4th Epiphany
John 5: 1-18
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| Christ Heals at the Pool of Bethesda |
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.”
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| Picking up the Pallet |
But he replied, “The man who healed me said to me, “take
up your 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
January 31, 2016
John 5: 1-18
Originally God’s creation was filled with an abundance of life,
overflowing with healing, strengthening powers. Crowds could bathe in healing
waters, for a thousand angels lived in them. But by the time Christ walked the
earth, the healing forces of nature had worn down. The pool at Bethesda was
only attended, intermittently, by one angel, enough healing force for one
person at a time. And sadly, often without help, those most in need were unable
to avail themselves.
Christ came to initiate a new form of healing. He healed the man directly, lending him the creative power of His word. He healed from His I AM power, from Self to self.
Christ still walks the earth; we just don’t see Him. He can still heal, but it is now we human beings who are his instruments, His hands, his speaking. And now, 2,000 years later, what is called for is not only the healing of ourselves and of other human beings. What is becoming more and more necessary is that we find ways of healing the earth.
As St. Paul says, “…all around us creation waits with great longing that the sons and daughters of God shall begin to shine forth in humankind. Creation itself and therefore everything in it is full of longing for the future….”* It is now we who are to give life to the earth; we who are to heals its wounds; we who are to redeem the damage we have done to her.
How do we give life
and healing? With God’s help, through our time and attention; through the power
of the creative word our prayers, through our loving devotion to her well-being
and our sacrifices on her behalf. Teresa of Avila** said, that even when we
ourselves feel wounded, God helps.…God is always there…. He kneels
over this earth like
a divine medic,
and His love thaws
the holy in us.
*Romans 8: 19 -21
** St. Teresa of Avila ~ When the Holy Thaws, in Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices
from the East and West --versions by Daniel Ladinsky)
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