4th Epiphany
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| Robert Bateman |
John 5: 1-1
Some time later, there was a
Jewish feast, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem, near
the Sheep’s Gate, a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which is surrounded by 5
covered porches. Here lay a great many invalids, the blind, the lame
[crippled], the weak [withered], waiting for the water to begin moving. For
from time to time a powerful angel of the Lord descended into the pool and
stirred up the waters. The first one in the pool after such a disturbance would
be cured of whatever ailment he had.
And there was a certain man there who had been an
invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and became aware that he
had been ill for so long, he asked him,
“Do you want [have the will] to become whole?”
The invalid answered him, “Lord [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.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Rise up, take up your
pallet, and walk.” At once the man was healed
and picked up his pallet and walked.
However it was the Sabbath on that day. Therefore
the Jewish leaders said to the man who was healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law
forbids you to carry your pallet.”
But he replied, “The man who healed me said to me,
“take up you pallet and walk!”
And they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you
‘take it up and walk’?”
But the one who was healed had no idea who it was,
for Jesus had slipped away, as there was a crowd in the place.
Later, Jesus found him in the Temple and said to
him, “Take to heart what I say: Behold, you have become whole. Sin no more,
lest your destiny bring you something worse.”
The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that
Jesus was the one who had healed him. That is why they persecuted Jesus and
sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath.
Then he himself countered them with the words,
“Until now my Father has worked, and from now on I also work.”
Then they sought all the more to kill him, because
not only had he broken the Sabbath, but also because he had called God his own
Father and had set himself equal to God.
4th
Epiphany
John
5: 1-18
Once
again, we see that the arrival of the Christ signals the beginning of a new
era. In ancient times, the forces of healing were still gifted to human beings
from outside of themselves. A last remnant of this is pictured in this gospel
reading as the angel who randomly stirs the healing waters in the pool of Bethesda
With
the advent of Christ on earth, the focus of the forces of healing moves away
from outside agents. Healing begins to establish itself in the energy field
generated by the relationship between Christ and the individual soul.
The
first question Christ asks the paralytic is a very intimate one. It concerns
the very basic question that Christ asks all of us: do you want to become whole, healthy? Is it truly your will to be healed? John 5:6 This is
an important question. For Christ will not interfere with anyone’s basic freedom
to choose. If we are truly honest, we would have to admit that sometimes we
prefer to remain in the soul landscape of suffering because it is comfortably
familiar. It takes courage to change the
basic pattern of a lifetime, to step into an unknown way of being.
As
it is, the paralytic’s answer is a divided one. Of course he wants to be
healed. But at the same time the power of his will, his ability to upright
himself, to move about, to move forward in his destiny, to make an active
contribution to his people, has been severely compromised. Interestingly, he
dodges the question by blaming others, and saying that he has no one to help
him. After thirty-eight years of paralysis of will and complaining, it is
perhaps no wonder that no one is around to help! Christ’s question shines a
light of consciousness on the very basic question He asks all of us, and that we
all must ask of ourselves: in what direction is your will moving? Do you will transformation?
Nevertheless,
Jesus has compassion on his weakness. For the paralytic symbolizes the state of
mankind in general. Christ must indeed see some way forward for us. And so through
the power of the Christ-Ego, Jesus infuses the paralytic’s will with a jolt of
uprightness, of power. Christ integrates the paralytic’s soul forces so that
they can raise the body. He jump-starts the paralyzed will.
“Rise
up; take up the pallet [of your destiny, upon which you have been lying
helpless], and move forward!” John 5:8
And
it happens; for— in the words spoken to the Mary soul at the annunciation—no word
is spoken in the worlds of spirit that does not have the power to become
reality on earth. Luke 1:37
Our
healing, our transformation and reintegration of soul, is a gift of Christ’s grace.
But then it is up to us to treasure, to nurture and to maintain the transformation
with which we have been gifted. Later Christ warns the paralytic, who is now
walking about in the Temple
So
in the words of Rilke:
Want the change. Be inspired by the flame
Where everything shines as it disappears….
What locks itself in sameness has congealed…
Pour yourself like a fountain.
Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking
finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.[1]
[1] Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two, XII, in Ten Poems to Change Your Life Again and
Again, Roger Housden, p. 21
