By John Stallings
I love the story of the old farmer who was riding down the road in his horse & buggy when a car came up over the hill hitting him head-on & knocking him, his horse & dog in the ditch.
A few months later he was in court suing the driver of the car that hit him for damages.
The attorney for the man who hit the farmer was cross examining him & asked, “Sir, did you not tell the officer on the scene of the accident, “I’m feeling very well thank you?” “Yes I did tell the officer that” the man said, “but, let me tell you the whole story.” “No” the attorney said, “just answer the question, did you or did you not tell the officer on the scene, “I’m feeling very well thank you?”
“Yes” the man said, “I did tell the officer on the scene, I’m feeling very well thank you, but….The attorney breaking in asked, “How can you be in this courtroom asking for a personal injury settlement for this accident when you clearly told the officer on the scene that you were feeling very well?”
The farmer said, “Sir, if you’ll let me explain I think I can clear this up for you. I was driving my horse & buggy along with my dog sitting at my side when this man came over the hill & hit us destroying my buggy & throwing me in the ditch on one side of the road, & my horse & dog in the ditch on the other side of the road.
The officer you refer to came up, walked up to my horse, saw his legs were broken & shot him. Then he saw my dog was almost dead & shot him. Then he walked over to me & asked, “How are you feeling, whereupon I answered, I’m feeling very well thank you.”
Have you ever been in a ditch, bruised cut & bleeding but still trying to keep up appearances, telling people—“ I’m doing very well thank you?” You were putting on a facade that you were well when you weren’t well at all.
In John 5:6 & following, there’s the familiar story of Jesus’ encounter with the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda. This man had been lying beside the pool 38 years. Some people who’ll read this message weren’t on earth 38 years ago. Others, like me, will remember what was happening back then but we must confess it was a long time ago. If this were you, you’d have been paralyzed since 1970.
38 years ago Richard Nixon was president of the US.
38 years ago the lunar spacecraft Apollo 13 was almost a catastrophe.
38 years ago National Guardsmen fired into crowd at Kent state killing four antiwar demonstrators.
38 years ago a powerful earthquake killed 50,000 in Peru.
38 years ago an antiwar rally was held at Valley Forge Pennsylvania, attended by John Kerry, Jane Fonda & Donald Sutherland.
38 years ago the Baltimore Orioles won the World Series.
38 years ago “I know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou is published.
38 years ago “The long and winding Road” becomes the Beatles last Number 1 song in the US.
38 years is a long time to be lying around a pool waiting to be healed of lameness.
JESUS NEVER CRITICIZED THIS MAN
As you well know Jesus could get rough with people but He never takes a critical tone with this paralyzed man. I know the Bible doesn’t give us all the details because if it did, it would be so big it would take a boxcar to carry it. But if ever a man could have been raked over the coals it was this man.
“38 years? You mean you’ve been here for 38 years? My, my, man; what’s the matter with you? Your life has passed you by. You may as well forget about it. There’s no way you can tell me you want a life!” But Jesus has no criticism for this man who seems to us to be motivationally challenged.
I’m doing more of a critique of him than Jesus did. I’ve heard preachers call him lazy & many other things, but not Jesus. You & I look at those 38 years & scratch our heads & say, “Well you must be used to it by now, & anyway, after all those years you’ll never really change.”
But let’s be real here. How long have we struggled with the same old problems? How long have we let our fears dominate us? Some of us if we’re totally honest will have to admit we’re still wrestling with the same fears, the same hang-ups & the same doubts we had fifty years ago. We have cut deep grooves into our psyches & behavior patterns & maybe we’ve acquiesced just as truly as this man at the pool. Maybe we’ve even given up on ever changing certain things in our lives because of the sheer amount of time they’ve been with us.
This story is different because it gives us a time-frame & shows us that even long-standing problems aren’t beyond the miracle touch of Jesus.
JESUS ASKED THE RIGHT QUESTION BUT GOT THE WRONG ANSWER.
One thing we see in the narrative is that this lame man doesn’t ask Jesus for help. As a matter fact he doesn’t even know who Jesus is.
