The One Who Was Healed

Speaker: Paul Deschamps
Passage: John 5:1-18

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This is Christ the King Sermons. Christ the King Sermons is a ministry of Christ the King Presbyterian Church located in Raleigh, North Carolina. CTK is a community rooted in the depth of the gospel, refined by hard conversations, fueled by meaningful relationships, and committed to redemptive work in Raleigh.

Thanks, Paul. It's really good to be with you on Sunday morning. This is my first time preaching on a Sunday morning to all of you, so I'm really excited about that.

Today, we're going to be in John 5, verses 1 through 18, and it's our custom to read together the word of God.

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. But 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. 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." But he answered them, "The man who healed me, that man said to me, 'Take up your bed and walk.'" They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your bed and walk'?" Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn as there was a crowd in the place. 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." The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this is why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. — John 5:1-18

Amen. Join me in a short prayer.

Heavenly Father, let us be still and know that you are God. You are a rock and our refuge, and be with us as we worship you this morning. Amen.

A Question About Healing

So in the gardening world, there's a difference between what's called a green thumb and a brown thumb. If you're sitting beside a green thumb, point to them. See a couple. If you're sitting beside a brown thumb, point to them. I see a lot of people doing this.

Well, my dad is a green thumb. Growing up, we always had a beautiful garden and yard for as long as I could remember. And now it's my job to live up to that. You can ask my neighbors how we're doing. Anytime my parents come stay with us, there's typically some sort of garden project.

Sometimes I'll be doing work in the garden with my dad, and he will come up and just really nicely say something like this: "Do you want that plant to survive? Do you want that to be here in ten years?"

And the obvious answer is yes. But the way that question is worded, it's inviting me to do a few things. One, critically assess if what I've done is actually aligning with healthy garden goals. Two, admit that it's probably not in some way. And three, ask him for help.

So this dynamic—a question that on the surface has an obvious answer, but a little deeper is begging for self-reflection and a little bit more dialogue—that's what's on display in the first half of our passage today. Jesus asks this man, "Do you want to be healed?"

And honestly, it can strike us as a bit odd. It's like, Jesus, look at him. Of course he wants to be healed. But we'll see that this question isn't insensitive, but actually quite poignant and asked with compassion and love. And similar to my dad's question in the garden, it's a question that comes with an invitation to be curious and to follow a different way, a better way.

So we're going to frame this morning around two questions. The first is what we've been talking about, and it's the first half of this passage: Do you want to be healed? The second question that I think John is inviting his readers to ask through the confusion and the conflict of the second part of this passage is: Do you know the healer?

So: Do you want to be healed? Do you know the healer?

Let's do question one.

The Setting

Setting the scene for what leads up to this question: We're outside the walls of Jerusalem. Jesus comes to the Pool of Bethesda. And I can't remember—do we actually have a picture of this up here? Did that get in? Okay, awesome.

So as you can see, the Pools of Bethesda are kind of at the top there, just outside the city walls, but pretty close to the temple, just north. And the Sheep Gate isn't pictured here, but it's just along the north wall of the Temple Mount.

John tells us that this area has become a place where people with certain impairments, certain physical inabilities congregate—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. And we'll learn a little bit more about why this isn't just the local hangout spot in a minute.

Jesus walks right into this setting and singles out one man who's been an invalid for thirty-eight years, either no ability to walk or very limited. There's a desperation and a jadedness, a despair that comes with thirty-eight years, like, it's not how it's supposed to be. And that's an appropriate response to the scene at the Pool of Bethesda. Right? And it's an appropriate response for suffering in our own lives. That's not how it's supposed to be.

The Man's Hope in the Pool

So how is this man coping with his lot in life? He and others would gather around this pool, that we've learned serves as some form of shelter. Right? There's five kind of roofed colonnades around it. But second, it also has this allure of possible healing when the water is stirred up, if you're struck just right.

Although the details are pretty scarce in the passage, we see that the water would get stirred up periodically. And in verse seven, we get a hint that this man is in fact convinced that getting to the water when it's stirred up would benefit him physically. If you look at the notes, if you have a study bible, maybe if you look at the notes in there, you'll see that there are even kind of ancient reports of a belief that was active at this time—that this stirring of the water, what was behind it was actually an angel of the Lord. And if you were the first one to reach the water when this happened, you would be healed.

