Monday, March 3, 2014

John 5:8

“Well then,” Jesus responds, ignoring his whining, “Get up, man!  Roll up your sleeping mat; pick it up and begin to walk.  You are healed!” John 5:8 EFP

Jesus, and the Gracious Father he came to reveal, created us to be healthy and whole.  Sin and all its side-effects have marred our world, our lives, our marriages, our hearts.  We are the result of our original parents’ misguided choice and our life-long pattern of imitating their folly.  Sin has left us in a pathetic state of atrophy—spiritual, mental, and physical.  It doesn’t really matter what kind of malady has done its dirty deed on us; we are squirming in our own filthy and helpless condition.

Is it that easy though?  Is a word from the Word sufficient to bring me healing?  It seems clear from this story that Jesus is anything but unwilling and unable to heal.  The weakness and self-defeating mindset comes from me.  Jesus has unsurpassed power behind his words.  “Get up!” he says to me.  “I created you to walk.”  “I don’t care how you got here or why you are still here, I just know that I am here at my Father’s request and you were made for walking!”  All that remains to be heard is the crippled man’s—and my response to God’s enabling. 

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