After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

² Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. ³ In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. ⁵ One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” ⁷ The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” ⁸ Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” ⁹ And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

Now that day was the Sabbath. ¹⁰ So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” ¹¹ But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” ¹² They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” ¹³ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. ¹⁴ Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. ¹⁶ And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. ¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

John 5:1-17

Imagine seeing a man who had been ill for 38 years and then is healed. Imagine your heart not being happy for him. Imagine not rejoicing that you have seen God do a miracle for someone. How do we get like that? How do we get to a place where we are more concerned with rules and regulations? How are we unable to thank God that someone had being made whole?

Jesus must have been so grieved with that generation. God in the flesh is in front of them and their hearts are so full of pride and so hard that they can’t see the good in front of them. Instead they rely on their own works and structures of hierarchy to prove their own goodness instead of being encountered by living goodness.

Is it hard for you to rejoice at goodness happening for another person?

Father, forgive me for the ways I rely on tasks, rules, and regulations to prove I am doing the good and the right. How many times have you performed miracles around me and I haven’t seen it due to my pride and hard heart. Lord, I repent and ask for your mercy. Help me to rejoice in your goodness and trust in your promises. In Jesus’ name. Amen

All is grace,

Starla