In studying for this sermon, I read that this pool was fed by two reservoirs in Jerusalem. They've actually excavated the site, and there's been plenty of conjecture around explaining this stirring of the water as a natural phenomenon. And the explanations are quite plausible based on the archaeology. But textually, the data that we have in John, I just want to draw out three things from this.

So the first one is that the man does seem to buy into this proposition that the waters could heal him. That's shown in verse seven. He definitely believes that. That's why he's there. Secondly, it's not really Jesus' main point or John's main point to really engage the validity of the claim of the pool, the claim of the angel of the Lord doing work. And thirdly, if we actually personalize this situation, the point becomes a little bit clearer.

For this man in particular, no matter what he believed was true, the fact remains that this pool had never actually healed him at all. So based on these three elements of the text, we can move forward in this way: Jesus is engaging a man who has put his hope in something that promises him healing, but he's never actually experienced the healing that that thing promises.

Jesus' Question

And given this, let's hear Jesus' question. Do you want to be healed? On the surface, this question has that obvious answer: Yes. But the man's answer is quite intriguing. He doesn't say yes. He doesn't say to Jesus, "Is it possible, sir, that you have a solution to my problem?" No. What he says effectively in verse seven is, "Yes, and that pool over there is the only way I can conceive of getting healing, and I can't even get to that."

I want to be healed. The pool is my only chance at being healed, and I can't get to the pool. That's a hopeless equation that this man is living with. Right? And the way it's written here, the way his response is written, there might be some implicit hope in this man, an implicit ask for Jesus to be that person that can help him into the pool the next time the stirring of the waters happens. Or maybe he's just actually out of hope and really jaded, and he's just telling Jesus, "This is my situation. I can't do it."

Either way, this man can't see past this thought process: I want healing desperately. The pool promises me healing. If I can get to the pool, I will have healing. And then lastly, I can't get to the pool. It's kind of a gut punch. Right?

And if we changed out a couple of these words, does anybody here think they might be able to connect with this pattern? Do we desperately want healing, to be made whole as humans? Does anyone else have an area of their life where they're crying out to experience healing in a time of extended suffering? An illness, a relationship that's been problematic forever, a sin pattern that feels like it'll never change, a constant feeling of being less than, not measuring up. We can connect with this desperation, and we should.

Our brokenness—physical, emotional, and spiritual—drives us to look for places that promise healing, that take the pain away, that promise a better life. That's human. Our lives are frequently dominated by congregating around things that the world tells us might make us whole. And we believe it.

Fill in the blank: _____ promises me healing, wholeness. What's that fill in the blank for you? That dream job, being the top of my class, being the best at something, belonging to the right friend group, being on track with my peers in the American dream. That's what's going to make me feel functionally whole. What are you drawn to that you believe, if I get that, I'll be okay?

Now many of these things—like family, finances, friendships—these are things that God calls us to steward and to enjoy. But they can't carry the weight of our souls, and they can't ultimately solve our deepest problems if we ask them to. If we depend on them to give ultimate value and wholeness in our lives, we will be sorely disappointed. They can't heal us.

And as we congregate around these things so commonly and let them dominate our headspace and our time and our finances, Jesus is kind enough to ask us the simple yet revealing question: Do you want to be healed? You're chasing after the illusion of healing, the hope of it working out one day, but do you want the real thing?

I want to find healing. But if I'm honest, the places that I typically go for it are as ineffective at healing the deep places of my soul as the Pool of Bethesda was for healing this man's illness.

Now, if the gospel of healing and reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ is new to you—like it was new to this man—the encouragement is to let Jesus' question lead you to an honest inventory of your heart. And I want it to hit you like my dad asking me about my gardening choices. Where are my assumptions about the good life, about the right way to garden? Where are those wrong? Jesus, is lasting healing even possible in this life? Can the wisdom and power of Jesus actually introduce real healing into your life? Honest inventory.

