We cannot change much of the circumstances of our lives. We cannot chose what we are good at, we cannot change the way our parents raised us, for good or for ill. We cannot change much about our lives; we cannot even change our musical tastes. Much as I want to like country music…We cannot change our athletic abilities; either we are an athlete or we aren’t. We can train to be better, but hand/eye coordination cannot be trained if you simply don’t have it. I will never be able to hit a major league fastball. God and I have talked about this at some length, but you’ll notice I’m still not playing for the Yankees. We cannot change what tastes good to us. Some people like brussel sprouts for some reason, but I will never be one. When I lived in Italy during college I wanted to become a wine connosouir, but I found I didn’t like, very much, the taste of wine. I wanted to become a wine drinker, I still do, but for the most part I avoid wine, and most forms of alcohol. Not because I’m all that pious, but because I don’t like the taste. We can’t immediately change our behavior; it takes God years of us submitting to Him. I have a friend that deals with anger, fits of rage. He is much better at not exploding now than he was, but he still is working on himself, trying to let God transform his heart so that he is not as angry as he has been for so long.

I guess what I’m getting at is that we cannot change most of our situations, and we cannot change a lot about ourselves. But God can. That’s the good news. There are some things that God won’t change about us because that’s the way He created us; to be a brocoli lover or something like that. But there are also certain parts of our personalities that have been shaped, or perhaps a better image is that we have been warped by the wrong decisions we have made, and by the sins people have made against us. It is those things that God wants to change.

I have to tell you at the outset that I don’t really like the person Jesus encounters in today’s text. He’s a bit of a complainer and a whiner. He has a condition I wouldn’t wish on anyone, but it is his attitude, his sinful nature that needs God more than anything else. John 5 verse 1.

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 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?”
7 “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.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 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.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Let’s pray.

We’ll be going into James in the next week, starting to study that book during our sermon times, but in between the Psalms of the Ascent and James, I wanted to take a moment to look at a character in the Bible I don’t like very much. But first, I need to tell you a little about John. The gospel, or the good news according to John, was the last written of the gospels. It never sought to duplicate the work of the others gospels, Matthew, Mark or Luke, but sought to understand and help disciples of Christ understand more deeply the why of Christ.

The teacher at the recent conference I attended talked about the difference between what happened and “What happened?!?”. Relate story of the cars and the men riding in the cars. John is very good at telling us what really happened, not just the bare facts.

So here we are quite early in the good news according to John. Let’s see if we can ascertain the facts.

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

We know from John that Jesus’ ministry was over a three year span because we have it recorded that He went to Jerusalem for 3 Passover celebrations. This is the first visit to Jerusalem. He sees an invalid whom we are told has been waiting for 38 years. I cannot imagine waiting 38 years to get into the water, 38 years to finally be healed. In the first year the man probably had hope. He had hope that one of the times the water began to stir he would be the first in, he had been waiting only a short time and he had hope that he would be healed. But years have passed. With each passing season, with each passing year slowly his hopes begin to die. He realizes that with his condition he cannot get into the water first. He hasn’t been healed. He is just waiting, waiting, with his hope in himself, with his hope in the water dying.

And in place of hope there has grown a bitterness. A frustration that over the years has grown into bitterness; an anger at his place in life as a beggar, as someone who through no fault of his own, must sit, must lie waiting for the water to stir. And every time it does, someone else makes it in first. Maybe they have a less serious disease, maybe they have someone to help. He has been waiting; it isn't fair that these other people who have come and gone in the course of 38 years should get healed before him. So a frustration with his physical body and its problems gives birth to a bitterness of spirit, gives birth to an anger that is slowly killing him. Anger, and a complaining attitude toward life. Anger without a release becomes bitterness, which we see in this story as complaining.

He is forced to beg, so he can get a little money to feed himself, so he can go back and lie down again, waiting still, for the water to stir, for the healing to come. And it never does. For 38 years. He hasn’t given up hope though, completely, you’ll notice he is still lying there, trying to get in. But most of the hope he began with has changed to cynicism and feeling sorry for himself. A generation has reproduced itself while he has lain there in vain. That has made him bitter, it has changed him into a man, I suspect, he wouldn’t have guessed he could have turned into when he began to wait by the pool all those years prior. He has become bitterness. There is a spark of hope left, but it is covered up with bitterness. Listen to him speak with Jesus.

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?”
7 “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.”