We don’t know why Jesus chose this man particularly, but we do know one of His great characteristics was compassion. Jesus asked him if he wanted to be made whole, but the question was ignored. The man started complaining that when the waters were troubled there was no one to help him get into the pool. He blamed others for his condition. Like those who are always blaming other people, he was living in the land of Excusiopolis near the River of De’Nial.
Jesus obviously could see that the man was lame but notice; He didn’t ask the man if he wanted to get up & walk.-- “Do you want to walk,” would have seemed to be the right question but instead Jesus asked another question; Wilt thou be made whole?” Again, the lame man didn’t give Jesus an immediate answer. He didn’t quickly respond, “Yes sir, Jesus, that’s what I need. I need to be made whole.” No, the man started telling Jesus how hard it was with no one to help him to get into the pool & be healed.
HE WAS A PERPETUAL VICTIM
Every time he would try to get into the pool when the waters were troubled, someone would step in front of him to thwart his progress.
“Victimization.” There’s a word we’ve all become familiar with over the last few years. This happens when a person sees themselves as a victim of society, or a victim of their upbringing. They will often use the analogy, “Life has dealt me a lousy hand of cards.” The following are dead giveaways to tell if an individual is a “victim;”
· Victims endlessly repeat how they’ve been mistreated.
· Victims live in the fantasy that life should be fair.
· Victims don’t forgive for they see forgiveness as weakness.
· Victims have little or no close relationships because they can’t trust other people.
· The cry of the perpetual victim is, “It’s not my fault.”
HEALTHY PEOPLE DON’T MAKE EXCUSES
The question Jesus asked, you’d think would be asked by a modern mental health professional. Jesus, knowing all things, understood that there might be reasons the man wanted to remain as he was. After all, to be made whole is an awesome responsibility. To be made whole would sweep away all the excuses that a person had accumulated in life for not being productive. This man may have been enjoying bad health for 38 years. This may sound strange to you but for this man to be made whole would mean that he loses a cushy profession, begging. Horror of horrors, this man might mess around & get so healthy he’ll have to find a job.
As a matter of fact, even today street beggars can make a rather nice living. In some foreign countries, people will actually cripple their own children so they will be more effective begging on the streets.
I read about one young man who was so determined not to be drafted & serve in the Armed Services that he went down & had all his teeth pulled; disqualifying him from service. When Selective Service called him in for a physical, they found he had flat-feet & couldn’t serve anyway.
Another way to put it; getting this man up & walking would be like asking people of our day to get off Welfare. I’ve heard that we now have second & third generations of Welfare families. This isn’t said as a put-down to people who actually need help.
There are even parents who want their child to be slightly sick or to suffer from some imagined illness because they can then get pity & attention for themselves as well as the child. There’s even a name for such a malady; Munchhausen’s by Proxy. [MBPS]This is the name given to parents, usually a mother who uses one or more of her children to get constant medical attention as well as playing on the sympathy of caring people.
I once knew a lady who gave her only son an imaginary heart problem for reasons of getting sympathy. This doesn’t even take into account the ways in which she & her husband always played sick. I once came close to telling her, “cheer up sister, you’ll soon be dead.”
Because as her pastor I wanted to know the truth, we asked the Doctor & he paid us the professional courtesy of telling us that her child had a sound heart. But the mother persisted in the self-delusion that her little boy was sick. There are children on record who’ve undergone dozens of unnecessary surgeries trying to find some phantom illness suggested by the primary care-giver.
As for this lady, there was sickness involved here but not the sort she had in mind.
Jesus gave the lame man three instructions; Rise, - take up your bed, - and walk. There was a call to action from Jesus, telling the man to do something he was convinced he couldn’t do. Let’s look at Jesus’ first command;
1. GET-UP!
In essence Jesus was telling the man he’d been lying on his mat long enough.
I heard the story of a man who woke up one morning & as he sleepily lay there in his bed he asked God, “Lord what wonderful things do you have for me today? What roads will I travel, who will I meet today & what am I going to be able to accomplish for you on this great & glorious new day you’ve so graciously given to me?”
