In spite of official statements and assurances from the Indonesian government, we are alarmed at what has been happening since. Armed pro-integration militia, with evident acquiescence and support from Indonesian police and army personnel, have engaged in major acts of terror and violence. Journalists have had to depart for their own safety, leaving no independent reporters. Under the provisions of martial law there is a total news blackout. United Nations observers have come under attack.
Everybody except Indonesia seems to be saying, "There has to be an international peace-keeping force immediately." Australia's armed services are on alert in Darwin. Other countries have been considering their commitment to such a force. But Indonesia insists, "We don't need any foreign peace-keepers." And international hands are tied while Indonesia insists on its self-sufficiency.
"A large crowd of sick people were lying in the porches - the blind, the lame, and the paralysed. A man was there who had been ill for 38 years" (vv. 3,5). Jesus didn't move from person to person healing them all. The focus was on this one man. We aren't told, by the way, how long the man had been at the pool - but that the total length of his illness was 38 years.
Jesus knew the man's situation and asked him, "Do you want to get well?" (v. 6) That seems to us an unnecessary question with an obvious affirmative answer. But it is much more needful than we realise. One of our curious words for illness is "complaint". A sickness or disability can become something we talk about, that makes us the centre of attention, that brings others to serve us… Nobody in their right mind wants a "complaint". But then, continuing sickness can draw us away from "our right mind." There can be a subconscious satisfaction with our miserable status quo. Heal a lame or blind beggar and he can no longer earn a living by begging. The healing may make life much more complicated and demanding.
In a country town a man had set up a home for severely disabled children. He wanted no government funding and was well paid by doctor and lawyer parents. The parents were conspicuously absent when there was a funeral. His policy, he told me, was not to stimulate them at all - to leave them sitting around a room all day doing nothing. "After all," he reasoned, "life is enough of a burden for us. We shouldn't lay the burden of life on them."
By contrast, there was in that same town a severely spastic girl. People were rostered by the hour to help the family put her through exercise routines to develop her potential to the maximum possible.
In both situations, adults were making the decisions for these children - answering differently on their behalf the question of Jesus, "Do you want to get well?"
The man's response isn't very direct, yet he does long for help - "Sir, I have no one here to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am trying to get in, somebody else gets there first" (v. 7).
Jesus the Healer called the man to action. He would only be able to act because he was trusting Jesus to help him. "Get up!" - it had been beyond him, but not beyond the healing power of Jesus. "Pick up your mat!" You won't need it here at the pool tomorrow - you're going home. "Walk!" Don't expect to be carried. Continue trusting Jesus and walk.
As the account proceeds, we realise that, although the man has trusted Jesus for healing, he doesn't really know who his Healer is. When Jesus later finds him in the Temple, he says to him, "Listen, you are well now; so stop sinning or something worse may happen to you" (v. 14). There is something far more significant than physical healing. Jesus isn't suggesting that his physical disability will return if he doesn't "stop sinning" - though this may be an instance where sin has had a direct effect on his physical condition (unlike the blind man in John 9). The "something worse" is clearly a reference to the judgment of God - far worse than 38 years of infirmity. Stay right with God!
The man, possibly innocently, told the authorities that it was Jesus who had healed him. This strengthened their resolve to eliminate Jesus for healing people on the Sabbath. Jesus answered his persecutors, "My Father is always working, and I too must work" (v. 17). The Rabbis speculated about the nature of God. But they understood that God's "rest" on the seventh day of creation (Gen. 2.2-3) didn't mean that he had ceased his creative and sustaining activity without which the world would cease to exist. The Father is not inhibited by the Sabbath law and neither, claims Jesus, is the Son. They recognised this as a claim to divinity - "he had said that God was his own Father and in this way had made himself equal with God" (v. 18b).
And for us… what is the area in which we need to be made whole? It might be physical, emotional, relational, moral… Do we really want to be made whole?
By his grace, the Lord Jesus may be calling you right now to "get up". But your need has gone on too long. Don't disturb the status quo! Don't expect or even desire change! But he calls you in his grace - "Get up!" The power to change is in him, and, if you will look to him and trust him, that power will be in you too. By his grace, get up!
By his grace, he also calls you to "pick up your mat." Burn your bridges behind you. Don't leave yourself a way out. So apologies, forgiveness and reconciliation may be painful and misunderstood - but do it! Suggestive magazines or records have cost a lot of money - but get rid of them! You aren't going back now - "Pick up your mat!"
By his grace, he calls you to "walk" - looking to him, trusting in him, translating that trust into action, into a vital life… In a number of instances in the letters of both Paul and John our life, our conduct, our behaviour… is described as a "walk". We are to "live (lit. walk) in the light" (1 Jn 1.7). In union with God we are to "live (lit. walk) just as Jesus Christ did" (2.6). We are to "live (lit. walk) in the truth" (2 Jn 4, cf. 3 Jn 3,4) and to "live (lit. walk) in obedience to God's commands" (2 Jn 6).
The point is that action has to flow from faith, healthy life has to flow from wholeness. When Jesus makes us whole, it isn't so that we can lie down on our mat as a glowing example of health. As Christ makes you whole - "Walk!"
Do you want a peace-keeping force? We feel anguish at Indonesia's tardiness or unwillingness to agree to such a force. But do you want to be whole? The Lord is here. He bids you get up, pick up your mat and walk.
Back to Sermons