This year I'm working through the book of John for my
Bible memory. I just started John 5 and I found something that I never noticed
before.
This is the story about Jesus healing a man at this
mysterious healing pool in Jerusalem. The Bible says, "Some time later,
Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in
Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and
which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of
disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for
thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had
been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get
well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “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.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the
man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked."
As I read this passage again I noticed this line in verse
6, "When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this
condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” It says
that Jesus SAW the man, and He LEARNED that the man had been paralyzed there
for 38 years.
How did Jesus learn this? I think that Jesus stopped and noticed this disabled
man; and the He stopped and took an interest in this man- and asked Him some
questions and learned about Him.
I imagine that there was a bunch of disabled people
sitting around this pool- but for some reason, Jesus went up to this particular
man and took an interest in him. He asked questions, he learned his story, and
He helped him.
This week has been filled with images of presidents and
senators- of military generals and congressmen. Celebrities have been weighing
in on current events on the news. But here the highest of them all, the King of
Kings took an interest in the lowest of them all, a broke, middle aged invalid.
This King was not too busy for this invalid, He didn't have a meeting that He
needed to be rushed off to or an interview to give on live tv; this King had
all the time in the world for someone that the world saw as invisible.
Its a reminder to be observant; to look every person in
the eye and to treat them as a human being. Its a reminder to never be too busy
to hear, or to notice or to show compassion. That's when we partner with the
Divine and bring healing to broken places.
God is love.
-rev-rob
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