GET UP!
John 5:1-9a
Key Verse: 8
“Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’”
Happy Easter! Yesterday through Hannah’s message we learned that
Jesus came to give us living water welling up to eternal life. In today’s passage
there is a man who had lived hopelessly for 38 years. Even though the man
almost gives up on himself, Jesus heals him with his life-giving word, ‘Get up’.
May Jesus help us to know who you are through our Easter Bible School!
Part I: Welcome to Bethesda (1-4)
Look at verse 1. “Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a
feast of the Jews.” It was the time to celebrate a feast of the Jews. Every
adult over 12 years old went to Jerusalem. It was a national cerebration, full of
delicious food, beautiful music, and joyful dance. People were all joyful and
happy, remembering God’s deliverance from the bandage of Egypt. But there
were many disabled people who could not participate in this joyous festival.
Look at verses 2-3. “Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a
pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five
covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—
the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.” When I hear the word “Bethesda,” I
think of Bethesda Hospital in Uganda of Africa, established by our UBF
missionaries. Many people in Uganda have blessed by our Bethesda clinic
because our medical missionaries could treat their infections and disease. Even
Hannah is praying to go there as a short-term missionary if God opens the way
for her. But in the time of Jesus, there was no Hospital. Instead they had a
pool called Bethesda on the east side of Jerusalem. All kinds of disabled people
went there in the hope of being healed.
From time to time an angel would come and stir up the water, and when
the water moved, the first one into the pool would be cured of whatever
disease he had. It is unscientific; therefore, it cannot be true. Well, there are
many things that cannot be explained by science. This pool certainly attracted
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a lot of attention. A huge number of disabled people crowded around the pool,
waiting for a chance to climb into the water. Getting to the pool first was like
winning the lottery. The chance that any one of them could be healed was slim
to none. But these people had nowhere else to go and nothing else to put their
hope in. Day after day they hung around the pool, sympathizing about their
sufferings. They tried to be friendly and share one another’s concerns like
homeless people at COD Lounge.
But soon arguments and fights would often break out. Lucky was the man
who managed to sit in the front row, right at the water’s edge. But if he ever
got up to go to the restroom, he would immediately lose his spot and have to
move to the back. It became one endurance contest to see who could go the
longest without eating or sleeping or going to the restroom. And whenever the
waters started to move, it became “every man for himself.” There would be
pushing and yelling. One lucky person would jump in first, leaving everyone else
behind in disappointment and despair.
The writer John’s description of this tragic scene is a brilliant picture of
our human condition. Each of us has some kind of handicap that makes us
unhappy. Life is not fair. Some people are born into privilege and rich, others
are born into poverty. Some have amazing natural talents. Some have abilities or
intelligence; they are able to do things easily, while the rest of us struggle to
keep up. Some are physically attractive, while others look weird or funny. Some
are naturally outgoing and confident, while others are full of anxiety and selfdoubt. We may not be physically disabled like the people at the Bethesda. But at
the end of the day, we are weak human beings, controlled by infirmity and
despairing in our limitation.
Like the people at the Bethesda, we live in competition with one another.
Outwardly people try to be considerate and nice. But once those waters start to
move, watch out! Brothers and sisters will fight to the death over who gets the
last bowl of Captain Crunch. Shoppers at the mall will fight over who gets to buy
the last Nintendo Wii. Eminent scientists and researchers will fight over who
gets to be first writer on a published paper.
And like the disabled people at the pool of Bethesda, so many of us are
waiting for something to make our lives better. We know that we have a problem.
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But instead of getting up and doing something about it, we passively lie around,
denying the problem or hoping against hope that it will get better all by itself.
Instead of putting our faith in God and working to solve the problem, we begin
complaining that it is just too hard, and that no one is helping us. We blame
others. We blame our parents. We blame the politicians. We blame “the system.”
When we do this, we are ultimately blaming God.
