Healing a sick man
Sermon date: 21st February 2021
Reading: John 5: 1-24
Icebreaker
Invite the group to share how they were brought up to regard Sundays? Did/do folk have particular rules or do you know of others who did/do? Are they biblical or more cultural in nature?
Context
We move on to Jesus’ third sign in the Gospel of John. You will recall the previous two in previous studies in this series: the turning of water into wine at the wedding in Cana (John 2: 1-12) and the healing of the official’s son (John 4: 46-54), both of which happened in Cana in Galilee which would have been regarded at the time as a rural backwater. But todays sign happens in Jerusalem, at the epicentre of the Jewish faith and in full view of many during a Jewish feast. It feels as though the heat is being turned up on Jesus ministry. Jesus chooses to perform his third sign on the sabbath, putting him squarely up against the religious authorities of the day. Is he out to pick an argument?
And while he is in the throes of an argument about the legality of performing signs on the sabbath, Jesus deftly introduces into the debate that he is the Son of God and essentially, together with His father, Lord of the Sabbath and all else. A message that was not well received by his critics.
The Sign: Read John 5 v 1-9
Nehemiah records the rebuilding of the Sheep Gate (Neh 3:1) “Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the Sheep Gate.” John Stott notes that a pool with five colonnades has been discovered in the location described in the north quarter of the city, reminding us this was an actual place. It seems that John is concerned that we know this from his detailed description.
Q1. Why do you think Jesus asked the man if he wanted to get well? Wasn’t the answer obvious?
· Maybe it is a question we might ask ourselves sometimes – the answer is maybe not always clear.
· In the Middle East as the time, begging was a way of getting income. What would he do instead?
· Was he prepared to put his faith in Jesus and risk change to get a better life?
Q2. What do you think of the man’s response? Can we identify with it?
It was hardly compelling. He does not commit himself to an answer but blames his circumstances and the lack of help from others. Maybe the man had just given up expecting things to be any different after 38 years. The incredible thing is that Jesus heals him anyway.
Q3. What better life might Jesus be inviting each of us to? What might we need to do to accept His offer?
The Aftermath: Read John 5 v 10-24
John is not specific about who took an interest in his healing activity on the sabbath, but John simply records that it was “the Jews”. Because of the nature of the reaction, it was likely to include Pharisees or those who followed their line of theology and dogma.
Q4. What is the complaint of the Jewish onlookers?
·They initially protest at the man carrying his mat which ultimately links Jesus and his healing to the man. Presumably once they had established that Jesus had performed the healing on the sabbath they were not happy about that either. It is against the myriad rules that had grown up around the sabbath. Theologian, Lesslie Newbiggin, observes that “The law of the sabbatical rest was perhaps the most important of all the bulwarks by which Judaism was protected from erosion by the encompassing paganism.” However, Exodus 20 v 8-11 simply prohibits work:
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labour and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 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.
Q5. Why do you think Jesus picked the sabbath to heal the man?
· It certainly gives his first miraculous sign in Jerusalem prominence. People are asking who he is and are left in no doubt. Those he needs to engage with are there on the festival sabbath.
· It gives him a natural platform to take on the Jewish oral tradition of amplifying the law which had led to a complex set of rules which valued compliance over love, central amongst which was sabbath rules.
· By implication, being lord of the sabbath with the Father makes Jesus lord of creation with the Father (Ex 20 v 11). A totally explosive implication with his hearers – so much so they want to murder him.
Q6. In what way does Jesus completely turn the conversation around in v 24?
· He has already stated that he is one with his Father (v 19-23).
· Now Jesus says that whoever hears his word and believes in the Father who sent him has eternal life (v24)……which makes trying to find redemption in observing and enforcing pointless and detailed sabbath rules somewhat of an irrelevance, especially when they are applied judgementally and legalistically and not in love.
Q7. Do people side-track us with religious “small stuff” when we are sharing our faith? How do we turn the conversation around to the big life-changing stuff?
Examples:
· I don’t like the stuffy old hymns….or maybe the happy-clappy music and hand waving!
· I have never liked the vicar! Why aren’t Christians all perfect?!
Prayer
· Give thanks for Jesus and that he gives life to whom he is pleased to give it (v 23)
· Pray that we might be blessed with an ability to speak truth and to be able to share the heart of our faith; that “whoever hears Jesus word and believes Him who sent him has eternal life and will not be condemned; they have crossed over from death to life” (v24)
Phil Marlow