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The Nineteenth Sunday
after Trinity.
The Collect.
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O
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GOD, forasmuch as
without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy
Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.
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A
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fter this there was a
feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.2 Now there is at
Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue
Bethesda, having five porches. 3In these lay a great multitude of impotent
folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the
Jesus
has gone up to Jerusalem at the feast of the Jews. This feast is considered, by
most traditional Bible scholars, to have been the Passover. I concur in
the view of these. That feast must surely have been the Passover. It is
very appropriate that He be present at EVERY Passover, for He has become our
Great Passover and the Lamb Without Blemish slain on the Eve of His last
Passover on earth. The sheep market was just outside the gate of the
Sheep Gate referred to in Nehemiah 3:1. It is altogether appropriate that
Christ should come to that Gate on the eastern walls of Jerusalem for He is our
Lamb of Sacrifice and the Sun of righteousness which shall arise (from the
East) with “Healing in His wings.” (Malachi
4:2)
Moreover, it is a lovely place to which He has come (the Pool of Bethesda)
which, interpreted, means House of Mercy. Christ, thanks be to God, is our
Bethesda – our House and Ark of Mercy. When we come to this pool for the
healing of our souls, the moment of our visitation and healing is altogether
dependent on the discretion of Heaven and not our own. We patiently await the
movement of God in the things we need for His timing will always be the perfect
moment to answer our prayers.
“After this there was a feast of the
Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.” Christ “went up to Jerusalem” to
this Passover. If we will go up to the Passover of our souls, we must arise
from our common labors and be about – not our own devices and pleasures – but
the work of our Father in Heaven. The direction to the Narrow Gate is
always upward.
“Now there
is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew
tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of
impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.
For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the
water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was
made whole of whatsoever disease he had.” The Lamb of God comes to this
sheep market place. You and I were these sheep without a shepherd until that
Lamb came to us, knowing our hurts and needs as One like unto us, and became
the Great Shepherd of His sheep. We waited alone in the market place, being
bought and sold by men, until Christ came and laid claim to His sheep. There at
the Sheep Gate, though a place of barter of souls, yet there is also a House of
Mercy (Bethesda) into which we may run as shelter from having our souls sold
out by the world. But we enter that House on the terms of God and not on those
of our own making. “…whosoever then first after the troubling of the
water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.” Do you
not find great consolation in the term “whosoever.?” We know immediately that
‘whosoever’ can mean you and me as well. All we need do is come to the House of
Mercy and wait upon the provision of God to heal all our wounds.
Now
comes another term that is different from that of ‘whosoever’ for it points to
a definite identity: the word here that I love is ‘certain.’ “And a certain
man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.”
This is no ‘certain man’ by accident, but a certain man whom Christ has come to
visit by His own choice – just like you and me who have been blessed to
encounter Christ as His ‘certain men and women, boys and girls.’ We laid our
souls by the House of Mercy and at our Time of visitation, He came to us. Now,
to know this beautiful truth beautiful truth fills my heart with a burning love
and gratitude to that Dispenser of Pure Grace called My Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ!
Though
our souls feel to be at the very center of the Wilderness as was poor Hagar,
the Lord sees us. She called the Fountain where the Angel of the Lord found her,
The Well Of The Living One Who Sees Me (Beerlahairoi). (Gen 16:13-14) What beautiful strokes of vivid color does the Master paint upon
the canvas of our lives? “When Jesus saw him lie” yes, and
not just at this moment, but for all the years of the man’s misery!
“When
Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he
saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?” Is this not a
very simple question, and does it need an answer? Yes, even though it is the
greatest desire of the afflicted man, he MUST answer this question just as you
and I must answer it for the healing of our souls. Being made whole is much
more than a healing of our physical ailments, but a wholeness in body, soul,
and spirit. Our most grievous affliction is our sin before God. It is this
affliction that will bring not only physical death, but eternal death without
the Grace ad Mercy of God.
Of
course, the man desires to be made whole, but there is no help forthcoming from
any other than Christ. The healing of the leprosy of sin cannot be healed by
man. “The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water
is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth
down before me.” Many times even the disciples tried to step in between
Christ and those wanting mercy, but Christ would not allow it. He suffered the
little children to come unto Him, the blind Bartemeus, and the woman from the
coast of Tyre and Sidon over the objections of those closest to Him. No man can
prevent our access to Christ!
“Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy
bed, and walk.” Why wallow in our misery while Christ is near? Why slumber on the
water’s edge when the Water of Life stands at the ready to lift us in? It is
not a request that we rise up and walk, but a command! If we possess the sure
mercies of David, why linger fasting in the Wilderness. We should not only walk
where we were unable in times past, but carry our beds as well in doing good
and serving others. And to what result? “And immediately the man was made
whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the Sabbath.”
Don’t we see that this poor man, though carrying his bed, had complete rest on
this Sabbath Day? His Eternal Sabbath was realized in Christ!
Guess
who is watching and burning in wrath and malice? “The Jews therefore said
unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to
carry thy bed. He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto
me, Take up thy bed, and walk.” These men were more concerned about prying
particulars than they were about life and healing and truth – as always. This
man answers that he cares not about the violation of one of their onerous
mandates, but he does care that the Lord has healed him.
“Then asked they him, What man is that
which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? And he that was healed
wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in
that place.” Jesus may not choose to reveal Himself to us in the crowds,
but in a place apart. It is not the influence of the multitudes that bring us
to Christ, but Christ Himself. “Afterward Jesus findeth him in the
temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a
worse thing come unto thee.” After finding our wounded persons on the Road
to Jericho, and healing us to wholeness, the Lord next finds us in His holy
Temple which is the heart in which He resides. He will most often reveal
Himself to us behind those closed chambers of our hearts. His counsel to the
man to “sin no more” is ample evidence that the man was forgiven his sins as
well as healed physically.
The
man now understands the depth of his healing because he has come to know the
greatness of his Redeemer. “The man departed, and told the Jews that it
was Jesus, which had made him whole. And therefore did the Jews persecute
Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath
day.” Please note that it was the crippled man who carried his bed on
the Sabbath – not Christ. It is for the goodness of His healing the desperate
cripple alone that prompted these murderous vultures to desire to kill Christ.
My
friend, if you have been found by the wayside of the traffic of life by the
loving Savior, have you heard His voice and responded to His invitation. “Wilt thou be made
whole?” If so, why linger beside the pool at Bethesda without getting
up? Why not take up your former prison (bed), and walk as a new creature in Him
who has made you whole?
Do so
today!