Then God answered, “Well, the first thing we’ve got to do is get you out of this bed.” That’s true of all of us is it not? We may have all kinds of grandiose visions, dreams & great intentions but none of it will happen as long as we lay in bed.
What kind of mat are you lying on?
Are you lying on the mat of resentment?
Are you an anger-invalid?
Are you regret cripple?
Are you on the mat of fear of rejection?
When Jesus restored Simon Peter, he gave him something to do. He said, “Peter, feed my sheep. Get going in your ministry.”
I love Ephesians 5:14. In that verse, Paul says to the people,
· Awake thou that sleepest,
· Rise from the dead,
· And Christ shall give you light.
Some people say, “Lord give me some light & I’ll wake up & rise from my deadness.” But the instructions are, -- awake, -- rise from the dead, & then--- Christ will give us light.
We want God to give us a victory while we’re lying at the pool, then when all His strength & power comes in, we’ll get up & start moving. But it doesn’t work that way. We have to get up first. It’s true with me & probably you also, that we’re weaker at the point of action than any other place. The talking is relatively easy & the dreaming is not all that difficult but it’s the getting up to execute the plan of action where we often falter.
James 4:8 says---Draw nigh to God & He’ll draw nigh to you.
Psalms tells us God inhabits the praises of His people. That presupposes that there have to be some praises first, then God will get in the Praise.
Have you ever noticed that faith in the Bible is always a verb? It’s always something someone did. As far as I’m aware, there’s only one verse in the Bible that tells us in words what faith is & that’s Hebrews 11:1. Everywhere else in that famous faith chapter, faith is an action. By faith Noah built an Ark. By faith Moses led God’s people out of Egyptian bondage. By faith Abraham went out looking for a city whose builder was God.
Isn’t it interesting, though elementary, that we don’t receive strength in our physical bodies by resting? A fighter doesn’t say, “I’ve got a big fight coming up so I guess I’ll go to bed for a few weeks & rest up & marshal up all my strength for the big fight.” No! If the fighter or any sports practitioner wants to be at his peak strength, he realizes he/she must get out & put their bodies through a grueling set of strength building exercises & that’s how the strength comes. We get strength as we extend strength.
Jesus told the man first to get-up, & then He said,
2. GET OVER IT.
“Take up your mat…..” Jesus wanted to man to start carrying the thing that had been carrying him. Jesus was getting through to this man that this wasn’t the final chapter of his life. He was going to leave this pool & never look back. He wasn’t going to write a book about cripple ness or go on a tour & tell people how it felt to be crippled. He was going to walk “in newness of life.”
Jesus didn’t want this lame man after he was healed to trade one mat for another mat. People in the drug rehab business will sometimes get folk off one drug & get them hooked on another one. Or they’ll get off the drug & their “new mat” will be co-dependence on a person. Are you on a “medication mat? Are you one a “food mat?” We need to be careful when we get off our mat that we don’t end up on another mat.
Some people get delivered from one mat but then their treatment becomes their new illness. Their new mat. Jesus told this man to carry his mat away. I think the mentoring programs can be indispensable but they can also become destructive if the mentor doesn’t know when to let the protege’ graduate so that they’ll not always be leaning on them. The idea is to stand up on our own two feet.
IT’S IMPORTANT FOR A RECOVERING PERSON TO PARTNER WITH SOMEONE WHO WANTS THEM OFF THEIR MAT.
There are some people who’re as good as gold but they love to cater to people & in order to do it they will need to keep that person dependant on them. The ministry of “helps” is a wonderful ministry but it shouldn’t be coupled with enabling. The person needing deliverance does need support & understanding but the last thing they need is someone who has an investment in keeping them helpless.
Even former president Gerald Ford admitted late in his life that for years when his wife Betty was leaning on drugs & alcohol, he was functioning as an enabler for her, not realizing it. That’s why many times the person who lives with an addicted person needs help as bad as the hooked person does, & often doesn’t even realize it. All they know is that they love the person & to them, [at least until they know better,] they should be catering to there needs.
