Pick your mat up and walk!
17th August 2006
When God speaks to you it is quite unmistakable, although sometimes it can be terrifying and sometimes it can be confusing. I have one of these experiences just recently. While sitting in the pew listening to a sermon from John chapter 5, I heard the words read from the gospel, “Pick up your mat and walk!”
It was from the familiar story of the paralyzed man who had been in that helpless condition for almost an entire lifetime. He was lying by the pool of Bethesda which was known in those days to have healing qualities. When the “waters stirred” the first person who get down to the pool would have their ailment healed. John 5:4: for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted. (NASB)
This man wanted desperately to get well. So he camped by the pool waiting for a chance to get into the pool first and experience its healing effects.
When Jesus saw him by the pool and learned of his condition, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
What kind of question is that?
Of course he wanted to get well or he won’t be lying there! But it seems Jesus has unearthed something else under the surface as the man’s reply indicated: “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.”
He didn’t really answer the Lord’s question, but then again, maybe he did. Whatever it was, he felt probably the sting of guilt. As if to say, “I know, if I really wanted to get well, I should have known better. Thirty eight years and I am still lying here waiting for things to be different. All that practice has not made me any faster!”
The real problem is uncovered when Jesus met him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”
While meditating on this verse it dawned on me what that man’s problem was: isolation and loneliness. He did not have anyone to help him because he had isolated himself from community.
Christ taught that the Greatest Commandment is really one: Love God, love neighbor and one another. If this man is to stay well, he must stop sinning, that is, stop ignoring the Greatest Commandment and start building community. If he just does that, then he will never have to wait thirty eight years alone by the pool, watching while others get healed. He will also never need to rely on a pool to get healed. He will have friends, like the other lame man whose friends broke open any and every obstacle to bring him in front of the Master.
That is how it is with our spirituality. We are not to go it alone. We are to be part of a community where we can find support and encouragement and where we can not only experience other’s healing and helping hands, but also let God’s healing balm flow through us to others.
As I said, I sat there listening to God’s word read from the gospel, but deep down God was speaking to me: Don’t walk alone!
Note: I continue this topic with a post on the other story about a lame man here.
Technorati Tags: community, love god, love neighbor, loneliness, greatest commandment
August 18th, 2006 at 1:30 am
Amen, brother. That is very true; we’re not meant to walk alone.
August 23rd, 2006 at 5:36 am
Christian Carnival CXXXVI…
Welcome to the 136th Christian Carnival. For information on what the Christian Carnival is, see here. I’ve decided to arrange the posts this time according to Psalm 136, using the NET. I’m not sure if I like every aspect of this translation, but it’…