03
Help a Brother Out
Jay MiuraJohn 5:3-13
In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When 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?” 7The 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.” 8Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath. 10So 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.” 11But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.
In this section we see a glimpse of Jesus’ ministry and the different trials that He faces as He followed through with the Father’s purpose for His life. Jesus reaches out to a man that has been paralyzed for 38 years and heals him. Praise the Lord, right? That is what we probably should be thinking. But now instead of Jesus being praised for this miracle and all rejoicing at the healing of this man, Jesus is looked at as a criminal. Jesus performed this miracle on the Sabbath. The man, picking up his matt, had broken one of the spoken rules of the Sabbath.
How often do I fall into this same type of trap? Not the trap that Jesus walked into, but the one of those who are the religious. I must be careful not to get be so religious that I miss the miracles that are happening right before my eyes. Just as I am finishing up this devo I am already being reminded by You not to be so religious. I hear my little baby boy in the next room waking up from his knap and his crying just made me think, not now I’m doing my devos. And now I hear You Lord gently reminding me how blessed that I am to call You Papa and also to be called papa.
Thank You Lord that You allowed me to see Your work being done in my heart right now. Thank You for Your loving correction. I love you Father. Amen
