Today’s Gospel reading from the 5th chapter of John, which is an optional selection for the 6th Sunday of Easter, is different from the majority of the Gospel readings in Easter. Typically the Easter gospel readings have some obvious connection to Easter, such as Jesus revealing himself to his disciples following the Resurrection, showing himself alive and risen. This story, though, is found much earlier in John’s Gospel and has no obvious connection to the Resurrection events themselves. Nonetheless, it is a story that would have had significant resonance for the early Christian community to whom the author of John’s Gospel was writing, a people coming to terms with what it means to live as people of the Resurrection.
It is a story of healing, of Jesus encountering a man at a pool in Jerusalem known as Beth-Zatha which was believed to have healing qualities because of the “stirring up” of the waters by angelic visitors. We are not told what the man’s ailment was, just that people with varieties of ailments were brought to the pool - all of them invalids - blind, lame, and paralyzed - and that he had been ill for 38 years, most likely his entire life.
In fact, John tells us,
“Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time…”
The exchange between Jesus and the man has much to teach us and reveal why it is significant that we hear this story’s message during the Easter season. Its significance is found in helping us to see the connection between healing and the Church’s calling to live out its mission and purpose in the power of the resurrection.
Jesus asks the man ,“Do you want to be healed?” However, the man responds in
such a way that he does not overtly answer in the affirmative, as in,
“Yes, of course, I want to be healed. Why else do you think I’m sitting here?”
Rather, he explains why he has never been able to avail himself of the healing waters of the pool, explaining that 1) he has no one to help put him in the pool… and 2) that whenever he tries to make his way into the water, someone else steps in ahead of him.Jesus responds by simply telling him to stand up, take the mat on which he has been resting, and walk - which he does.
Notice also, the man shows no sign of faith in God, much less Jesus, as a prerequisite to being cured. The initiative is entirely Jesus’.
And John informs us that all this took place on the Sabbath Day.
John’s mention about the Sabbath day as the setting for this encounter is significant. If one reads on in the 5th chapter, one finds that this became a big deal. The man healed is questioned by the Jewish religious leaders NOT about his sudden ability to walk. You would think it would be of paramount interest to them, right? The possibility of a miraculous healing of an invalid man, a man who had been in this condition for 38 years would have been known to the community. His healing, one would think, would be significant.
However, their concern is with the fact that he is, by carrying his mat, in technical
violation of the Jewish laws concerning prohibition of work on the Sabbath.
Consequently, after they learn Jesus is responsible for healing the man, they become indignant of Jesus. Indeed, we are told they started persecuting Jesus, again, not only because he claimed to heal the man, but because he did so on the Sabbath.
So, here is what I believe is going on, and why this story is significant for us during Easter.
John is recalling this story for the sake of the early Christian community struggling to reconcile the demands of being a follower of Jesus with the demands of the Jewish law. Ministering to those in need versus the strictures of Sabbath observance, for example. John is reminding the community what takes precedence over what. Acts of love and mercy always take highest priority in the life of the followers of Jesus, just as they did for Jesus himself.
For people of the Resurrection, living lives of love and mercy and healing are nonnegotiables! It is what we do. It is who we are. We are followers of him who told the man,“Stand up, take your mat, and walk.” Jesus understood what was most important. The ethical demand of loving one’s neighbor will always outweigh the legal requirements of, among other things, observance of the Sabbath.
And this is why the story includes the odd detail of Jesus telling the man to take his mat, and then when the man was healed tells us that he did, indeed, take his mat as he walked. It is a not so mild rebuke to the legalists, then and now, that would prioritize anything ahead of the call to love of neighbor - care for the sick, the oppressed, the marginalized of every kind, AND, a rebuke of everyone who had ever seen the man in need of assistance at the pool, and walked by, like mini versions of the Parable of the Good Samaritan, prioritizing their own needs ahead of his.
The man’s desire to be healed by the waters of the pool of Beth-zatha and his claim that he had no one to help put him in the pool would be for John and his community a call to action for the Christian community. For him to say he “has no one” is an indictment on the community. He speaks for everyone in need who feels alone, forgotten, helpless, and speaks to everyone who claims to be a follower of the One who healed the man by the pool of Beth-Zatha.
For people of the Resurrection, if there is ever someone who thinks they have no one (which of course there are… all the time), that is our clarion call to a response of faith, our answering.
It is the essence of the risen Christ’s challenge to Peter that morning by the Sea of Galilee, when asked three times,
“Do you love me?” Then, “Feed my sheep.”
As for the supposed healing attributes of the pool itself. It is significant that they factor not one bit into the man’s healing. It is all Jesus, all the power of his Word to heal and restore. A miracle? Yes. But something more, as well. As he will later say, he is “the Living Water that has come down from heaven.”
For followers of Jesus, he is the only “water” we need to get people to. The church’s ministry of healing is about the myriad ways we get people into the pool, as it were, the source. Our ministry, our living in, and through, and out of the power of the Resurrection, is knowing and acting on the reality that we are called to get people to Jesus, the Living Water, who can, and does, say to all who suffer,
“Take up your mat, and walk.”