Reflective Bible Study

In our last episode, we began looking at the event where Jesus healed the paralyzed man by the pool of Bethesda. However, like many of the previous events we have looked at this year, this one contained more than one episode could handle, and we finished our last episode before the event had finished.

We left off immediately following Jesus healing the man, but before we discovered what happened next. Let’s read this whole event, and then focus in on the conclusion and what we can learn about what Jesus felt was important for us to pay attention to.

Our passage for this episode is found in the gospel of John, chapter 5, and we will be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five colonnades. ³ Within these lay a large number of the sick—blind, lame, and paralyzed.

⁵ One man was there who had been sick for 38 years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the sick man answered, “I don’t have a man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk!” ^9a Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

In our last episode, we stopped reading at this point, but this is the point in our event when things are about to get even more interesting. Continuing in the second half of verse 9, John tells us that:

^9b Now that day was the Sabbath, ¹⁰ so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It’s illegal for you to pick up your mat.”

¹¹ He replied, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹² “Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked. ¹³ But the man who was cured did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴ After this, Jesus found him in the temple complex and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

In this passage, we discover that Jesus had the audacity to heal this hurting man on the Sabbath, the day set aside for rest and for focusing on God. Work wasn’t just discouraged, it was prohibited, and the religious leaders kept a long list of what we could call “clarification laws” in place to determine whether an activity could be classified as work or not. One such prohibition was carrying your sleeping mat.

This then prompts the question in my own mind of why Jesus would heal this man on the Sabbath when any other day of the week would do? If you are remotely familiar with the gospels, you will know that many of Jesus’ healing miracles were done on the Sabbath, and Jesus didn’t seem to even remotely consider healing to be against the day God set aside for rest.

Since Jesus seemed to be so relaxed about what it meant to honor and remember the Sabbath, should we be as relaxed as Jesus was? If God set the Sabbath aside as holy, and Jesus acted indifferent towards it, does that mean that we can act indifferent towards it as well?

This is where many Christians are today, but it is important to pay attention to the small detail that Jesus never acted with indifference towards the Sabbath. Instead, Jesus didn’t pay much attention to the religious leaders’ extra laws they had constructed around determining if one was properly keeping the Sabbath.

A great way to describe this attitude was if we were to drive along a road where the speed limit was 75 miles per hour, or for our friends outside of the United States, let’s say the speed limit was 120 kilometers per hour. Knowing that people like to push their limits, the religious leaders decide it’s best to set and enforce a lower speed limit, just to make sure the people don’t actually break the real speed limit. In our example, the religious leaders set their cautionary speed limit at 50 miles per hour, or 80 kilometers per hour.

Then Jesus comes along, and while everyone has gotten use to the idea of driving at the slower limits, Jesus decides He will drive at 70 miles per hour, or 110 kilometers per hour, which is within the actual speed limits of the road, but beyond the religious leaders’ arbitrarily imposed limits.

When we look at how Jesus treated the Sabbath, we never see Him break any of God’s laws regarding Sabbath observance, but we do see Him instruct others, we see His disciples, and we likely could even see Him break some of the religious leaders’ extra laws in place for the Sabbath. In the case of our miracle, nothing in God’s law prohibited a person from carrying their sleeping mat on the Sabbath. This was clearly a cautionary law intended to keep people from coming close to actually breaking the real laws. Jesus knew this, and the man probably knew this too, which is why he didn’t hesitate when Jesus told him to pick up his mat and go home.

It is also interesting that this man does not have faith in Jesus knowing who Jesus is. Perhaps he had prayed earlier that day for God to help him, and that is what prompted Jesus to stop by. Whatever the case was, when the man is challenged by the religious leaders for breaking their laws, he doesn’t know who Jesus was to be able to identify Jesus to these leaders.

Regardless of this detail though, the leaders almost were guaranteed to have attributed this miracle, and the lawlessness they saw in this healed man, to Jesus before the man even knew it was Jesus.

Does Jesus want us to break the law? No. When we break the law, we will face consequences. When we break the law of the country we are in, we face civil punishments; and when we break God’s law, we will face spiritual punishment. Jesus never advocated breaking civil or spiritual laws, but He was very clear that when there was a conflict between civil and spiritual laws, we are to abide by the spiritual laws and their standard over the civil laws that conflict.

In this event, we might think Jesus broke the spiritual law by healing on the Sabbath, but it is best for us to remember that the only laws broken in this passage were the unrealistic laws that the religious leaders had built up around the Sabbath in order to appear superior to others. Jesus never broke God’s law, and Jesus upheld God’s law to a level the religious leaders never even came close to. Jesus obeyed God’s law and He modeled obedience based on love and gratitude – and as followers of Jesus, we are called to obey, not because God will kill us if we don’t, but because we are thankful, grateful, and happy God sent Jesus to redeem us.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As always, intentionally seek God first and place Him first in your life. Choose to obey God’s law because you love God, and because you are thankful to God for everything He has already done for you. Obey because of what has already been given and not because you expect to be given anything more. Sure, God has promised us so much more, but obeying with the expectation of what we will get leads us towards the path of legalism and away from love. Obeying because we are grateful for what God has already done for us keeps us on the path of love.

