Scripture
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?” “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.”
Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. John 5:6-7; 14-15
Observation
For some the water has to be just right. They won’t follow the confidence of Jesus unless there are supernatural moments, signs from heaven, or strange coincidences that give them courage to jump in. The man wouldn’t walk until there were bubbles in the water. Some of us won’t walk forward unless we see something extraordinary happen in our ordinary circumstances. We are crippled too.
For some there must be right connections. They depend upon the power of their network to connect them with the right people to put them into the water at just the right time, otherwise they will not walk. But they remain paralyzed because of their address list, because friends lose interest.
For others there must be public approval. When the healed man met men in the temple bonded by group-think he ratted on Jesus. Freedom is threatening to those who listen only to what others think rather than to what Jesus says. When they see one human being roaming free from the leash of their common sense they are quick to handcuff him back into subservience to their crippled view of life. The disabled man had been healed to walk, but sadly he did not follow Jesus. In the end, he became a spiritual handicap because he cowered to the crowd and did not follow Jesus.
Every word that Jesus spoke in the gospels is full of a courage that is out of this world. He wants to do more than just have the crippled walking, he wants them to go beyond and to use that mobility to follow him. Jesus has courage and he wants us to walk in confidence into places we have never walked before. We need to step past our immature need for omens, or our nailbiting over our network of friends or even past the disapproval the small-minded. Jesus heals us to follow him, and follow him we must do.
Application
There are many times I wait for perfect conditions or just the right people or even buy in from conventional wisdom. This is not one of those times. I must arise, roll up my sleeping bag and walk on after Jesus.
Prayer
Father, I sense the water is bubbling today. But I don’t need the bubbling waters for I have Jesus and that is all that I need. Today I chose to follow him. Give me courage and confidence to walk and keep on walking. Amen.