I don’t mean this in an uncompassionate way, because I’ve struggled with my weight almost all my life, & I understand the battle. But I’ve often wondered how the profoundly obese people, I’m talking about the ones who weigh from six to twelve hundred pounds. I wonder who in the world brings these people all that food. It’s an undeniable fact that someone, probably an enabler, gets out & rustles up the grub to keep that person eating.
I also have wondered why the obese persons don’t wake up at, oh, I don’t know, say a thousand pounds, & think, “hey, I’m getting huge here. Next they’ll have to take aerial pictures of me,” rather than wait until it takes a fork-lift to get them out of their house. But I digress.
Let me say something else here about enablers. I’m thinking more now about people who have problems that are sins rather than weaknesses. Let’s say a person has a problem having temper tantrums, cursing fits or engages in verbally abusing people. The people who are close to an individual like that need to realize that at some point they become a participator in the sin even though they themselves don’t engage in it.
A person participates in the sin of another when they praise, dismiss as unimportant, or laugh at the behavior. They can also participate in the sin of another by helping them conceal the problem by silence, by partially partaking with them in their sin, by aggravating the person’s problem, or by defending the behavior, or even in sympathizing with the person in their wrong behavior.
If you’ve ever dealt with people in groups of any size you know that problem people aren’t all that hard to deal with, because you can at least identify who they are. The real problem many times is good, honest, & conscientious people who support the problem person, catering to them instead of refusing to accept their wrong behavior & demanding that they shape up.
One of the earmarks of a real friend is that they’ll demand the best we have in us & they won’t laugh at or minimize shabby behavior.
In Romans 1:32, Paul talks about people who have pleasure in those who do evil deeds all the time knowing the conduct will bring eventually bring down the judgment of God.
Then Jesus gave this lame man a third command;
3. WALK
Jesus isn’t going to let this man continue in his –mat-mentality. He’s telling the man, --“Get on with it. Get on with life.” Walking is synonymous with going somewhere. If you’re not going anywhere, why do you need to walk? Jesus was saying, “Let’s close this chapter & open a new one. Let’s go somewhere. Let’s move away from the pool.”
Nothing happened to the man until he got up & put his mat on his shoulder, and then Jesus made him whole.
Do you remember the ten lepers who asked Jesus for healing? Usually Jesus would lay hands on a sick individual or at least say a prayer over them but in this case, Jesus did none of those things. He just told them to go show themselves to the priest & as they WALKED, they were healed.
Some of us have been on a mat of sameness, or comfort so long maybe we’re not sure we can survive anywhere else. Jesus wants us to get up & get out of our comfort zone & change our lives.
Jesus wanted the lame man to walk away from the problem that had him bound for 38 years.
Our Christian life is called a WALK in scripture. Paul tells us in Romans 6:4,
Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism unto death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should WALK in newness of life.
He also tells us in Ephesians 5 that we should ….WALK in love, and that we also….WALK circumspectly, not as fools but as wise…
John tells us in 1 John 1:7,--But if we WALK in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with the other…..
Are you languishing away on some mat, at some pool thinking life has passed you by? If so, let the story of the man at the pool of Bethesda speak to you. Jesus is the same yesterday, today & forever & He will help you rise & walk away from the things that have you bound.
We used to sing an old song;
GOT ANY RIVERS, YOU THINK ARE UNCROSSABLE,
GOT ANY MOUNTIANS YOU CAN’T TUNNEL THROUGH.
GOD SPECILIZES IN THINGS THOUGHT IMPOSSIBLE,
AND HE WILL DO WHAT NO OTHER POWER CAN DO.
Blessings,
I love the story of the old farmer who was riding down the road in his horse & buggy when a car came up over the hill hitting him head-on & knocking him, his horse & dog in the ditch.
A few months later he was in court suing the driver of the car that hit him for damages.
