The Light Has Come: Two Healing Signs

Intro (before the reading)

Signs in John. (1st was the Wedding at Cana. Today’s stories are the 2nd & 3rd recorded signs, but we know from the other gospels and from John himself that there were others that are not included in this particular gospel. (John 20:30)

Our reading today includes two stories once again. Two signs that reveal something of who Jesus is. Two signs that point to Jesus’ identity. And two signs that include the healing of someone.

So pay attention. Because the stories are not the same at all. Different locations. Different people involved. And a different response of the surrounding community.

Pay attention to each of the stories, and pay attention to the signs… what are they? And beyond that, what do the signs point to?

READING

What does the sign point to? The easy answer here is the Sunday School answer: Jesus. But if we dig a little deeper, what exactly do these signs tell us about Jesus? What kind of relationship with God do they point to? What kind of relationship with God does the Jesus, Word made flesh, make possible?

Now, a couple of words of caution for approaching healing stories, I think we need to be extra careful. Why? Because we can get really weird about healing. When it doesn’t happen, it can be devastating. When it does, it can get twisted up into all kinds of strangeness. And, if we’re not careful, we can build systems around what worked - how did they GET God to heal them? So that we can follow the magic formula ...

The other thing we need to be mindful of as we approach a healing story is our own tendency towards ableism. In a nutshell, ableism is that belief (whether explicitly stated or just implicitly affecting our thoughts and actions) that someone who has some sort of physical (or mental) disability is “less than” someone who doesn’t. Now, of course, we don’t WANT to be able-ist. But if you ask anyone who lives with a disability, you’ll discover that it’s everywhere. And we need to work really hard, especially in the church, to see this and to make changes where we can.

I’ve been chatting with Dean for the last year or so, after stumbling across a podcast on disability and the church. And we’ve recently shared the podcast with Eric. For those of you who might be newer to our community, Dean has cerebral palsy - or CP - and so has a lifetime of stories about people responding to him - in helpful & unhelpful ways. And Eric, in the last number of years has experienced a loss or decrease in the ability to use his legs in the ways he did for much of his life. We’ve been talking about how we might host a learning event, for our church community - and possibly for the wider Kamloops community to shine a light on how this works.

So. Healing stories that are signs in the gospel of John. We’ll handle them with some caution. And, we’ll keep asking ourselves about the bigger picture. What is it these signs point to anyway?

But. The two stories. Let’s look at them one at a time.

First story:

Location

Galilee - and John is careful to remind his readers that this is the same place in which Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding. This creates a sense of anticipation, doesn’t it? If Jesus did THAT last time, what might happen in this place this time?

People (cast)

A royal official with a sick/dying son.

A royal official. An employee of King Herod. May be a gentile. John doesn’t say. But the way John frames it, we get the idea that this royal official is not part of the Jewish religious circle. In which case, Jesus has gone from Jerusalem to Samaria and now He’s including a Gentile?

He hears Jesus will be passing by, he goes out to meet him.

Jesus

Hesitates. Wait. What?!

In this story, much like the Wedding at Cana, we see two competing agendas… the man is laser focused on saving his son. Jesus is focused on bringing people to believe.

(In the Wedding at Cana, we had Mary & Jesus with the competing agendas… Mary wanted a solution to the problem of no wine. And Jesus wasn’t ready to “go public” …)

In this first story, we see both agendas fulfilled. The son lives. And the man believes. And later, that belief will spread to his household.

So, initially, Jesus hesitates. Bu then He heals by speaking the words, “Your son will live.”

Response

And what is the response of this desperate father?

He believes and heads for home. Jesus has spoken, and the man believes.

During the journey home, the man is intercepted by a servant…running out to give his master the good news, ‘Your son lives!’

And then they each share their piece of the story. And in doing so, the father is able to put it together. When were you with Jesus? What did He say? That must have been X number of minutes/hours ago....that’s just when the illness seemed to leave him… he lives!

And the whole household comes to believe.

“The sign points to the true claim that Jesus’ words can be believed, that Jesus’ words mean life ...” Karoline Lewis, p 73

In this story, Jesus heals from a distance. The rest of the household doesn’t even meet Jesus, but they experience Him. And they come to believe in Him. Which in John is the sign of relationship. The whole household comes to be in relationship with the Word made flesh. And through Him, with God.

Second story:

Location

In Jerusalem (back we go again, this time for an unnamed Jewish Festival)

By the pool of Bethsaida where the sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed came because some folks experienced healing there.

People (cast)

Camera zooms in on one particular man. Turns out he’s been coming to sit there on his mat for 38 years. THIRTY-EIGHT years.

We’re not told what his ailment is. John just tells us that he’s “sick”…

And like many of the others, I’m sure, this man is in close proximity to what he needs, but he lacks the capacity to access it.

v 7 “I don’t have anyone who can put me in the water when it is stirred up. When I’m trying to get to it, someone else has gotten in ahead of me.”

Jesus

If you were Jesus, what would you have done? I’d have offered to get this man in the pool! “Here, I can help with that.” Meanwhile, where are the people who love you? Where are you parents? Where are your friends? I know 38 years is a long time, but surely you have someone?