You’ll notice he doesn’t answer Jesus simple question. Maybe he can’t. He doesn’t know who Jesus is, like many other people Jesus encounters seem to. Of course he wants to get well! In the Middle East there is a custom of giving to beggars, but you have to have a debilitation in order to properly beg. This man has a proper debilitation. Jesus is asking this man if he wants to be healed, but also if he is willing to begin life anew. There will be no more begging after this; he will have to learn a trade, will have his life completely changed. It is a simple question; do you want to be well? I think Jesus asks us all this same question. Do you want to be well? And we say, of course I do, its just that I’m used to life like this, its just that I’m comfortable in these sins of mine. I’m comfortable in my bitterness, I’m comfortable begging, I’m comfortable wishing my life was different and better, but that’s as far, really, as I want it to go. I don’t really want my life to change, We tell Jesus when He asks us this question.

You see, the invalid assumes that Jesus thinks he isn’t trying to get into the water. But he has been trying. But that still isn’t what Jesus asked. You see, what is impossible with humans is possible with God. The sick become well, the dead are raised, all in God’s power, not in the power of our own will. Over the past few months there was a flap on Oprah about a book she recommended called “A Million Little Pieces”. It was supposed to be a true story, but it turned out not to be. It was supposed to be about a man, through his own will power, turning his life around. But many of the incidents he said happened, didn’t, or weren’t as serious as the author lead his readers to believe. Real change comes from God. Real change for the man by the pool, real change for us, come through God. Those big changes in life; from a life centered on self to a life centered on God, from a life spent meeting our perceived needs to a life meeting God, those are changes God brings about. You’ve heard the saying, I hope, let go and let God. It isn’t about the man trying harder, it is about God showing up. It isn’t about us trying harder to become better people, although God appreciates the trying and is blessed by it, but change comes through letting go of ourselves and letting God change us. This happens in prayer, when we ask God to show us all that we need to repent of. This happens in interactions with others when we ask God to shine though our lives to those around us. It happens when we finally decide it isn’t about trying harder and beating ourselves up when we fail, but when we decide that the only solution is to give up that habit, those issues, those failings to God.

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

38 years of waiting are over. God has shown up, and the healing has begun. He is no longer an invalid, but He still has issues of sin that need to be addressed. The real problem we all have is not physical, but it is spiritual. What can separate us from God is not any physical maladies, but spiritual poverty away from God. Jesus has begun the healing with this man’s body, but more needs to be done.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 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.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

This healing, like so many others, took place on a Saturday, the Sabbath, the day of rest observed by the Jews as proscribed by God. Well, sort of. The Jews were supposed to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy, but Jesus obviously would have said that carrying one’s mat was not a violation of that commandment. But the Jews in charge of Israel’s religious life, they disagreed. They felt it was a violation of the commandment, a very serious thing indeed, and they wanted to find out who gave this man permission to do things a little differently. A wonderful miracle had happened, 38 years of frustration came to an end, and they were concerned about carrying a mat. I worry that we do that in our ways as well. We watch people grow in Christ, and then complain that they aren’t growing in the right way. We watch people worship, and then complain that they aren’t worshipping the right way. We can quite easily turn into people who have to have things our way, just like the Pharisees. I say this as a general warning, not a specific one, but if you feel convicted, there is a reason why.

The other aspect of this man is that not only was he a complainer, which I can sort of understand after 38 years of waiting by the pool, but he is also a tattletale. He wanted to get back into the good graces of the Jewish leadership quickly, having gotten in trouble with them for carrying his mat on the Sabbath. He should have realized that his allegiance was now to God, not to those who ran society. Part of his healing was to realize that he needed to come into right relationship with God, not with the society that he lived in. He has yet to learn that lesson by the end of his interaction with Jesus. But hopefully, he was well on the way. The law the Pharisees enforced couldn’t save him, couldn’t bring him into right relationship with God. The law never had the power to save, it only had the power to help us recognize our deep need for a Savior.

Maybe you’ve been waiting 38 years to be healed, or longer. Maybe there are some deep hurts in your life that are causing a bitterness that is keeping you away from real life, rather than the wounded place you are in. The solution is not to try the same things over and over, the solution is to give it to God. Maybe you are recognizing that your anger, your bitterness over past hurts is causing you to fail in developing a relationship with God, a real one. It’s past time. The pool man was waiting for God to move and He did. We don’t wait anymore like the pool man; we know God. We know Him through Jesus Christ, sacrificed for us to come into relationship with God. Our sins had to be washed away by Jesus on the cross. In the confidence that our Lord bled and died for us, we need to give over to God our lives. Not just the cleaned up parts, but also the very worst parts, the parts that cripple us, the parts that keep us from living freely and joyfully in Christ.

Don’t wait any longer. There is no need. If you need to give over your whole life; let’s do that. If there is an area of your life that finally needs to be given over, let’s take some time to do that as well. Pray with me…