mans faith is in the healing power of the pool. This is partly why I wonder why Jesus chose this guy.

But in verse 8, Jesus simply says: “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk”.

If with those simple words, the man does exactly that. He stands up, picks up his mat and walked.

At this point in the narrative, the focus quickly shifts towards another aspect of this story, but I think it’s worth pausing a moment - perhaps using a little imagination to think how this man must be feeling now.

The natural assumption would be that he is now overjoyed. But based on the conversation we’re about to hear him have, I’m not so sure.

I’m thinking perhaps he’s a bit dumbfounded at this point. A bit of almost shellshock.

Probably wondering what does he do now.

The very thing he’s been waiting for for 38 years, the result at least, has now happened.

It’s undeniable. He’s walking, so it must have worked. But is he feeling the gravity of this moment?

The controversy

Well, keep that in mind and we follow what happens next.

The last bit of verse 9 tells us the piece of information which from our perspective might feel like a trivial piece of information, but to the Jewish leader, makes this a big deal. It was the Sabbath day.

Right back at the start of creation, when God first rested on the seventh day, a pattern was established which God commanded his people to follow. On the seventh day, no work is to be done.

The intent of this command is to keep God’s people focused on what God is doing. Resting was symbolic of the state of shalom, the peace that comes from God. It pointed towards the rest that they were to find in Messiah.

But what does it mean to rest?

This is the question for the legalist. And to be sure, if the command is to have any value, you need to understand what it means in practical terms, so we find some guidelines as to what it means to not work. In the law as handed down by Moses, we get some guidelines regarding this, but over the years, the rules started to get more specific, and shall we say, at times a bit ridiculous.

One such rule was that picking up your mat constituted work.

Somewhere along the line, the intent of the Sabbath as pointing toward the shalom to come seems to have given way for pure and simple legalism.

Yet here we are, and in verse 10, it is evident that this little bit of information did not go unnoticed by the Jewish leaders.

At this point, their quarrel is with the man who has just been healed, because they’re still trying to figure out if this was Jesus.

Now let’s just get this straight. This amazing miracle has happened, but yet they want to overshadow it by their legalism.

But at this point, even the healed man does not know the identity of his healer.

And so the Jewish leaders seem to allow the discretion of picking up the mat slide.

Jesus revealed

But in verse 14, while the newly healed man was in the temple, he comes by Jesus again.

Jesus acknowledges that the man has been healed. And then goes on to say: “stop sinning or something worse may happen to you”.

Now, I do want to pause again on this statement particularly as it relates to the relationship between sin and suffering.

Sometimes we want to be careful not to draw specific links between when someone sins and when the suffer. That’s because not all suffering is a result of the specific sin of the person suffering. For example, people will sometimes suffer persecution for doing good. But, just because not all suffering is a result of that person sinning, it doesn’t mean the inverse is true. That is to say, sometimes our suffering is a result of our sinfulness.

Now, we can read this statement of Jesus in the ultimate sense, that is, if he doesn’t repent of his sin, he’ll end up in hell which is far worse. However, I want to suggest that what Jesus is trying to get at here, is that if he doesn’t deal with the sin in his life, then while he may be healed, he’s going to end up in a position that is even worse for him then before.

There’s something very interesting in this. We can have amazing miracles in our lives. We can be free from illness… we can have an impossible situation resolved… but if we don’t deal with the sin issue in our lives, we’re not going to be any better off.

Situation is stuck

Now, it’s hard to know exactly what is going on with this man that was healed. He seems to contrast sharply with many others that are healed.

You think at this point, with such an amazing encounter with Jesus, he would be a completely changed person. Not just physically, but his whole being.

But in verse 15, it would seem his focus is elsewhere. Rather than having a Christ focus, his focus is on the religious / political system before him. He wants to please the legalists.

He goes and tells the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus that healed him.

In verses 16 to 18, the heat is then put on Jesus. Verse 16 described it as a persecution of Jesus.

Application

Now, we could continue exploring the ongoing conversation between Jesus and the Jewish leaders, however, I want to just reflect on what has just happened.

You see, it seems crazy to think - Jesus has just done an amazing thing. He has given a person who has been crippled for 38 years the ability to walk. This should be life changing - but yet people are putting up barriers all over the place.

First, the man couldn’t even recognise that healing might come from a place other than what he had in his own mind. I’ll call this the closed minded barrier.

Second, even after he was healed, rather than giving honour to Jesus and God, he was more focussed on pleasing the leaders - and you’re left suspecting that Jesus’ warning that something worse might happen, just might be the case. I’ll call this the people-pleasing barrier.

And then we see the barrier of legalism. Worrying more about rules than experiencing the wonder of what Jesus is doing. I’ll call this the legalism barrier.

I wonder how many of these barriers we struggle with.

Closed minded barrier

Let’s start with the closed minded barrier - the one that says I’ve got a plan and it will work. Is this stopping us accepting the miracles that Jesus has for us.

On the news this last week was the story that actually happened some time ago, but a Christian community failed to give their young daughter the medical treatment she needed because they believed God would heal her miraculously. They were closed minded, thinking that healing would only come a certain way.

We might not go to that extreme, but yet, I want to encourage an open mindedness to seeing how God might work. If we go back to the example I gave in my introduction, I had become closed minded about my job opportunity. It was quite a bit later, but a very different offer came before me, one that was better suited to me and ultimately a better fit.

People-pleasing barrier

Let’s move to the people-pleasing barrier.

How often are our choices in life effected by the way we think others will think of us. Jesus is doing an amazing work in our life, but it’s like we actively work against it because we want others to like us.

This can be very subtle and often we don’t even realise we’re doing it. But I want to challenge you to think about some of the big decisions you’ve made in recently. What were the factors that led to your decision? Of all the options you could have made, which one would have been the most God-honouring? If you didn’t choose that one, why not? Was it because you were trying to please other people?

The problem is, when our focus is on pleasing others, we lose sight of what Jesus is doing. We need to shift our focus back to him.

Legalism

Finally, the legalism barrier.

This barrier perhaps effects certain personality types more than others. Rules are good, but when we lose sight of what they are for, we start to get off track.

God is doing amazing things in this world. Yes I’m aware of all the horrific stuff that is happening as well, but in the midst of it all, we can see a God who is breaking through. Yet we get caught up in fights over things that to be honest are quite trivial.

Churches split in two over disputes. We fight about end times theology and role of women in ministry. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is good to search scripture and try and be God honouring as possible, but when it boils down to semantics and we’re more keen to win an argument that honour God, we’ve lost the plot. More than that, we fail to see the beautiful thing God is doing.

Conclusion

My encouragement this morning is to recognise these barriers in our lives and stop them, because they are stopping us from really appreciating the beautiful thing God is doing.

As we look in this story in John 5, we should be marvelling at amazing work of Jesus - the man that changes lives just by speaking a word. And yet we find a man that rather than thanking Jesus, rats of him to the officials. What should have been a beautiful moment, ended up starting a conflict.

Jesus is doing something here. We block it with our the stupid barriers we put up, or we can embrace it.

My hope is that you choose to embrace it.

Let me pray..