By Canaan Chapman
Scripture Reading: John 5:1-30, Exodus 20:8-11, Luke 6:1-11
Today’s reading tells a simple story of beautiful healing—but the implications are monumental. I hope I never stop considering how much fallout came from what Jesus did. Miracle after miracle, He made waves. Yet it wasn’t just the healing in today’s reading that stirred people up. Jesus claimed to be equal with God, pointing to His alignment with the Father’s will as the source of His power and purpose. Despite the persecution, status quo, or world around us, shouldn’t that be our source too?
We learn about God and His nature when we read about the healing at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus stirred up controversy by healing a paralyzed man on the Sabbath, a day when no work was supposed to be done. And the Jewish leaders were outraged when they saw the healed man pick up his mat and walk away.
Jesus knew the man had suffered for thirty-eight years. The spiritual leaders could have helped at any point but never did. Does this reveal something about their hearts? So why did Jesus choose that day to heal the lame man? Given that Jesus and the disciples were likely in Jerusalem for several days, wouldn’t healing the man earlier or later have avoided controversy? Jesus could’ve healed this man at any point and (likely) could have caused less of a problem…except Jesus did it when He did.
It’s almost like Jesus wanted the attention of the religious leaders. The Jews weren’t upset only because of the healing (the “work” being done) but because of Jesus’s marvelous claim too. What were those claims? Jesus claimed to be equal with God and have power over life and death. And He later made it clear there were other people who could attest to that power too.
Obedience to God’s will is both beautiful and deeply challenging. It’s breathtakingly bold. It’s comforting. The religious leaders may have seen this healing as breaking the law, but Jesus saw it as fulfilling His alignment with God’s will. This story is an invitation to ask ourselves the question I posed in the beginning: Is alignment with God our source of power and purpose? Do we fear persecution and shaking up the status quo or are we motivated by the need of the world around us?
God is purposeful, compassionate, and oriented toward restoration and redemption. Jesus’s compassion reveals that God’s will is rooted in justice, mercy, and healing, even if He went against the religious customs of the day. God is working! Can we join in? Practically, we can follow Jesus’s example by consciously seeking God’s will in our everyday choices—perhaps finding that we can’t (nor should we) do anything on our own is a liberation we need to embrace! When we hear, judge, and act, let’s hear, judge, and act like Jesus—in alignment with God.
Written by Canaan Chapman
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