The attorney for the man who hit the farmer was cross examining him & asked, “Sir, did you not tell the officer on the scene of the accident, “I’m feeling very well thank you?” “Yes I did tell the officer that” the man said, “but, let me tell you the whole story.” “No” the attorney said, “just answer the question, did you or did you not tell the officer on the scene, “I’m feeling very well thank you?”
“Yes” the man said, “I did tell the officer on the scene, I’m feeling very well thank you, but….The attorney breaking in asked, “How can you be in this courtroom asking for a personal injury settlement for this accident when you clearly told the officer on the scene that you were feeling very well?”
The farmer said, “Sir, if you’ll let me explain I think I can clear this up for you. I was driving my horse & buggy along with my dog sitting at my side when this man came over the hill & hit us destroying my buggy & throwing me in the ditch on one side of the road, & my horse & dog in the ditch on the other side of the road.
The officer you refer to came up, walked up to my horse, saw his legs were broken & shot him. Then he saw my dog was almost dead & shot him. Then he walked over to me & asked, “How are you feeling, whereupon I answered, I’m feeling very well thank you.”
Have you ever been in a ditch, bruised cut & bleeding but still trying to keep up appearances, telling people—“ I’m doing very well thank you?” You were putting on a facade that you were well when you weren’t well at all.
In John 5:6 & following, there’s the familiar story of Jesus’ encounter with the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda. This man had been lying beside the pool 38 years. Some people who’ll read this message weren’t on earth 38 years ago. Others, like me, will remember what was happening back then but we must confess it was a long time ago. If this were you, you’d have been paralyzed since 1970.
38 years ago Richard Nixon was president of the US.
38 years ago the lunar spacecraft Apollo 13 was almost a catastrophe.
38 years ago National Guardsmen fired into crowd at Kent state killing four antiwar demonstrators.
38 years ago a powerful earthquake killed 50,000 in Peru.
38 years ago an antiwar rally was held at Valley Forge Pennsylvania, attended by John Kerry, Jane Fonda & Donald Sutherland.
38 years ago the Baltimore Orioles won the World Series.
38 years ago “I know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou is published.
38 years ago “The long and winding Road” becomes the Beatles last Number 1 song in the US.
38 years is a long time to be lying around a pool waiting to be healed of lameness.
JESUS NEVER CRITICIZED THIS MAN
As you well know Jesus could get rough with people but He never takes a critical tone with this paralyzed man. I know the Bible doesn’t give us all the details because if it did, it would be so big it would take a boxcar to carry it. But if ever a man could have been raked over the coals it was this man.
“38 years? You mean you’ve been here for 38 years? My, my, man; what’s the matter with you? Your life has passed you by. You may as well forget about it. There’s no way you can tell me you want a life!” But Jesus has no criticism for this man who seems to us to be motivationally challenged.
I’m doing more of a critique of him than Jesus did. I’ve heard preachers call him lazy & many other things, but not Jesus. You & I look at those 38 years & scratch our heads & say, “Well you must be used to it by now, & anyway, after all those years you’ll never really change.”
But let’s be real here. How long have we struggled with the same old problems? How long have we let our fears dominate us? Some of us if we’re totally honest will have to admit we’re still wrestling with the same fears, the same hang-ups & the same doubts we had fifty years ago. We have cut deep grooves into our psyches & behavior patterns & maybe we’ve acquiesced just as truly as this man at the pool. Maybe we’ve even given up on ever changing certain things in our lives because of the sheer amount of time they’ve been with us.
This story is different because it gives us a time-frame & shows us that even long-standing problems aren’t beyond the miracle touch of Jesus.
JESUS ASKED THE RIGHT QUESTION BUT GOT THE WRONG ANSWER.
One thing we see in the narrative is that this lame man doesn’t ask Jesus for help. As a matter fact he doesn’t even know who Jesus is.
We don’t know why Jesus chose this man particularly, but we do know one of His great characteristics was compassion. Jesus asked him if he wanted to be made whole, but the question was ignored. The man started complaining that when the waters were troubled there was no one to help him get into the pool. He blamed others for his condition. Like those who are always blaming other people, he was living in the land of Excusiopolis near the River of De’Nial.