If you have accepted Christ, let's still say that the allure of putting our functional happiness into suspect promises of healing—like the pool—that's still with us, right? There's a way to live the Christian life proclaiming healing in Christ, but letting our hearts be dominated by other things. And there's a temptation to plug Jesus into your equation. Help me get to the pool. I've got this thing going on. Hey, Jesus, can you help me with my program? That's tempting.

And if you're at a place of saying kind of how this man was, I can't with something—that hopelessness has hit you after thirty-eight years—it might just be God's grace reminding you to return to him as your source.

Jesus as the Source of True Healing

So, of course, the good news for all of us—Christian and non-Christian alike—is that Jesus has come to break the cycle of our need drawing us to counterfeit gods, counterfeit hope, and rather to draw us to himself. For him to be the source that promises healing and accomplishes it with a word. Right? With a word, Jesus mends what is broken in this story. And healing comes from God.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not his benefits. He who forgives your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. — Psalm 103

This abundance is found in Jesus again and again and again. He's not coming to put a band-aid on a gaping wound. He's here to make you completely whole.

Will we take his question for what it is, and offer to look away from the false promises and half-hopes of the world and say, Yes, I truly want to be healed? Not the illusion of healing, not something that dulls the pain, but true health. And that's the healing that Jesus is kind of trying to shake us and shock us into seeing.

CTK, will you take this question and ponder it every morning even? God may have joy and peace and comfort and stability for you in a lot of secondary things, and that's a gift. But he has deep soul healing for you—to solve our biggest brokenness of sin and death—only in the person and work of Jesus. The offer is there for us fresh every morning to look to Jesus and recognize and worship where ultimate health comes from.

Before Paul's famous words in Philippians 4:13—right, he can do all things through Christ who strengthens me—in context, he's talking about living with hope despite circumstance. He's writing from jail. So he says in verse 11:

I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low. I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. — Philippians 4:11-12

This is a man who knows his ultimate health.

His ultimate hope is not secured in anything this world can give or take away from him or anything that he can give or take away from himself. His health and status are secured in the name of Jesus.

Do You Know the Healer?

So point number two, as we keep going in our passage: do you know the healer? In the second half of this passage, we get a twist that leads to conflict. The healing happens on the Sabbath.

Now the Jewish system of law keeping in that day had taken good Sabbath commandments to rest, to take one day in seven, to cease striving, to set it aside, to honor it as holy. They've taken that and they've added meticulous levels of regulation and exactitude that Jesus challenges often in the gospels as coming from human and not divine regulation.

Don't get me wrong. God's commandments can be meticulous. Go look at Jeremiah 17:21-22 or Nehemiah 13:15, and you'll see that applications of Sabbath day implications can be quite meticulous. But the Jewish leaders had added even more human burden, human regulation to this divine commandment.

Let's look at the story. The man goes to the temple commendably, and he's confronted for carrying his mat for a certain distance, which is not allowed by the regulations of that day according to the Jewish leaders. And the Jewish leaders look right past the miracle itself and try to make this whole story about Sabbath breaking. They ask, "Who told you that you could do this?" But because Jesus had withdrawn quickly, the man didn't even have a chance to get his name. Thankfully, a little later, they have an exchange, and he does get his name.

In this exchange, Jesus says another interesting thing to him. He celebrates first off. He says, "See, you are well." And then he says, "Sin no more that nothing worse may happen to you." So what is Jesus getting at here with this statement?

First off, the Bible and Jesus himself, especially in John 9, rejects the paradigm that specific sins always lead to specific judgment. But as we read this kind of command from Jesus to the man to sin no more, I think we can read this just as a simple encouragement and a warning to the man and also to us that fits within Jesus' broader message, the broader gospel message, which is to repent from your sins, to turn to God, and that through the work of Christ, you may be saved from the judgment that our sins deserve.

So right after this, in verse 15, the man went away, and he told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who healed him. Just the way that this reads with kind of the sparse detail, it can actually leave us with the impression that the man just told off Jesus at his first opportunity. It's kind of how it may hit you on a first reading. But I think there's a detail in here that actually challenges that.

