The
healing by the Great Physician John 5v6-15
Both
Old and New Testaments are replete with the fact that God will heal Israel,
just as He healed this man. The healing
took place at the sheep gate, which was the first gate to be restored on their
return from exile-Nehemiah. In the words
of the song by Lowry and Green, reflecting scripture-Isaiah 35 “The blind will see The deaf will hear The dead will
live again The lame will leap The dumb will speak The praises of the lamb”
All of these narratives have a past and future application. We have the healing waters-Ezekiel 47v1-4,
waters gushing from under the threshold of the temple. We have the Messiah who will not only put
away sin, but deal with the consequences of sin. This is an astonishing miracle. He says to him “Wilt thou be made whole?” This is a pertinent question; the man has
been long time in this condition-it's fair to ask, do you really want to be
healed? Do you mean to say that in 38
years you haven't been able to find someone who helped you to the waters which
would have healed you? Jesus raises the
question as to what the man actually wanted. Did he
really want to be cured? The fact is
that some would rather wallow in their sufferings and remain in that state
rather than be healed. How long has it
taken Israel to even consider that they need to be healed? When will they finally return to the Lord, as
the prophet Hosea yearns for them?-Hosea 6v1 “Come let us to the Lord our God,
for He hath torn, and He will heal us, He hath smitten and He will bind us up.”
The command came sharp and short, “Rise take up thy bed
and walk”. Nothing like this had
ever been seen, nor will be seen till He returns to earth. Thirty eight years, lying in a covered porch,
yet rise and walk said Jesus. By any
standards this is humanly impossible, a healing miracle on paralyzed nerves and
a static skeletal structure. No mention
of any convalescence, or physiotherapy.
Immediately he rose up and walked as if he had been walking for
years! He was fully cured of his
disability-note the language, Jesus to the man “Wilt thou be made whole?”-v6;
“the man was made whole”-v9; “…The
Jews therefore said unto him that was cured”-v10; “He that made
me whole…”-v11; “Behold thou art whole…”-v14; “The man departed
and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole”-v15. This was a miracle only God could do, and
demonstrated His sovereignty over the workings of the human body.
Jesus found him in the temple and issued some advice “Behold
(take note) thou art whole, go and sin no more lest a worse thing come
upon thee.” Jesus knew the history
of the man-just as He knows the history of us all. He knew this man had been afflicted because
of some sin in his life. It is not always
the case, as we shall see in the blind man of chapter 9; it is however a fact
that God visits people with bodily ailments to deter sin in their lives. This
is a subject too big to enlarge here.
The hatred of the Jews for Christ John5v16
“And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to
slay Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath day.”
They were not in this slightest interested in the welfare of
this poor man and were intent only on maintaining the external image of their
religion. So far as they were concerned,
Jesus had soiled the Sabbath day and, by his actions, deserved to be punished. This was obviously a gross exaggeration and a mis-interpretation
of the meaning of the Sabbath, which was meant to be for the benefit of man and
not a burden for men to carry.
Thus far we have seen His Deity displayed as the Sovereign
Lord of time in the water to wine; then of space in the healing of the nobleman’s
son from 20 miles distant; and now of
people, as He makes whole a man who had been infirm for almost four decades! There can be no doubt who is walking among
them. This, Jesus emphasises in the next
section of the chapter. There is a
miracle, and there is a message of the miracle, which all must grasp.
No comments:
Post a Comment