All of our human illness can be traced back to the original sin of our
forefather Adam. When Adam sinned, the first thing he did was to run and hide.
The next thing he did was to blame the situation on his wife and on God (Ge 3:812). Life has dealt each person a set of cards. No two people have the same
cards. But God is sovereign over all human life. No matter who we are, no matter
what the situation may be, he can bless us and work for our good (Ro 8:28). The
Lord can turn our darkness into light (2Sa 22:29). Yet in practice, this can be so
difficult to believe. Instead of applying our faith in God, how easy it is to just lie
down at the pool and despair. Now, Jesus tells us, “Welcome to Bethesda.”
Part II: “Do you want to get well?” (5-6)
Ever since the original sin of Adam, this pool of Bethesda has been our
universal human condition. But everything was changed by the arrival of Jesus.
Look at verses 5-6. “One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight
years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this
condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’” As Jesus
walked around the pool, he must have been overwhelmed by the disgusting odor
of disease and waste. He must have been overwhelmed by the depths of despair
and human sorrow. During last year’s presidential campaign, some people had been
saying, “Jesus was a community organizer.” If Jesus were a community
organizer, he would have gathered up the disabled people, convinced them that
their misery was caused by bad government, and marched with them to the
governor to demand more funding for health care.
But Jesus is not a community organizer. Jesus is the Savior of the world.
As the Savior of the world, what did he do in response to this tragedy? He
quietly found one person and helped him very personally. The man that Jesus
found had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. Thirty-eight years is
practically a lifetime. In thirty-eight years, the world changes many times over.
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Thirty-eight years ago, Richard Nixon was in the White House; the Beatles
disbanded; young people were protesting the Vietnam War. But I do not know
what the most popular TV show in America because I was in Korea. This poor
invalid man had been lying on his mat year after year, watching all his life
opportunities slip away. He was too old to get a job. He was too old to get
married. He was completely washed up. Yet he remained by the poolside, still
waiting for something to happen, even though his mind told him it was useless.
Look again at verse 6. “When Jesus saw him lying there and learned
that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you
want to get well?’” The question Jesus asked was simple. The man could have
said, “Why do you think I’m here?” But this question of Jesus is truly profound.
This question penetrates to the depths of the soul. On one level, of course this
man wanted to get well. But on a deeper level, did he really want to get well?
Did he really think he could get well? Did he have even a spark of hope?
Hope is the food of the human spirit. If we have hope, we live; without
hope, we die. The disabled people in this passage were desperate. Society did
not help them and medical science could not cure them. But they were not ready
to despair. They were human beings with an instinct to live. They looked for
something, anything, to put their hope in. They desperately wanted their lives to
change. By going to the pool each day, they could escape into a convenient
fantasy. Each one imagined how wonderful it would be if he were the lucky one.
After 38 years, this man had grown accustomed to his misery. He was
becoming a man without hope. When Jesus asked him, "Do you want to get
well?", Jesus was working to reawaken his hope. Jesus wanted to ignite in his
heart a new passion and a burning desire to be healed. Jesus wanted to give him a
vision that he could really be changed and experience a new and joyful life.
Jesus, the Son of God, could easily heal his broken body. But Jesus wanted to
repair his broken soul by giving him hope. If a man has a hope, then he can
thrive even if his body is sick and dying. Jesus is asking us, “Do you want to get
well?”
Part III: “Get up!” (7-9a).
How did the man respond? Look at verse 7. "Sir, I have no one to help
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me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in,
someone else goes down ahead of me." This man did not answer Jesus’
question. Instead, he complained about heartless people who did nothing to help
him. He blamed the other disabled people who got in ahead of him. He spoke
words of bitterness and defeat. Failures in life are truly painful and bitter.
After failure, many of us give in to mediocrity. But we must never allow a
defeated spirit to remain in us. We must never look at our past failures. We
must never conclude that victory is impossible.