Jesus obviously could see that the man was lame but notice; He didn’t ask the man if he wanted to get up & walk.-- “Do you want to walk,” would have seemed to be the right question but instead Jesus asked another question; Wilt thou be made whole?” Again, the lame man didn’t give Jesus an immediate answer. He didn’t quickly respond, “Yes sir, Jesus, that’s what I need. I need to be made whole.” No, the man started telling Jesus how hard it was with no one to help him to get into the pool & be healed.
HE WAS A PERPETUAL VICTIM
Every time he would try to get into the pool when the waters were troubled, someone would step in front of him to thwart his progress.
“Victimization.” There’s a word we’ve all become familiar with over the last few years. This happens when a person sees themselves as a victim of society, or a victim of their upbringing. They will often use the analogy, “Life has dealt me a lousy hand of cards.” The following are dead giveaways to tell if an individual is a “victim;”
· Victims endlessly repeat how they’ve been mistreated.
· Victims live in the fantasy that life should be fair.
· Victims don’t forgive for they see forgiveness as weakness.
· Victims have little or no close relationships because they can’t trust other people.
· The cry of the perpetual victim is, “It’s not my fault.”
HEALTHY PEOPLE DON’T MAKE EXCUSES
The question Jesus asked, you’d think would be asked by a modern mental health professional. Jesus, knowing all things, understood that there might be reasons the man wanted to remain as he was. After all, to be made whole is an awesome responsibility. To be made whole would sweep away all the excuses that a person had accumulated in life for not being productive. This man may have been enjoying bad health for 38 years. This may sound strange to you but for this man to be made whole would mean that he loses a cushy profession, begging. Horror of horrors, this man might mess around & get so healthy he’ll have to find a job.
As a matter of fact, even today street beggars can make a rather nice living. In some foreign countries, people will actually cripple their own children so they will be more effective begging on the streets.
I read about one young man who was so determined not to be drafted & serve in the Armed Services that he went down & had all his teeth pulled; disqualifying him from service. When Selective Service called him in for a physical, they found he had flat-feet & couldn’t serve anyway.
Another way to put it; getting this man up & walking would be like asking people of our day to get off Welfare. I’ve heard that we now have second & third generations of Welfare families. This isn’t said as a put-down to people who actually need help.
There are even parents who want their child to be slightly sick or to suffer from some imagined illness because they can then get pity & attention for themselves as well as the child. There’s even a name for such a malady; Munchhausen’s by Proxy. [MBPS]This is the name given to parents, usually a mother who uses one or more of her children to get constant medical attention as well as playing on the sympathy of caring people.
I once knew a lady who gave her only son an imaginary heart problem for reasons of getting sympathy. This doesn’t even take into account the ways in which she & her husband always played sick. I once came close to telling her, “cheer up sister, you’ll soon be dead.”
Because as her pastor I wanted to know the truth, we asked the Doctor & he paid us the professional courtesy of telling us that her child had a sound heart. But the mother persisted in the self-delusion that her little boy was sick. There are children on record who’ve undergone dozens of unnecessary surgeries trying to find some phantom illness suggested by the primary care-giver.
As for this lady, there was sickness involved here but not the sort she had in mind.
Jesus gave the lame man three instructions; Rise, - take up your bed, - and walk. There was a call to action from Jesus, telling the man to do something he was convinced he couldn’t do. Let’s look at Jesus’ first command;
1. GET-UP!
In essence Jesus was telling the man he’d been lying on his mat long enough.
I heard the story of a man who woke up one morning & as he sleepily lay there in his bed he asked God, “Lord what wonderful things do you have for me today? What roads will I travel, who will I meet today & what am I going to be able to accomplish for you on this great & glorious new day you’ve so graciously given to me?”
Then God answered, “Well, the first thing we’ve got to do is get you out of this bed.” That’s true of all of us is it not? We may have all kinds of grandiose visions, dreams & great intentions but none of it will happen as long as we lay in bed.
