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The Healing at the Pool

Part 2

John 5v9b-14

Following on from last week, we read:

John 5v9b-14
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat." But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'" So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"
The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."

When you first experience the love and power of God first-hand, it's not surprising when others seek to understand what happened. Sadly, and all too often, what we find instead is that those around us want to criticise our experience, and cast doubt on the idea that God had anything to do with it. It's sadder still when the sceptics are people who think they know something about spiritual matters.

It was the people John describes as "the Jews" - probably the Pharisees or other religious leaders - who were so ready to undermine the man's experience. They couldn't understand how God would heal on the Sabbath and, if they couldn't understand it, then it must be a bad thing! The man had obeyed Jesus; he had risen up and carried his mat, and those who considered themselves authorities on spiritual things immediately told him he must not do what Jesus told him to do. Today, we get scepticism from some Christians, but mostly we get it from the leaders of the new religion, those who worship at the intellectual tomb of Richard Dawkins, who take their religious dogma from secular humanism and "progressive" politics, and pantheists who worship the Earth, rather than its creator. They think God wouldn't dare to do something that their science cannot explain, or their liberal sensitivities would not approve of. Many are convinced there is no God, because they can't prove Him scientifically. In doing so, they practise bad science, because they can't disprove Him scientifically either. Good science would say the existence of God has not been answered by science. Very good science would say that the existence of God cannot be answered by science and that, therefore, scientists should not presume to have any special right to pontificate about it.

When these self-important critics asked the man who had healed him, he had no idea. And sometimes we can experience the grace of Jesus Christ before we find out who it is that's looking after us. But John says that Later Jesus found him. Jesus seeks us out and finds us, and reveals Himself to us, and then we can pour out our gratitude to Him for healing, protecting and forgiving us.

The words of Jesus that John records are, however, not a blank cheque to receive God's grace while ignoring His righteousness. Jesus says Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.

We see from this story that Jesus offers His amazing healing, saving, redeeming power to all who respond in obedience. We also see that He requires repentance as well as faith and that, without repentance, we will end up worse that we were before.

But having met Jesus Christ and been touched and healed by Him, why would we not try to express our gratitude in every possible way? And what better way to start than by seeking to live a holy life?