Did you notice that the Jewish leaders asked the man, "Who told you you could take up your bed and walk?" That's their paradigm. In other words, who told you you could break Sabbath laws? That's what they're trying to make this story about. The man actually rejects answering them on those terms. No. When he sees them, he says, "Jesus healed me."

Healing people on the Sabbath seem to be one of Jesus' go-to moves. Seriously, in every gospel, a perception of Jesus breaking the Sabbath is what kicks off the conflict that eventually leads to his crucifixion. Jesus engages this conflict in a few different ways in the gospels, but the tactic he takes here in John 5 really gets under their skin. His defense is really simple, and it's in verse 17.

My father is working, and I am working. — John 5:17

Jesus equates his work with God's work. The Jewish leaders take this as a claim—rightfully—that Jesus is making himself equal with God. Blasphemy in their book. And though we didn't read this today, what follows in the rest of John 5 is one of Jesus' longest monologues about his divine status. He continues to press into that talking to them.

So the Pharisees have missed it. There's been a healing. This man comes to the temple, and they've made it a debate about Sabbath breaking. They've taken the good news and shifted the focus.

Now, of course, Christians can agree that keeping the Sabbath day is a divine regulation that stands today. But let's talk about the pattern that's on display here in the second half of this passage. It's a pattern of human regulation finding its way in alongside divine commandment, and therefore muddying the waters about which is which.

And my question is: can we Christians do the same thing today? Are there places where this is happening in our own hearts as Christians, in our own churches, in our own denominations? How can we tend to make areas of gospel freedom and personal conscience into battlegrounds and places of judgmental debates? So don't mishear me, please.

Receiving God's commands, interpreting this book that we love, and applying it in our lives as the divine word that it is—that's important work that I hope we all feel very passionate about. But let's also take the warning of this passage before us today. Let's do all of this with divinely commanded humility and curiosity, being quick to celebrate God's mercy, wise in our judgments, and willing to check our human regulations that crop up in our hearts so easily, so often.

The Good News

What's the good news here? Jesus' answer in verse 17 is full of nuance—full of layered meaning that the Pharisees pick up on. But it's also beautifully simple if you read it.

He says, "Why did I break your precious human regulations that have been falsely put on par with divine commandments? Why did I do that? Because my father wanted me to bring healing to this man. And so I brought healing to this man." — John 5:17

Jesus has clear eyes for the Father and follows. This passage, and a lot of the book of John when we dig into it, majors on this close divine relationship between the Father and the Son. And in fact, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, at this point in history where this is taking place, are working to pull off the ultimate rescue plan for God's people—to bring them true Sabbath rest, that the Sabbath we celebrate only prefigures.

And Jesus is saying to the Jewish leaders: sorry, but I'm my Father's son. He's working. How could I not be?

Y'all don't miss it. Do you know the healer, or do you frequently miss him? Are you curious about his work or frequently shut off to it?

The Healed Man's Testimony

I want to go back to our healed man. He kind of leaves the story unceremoniously, I'll say. Even though this man who gets healed doesn't get a lot of screen time as a hero of the faith—similar to other stories we've gotten earlier in John where some transformed people really say, "I believe," or the woman at the well says, "Come meet this man that told me all that I ever did"—we don't really get that with this man.

But I do want to submit to you that this man's testimony is really sweet. When we first meet him, his first words are, "Sir, I can't do it." His last words are, "Jesus healed me." That's not a bad testimony.

Christians, can we not say the same? Share the stories of our grand salvation, our ultimate healing secured by the life, death, and resurrection of Christ who suffered so that nothing worse would happen to us. Can we also share the stories—the small stories of his grace and healing in our lives with each other and encourage each other in that way? Come alongside each other with small stories of God being our source.

Do you want to be healed? Yes. Do you know the true healer? Hopefully, and more every day. Having a testimony like this: I couldn't. He did. I can't. He can. And be curious about how he is continuing to work ceaselessly in your life, just like the Father is working.

Amen. Let's pray with me.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this time. Thank you so much for your words to us in John 5 and the questions that you ask of us with a smile and love and compassion in your heart and your eyes toward us. Do you want to be healed? Do you know me? Come and see. Lord, we love you. In your Son's name, we pray. Amen.