Sabbath Rest

In John 5 we read of Jesus healing a paralyzed man. Why only this one man, and why only now, when there's a festival going on in Jerusalem?

Transcript

John 5:1-9 (ESV)
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.  In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.  One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  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?”  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.”  Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”  And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.

Remember how I said that, as we move further into Easter, we rewind backward in time? This is Jesus third miracle in John. The first was the wedding at Cana, the second was the healing of the Official’s son. But this miracle raises some questions. It’s great that Jesus cares for this man and gives him back use of his legs. But what about everyone else? There were “a multitude of invalids – blind, lame, paralyzed” – what about them?

What was happening with all these sick in the years, even the decades and centuries, before Jesus came? Did the Lord not care about these people until he came in the flesh as Jesus of Nazareth? As I said, this miracle raises many questions.

John records that this miracle happened during “a feast for the Jews.” There were three great Jewish feasts, and this could be any one of them. First, there was the Passover or the Feast of unleavened bread. It commemorated how the blood of a lamb smeared over the doors of their houses saved from the Angel of Death. It was the beginning of their rest from slavery in Egypt. Second, there was Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks, which happened seven weeks after the Passover. It commemorated the giving of the covenant to Moses, and rest from uncertainty about where the people stood in relation to God the Lord. Last, there was the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. This commemorated God’s provision of food and clothing in the wilderness; it also pointed forward to a time when all people would come to worship God in Jerusalem. 

On the one hand, these were festivals of obedience. The Lord said to do these things. 

The Passover or The Feast of Unleaven Bread: Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the LORD brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten… You shall therefore keep this statute at its appointed time from year to year. (Exodus 13:3–10, ESV)

Pentecost or The Feast of Weeks: “You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain.  Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you. (Deuteronomy 16:9–12, ESV)

Booths or The Feast of Tabernacles: “You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress…For seven days you shall keep the feast to the LORD your God at the place that the LORD will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.”

“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.  Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you. (Deuteronomy 16:13–17, ESV)

On the other hand, these were also parties. They were celebrations and times or rejoicing. They were meant to be for everyone and to exclude no one:

“You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns.” (Deut 16:11 and 14). 

But this morning’s Gospel finds us in the Holy City, with a multitude gathering for one of these great festivals – it really doesn’t matter which one. Who do we see at the Sheep Gate? “A multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.” This was not going to be much of a party for them.

The point is this: Sin has impacted our bodies, some more than others. But if one person is blind, lame or paralyzed, then so are we all. Master or servant, Levite or Jew, citizen or sojourner, daughter or orphan, married or widowed, seeing or blind, walking or lame, all are invited to the Feast and no one is to be excluded. All are invited to remember the works of the Lord. All are to remember they were slaves in Egypt. All are to participate in the coming to the Promised Land. And all get to have sabbath rest. 

The feasts and the Sabbath were not about not working. They were about resting in the Lord. They were about trusting that if one did not work for one day, one would still eat. Remember that for forty years in the wilderness, Friday brought enough extra manna for Saturday too. Sabbath is about trust that the Lord will provide for all our needs. He will restore us, save us and heal us. 

Sabbath means more than not working. It means a day of not worrying. It’s a day of remembering that sin and the Devil no longer Lord it over us. It’s a day of remembering that one day, a fuller rest will come. 

How were the people of Jerusalem including the blind, lame and paralyzed in the Lord’s rest? How much rest from anxiety about the future did they receive? Were they included in the feasts, or excluded? Did they participate in Sabbath, or not?

In this world we cannot ever be completely free from the impacts of sin. Jesus said on the night when he was betrayed that “In this world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). But for a day, an hour, a regular set time, we can stop the work and worry and rest in the promise of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We can hear again how he forgives our sins abundantly, how he washes us and feeds us and restores us and sets us on our feet. Jesus works for us, that we might have true Sabbath.

And so Jesus does not cure everyone. This is not yet the Last Great Day. But he demonstrates what that day will be like. And he reminds the people of Jerusalem that the feast is not about “me and God.” It is about “we and God.” 

Make no mistake, though. The Great Sabbath is coming. John saw it in a vision during his “forced sabbatical” on the island of Patmos. He wrote that:

One of the seven angels… spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”  And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,  having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.  It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed—  on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.  And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (Revelation 21:9–14, ESV)

There are no invalids or blind people laying at any of those twelve gates, waiting for the waters to stir and hoping someone will help them in the pool; watching the people pass them by on the way to their Passover Parties while they lay there waiting for a miracle.

There is only an eternal Sabbath. A time free from anxiety and fear. A place where the sojourner is a citizen, where the widow is the wife of the lamb, where the orphan stands in the presence of God her Father. A time and a place where the blind can see, where no lame man ever has to be told “take up your bed and walk.”

Lord Jesus, let our names be found written in your book of life. Deliver us from sin, death and the Devil, root us in our baptisms, and feed us at your altar. Tell us to get up and walk. Heal us from our sin and fear and make today a true Sabbath rest. 

Amen.