May 20, 2001
Sixth Sunday in Easter

LECTIONARY READINGS
from the Revised Common Lectionary

Acts 16:9-15
Psalm 67
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
John 14:23-29 or John 5:1-9

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Additional Sermons / Resources on the Texts for Today

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"The Strangest Miracle"
John 5:1-9

I don't know about you, but my idea of a miracle is something that gets everybody's attention and maybe even makes the news. If it is a really big miracle, it gets the front cover of Time Magazine and grabs the lead story on the three major networks during the evening news.

ABC's news magazine, Prime Time had a story like that last March when a 13 month old toddler wandered from her home in the middle of the night wearing only a diaper and was found in the snow anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours later. She wasn’t breathing, her heart wasn’t beating and her mother said she was “frozen stiff” when she found her lying facedown in the snow. ¹

Dr. Allan DeCaen, the physician who led the ER team said there were “a lot of events lined up one after another that individually you can end up explaining away, collectively. One can try to rationalize this but personally I look at this as pretty miraculous.” The paramedic who first attended to the child agrees. “I think this is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to a miracle," she said.

A lot of people who were a part of this story were filled with amazement and thanksgiving to God. That's what a good, old fashioned miracle is all about. Amazement, astonishment and thanksgiving to God!

That's what happened in the Gospel of Mark when Jesus healed a paralyzed man. Remember the story?

"'I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.' And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, 'We have never seen anything like this!'" [Mark 2:11-12]

Sometimes people cried out to Jesus and received an answer to their plea that brought joy to people and glory to God - like the time the blind man called out to Jesus. Then there were times when people quietly tried to get close to Jesus believing they would find healing - like the woman with the hemorrhage who worked her way quietly through a crowd so that she could touch even the edge of Jesus' garment. There was even the time four men brought their friend to Jesus on a pallet and when they could not get into the house where Jesus was teaching because of the crowd, they went to the top of the house and tore their way through the roof - lowering their friend right into the presence of Christ.

And always, there was a response - even when the response was negative like it was the day Jesus healed a man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath.

***

The miracle in the Gospel reading for today is the strangest miracle. It takes place when Jesus went to Jerusalem during a feast time - but the particular feast in not identified. When Jesus comes to a pool near one of Jerusalem's ancient gates (the Sheep Gate) he observes a number of people who were ill. Many were crippled.

No one cries out to Jesus, but Jesus goes to a man who had been ill for almost four decades and asks him if he wanted to be made well. What a great opportunity.

But the man simply begins to explain to Jesus why he could never make it to the pool in time to be healed after the water was troubled or stirred up. While not a part of the original gospel, some manuscripts have the man explaining that an angel of the Lord would come to stir up the water from time to time and the first one into the pool after the disturbance would be healed.

Do you see the strangeness of this? Jesus says to the man, "Do you want to be made well?"  And the man doesn't give a direct answer. "Well you see, I have no one to bring me to the water at the right time and someone beats me to the punch!"

Jesus then tells the man to take up his mat and walk whereupon the man does exactly that.

And there is no joyous response from the crowd, no shouting and praising God. The man who was healed does not say anything. The whole episode end rather abruptly with the words, "Now that day was a sabbath."

If we were to follow the story for just a few verses, the story becomes stranger yet. The man is confronted by fellow Jews who simply tell him he should not be carrying his mat on the sabbath. He was in violation of the strictest interpretation of the laws against work on the sabbath. When they found out that Jesus was the one who had healed the man, they did not praise God and they did not share their joy with the man who had spent four decades of his life wasting away.

Instead, these sabbath sticklers began to persecute Jesus because he - in the words of the gospel - "...did such things on the sabbath."  And it gets worse... listen:

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.
                                                                                  [John 5:17-18]

In this miracle story, there is no rejoicing and no thanksgiving to God. The crowds are not amazed with the goodness of God, but instead, people commit themselves to eliminating Jesus from their midst.

***

There are however, some very important lessons to be learned from this strangest of miracle stories.

1. Unawareness of miracles - it got by the Jews - we miss miracle all the time because we, like them, are caught up in the present circumstances 

2. Though we are too often unaware of God  - God is very much aware of us.

3. The goodness of God is not dependent upon the reciprocal goodness of us!  i.e. God is good whether we are good or not - God is not dependent or co-dependent! (That is "I work and my father works."

4. ?

¹ Read the full story from ABC Prime Time here: >>> Miracle Baby

Verse 2: On the Pool" From the NIV Bible Dictionary:   BETHESDA (Gr. Bethesda, house of grace). A spring-fed pool at Jerusalem, surrounded by five porches (John 5:2), thought to have healing properties. Here Jesus healed a man who had been sick for 38 years (John 5:1-16). In A.D. 1888, while the church of St. Anne in NE Jerusalem was being repaired, a reservoir was discovered. On the wall is a faded fresco that depicts an angel troubling the water.

Verse 3: The angel troubling the water comes from some less reliable manuscript evidence which sought to explain the paralyzed man's statement in verse 7 with this inserted at the end of verse 3:   "...paralyzed--and they waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had."  This was most likely a later addition to the text.

 Worship Helps

Call To Worship (Based on Psalm 67)

Leader:  Lord, be gracious to us and make your face shine upon us,
People: Let us praise the name of the Lord; let every voice be lifted up.
Leader:  God is good and has given us every good gift,
People: May God continue to bless us and may every heart give honor to the
             name of the Lord.

Prayer of Confession

Forgive us, O Lord our God, for all the ways we accept less than your best for us. We choose those things that do not lead to life and we wander away from your light because we do not attend to your holy word. Give us grace today to fully embrace your word and choose that which leads to fullness of life. Renew us by the power of your Holy Spirit and give us hearts to love you above all things. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

Friends, the scripture promise that if we turn to the Lord in humility and true repentance, our sins will be removed from us as far as the East is from the Rest. Believe the good news that in Jesus Christ we are forgiven.  Amen.

A Prayer of Dedication

You have brought us to Yourself, O Lord. You have given us the gift of faith. Your mercies toward us are more than we could ever hope to deserve. We stand in awe before You today offering our gifts, our hearts our abilities and our worship. Come now, O Holy One and make us fully Your own through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.