Word to the Wise
Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Lent
[Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12 and John 5:1-16]Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may hapen to you.
I come away from this Johannine drama with mixed feelings. The guy who is healed doesn't ask to BE healed. He just gives an excuse as to why he thinks he hasn't been healed. It's possible he was making a good living begging there! And once Jesus heals him, he promptly goes and tells the religious authorities! The initial sympathy one might feel for the guy is tempered by his lack of engagement with Jesus. Is this a kind of warning that we should not always expect people to be grateful for what we do for them as a matter of faith? Does it mean that God may do things for us that we don't ask for and maybe might wish hadn't happened? What are we to make of this? Scholars tell us that the "signs" in John are used to introduce discourses that follow them. Jesus gives "life" to the paralytic and the subsequent discourse is about how Jesus has come to give life to those who believe in him. Perhaps he saw more in the paralytic than we do. It may be that we ourselves are not so sure of the meaning of a question like: "Do you want to be well?" Would our response be, "What do you mean?" Or would we say, "I'll take my chances with medical science, thank you!" How would we think of Jesus as a life-giving reality? Hmmmm......maybe we can be like the paralytic in some ways - just not physically paralyzed! Reading further than the passage gives us today will bring us to these words: For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. I hope I'm on the list! AMEN
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