7 "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
8 Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,
In response to Jesus’ question – “Do you want to get well?” – the invalid bewails his misfortune in a discourse to Jesus regarding his helpless plight. He lacked not the desire for healing but the means for healing – without strength and without friends to assist him into the pool. He had experienced thirty-eight long years of no success yet still to his credit, he persevered. He was all too familiar with failure. Interestingly, I wonder how many years we have dealt with no success regarding our own weaknesses and infirmities. How often have we tried in our own disabled strength to rid ourselves of fleshly behaviors only to discover that were yet once again wallowing in the mud? Jesus came to liberate us from the bondage of self, sin and death – to free us to live in freedom not yoked to slavery again. Fulfilling the prophet Isaiah’s words Jesus tells us:
17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." Luke 4:17-21 (NIV)
“When we can do nothing Jesus can do all things; let us enlist His powerful aid upon our side, and all will be well.” Charles Spurgeon
Indeed, Jesus came heralding in “the year of the Lord’s favor” and what favor it was! Just like this disabled invalid finds himself now restored to wholeness, it is Jesus’ desire to restore us to wholeness as well.
“We are so preciously loved by God that we cannot even comprehend it. No created being can ever know how much and how sweetly and tenderly God loves them.” Julian of Norwich
Paul gives us these encouraging words:
1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Gal 5:1 (NIV)
By our very natures we will be yoked to something – either to sin which leads to death or Jesus who leads to life. That is why He is so desirous that we be yoked to Him as His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Jesus tells us in Matthew:
28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matt 11:28-30 (NIV)
“This is a free invitation to every weary and heavy laden sinner, made by Him who alone is able to take away the load and guilt of sin. Every person under the pressure of sin not only may, but must, come to Jesus, thus laden with guilt, if he hopes to succeed for pardon...In our own ways there is nothing but trouble; but giving ourselves entirely up to be guided by God at his own pleasure, we may always be easy, since we know that by every step he brings us nearer to heaven. The only way to rest, is the way of repentance and faith; in which we consider ourselves, from the beginning even to the end of our Christian life, as utterly lost and condemned by the law, but as perfectly reconciled and justified through Christ...And his rest is promised not for the merit of our labour and humility, but merely for our coming to him, and believing in him. He says, ‘Take my yoke upon you.’ ‘But how shall I take it?’ says the sinner. ‘Why,’ says Christ, ‘Learn of me: let me be your Teacher, and though you are blind and foolish, fretful and forgetful, yea, wholly polluted with sin, I can yet bear with you, because I am meek and lowly in heart: not rough and haughty to offenders, as Pharisees usually are; but full of compassion towards them, willing to receive them, and ready to forgive and comfort them,’ etc. Come, therefore, to him, O sinner, with all thy load of sin and misery, and he will in no wise cast thee out, but receive thee gladly.” K. H. Von Bogatzky
Jesus continues His talk with this invalid man by stating the commands: "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." What an unusual order to a paralyzed person yet faith must be tried to be proven true does it not? Thus the walk of faith must begin before the healing rushes in. Jesus sits at the immediate ready – His hand waiting to thrust forth providing our aid. Just as a parent follows a toddler who is learning to walk - ready to give quick assistance when they totter – so too our heavenly Father is ready and able to assist His children. Note in our verses for today the invalid is healed at once and perfectly, wholly – the trademark of the Master’s work. He was not healed in a matter of degrees rather miraculously to the highest degree of bodily strength – from not being able to turn himself over to being able to carry his own bed simply on the strength of Christ’s Word. I am reminded of Isaiah’s words regarding God’s Word:
10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11 (NIV)