AmazedNäide

An Unwelcome Miracle

It should have caused a celebration. A man who had been crippled for thirty-eight years, hoping and praying he might someday walk, hears a stranger (Jesus) say, “Do you want to get well?” The man then gave a less-than-hopeful answer, but Jesus told him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked” (John 5:8-9, NIV). Just like creation, all it took was a word from the Word (Genesis 1:1-2, John 1:1), and the seemingly impossible became possible. And what should have caused a celebration resulted in hostility toward Jesus.

Since the healing occurred on the Sabbath, along with a command to do work (“pick up your mat”), in one miraculous moment, Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28), was accused of violating the Sabbath by the religious leaders. As a result, “... the Jewish leaders began to persecute him” (v.16). This set the stage for Jesus to expound on who he is and his authority as Lord and God.

As tensions escalate, Jesus refuses to retreat. Not because he was looking for a “fight.” He was taking the opportunity to teach who he was in the hope that people would believe. So instead of calming the storm with a touch of “spiritual correctness,” Jesus makes a definitive declaration. John wrote: “In his defense Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working’” (John 5:17). By saying “My Father,” Jesus just went to “strike three” with the religious leaders.

With that phrase, Jesus was equating himself with God which increased tensions, For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (v.18). A double Sabbath violation (from the perspective of the religious leaders) is one thing, but to claim that you’re God is a capital offense. And while Jesus would eventually lay down his life (John 10:11), at this moment, he was announcing who he was and what he could do. And what he would do.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for coming into the world and revealing yourself and your Father. Please help me to approach each day with a sense of hope and purpose.

John 5:1-18