John 4:46-54; 5:1-18
(sermon note: 02-08 sermon note)
46 As he traveled through Galilee, he came to Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a government official in nearby Capernaum whose son was very sick. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was about to die.
48 Jesus asked, “Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?”
49 The official pleaded, “Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.”
50 Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son will live!” And the man believed what Jesus said and started home.
51 While the man was on his way, some of his servants met him with the news that his son was alive and well. 52 He asked them when the boy had begun to get better, and they replied, “Yesterday afternoon at one o’clock his fever suddenly disappeared!” 53 Then the father realized that that was the very time Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” And he and his entire household believed in Jesus. 54 This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did in Galilee after coming from Judea.
5:1Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches waiting for a certain movement of the water, 4 for an angel of the Lord came from time to time and stirred up the water. And the first person to step in after the water was stirred was healed of whatever disease he had. 5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”
7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”
8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”
9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, 10 so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”
11 But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
12 “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.
13 The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” 15 Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.
16 So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. 17 But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” 18 So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.
This morning’s reading reminds me of the one about a televangelist who was holding one of his “miraculous” healing sessions. For several hours, he would call people forth from the crowd and supposedly heal them of their ailments. Finally, he called a man in a wheelchair sitting in the back of the room to come forward. The televangelist put his hands on the man’s legs and mumbled an inaudible prayer. After a few minutes, he yelled out, “Stand up, my son!” With a bewildered look on his face, the man slowly stood up. “Now walk, my child, waaaalk!” The man took a step and then another and the crowd gasped. The televangelist gave his microphone to the man. He asked, “Now what can you say about this miracle from God?!” To which the man sheepishly responded, “But I still can’t see.”
Silly televangelist…if you’re gonna “heal” someone then heal ‘em all the way! None of this half-cooked healing! Can you imagine the man in today’s reading was both blind and paralyzed? Do you think Jesus would have left him blind after fixing his paralyzed legs? Not likely! No, Jesus heals completely. Jesus heals in ways we can’t even imagine. Jesus heals sicknesses within us that we don’t even know we’re carrying. Jesus is the great physician and though many people claim to have healing powers, very few even remotely come close to his degree of healing. Jesus knows what we’re meant to be and how to get us there. Jesus knows just how broken each of us is and he wants each of us to be whole again. Jesus couldn’t care less how we got the way we are. He only wants to help us, grow us, and restore us. Jesus focuses on the present and the future, on what it takes to become whole again. Unfortunately, that televangelist lost all credibility by only half-healing that poor man. Jesus and those who work in his name would never leave a person half-healed…
We’re plugging along in John’s gospel with these two powerful healing stories immediately following Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. The encounter at the well was less about healing than it was about giving the poor a sense of purpose and value after being shunned by her community for her shady past. That being said, both the encounter and the healing stories that followed were about restoration. All three characters-the woman, the official, and the paralytic-had become separated from the community in which they lived and served. I know, I know, what about the sick boy? I’d argue that the sick boy was ultimately a minor character in that story. We don’t hear how his sickness and healing affected him because it isn’t the more important healing going on in the story. The son’s father, the so-called “official,” was equally suffering, perhaps more so. He was a faithless person in a leadership position with a sick child. Talk about an isolated, desperate position to be in! And Jesus knew this. Jesus knew that he needed to help him more than simply the child. That’s why he didn’t even bother going to see the sick child. The more pressing issue was with the father.
Nonetheless, all three characters-the woman, the official, and the paralytic-were all recipients of Jesus’ powerful and gracious healing. All three of them were restored with a sense of dignity and hopefulness. All three of them were healed in unexpected ways. Thus is the sheer power and awesomeness of Jesus’ healing! Jesus heals us in unimaginable and unexpected ways! Why? Because he loves us! Because he wants us restored! He knows are brokenness isn’t our fault. Friends, life and this world breaks all of us. We are all fragile, breakable beings in this world. We need a savior—ALL of us! We need someone who loves us despite our brokenness. Or perhaps because of our brokenness?? Hmmm, that’s a little too deep for me this morning. But lucky for us, we’ve been blessed with that Savior. We’ve been blessed with a mighty and powerful physician-Jesus Christ our Lord!!
The prophet, Jeremiah, suffered a great deal of hardship for his prophetic role. He, like, many prophets, had the unfortunate responsibility of judging God’s people for their wayward ways. He wasn’t judging them but merely relaying God’s words of judgement. “Hey, don’t kill the messenger, man!” Well, the people around him didn’t consider his words as God’s words. No, they came to despise him and not God for his words. But Jeremiah faithfully clung to God throughout his suffering and kept a hopeful outlook on his situation. We hear him cry to God, “O Lord, if you heal me, I will be truly healed; if you save me, I will be truly saved. My praises are for you alone!” (17:14) Jeremiah believed in and trusted in God’s holistic healing. If he can believe and trust amidst great suffering, then surely we, in our low to moderate suffering, can too! And Jeremiah never lost his hope for the spiteful people around him. We hear him proclaim, “Nevertheless, the time will come when I will heal Jerusalem’s wounds and give it prosperity and true peace.” (33:6) Is our belief and trust just as hopeful? I would hope so…
Our God is a God of love and healing and restoration. Our God gives hope to the hopeless, faith to the faithless, wellness to the sick. The characters in today’s reading give witness to this. We can trust God in our times of sickness and separation. Not all of us is feeling well and whole this morning. Some of us are suffering in our bodies. Some in our minds. Some in our spirits. We need to hear of God’s love and healing. We need to share God’s love and healing with those around us. I appreciate the words of James, “Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.” (5:15) Friends, we must believe and trust and God’s holistic healing! If He can do it for those in scripture, then He can most certainly do it for us! Thanks be to God!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
