In this passage from John, Jesus is once again curing someone, a man ill for 38 years. Not content to just going around curing willy nilly, Jesus does this on the Sabbath, once again gathering the ire and condemnation of those Temple elite that he has never ceased criticizing. Go get'm Jesus!
We are all called to be like Jesus. Jesus is supposed to have shown us the way. Jesus is The Way. The truth. The light. Jesus' message in words as well as in his life was one of action, prophesy, praise and witness to the Father's love. We are called to do the same. This is not just a call to good behaviour. We really don't get some kind of extra credit for doing what we are supposed to do and how we are supposed to act in the first place. No bonus points for not killing someone or for not committing adultery. We are also called though to be conduits and proclaimers. How we do that is intimately and intricately intertwined with who we are. As a unique creation, each one of us will witness to God's love in our own way.
Today I cannot help but think of sainted, John Boswell. He died in 1994 and he would have been 72 years old today. He died much too young. John Boswell was a preeminent witness to the love of God especially as it pertains to the gay community. His books and life witnessed to being a gay Christian and the fact that such a statement is not mutually exclusive as some would suggest. John Boswell was a prophet of knowledge and hope and he laid some of the foundation for the gay rights movement and decency we see and witness in our lives. I can thank John in part for the legal and sanctified marriage that I have with my husband today.
That I recall John today and consider him a saint for doing what God entrusted to him by his God given intellect and faith is a reminder to all of us that we are called to be a witness, each in our way. We may not cure the lame or perhaps we will if so gifted and our faith allows. What we can also do is be that cured ill man from today's reading and spread the Good News, encourage others and live a life of love we were meant to live.
John 5:1-18
After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in HebrewBeth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Take up your mat and walk.” ’ They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take it up and walk”?’ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.’ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am working.’ For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
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