3/18/07 Troubled Waters Pt. 2

Last week we attempted to move into a study of John chapter 5,

but my introductory comments about the passage sort of consumed both me and our time

and we never actually got into the passage.

So this morning we’re going to return to that 5^th chapter

and actually begin seeing what happens in this fascinating passage.

And to help get our minds back into this section of John’s gospel

I’d like to once again read the first 18 verses of the chapter.

JOH 5:1-18 After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, And a certain man was there, who had been thirty-eight years in his sickness. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, "Do you wish to get well?" The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me." Jesus said to him, "Arise, take up your pallet, and walk." And immediately the man became well, and took up his pallet and began to walk.

Now it was the Sabbath on that day. Therefore the Jews were saying to him who was cured, "It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet." But he answered them, "He who made me well was the one who said to me, 'Take up your pallet and walk.'" They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your pallet, and walk'?" But he who was healed did not know who it was; for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse may befall you." The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. And for this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. But He answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working." For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

OK, now I can see at least two major reasons

for John’s choice to include this event in his gospel.

The first, of course,

is because of what took place between Jesus and this man,

and the things we learn about the Master through it.

And the second is because of what happens between Jesus and the religious leadership in Jerusalem

as a direct result of this healing.

We just read the first 18 verses of the chapter,

but as we move through this 5^th chapter

we’re going to see that this event sets the stage

for another major confrontation between Jesus and the religious rulers,

a confrontation that prompts a crucial response from Jesus in the last half of this chapter.

But lets begin with the event itself.

We ended our study of John two weeks ago

with the end of chapter 4

in which Jesus healed the son of a royal official in Capernaum.

John then skips ahead a number of months

to an event that took place on Jesus’ next visit to Jerusalem.

And just so you can keep a sense of the significance of what we have here,

this is one of only two events

that John chose to share with us

from the entire second year of Jesus’ public ministry.

This second year began with Jesus’ selection of His twelve disciples

and concluded with those two remarkable days we have recorded for us in the next chapter of John,

those days that began with His miraculously feeding thousands of people,

then followed with His walking to His disciples’ boat on the water at night,

and concluded with His discourse in which He identified Himself as the bread of life.

Those two days,

and then the event we have recorded for us here in chapter five

are the only two events John chose to share from that second year.

We know from the other gospel writers

that this second year was one of tremendous public popularity.

It was the year in which He gave the Sermon on the Mount,

the year in which He began teaching in parables,

a year spent almost exclusively in the northern regions around Galilee.

It was a year that began with tremendous growing popularity

and ended with the multitudes first trying to take Him by force and make Him King because He came up with all of that free food,

and then the same multitude turning way from Him

when they demanded more free food

and He refused to give them what they wanted.

But right in the middle of this year

Jesus pulled out of Galilee

and made a second brief trip to Jerusalem.

We are told that it was another major feast day,

but we’re not told which one.

And John writes,

JOH 5:1-3 After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered...

Some of the early manuscripts include an editorial comment about this pool,

a comment that is not contained in other early manuscripts,

but one that helps us to understand why all of these people gathered at the pool.

The comment tells us that those at the pool were... waiting for the moving of the waters because they believed that an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water; and whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in would be made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.

There was undoubtedly some sort of underground disturbance

that did cause the pool to bubble or churn occasionally,

a disturbance that was credited to an angel with healing powers.

Whether or not it was actually true is something we’re simply not told,

but it’s clear that the people there had the hope and the belief that it was true,

and when people have no other answers they will try anything.

And this man clearly had no other answers

because the next thing John tells us is, “And a certain man was there, who had been thirty-eight years in his sickness.”

He hadn’t been at the pool for 38 years.

In fact he could easily have been a relative new-comer to the place.

But one thing is certain -

being an invalid was this man’s life.

It was the only life he’d ever known.

Even if his sickness had come into his life in his early adult years

he was now by 1^st century standards a very old man - late 50's or early 60's.

