All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ
Last week we left off with Jesus healing a man at the Pool of Bethesda. That man was experiencing the joy of being able to walk for the first time in a very long time. He didn’t even know the name of his benefactor who had freed him from his disability. The scripture states that Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. (John 5:13) Jesus had told him to pick up his palette and walk and that was just what he was doing. If you are wondering what a palette is, Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary states that it’s a small and mean bed; a bed of straw. Probably straw in a linen covering. Could be rolled up and carried like a sleeping bag.
The joy of this man and the fact that he is carrying around a smelly bag of straw immediately catches the eyes of some Jews who stop him and tell him he can’t do that. Probably had to tell him more than once as the healed man was not paying attention to much more than walking around and feeling great, I imagine. However, it was the Sabbath and you can’t be walking around with your sleeping apparatus because it is not permitted.
It makes you wonder a bit on why they, the Jews, made a rule on not being able to carry your palette around on the Sabbath. Was there a lot of that going on and it looked unseemly to those in charge? And who were these Jews with rules anyway?
Pharisees is who they were. A small sect of rule-bound and ultra righteous, in their own mind, people that were constantly on the lookout for some infraction to correct. God gave Moses the law and you can find that in Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21. Basically the 10 commandments that we all know and much of civil government today was used for the basis of our laws. These Pharisees added 613 commandments that included “positive commandments”, to perform an act (mitzvot aseh), and “negative commandments”, to abstain from certain acts (mitzvot lo taaseh). I would guess that carrying around your bed would be in the negative area of these extra commandments.
There were around 6000 of these Jews at the time of Jesus and although they knew the scripture, they were so sure of their interpretation of what the scripture said that anybody telling them differently would be discounted. Certainly somebody healing someone else on the Sabbath was against their rules. We see a lot of that today, laws that run counter to common sense. Of course since we live in a “Post Truth” era and nobody can agree on what common sense is, we’ve got some problems to work through. God is the same now as He was back then. And we know Him to be a rational and Loving God. Do you think that He stops working on Sunday? Or would He prevent somebody from being healed on that day? Christ told them “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” (John 5:17) Yet, these Jews did not believe it and would not permit it. The next verse in this book shows how corrupt in their hearts that they were: “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” (John 5:18)
They wanted to kill him because He broke their Sabbath laws and also because He called God his Father. We all do the same when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. (Matthew 6:9-13)
Jesus seeks to realign their coal-like hearts: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” (John 5:)
All authority has been given to the Son, and yet they wanted to kill Him. In their mind, they were the authority. Anyone claiming to have God as their Father or to be the Son of God was talking foolishness, dangerous foolishness. My question to you is, have you encountered anyone that has said God’s word is foolishness? And if you have, how did you respond to it?
We know from Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. As a Christian, you possess every spiritual resource you need to fulfill God’s will for your life, so in answer to how does a person respond to a nonbeliever? You have everything you need, the Bible, the Holy Spirit, God’s love. The people of Jesus’s time had only what scripture they had been taught, keep in mind they did not have what we have today, a complete Bible. Until the Messiah walked among them, they only had what they had been taught and Faith. These Pharisees had been taught the same things but had no faith in anyone but themselves.
Also how they chose to interpret what they had learned brings the parable of the sower into play. (Matthew 13:3-9) The deceiver is ever ready to gobble up the seeds sown of wisdom and understanding and the opening of the heart. Their seeds had been sown on to the road, or the rocky place or even into the weeds. Even today we have a hard time understanding why family or friends that had at one time been excited over God’s word, have now pulled away and refuted it all. The scripture speaks to these things, yet that book of God’s instruction and wisdom is gathering dust on a shelf, never consulted. Remember you have been made complete and lack nothing spiritually.
Jesus stated: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” He was telling the Pharisees and He is telling you now, He who believes in Him has eternal life.(John 5:24) They, the Pharisees, rejected that concept. Some of your family or friends may have also rejected what Christ has said. Christ prayed for those that wished to kill him and I think a time is coming where all that we knew and was easy, will not be so easy. Take that dusty book from the shelf and open your heart to its message.
Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true. There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true. (John 5:25-31)
What did we learn from this? The Truth is the same today as it was back then. It walks among us, yet many refute it. Judge not lest you be judged. The Pharisees were judging Jesus and found him unacceptable as a Messiah. Christ told them, those that reject me, also reject the Father. (John 5:23) and for that they were willing to kill him. Take not your own counsel, (Proverbs 12:15) but that of the Lord’s. And to do that, open the book, seeking the Lord’s will in all you do. The clock’s ticking and none of us knows the span of our days. Best get busy and may the Lord Bless you and Keep you.