But no. Jesus doesn’t scold the man for sitting next to a pool that may or may not have the capacity to bring healing. Jesus doesn’t ask the women where his friends and family are. He flips the script and simply tells the man to stand up and take his mat and go. No water needed.

Response

Now if the story stopped there, it would be really straightforward. Jesus singles out one of the people waiting by the Pool of Bethsaida and calls him to get up and take his mat. He does. Yay!

Except. When the man is seen carrying his mat… the Jewish leaders’ response is not, “Dude! What happened to you? How is it that you’re walking around?”

He tries to redirect their questions about his Sabbath infractions by referring to “the man who made me well” … but they aren’t interested in Jesus except to go after Him for encouraging the breaking of Sabbath laws.

Jesus then finds the healed man in the Temple (remember that the man’s illness or disability would have kept him from participating in the worshipping life of the community. So when he gets healed, where does he go? To the Temple.

But in his interaction with Jesus there, he is warned that there is something worse than getting a slap on the wrist for a Sabbath violation - alienation from God. And the resulting inability to respond to the grace of God. As illustrated by the Jewish leaders who don’t even seem to notice the healing because they are so focused on the laws.

The final section is where Jesus unpacks what the signs mean.

Given life. The son of the royal official. And the man who sat by the pool for 38 years (which is likely most of his life, if not the whole thing)

The signs - both healings - point to Jesus as Word made flesh - God, who can bring people “from death to life” - not just someday or at the last day - but now.

Things to notice:

In neither story does Jesus make an exchange… if you believe, I’ll heal your son. The royal official, the desperate father, takes Jesus at his word and then has his belief affirmed when the servant runs out to tell him the son lives.

If you believe, I’ll heal you. If you have enough faith, it will result in this thing you want. If you think the right things, feel the right feelings, you’ll unlock a “next level” of spirituality that will fix things.

What does the sign point to?

(And what do we mistakenly get distracted by?)

“The signs in and of themselves are miraculous, but their true meaning is found in what they say about the relationship with God that Jesus makes possible as the Word made flesh.” Karoline Lewis, p 70

What about us? Where might we be in these stories?

The royal official - privileged, but reduced to powerless by the sickness of his child. Or, maybe you are like him in that you are taking Jesus at His word when He proclaims life.

The servant with a little piece of the story… that will result in the faith of a whole household. It’s hard to know your part contributes to a larger story - but it does!

What if God’s quiet signs that are only discovered when we share out “little bit” - what if this is part of being in community?

Bearing witness to the miracle of life itself when we share our own experiences and listen to others?

What if listening to the stories of others and paying attention to their experiences is where we’re called to put our energy?

Or perhaps you see yourself in the man who has been sick for a lifetime. Stuck. Waiting. Close to help and healing, but with the means to access it. Or, perhaps you have experienced God’s healing - and have been misunderstood by the very people who you thought would celebrate with you. Maybe Jesus is meeting you in those places of misunderstanding and suspicion.

Or the people none of us want to admit we identify with - the religious gatekeepers, so stuck on the rules and the lines that we don’t even notice when a healing has occurred?

Surely they had seen him during the 38 years he had been sick…? But when he walks into the Temple, all they can see is that he’s carrying his mat? How do we function in these ways? What sorts of limits do we insist on placing on the way God works in people’s lives? Who can be healed and when and how. Who can be included, and when and how.

Let’s pray...

God our help in every trouble, You have promised never to leave us nor forsake us. You reveal yourself that we may know Your grace and live Your abundant life. We confess that we would like to see a dramatic miracle, so we could be sure it was You. For we rarely think of everyday life in miraculous terms, we simply go along day by day, so we miss You at work around and among us because we are not looking. Forgive us for our narrow vision, our poor attention. Forgive us, and help us recognize Your subtle signs, that we may faithfully follow Your way. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Communion

In the next chapter of John’s gospel, we hear Jesus say,

“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Christ has set the table for all who will come - walking many journeys, living many stories, pursuing many goal. From near and far, we are invited to sit. to be fed, to be gathered into Christ’s purpose. At this Table, through brokenness Christ brings us into wholeness. Not because we asked for it, not because we deserved it, but because it is Christ’s mission, and He will not be deferred. So come to the feast He has prepared. (Teri Peterson)

Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden; cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, so that we may truly love you and worthily praise your holy name; through our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The apostle Paul tells us of the institution of the Lord’s Supper:

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’

In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Loving God, we praise and thank you for your love shown to us in Jesus Christ. We thank you for his life and ministry, announcing the good news of your kingdom and demonstrating its power in the lifting of the downtrodden, and the healing of the sick, and the loving of the loveless. We thank you for his sacrificial death upon the cross for the redemption of the world, and for your raising him to life again, as a foretaste of the glory we shall share. We give you thanks for this bread and wine, symbols of our world and signs of your transforming love. Send your Holy Spirit, we pray, that we may be renewed into the likeness of Jesus Christ and formed into his Body. This we pray in his name and for his sake. Amen.

BREAD: Jesus said, ‘This is my body which is for you; do this in memory of me’.

CUP: In the same way, he took the cup after supper, and said: ‘This cup is the new covenant sealed by my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this in memory of me.’

[Serving of elements]

Take this in remembrance that Christ died for you and feed on him in your heart by faith. Drink this and remember that Christ’s blood was shed for you and be thankful.