How did Jesus help the man who was overwhelmed by a spirit of defeat?
Look at verse 8. "Then Jesus said to him, 'Get up! Pick up your mat and
walk.'" “Get up!” It sounds like a rebuke. That’s exactly what it was. Jesus was
rebuking the physical disability. Jesus was also rebuking his hopelessness and
lack of faith. Jesus was rebuking his dim view of God, for thinking that God
could not or would not help him. Jesus spoke this command with the full
authority of the Creator. “Get up!” Jesus' word overpowered this man and gave
his weak will the power to get up. It looked like this man borrowed Jesus' will
for a moment. Philippians 2:13 says, "...for it is God who works in you to will and
to act according to his good purpose." Jesus can restore our weak wills and make
us strong in our decisions to do well. Jesus says to each of us, "Get up!" to
restore our willpower by the power of his word.
Jesus also told this man to pick up his mat. Jesus made it very clear that
he should not be a burden to others any longer. Jesus commanded him to begin a
new life as a responsible man and a blessing to others. Jesus wanted him to get a
proper job to support himself and give generously to the work of God and pay his
taxes. Jesus wanted him to live for the glory of God and display the work of God
in his life. When this man heard Jesus' words, the paralysis was driven from his
body. His withered muscles became thick and powerful. His chicken-leg bones
became like steel. By the strength of the word of Jesus, he got up, picked up his
mat and walked.
One man is overweight. He did not always weigh 400 pounds. Not so long
ago, he was an undergraduate in his final year at his college, just a few credits
away from a degree. But something happened in his senior year. Perhaps he
became discouraged by one or more small failures. He decided to take time off
from his studies and work at the bookstore. In his depression, he also began to
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overeat. He believed that he would go back and finish his college degree, but it
did not happen. As the years went by, the field of his study changed rapidly and
most of his credits no longer counted. He imagined that one day he would go on a
diet and lose his extra pounds. But that didn’t happen either. As his weight
increased, he lost one job, then another, and then lost his apartment. He
considered himself a victim and wanted to sue his former employer. He applied
for benefits from the state and was classified as “permanently disabled.”
Doctors recommended surgery to reduce the size of his stomach. But he didn’t
want to lose the joy of eating. Now he stays in his basement and can walk only a
few steps at a time. He still struggles against despair. But he has also given in
to his unbearable condition.
This is a sad story. But in many ways I am not much different from him.
When my Bible students do not commit themselves to Jesus and his ministry
even though they have studied for a long time, I have a tendency to say, “Well,
that’s just the way they are,” and I lose hope for them. While preparing this
message, I realized that when I have no hope for them, Jesus has hope for
them. The desire to better my ministry does not come from my human passion. It
comes from the voice of Jesus, the God of Hope. Now Jesus is asking me, “David,
Do you want to get well? Do you want to have a successful ministry? Then, do not
look at your students. But look at me who has a great hope for each of them.
David, now get up!” “Lord! I repent of my lack of faith. Please help me to look at
you and listen to your voice and have a great hope for your precious children.
Now I believe that Jesus who called me as a Pastor of this ministry will raise up
120 disciples of Jesus. Amen!”
*Conclusion: Benjamin Franklin said, “God helps those who help themselves.”
This expresses the wonderful spirit of independence and self-reliance that
Americans are known for. It also reminds us of a deep spiritual truth: God really
does help us when we depend on him. In these times of economic uncertainty, we
cannot look to the government to help us, because the government has no money.
We should not fantasize about winning the lottery, because in the end money is
just worthless paper. We must entrust our lives to Jesus. We must listen to the
voice of Jesus. Obeying Jesus is never easy. But Jesus will give us all the
strength we need to get up. I pray that you may listen to Jesus’ voice, “Get up!”
and live a victorious life. Praise Jesus who has power to heal us with his word.
Jesus! You are our Lord and our God. May God bless our EBS 2009 abundantly!
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