The Pharisees missed the healing of the lame man because they were stuck on their man-made rules for the Sabbath.
Jesus is coming into Jerusalem and finds a man who has been lame for thirty-eight years.
He is waiting next to the pool of Bethesda, and it appears to bring healing, but this man keeps missing out.
John 5:6-9
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?”
7 “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.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
Wow! Jesus just healed a man who had been lame for thirty-eight years!
John 5:9-11
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
That bad man who just got healed was carrying his mat on the Sabbath…
How dare he.
What was he thinking?
Talk about missing the most important thing. Wow!
There is no concern for this man, only concern about compliance with the code and their man-made standards.
Before we get down on the Pharisees, we need to take a moment and consider how often this may be us; it might be me.
How often have I overlooked the miracle right in front of me because of a missed expectation, unspoken mores, or what I thought to be right or wrong?
God gives us eyes to see what you are doing.
Father, help us to care about the needs and the wins of others. Father, help us not get so fired up about the rules that we miss the people you love and the miracles you do in their lives.