What kind of mat are you lying on?
Are you lying on the mat of resentment?
Are you an anger-invalid?
Are you regret cripple?
Are you on the mat of fear of rejection?
When Jesus restored Simon Peter, he gave him something to do. He said, “Peter, feed my sheep. Get going in your ministry.”
I love Ephesians 5:14. In that verse, Paul says to the people,
· Awake thou that sleepest,
· Rise from the dead,
· And Christ shall give you light.
Some people say, “Lord give me some light & I’ll wake up & rise from my deadness.” But the instructions are, -- awake, -- rise from the dead, & then--- Christ will give us light.
We want God to give us a victory while we’re lying at the pool, then when all His strength & power comes in, we’ll get up & start moving. But it doesn’t work that way. We have to get up first. It’s true with me & probably you also, that we’re weaker at the point of action than any other place. The talking is relatively easy & the dreaming is not all that difficult but it’s the getting up to execute the plan of action where we often falter.
James 4:8 says---Draw nigh to God & He’ll draw nigh to you.
Psalms tells us God inhabits the praises of His people. That presupposes that there have to be some praises first, then God will get in the Praise.
Have you ever noticed that faith in the Bible is always a verb? It’s always something someone did. As far as I’m aware, there’s only one verse in the Bible that tells us in words what faith is & that’s Hebrews 11:1. Everywhere else in that famous faith chapter, faith is an action. By faith Noah built an Ark. By faith Moses led God’s people out of Egyptian bondage. By faith Abraham went out looking for a city whose builder was God.
Isn’t it interesting, though elementary, that we don’t receive strength in our physical bodies by resting? A fighter doesn’t say, “I’ve got a big fight coming up so I guess I’ll go to bed for a few weeks & rest up & marshal up all my strength for the big fight.” No! If the fighter or any sports practitioner wants to be at his peak strength, he realizes he/she must get out & put their bodies through a grueling set of strength building exercises & that’s how the strength comes. We get strength as we extend strength.
Jesus told the man first to get-up, & then He said,
2. GET OVER IT.
“Take up your mat…..” Jesus wanted to man to start carrying the thing that had been carrying him. Jesus was getting through to this man that this wasn’t the final chapter of his life. He was going to leave this pool & never look back. He wasn’t going to write a book about cripple ness or go on a tour & tell people how it felt to be crippled. He was going to walk “in newness of life.”
Jesus didn’t want this lame man after he was healed to trade one mat for another mat. People in the drug rehab business will sometimes get folk off one drug & get them hooked on another one. Or they’ll get off the drug & their “new mat” will be co-dependence on a person. Are you on a “medication mat? Are you one a “food mat?” We need to be careful when we get off our mat that we don’t end up on another mat.
Some people get delivered from one mat but then their treatment becomes their new illness. Their new mat. Jesus told this man to carry his mat away. I think the mentoring programs can be indispensable but they can also become destructive if the mentor doesn’t know when to let the protege’ graduate so that they’ll not always be leaning on them. The idea is to stand up on our own two feet.
IT’S IMPORTANT FOR A RECOVERING PERSON TO PARTNER WITH SOMEONE WHO WANTS THEM OFF THEIR MAT.
There are some people who’re as good as gold but they love to cater to people & in order to do it they will need to keep that person dependant on them. The ministry of “helps” is a wonderful ministry but it shouldn’t be coupled with enabling. The person needing deliverance does need support & understanding but the last thing they need is someone who has an investment in keeping them helpless.
Even former president Gerald Ford admitted late in his life that for years when his wife Betty was leaning on drugs & alcohol, he was functioning as an enabler for her, not realizing it. That’s why many times the person who lives with an addicted person needs help as bad as the hooked person does, & often doesn’t even realize it. All they know is that they love the person & to them, [at least until they know better,] they should be catering to there needs.