Also, be sure to keep praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God. While others can give you great ideas to think about, filter everything you learn and see through the lens of God’s Word and use His word as your guide in life.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, chicken out of, or walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Continuing the theme we have been focusing on for the past few podcast episodes, we come to another passage where Jesus tries to warn His disciples about His upcoming death. However, this passage contains a unique detail in it which might shed light on why the disciples were so ignorant of Jesus’ repeated warnings.

Our passage for this episode is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read from the New International Version. Starting in verse 30, Mark tells us that:

³⁰ They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, ³¹ because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” ³² But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.

³³ They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” ³⁴ But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

³⁵ Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

³⁶ He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

In this passage, I find it interesting that Mark tells us that the disciples “did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it” when referring to Jesus teaching them and warning them about His upcoming death.

This teaches us that fear can stop us from asking the questions that God wants us to ask, and to push forward along the path God wants us to take.

However, why would the disciples be afraid to ask a simple question?

From what we have looked at so far, it seemed as though while Jesus stressed this warning and this prediction, the disciples remembered how Jesus challenged Peter when Peter challenged Jesus on this point. Jesus went so far as to call Peter Satan because of this lack of understanding. I wonder if some of the fear that the disciples had was because they didn’t want to be called out for not knowing or believing. This detail challenges us with the truth that pride in our lives can stop us from asking the questions God wants us to ask because we are afraid of what others might think of us.

We might be afraid because the question might sound inappropriate, because it reveals our ignorance or that we weren’t paying attention, or because we are simply scared of what the answer might be. Many things can stop us from asking the questions God wants us to ask, but we shouldn’t let fear control our journey with God!

This passage also hints at another reason the disciples did not understand Jesus’ clear warning about His upcoming death. When Jesus asks the disciples what they were arguing about while He was trying to teach them on the road while they were traveling earlier that day, the disciples refuse to answer because they knew they had argued about who was the greatest. While Jesus was trying to share with them what would happen soon, the disciples were too busy deciding who would take what place in the kingdom they believe Jesus would set up after overthrowing the Romans. The disciples had fame and status on their minds while Jesus was trying to teach them humility and that He would be crucified.

To help emphasize the point, Jesus called a child to Him and He uses this child as a clear visual illustration. Drawing our attention onto this point, remember that Jesus is in a home in Capernaum with His disciples. Remember also that Jesus doesn’t want everyone to know where He is because He wants more time to teach the disciples. This prompts the question: Where did this child come from?

Prior to reading this here, I had always pictured this event happening in a field, on a hill, or somewhere out in the open with crowds present. However, while there was at least one other time Jesus invited children to Him like that, in this passage and event, Jesus and the disciples were in a home with a closed door.

Two probable answers for this question come to mind. The first answer is that this child and his family had chosen to follow Jesus and they were included in the larger circle of disciples. One of the gospels mention a group of 72 followers of Jesus, and it is possible that this child was one of these followers, or that He was with his parents who were part of this larger group.

The other answer to this question about where the child came from is that the home Jesus was staying at might have had children in it. From other parts of the gospels, we can conclude that several of the disciples lived in Capernaum and we know that Peter was old enough to be married. If Jesus and the disciples were visiting Peter’s home, it is possible that this little child was Peter’s son or daughter.

However, while it may be fun to speculate about who the child is specifically, this detail is less relevant than who this child represents. While we can speculate about the details of this child, the bigger challenge is Jesus’ big idea: In order to be great in God’s eyes, we must welcome, help, and serve those who society believes are last.

While culture today seems to place an extraordinary focus on children, this was not the case in the first century. Prior to Christianity, children were seen as the lowest in society and in some cases, children were not even named until after a certain age because of high infant mortality and parents not wanting to get too attached.

Jesus’ challenge to His followers is to focus on service over status and look for ways to step down rather than step up. While many worldviews and religions stress the goals of stepping up, Jesus challenges His disciples to step down and serve. Stepping down is how we are seen as great in God’s eyes, and it is how we best represent Jesus.

When we welcome those who society has rejected, Jesus tells us we are not only welcoming Him too, but we are welcoming God, who looks down at this planet and sees all life as special and significant. Regardless of what culture tells you, in God’s eyes, you matter and regardless of what you might believe about yourself, Jesus came to redeem you from the punishment for your sins.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to step down and serve those who society looks down on. Never believe yourself to be above another person, but instead, choose to see the world as a place God has placed you in so you can help, serve, and be a light of God’s love to those He brings your way. While everything in culture focuses on building oneself up, choose instead to focus on building others up while giving glory and credit to Jesus.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each day. While pastors, authors, speakers, or even a podcaster can share or challenge you with interesting thoughts, take everything you learn and test it against the truth in the Bible. God wants a personal relationship with us and a personal relationship is best grown through spending time together. God does not want our relationship with Him to be dependent on anyone else.

Instead, bring your questions, your concerns, and your fears directly to God and let Him help you walk through the challenges of this life with Him by your side.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or be afraid of going where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!