He Followed The One Who Healed Him….

I absolutely love stories like these about Jesus and humanity. Here we have a crippled man of 38 years. Jesus heals him, a miraculous sign, and yet the religious leaders tell the man that he is breaking the law of the Sabbath by carrying his mat. The man’s response is classic. It’s one that if you are not in tune, you’ll miss it. He tells the Jewish leaders that Jesus told him to pick up his mat and walk. The irony in his words cut deep into the religious leaders pride. “How dare this beggar tell us we are wrong about our religiosity!” It’s clear who the crippled man was to follow. He followed the One Who healed him, not the ones who controlled the community. If breaking the Sabbath law by carrying his mat was seen as wrong, then so be it. Being healed after 38 years of suffering, certainly set the priorities of this man straight. He knew the evidence was on the One Who healed him, so he was not going to disobey God Himself. Being religious always puts man, rules, and self-sufficiency before truth. It’s not until we come in contact with our Maker that we realize we are only healed when He reaches out to us and tells us to stand up and walk. I’d rather obey Jesus Himself than a group of men telling me that what He says is breaking the law. How about you?

1 Afterward 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.4 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. John 5:1-15