I don’t mean this in an uncompassionate way, because I’ve struggled with my weight almost all my life, & I understand the battle. But I’ve often wondered how the profoundly obese people, I’m talking about the ones who weigh from six to twelve hundred pounds. I wonder who in the world brings these people all that food. It’s an undeniable fact that someone, probably an enabler, gets out & rustles up the grub to keep that person eating.
I also have wondered why the obese persons don’t wake up at, oh, I don’t know, say a thousand pounds, & think, “hey, I’m getting huge here. Next they’ll have to take aerial pictures of me,” rather than wait until it takes a fork-lift to get them out of their house. But I digress.
Let me say something else here about enablers. I’m thinking more now about people who have problems that are sins rather than weaknesses. Let’s say a person has a problem having temper tantrums, cursing fits or engages in verbally abusing people. The people who are close to an individual like that need to realize that at some point they become a participator in the sin even though they themselves don’t engage in it.
A person participates in the sin of another when they praise, dismiss as unimportant, or laugh at the behavior. They can also participate in the sin of another by helping them conceal the problem by silence, by partially partaking with them in their sin, by aggravating the person’s problem, or by defending the behavior, or even in sympathizing with the person in their wrong behavior.
If you’ve ever dealt with people in groups of any size you know that problem people aren’t all that hard to deal with, because you can at least identify who they are. The real problem many times is good, honest, & conscientious people who support the problem person, catering to them instead of refusing to accept their wrong behavior & demanding that they shape up.
One of the earmarks of a real friend is that they’ll demand the best we have in us & they won’t laugh at or minimize shabby behavior.
In Romans 1:32, Paul talks about people who have pleasure in those who do evil deeds all the time knowing the conduct will bring eventually bring down the judgment of God.
Then Jesus gave this lame man a third command;
3. WALK
Jesus isn’t going to let this man continue in his –mat-mentality. He’s telling the man, --“Get on with it. Get on with life.” Walking is synonymous with going somewhere. If you’re not going anywhere, why do you need to walk? Jesus was saying, “Let’s close this chapter & open a new one. Let’s go somewhere. Let’s move away from the pool.”
Nothing happened to the man until he got up & put his mat on his shoulder, and then Jesus made him whole.
Do you remember the ten lepers who asked Jesus for healing? Usually Jesus would lay hands on a sick individual or at least say a prayer over them but in this case, Jesus did none of those things. He just told them to go show themselves to the priest & as they WALKED, they were healed.
Some of us have been on a mat of sameness, or comfort so long maybe we’re not sure we can survive anywhere else. Jesus wants us to get up & get out of our comfort zone & change our lives.
Jesus wanted the lame man to walk away from the problem that had him bound for 38 years.
Our Christian life is called a WALK in scripture. Paul tells us in Romans 6:4,
Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism unto death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should WALK in newness of life.
He also tells us in Ephesians 5 that we should ….WALK in love, and that we also….WALK circumspectly, not as fools but as wise…
John tells us in 1 John 1:7,--But if we WALK in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with the other…..
Are you languishing away on some mat, at some pool thinking life has passed you by? If so, let the story of the man at the pool of Bethesda speak to you. Jesus is the same yesterday, today & forever & He will help you rise & walk away from the things that have you bound.
We used to sing an old song;
GOT ANY RIVERS, YOU THINK ARE UNCROSSABLE,
GOT ANY MOUNTIANS YOU CAN’T TUNNEL THROUGH.
GOD SPECILIZES IN THINGS THOUGHT IMPOSSIBLE,
AND HE WILL DO WHAT NO OTHER POWER CAN DO.
Blessings,
John
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1 comment:
You said it, Brother! Somewhere on the road between incredibly irritating and downright nauseating is where victims tend to live (if you can even call living as a victim "living.")
These types of folks with zero personal accountability are to be avoided if at all possible-kinda like chiggers.
Those of us who've truly lived through horrid experiences truly NOT of our own doing tend to LOATHE the term "victim", and have even less tolerence for folks who practice their philosophy of victimization. This is why I much, much prefer the term "survivor." And we're all survivors (except victims)... just some interesting dynamics to study which people fall down on which side of that line. Looking forward to seeing y'all soon!
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