GET UP! PICK UP YOUR MAT AND WALK

John 5:1-18 #12

Key Verse: 5:8

Many men spend their lives waiting for someone else to help them. They expect people to help, but no one can really solve another man's basic problem. Friends or family may give temporary help, but when it becomes a question of who gets to the pool first, everyone pushes the other fellow aside, because only the first man in the pool is healed. Sinful men wait for other people to help them and then become bitter when no one does. God is not pleased with a beggar's mentality. Jesu warned this man to quit his sins. But it seems that he continued his habit of blaming all his troubles on someone else. When it looked as if he were going to get in trouble, he blamed Jesus for making him break the Sabbath Law.

In this event, Jesus begins showing to the Jewish leaders his grace and truth. The Jews, religious and political leaders, saw the power of God working in Jesus to heal a man. But they did not love God or man. They saw in Jesus' actions a challenge to their own power. They didn't thank Jesus for healing this poor man. Instead, they persecuted him for working on the Sabbath. Jesus used this opportunity to teach the truth about God's love and power. He said, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." Jesus did not work on his own. He participated in what God was doing. Jesus made it clear that he is the Son of God. He came into a world filled with sickness and sin and envy and hatred. He came to solve man's basic problem problem. Man cannot help himself, but God can help him. Man is foolish to look at other weak men for help. Only the love and power of God in Christ can free men from sin and law and make men whole.

Jesus came at great personal cost. He came and challenged the evil power of corrupt leaders. He challenged evil with acts wiich revealed God's love and power. In him was grace and truth. The Jewish leaders tried to kill him--and they finally did. He died to make men truly free. When he healed this sick man, he spoke with a word of power. He challenged the man's laziness and dependance on others--he said, Get up! Pick up your mat and walk. He made this man get up and carry his own burden and walk by himself. Jesus is the Son of God. He is the Word who became flesh and made his dwelling among us. He is full of grace and truth.