Encountering Jesus

Part 3 | Glimpses of characterization in the gospel of John

Time for a change - but does it take?
by Bruce Power

By anyone’s measure thirty-eight years is a long time. As Jesus is traveling through the city of Jerusalem on his way to a festival, he passes by a site filled with numerous sick persons. Out of the crowd who live their lives around this pool associated with occasional occurrences of healing, Jesus singles out an individual man. John tells us he has been an invalid for thirty-eight years. Does this represent his whole life? Has he been here since childhood? Or was his life tragically impacted and a normal existence transformed to this waiting and hoping, but finally losing all hope?

Jesus learns he has been there for a long time and asks the question, the central question in this moment: “Do you want to get well?” It seems a simple enough question, but time and circumstance take a toll on the human spirit, and we can get to the place that the present circumstances, no matter how horrific are at least known. We understand that we can somehow cope with this, but the unknown represents an equation we cannot calculate, a potential danger that may take us beyond the breaking point. The man does not answer the question. Perhaps he does not know if he wants to get well.

“‘Sir … 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’” (5:7). This response is redirects the question and appears to be a statement of resignation. “I’ve tried. It hasn’t worked. I’m stuck in these circumstances and there is no escape. So what’s the point?” It would seem hope is too painful to consider.

Jesus takes him by surprise. “‘Get up! Pick up you mat and walk.’ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked” (5:8-9).

It turns out that the day this all happened was a Sabbath, and so controversy arises over the legitimacy and godliness of such a healing. It doesn’t start out as a fuss about healing, but rather over the fact that the man is carrying a mat. He is not supposed to be doing so.
Religious scruples have determined this to be an affront to God and the man is challenged about his actions. In his defense the man replies that his healer had told him to carry the mat.

“So they asked him, ‘Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?’” (5:12). Now they are sure evil is afoot. Mat transporting and healing on a Sabbath! But surely if they examined the situation more carefully they would see the work of God in these events, after all, a man had been healed after almost a lifetime of being crippled. Instead, it appears they conclude that surely, after thirty-eight years of waiting, adding another day to the tally would not be an unrealistic burden. Surely “this fellow” could have returned the next day to proffer healing … or at the very least, the man could have waited until the next day to pick up his mat and test out his new found abilities!

But though interrogated, the man doesn’t know who has healed him! Astonishing. And Jesus had slipped away into the crowd. In fact, John tells us, it is only when Jesus later “found him” at the temple that he is able to go and make a report to the authorities regarding the identity of his healer (5:14-15).

Sometimes the story has been read carelessly as an account of a man who comes to faith in Jesus. But is that really the case? We are provided with a critical clue to the contrary in the scene when Jesus seeks out the man in the temple. “‘See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you’” (5:14).

A careful reading of the story indicates that the man has actually done nothing other than obey when Jesus tells him to take up his mat and walk. But is such compliance the stuff of life-changing transformation? Clearly it is enough belief to follow through with a simple action, but is it the sort of faith that changes a life?

There are plenty of clues that this encounter never really gets off the ground, though the man does. His life is a powerful witness to the power of God to heal and change and transform a person in the most dire of circumstances, but it does not seem to have gotten through to the man himself. The woman at the well is told of her past and how God can transform lives and she responds with a faith that changes her life. The official hears a word of hope and healing and believes. The result is a life that is altered. This man’s life is changed in that he can walk, and resume normal activities in the community, but at a more profound level he is still crippled. His grip on sin is firm, as is its grip on him. He has not embraced the new life afforded to him in the moment. As the story ends, there is no indication that he gets the point of his encounter with Jesus.

Sometimes we think things would be different for us if we had only had the opportunities afforded to the disciples and others who had opportunity to listen to Jesus teach and preach, observed his miracles or perhaps even been the recipient of his healing touch. This story reminds us that seeing is not believing.

Read part 1 and part 2 of this series.

Writer: When Bruce Power is not reading books on scripture and/or the ancient world, and listening to blues or jazz or baroque music, he may be teaching a course somewhere. Or who knows what he might be up to…