John 5:1-15

February 6, 2008

It has been awhile since I last posted any reflections from the Gospel of John, but when I read this passage it was the morning after I wrote about the need to be happy as a way of commending the beauty and importance of the Gospel to others.  In the passage I read something that was quite timely in light of that post that I had written.

The passage is an account of Jesus healing a man who had been ‘an invalid’ for 38 years.  I was struck by the words of verse 5, in conjunction with the words in verse 9:
One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years…And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

In my post last week, I mentioned that being joyful and expressing joy is a hard thing for me, it has been all of my life.  When it comes to displaying joy around others, I imagine I am somewhat like this invalid.  It hasn’t been 38 years, but it’s been close.  I feel the same kind of paralysis in my soul that this man experienced in his body.  I have tried to change, just as this man had tried to get in the pool (v. 7).  Like him, I am utterly helpless to change myself.  Years of experience have made that abundantly clear to me.

Yet here is the power of Christ: though this man was an invalid for 38 years, all Jesus has to do is speak the word and he is an invalid no longer!  ‘Get up, take up your bed, and walk,’ and this man’s hopeless condition is ended forever.  The man who could not change himself over decades worth of time has been instantly changed by the omnipotent power and the abundant compassion of Jesus Christ.

I need not look at my inclination toward introspection and melancholy and resign myself to a life that will never get any better in this area.  Jesus makes invalids into new people.  This is good news for invalids like me.

I finished this passage with a renewed hope in the God who makes all things new through Christ.  May God get great glory for Himself by granting all of us great joy in Him.

Larry

Posted by Larry | Filed Under Gospel of John, Seeking Him 

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