Before You Jump into the Pool...

"Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name."   -John 20:30-31

It's the verse that's constantly running in the background as you read the Gospel of John.  Any good English teacher states that your premise, your topic sentence, your main point should really be stated in the introduction so that your argument or the "red thread" of your argument can be seen throughout the entire paper, debate, project.  It would have been so much easier if John found some way to weave these verses into his gorgeous prologue so that we could also read them at Christmas & Easter vigil services.

Perhaps I'm just more dense than I realized.  Through all of the years of Bible studies, college courses, and masters' classes specifically on John's Gospel, the thought never occurred to me until today.  Scholars all fast forward to John 20:30-31 to explain John's purpose in writing.

But how often do we acknowledge things with our heads and not our hearts?

This has been head knowledge for forever.

It changes the way you read all of the miracles and signs that John weaves into his beautiful description of the life of Jesus.  What if you stopped and took a moment to ask, why did he include this miracle specifically?  Purposefully?  This signpost? How does this point us to life in the Name of Jesus?

Well it changes everything.  But specifically:

"Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”  “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. Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”  At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat." But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk? The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.  Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well. So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God."  -John 5:1-18

It changes everything.
For years, the thing that catches our eye in this passage is the fact that scholars thought it shouldn't be included in Scripture because they couldn't find this place.  And what pool has five sides?  That doesn't make sense.  We get lost in the academics and the details, not at all imagining the fact that maybe there's something we can't know or understand with our limited human and finite brains.  Don't worry, fast forward a few hundred years and find the actual pool or a few chapters in this particular story ,and there's a real pants pooping moment when Jesus walks through walls and defies gravity.  How can it be?  Well, I suppose the one who created the laws of physics can choose to defy them.  
Or what of the end of the story where Jesus says "Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you."
So many things that don't make sense.
What do you hear?  And what do you see?
How do these miracles shape the story?  How does these signs really point to something greater?  The purpose of a sign after all.
Jesus approaches this man who is in desperate need of healing.  Whose life for 38 years has been confined to waiting.  Waiting for a superstition.  Because after 38 years of begging, of bone aching pain, of being overlooked by everyone.  Of being separated from people and feeling separated from God...  
Jesus approaches this man.  It's not that the man sought Jesus out.  After so many years of jaded thoughts, lost hopes and dreams, I wonder if the man even raised his eyes.  When you're in that much pain, are you even able to raise your eyes to see the One you have been waiting for?  To dare to hope?  Jesus had to go to him.
Hasn't the exchange between them struck you as strange?  "Do you want to be healed?"
My answer would have probably been a mix of four letter words (none of which would be love) and sarcasm--is this a trick question?
The man was so focused.  He thought his only chance would be if these waters stirred.  He didn't want to loose focus.  To be left behind again.  So he didn't hear the words that were spoken to him.  Not really.  He wants Jesus to help him into the pool because that's where he will be healed.  
The stark irony of missing the forest for the trees.
But before I am too quick to judge, I believe I have said the same thing to Jesus at least 8 times today.   Where I have been working so furiously on the problem in front of me, instead of taking a step back and seeing the entire canvas that the Creator of the Universe is painting on.
We come to Jesus with our small distinctions and problems.  These rules that we have created to help us live inside our own paradigm, failing to see what He is doing.  Instead of dismissing our rules, He dares to enter into our discussion, into our failed logic.  Jesus keeps pulling us back into reality.  The real story.  His story.  Not the version that we are writing and trying to control and inviting him to be a part of at our leisure.  When it suits us.  When it makes sense to us.
He reminds us over and over again that our vision isn't quite right and heals a blind man to prove the point.  For only the Messiah would dare to enter into our mess, our pain, and our stories...  To draw us out and remind us that His story is much better, for there we can find true rest for our souls.  Our real identity.  The kingdom story that never grows tireless or weary in its telling.  A better story where we are not the center, not the protagonist or antagonist.  Not even the key player.  A story with a better plot, a journey with signs that point to the One that welcomes us home to a house that has been prepared for us with many rooms.  A story where He comes searching for us because we are too lost to see the forest for the trees.  A story that only looks like it ends at a tree.  For the Kingdom of God is Now.



  The Soundtrack of Mark 5

Comments

Popular Posts