Crippled

Is sin crippling?

After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me." Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, "It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat." But he answered them, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Take up your mat and walk.'" They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take it up and walk'?" Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you." The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father is still working, and I also am working." For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God. - John 5:1-18

Jesus tells the man to sin no more so that nothing worse will happen to him.

So, was it sin that caused him to be crippled for so long?

It is interesting that among all who were there, the blind, lame and paralyzed, John only tells us the story of this one man who had been unable to help himself for so long.

This is the man Jesus picked out of the crowd to ask if he wanted to be made well.

John likes to use images to convey Jesus' teachings, and this is a great example.

Jesus may have helped others that day, or maybe this was the only one he chose to approach.  What we learn from this, though, is that sin makes things worse for us.

Whether the cause of our suffering is sin or not, worse things will happen to us when we choose to sin.

The second thread in the story is the constant focus on Jesus working on the Sabbath, a sign that God's work through him is not done and needs to be a priority for him and for us.

There is no rest when so much is at stake, so many lives and souls can be saved.

The man was unable to help himself, until Jesus told him to stand up for himself.  Then, and only then, did he have the strength to overcome the burden of sin.

We, too, can stand on our own.  Yes, we need God's help, but God is always there, ready to hold our hand when we decide to finally try to stand.

We can live our lives crippled by our own devices, or we can choose to stand.  The choice is ours.

More to come...