He’d never been able to take care of himself,

and now he had no one to take care of him.

Then John goes on to say,

When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, "Do you wish to get well?"

Now, we’ll come back to that question in a few minutes,

but before we do

there’s another question that fascinates me even more,

one that is not stated,

but is clearly implied.

John has just told us

that the area around this pool

was populated by what he describes as a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered...

Ever seen those old war movies

in which they have a scene showing a huge hospital ward

with row after row after row of beds,

each one occupied by men wounded or dying?

Well, John’s description of this pool

makes that look like Disneyland.

There was no medical care here.

There were no nurses,

no doctors,

no orderlies,

no clean sheets and snug bandages.

There was no real basis for hope beyond just the story

of a friend of a friend of a friend

who heard of someone who, two years ago, had been healed

when they got into this pool when it was churning.

So here’s my first big question.

Why this man?

Why, out of all those there,

did Jesus select just this one man in which to perform this work?

And the truth is,

this question is not new to me.

In fact, it goes back at least to the fall of 1966.

Not in this exact context,

but it’s the same question.

In the fall of 1966

on the campus of Seattle Pacific University

there were several thousand students going to classes, trying to figure out life.

And of all those students,

as far as I know,

there was just one 19 year old kid

who suddenly found himself consumed with a longing to read the Gospels.

It was in every way abnormal

and inexplicable.

It had nothing to do with any class he was taking

or any devotional obligation he was trying to fulfill.

He simply, suddenly found himself

driven to read the Gospels.

He would hide in the stairwell of the fire exit to the roof in the evenings to avoid the endless chaos in the dorm,

and in the days that followed

as that kid engulfed Matthew, and Mark, and Luke,

through page after page

God’s Spirit confirmed to him in ways that were impossible for him to deny

that this God he was reading about was very real indeed,

and He was laying claim to that kid’s life.

He wanted and demanded a decision from me,

and I finally agreed to His terms.

And just like this fellow in John chapter 5,

when I did, it altered the course of my life dramatically forever.

In fact, in a very real sense,

everything I’ve done in and with my life since then

has been at some level my ongoing response

to what God chose to do in my life during those few days.

But for the past forty years

I’ve looked back on my introduction to my God

and asked myself, “Why me?”

Why didn’t He barge into other students’ lives

in the same way as He barged into mine?

And of all the sick, and lame, and blind, and deformed at that pool,

why did he choose this man?

There’s no answer, of course.

And that’s why I spent all last week

talking about why sometimes we just don’t get it,

we just don’t understand.

Of course I can offer some suggestions,

my best guesses to the answer to that question.

I think maybe it has something to do with free will

and the human spirit’s response to God .

Free will is not a game.

It is, in fact, the crucial pillar upon which all true love relationships are built.

This is true in human relationships,

and it is certainly true in our relationship with our Creator.

Ever tried to force another person to love you?

How did it go?

You can’t do it, can you.

You see, that is what makes love so powerful in our lives -

our knowing that this other person

has chosen to love us.

And when it comes to our relationship with God,

this is what He’s been after from the first day of creation.

He’s been looking for those

who will choose to love Him,

not because they are somehow forced into it,

but because they have risked opening themselves up to their Creator

and in the process have begun to see His love for them.

There is a fascinating statement in the 16^th chapter of the Old Testament book of Chronicles,

a statement that gives us remarkable insight into God’s relationship with us.

2CH 16:9 "For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His...”

Now isn’t that remarkable?

Put that next to so much of the stupidity

that comes out of the religious community about God.

So often the God we are given

is One whose eyes move to and fro throughout the earth

looking for someone to judge,

someone to condemn,

someone on whom He can pour out His wrath.

Welcome to the great lie of the human race!

But here’s the thing -

what He seeks is not our grudging submission to an overpowering God we cannot avoid,

but rather our willingness to enter into a love/trust relationship with Him.

