This week I participated in more than one conversation about sickness, prayer for healing, and how God still works today. Good reminders for us to not put God “in a box.” To watch and notice in wonder God’s miracles, large and small today. Miracles are simply things that don’t make sense in the natural world. An accident may result in a fracture, but we rejoice when surgery isn’t needed. An illness may prevail, with much spiritual growth taking place in the patient or others.
In this passage, John used half a dozen words to describe sickness and infirmity.
In contrast, he used only three words to describe healing.
- A person may be made whole and healthy.
- We may be cured, or healed, to serve and minister.
- The third word used for healed draws attention to the Lord as the healer.1
Read John 5:1-8.
- If Jesus went to Jerusalem for a(nother) Jewish feast, would this be whatever comes after Passover?
- The pool Bethesda was known as a healing pool, and the name means “house of mercy.”2
- People weakened by sickness and various ailments waited under covered porches near the pool.
- Those who gathered there were blind, lame, or paralyzed.
- They watched and waited, expecting the waters to move, stirred at certain times by an angel.3
- Whoever entered the water first after the stirring was made healthy and whole from their particular disease.
- John recorded the history of the man Jesus healed.
- He had waited by the pool for thirty-eight years—since before Jesus was born.
- His infirmity was paralysis as a result of his sickness.4
- Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be made whole and healthy?”5
- Rather than a simple yes or no answer, the man gave an excuse.
- He had no one to carry him to the water for healing.
- In this passage, Jesus was the only one who used the word “rise up.”
- It takes action on our part to move toward wellness.
- Get up from your current situation.
- Instead of seeking someone to carry you, carry your mat.
- Pick up whatever you have with you.
- Go—re-enter the world.
- Practice what Jesus says.
*What excuses do we make for not seeking wholeness and healing?
*Why might Jesus instruct us to carry our “stuff” with us?
*What do you think Jesus implied in his instructions to the man?
Read John 5:9-15.
- The healing and resulting action happened immediately.
- Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath, a holy day set aside as belonging to God.
“For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:11).
- The Jews had many rules about the Sabbath, dictating exactly how to “not work” and honor God.
- Man’s religious rules, not God’s.
- According to Jesus, God created us to belong to him.
- Another time in Jesus’ early ministry, he said,
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).
- The Jews spoke to the man who had been healed.
- The word used in this verse is the word that can refer to healing to serve or minister.6
- They asked him why he was carrying something. Not, wow, you’re healed.
- They claimed his actions were unlawful, not permitted.
- The man’s response was he simply obeyed.
- We don’t know why Jesus slipped away into the crowd, since later he spoke with the man at the temple.
- Perhaps Jesus wanted to caution him against his sin in a less crowded place, or, in the temple, where the man might be more open to a spiritual discussion.
- Jesus told the man to stop doing wrong, or he might experience something more severe.
- It sounds as if Jesus made a connection between sin and sickness in verse 14. In verse 5, John used a word that referred to paralysis as a consequence of sickness.
- About a year and a half later,7 Jesus said not all sickness is directly related to sin. Regarding a man blind from birth, Jesus said,
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned, … but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him’” (John 9:3).
- That said, some illness may also require spiritual restoration.8
“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’” (John 5:14, Jesus).
“Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 11:28-30, Paul).
“And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:15-16).
- Once the man knew who Jesus was, he told the Jewish leaders who healed him.
*Why might the man have been guilty of often making excuses?
*What sin might Jesus have cautioned him against?
*How might James explain the relationship between illness and sin?
Who is ultimately responsible for our healing?
- Bible Hub. https://biblehub.com/greek/2390.htm
- Zodhiates, 333, 876
- Zodhiates, 68, 536.
- Zodhiates, 272.
- Zodhiates, 1403.
- Zodhiates, 732.
- F. LaGard Smith, The Narrated Bible in Chronological Order, (Harvest House Publishers, 1984), 1377-1378, 1416, 1420.
- Sam Allberry, Ðoes Sin Cause Sickness?”, The Gospel Coalition, February 8, 2016
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/does-sin-cause-sickness/