And with each of us

He finds those ways of nudging our spirits,

giving us the opportunity to respond.

With each of us here this morning

this process has been going on in our lives.

With me God used the first three books of the New Testament

to nudge me toward His love,

to see if I was open to Him.

With some of you

He may have used a co-worker

whose life simply didn’t make sense to you.

Or He may have found some other way

of introducing you to the offer of His love.

He may have intervened in your life

at a point when you simply had no hope,

no other answers.

And in the process He gave you just a glimpse

of His heart response to you.

But always, when the divine nudge comes,

it comes with a choice we have to make.

And in my experience

our responses to that divine nudge

fall into one of three broad categories.

The first, and perhaps the most common response

is that we hide from Him in religion.

Religion is in every way

the absolute perfect place to hide from God

because it keeps God out of our lives,

and keeps us in control

while clothing us in the facade of piety.

The crucial thing with religion, of course,

is that we reject a daily, living, interaction with and submission to our Creator

and choose, rather, a clearly defined system of duties we fulfill.

Those duties, no matter how demanding they may seem,

are always under our control.

We set the limits,

and as such remain in the God-position of our life.

The second possible response to that divine nudge in our lives

is that we bolt and run.

We get as far away from Him

and His potential intrusion into our lives as possible.

We construct for ourselves

whatever mental hiding place we need

to guard us from this God who brushed up against us.

We may find for ourselves “scientific proofs” that deny His existence.

Or we may point out to ourselves

how those who identify themselves with Him are all just hypocrites,

saying one thing and living something very different.

Or we may convince ourselves

that everything He says to us

is simply aimed at robbing us of the really fun stuff in life.

Or we may select for ourselves

any one of countless other explanations why interaction with this God

would be dangerous and destructive to the extreme.

And for those who bolt and run,

I think most of the time

their response to the Divine nudge in their lives

is never at the conscious level.

It’s just an instinctive recoil within their spirits.

And then, third, there are those who,

well, who risk entering into the discovery of His love.

It’s scary stuff for all of us,

at any age.

But it is the one choice we can make

that has the power to transform our lives forever.

Why did Jesus choose this one man at the pool of Bethsaida?

Why did He choose to intervene in my life they way He did when I was 19 years old?

Why has He chosen to nudge you toward Himself in the way He’s done?

I don’t know why,

but I do think it has something to do

with the way our spirits have responded to that nudge.

I believe that all of our most significant decisions about Jesus Christ

are decisions that we have already made deep within our spirits

long before they ever reach the conscious level.

When Paul was writing his second letter to the Corinthians,

at one point in the second chapter

he selected a fascinating illustration

of the way in which the knowledge of Christ penetrates throughout the human race.

He compares our spirit’s awareness of the reality of Christ

to an aroma that permeates the human race.

In 2 Cor. 2:14-16 he says,

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?

The mental imagery is powerful,

but the thing I want to point out

are the two radically different ways

that the human spirit responds

whenever a person gets a whiff of that aroma.

Paul says that to one person it is an aroma from death to death,

and to another person it is an aroma from life to life.

To one person

the scent of the presence of Christ

is the scent of death

and their spirit recoils at it

because they know that His intrusion into their life

will in fact bring the death of everything they value must,

everything they are clinging to for security,

everything upon which they have built their life.

And as soon as they catch that scent,

they pull away,

and it happens at a spirit level that never even reaches the conscious mind.

And to another person

the scent of the presence of Christ

floods their spirit with the most remarkable hope,

and hunger,

and longing,

and need.

With most of us

we don’t even know what it is we hunger for.

We just know it is something

we’ve been looking for since the day we were born,

and we must have it at any cost.

Why did Christ choose this man at Bethesda?

Why has He chosen any of those who have come to Him throughout history?

I think it’s because at some level

their spirits were already hungering for Him.

Well, I’d wanted to spend some time with that next question as well,

“Do you wish to get well?”

But we’ll need to save that until next week.