MIRACLES
HEALING OF THE CRIPPLE
DR. JIM DIXON
JOHN 5:1-18
MAY 29, 1983
“Rise, take up your bed and walk.” Seven words spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ almost 2,000 years ago, and in those words, His divine power was released, so that a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years was suddenly made whole. It was a miracle, and in that miracle, we have two teachings that I want to share with you this morning. The first teaching has to do with law and compassion. This miracle tells us that compassion is the very essence of the law of God, and the Pharisees did not understand that. Jesus saw the cripple laying by the pool at Bethsaida and He had compassion for him, and Jesus healed him, and this cripple, in his joy, picked up his bed, his cot, and he began to walk through the streets of the city of Jerusalem. Now it was the Sabbath day. It was not legal, according to the law of the Pharisees, to carry anything on the Sabbath because that constituted work and the Sabbath was the day of rest. Therefore, the Pharisees found this man and they rebuked him, and they reviled him. They did not care that he had just been delivered from 38 years of physical affliction. They didn’t care that he’d just been delivered from 38 years of social rejection. They had no compassion. They did not care about people. They simply cared about their law and the law had been violated.
In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we are told how Jesus was in the synagogue. There was a man in the synagogue, in that place, who had a withered hand, and he was crying out to be healed. The Pharisees said that it was not proper to heal on the Sabbath and Jesus said to them “Is it proper to do good or evil on the Sabbath?” They would not answer him, so Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, he said, “Stretch forth your arm” and Jesus touched him. That man was made whole, and the Bible says that “the Pharisees were enraged, and they began to take counsel as to how they could kill Him.”
In the 13th chapter of Luke, we’re told how Jesus once again was in the synagogue and it was towards the end of His earthly life, perhaps the last time that He was in the Jewish synagogue and there was a woman in that place, and she was a hunchback. Her vertebras were out of place. Her back was bowed. She’d been stooped over for 18 years. She was not there to ask for healing. She was simply there to worship, simply there for instruction and yet Jesus saw her, and Jesus had compassion on her. It was the Sabbath day and Jesus stepped towards her and said “Woman, you are delivered of your infirmity.” He simply touched her, and she was made whole, and she stood straight, and the Pharisees were enraged because He did this on the Sabbath. One of the Pharisees stood before the assembly, and he rebuked them. He said “You have six days to bring your sick for healing. The Sabbath is a day of rest.” It’s kind of a humorous comment, coming from a man who couldn’t heal any day of the week, but they did not care about people. They had no compassion. They only cared about their law. This conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees continued.
Jesus was at the home, as in the 14th chapter of Luke—He was at the home of a Pharisee and He was having lunch, and into the courtyard there came a man who had “dropsy”—today we refer to that as edema—a buildup of fluid in the tissues and his arms and his legs were swollen with water. He came into the courtyard. He cried out for healing. It was the Sabbath day. The Pharisees said it was not right to heal on the Sabbath, but Jesus said to the Pharisees, “Do you not unloose, do you not untie your cattle on the Sabbath day and give them water to drink and food to eat? How much more should I release and untie this man from that which binds him?” Jesus reached forth and He touched this man, and He healed him, and the Pharisees were enraged. This conflict over the law, this conflict over the Sabbath, came to a head as the disciples were walking through a cornfield one day. They picked corn to eat because they were hungry. That was perfectly lawful in Israel. It was perfectly lawful for a traveler, a hungry traveler, to take corn to eat from a nearby field as long as he only took as much as he needed. He couldn’t bring a wheelbarrow, but as long as he only took what he needed There was only one problem though. This was the Sabbath day, and the Pharisees considered the picking of corn to be work on the Sabbath, the preparing of a meal, reaping, harvesting, all of that was work on the Sabbath. It was improper and therefore the Pharisees reviled the disciples, and they rebuked our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus stood before them, and He said “The Son of Man has authority over the Sabbath. The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” They were enraged because they considered this blasphemy, but Jesus was saying that He was sovereign over the Sabbath. He is the Creator of the Sabbath. He is the one who established and ordained the Sabbath. He governs the Sabbath, and He is the one who knows the purpose of the Sabbath and He, therefore, said to the Pharisees “Truly, truly I say to you. Man was not created for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was created for man.” Jesus wanted the Pharisees to understand that God did not create or establish man in order to serve the Sabbath, but God created and established the Sabbath in order to serve man. God established and created the Sabbath out of His love for man. Nothing is more important to God than man. Man is more important than the Sabbath.
The Sabbath was established to serve man. God in His love and compassion knew that we needed time away from our labor, time for fellowship with the Living God, time to develop our walk and our relationship with God and therefore, God established the Sabbath. But you see, the Pharisees had twisted this all around. They twisted the meaning of the Sabbath around as they twisted the meaning of the entire law around. They treated the laws—it was more important than anything—and man, as though he was created in order to serve the law. And they took what was given to be light in the midst of our darkness. They took what was given as a guideline to lead us in the pathways of blessing. They took the law, and they twisted it, and they made it a yardstick by which they judged other people. They made it a yardstick by which they condemned other people. They became legalists, wrapped up in legalism, and therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ rebuked them.
There are many people today who still practice legalism. When I graduated from high school I went to Westmont College in Santa Barbara. It’s a Christian Liberal Arts college there. Westmont has many rules, many regulations, many commandments, many instructions, and during our time there we violated most of them. I. was told that Westmont had a 5% rule—that they allowed—I don’t know if this is true—but I was told that they allowed 5% of their student body to enroll in the school regardless of their religious affiliation. Even if they were not Christians, they allowed 5% to come because they needed athletes. Now I don’t know whether that’s true, but it was true that seven of my best friends were athletes—because I competed in sports and I formed my friendships there, and none of them were Christians. There were eight of us who were very close, and these seven guys were not Christians. That first year at Westmont we really did break the rules.
We made a friendship with one of the custodians at the school and he gave us keys and we went into the dining commons. We didn’t like the food at Westmont. Zabo Food Company, remember, was the name of the company, and the food there…We used to take the raw meat and pin it up on the bulletin board so the administration could see it. We took this key, and we went into the dining commons, and we opened the walk-in freezer, and we stole all the food out of the freezer, and we went and dumped it in a canyon. The school was without food for a week. The administration was not particularly pleased. Then we made friends with one of the construction crew that was working on a dorm at Westmont. He operated one of those large cranes and we got him to help us. It was one night late. We took the dean’s car, and we lifted it up with that crane and we put it on top of the dining commons. That didn’t go over real big!
You know, Chapel was compulsory at Westmont. You HAD to go to Chapel five days of the week throughout the school year. We did not like Chapel. We couldn’t stand Chapel, and so we got the guy who stands at the door and marks off your number; we bribed him, and we got him to mark off our number even though we didn’t go, and that first year we only went to Chapel about three times. This came to be known to the Administration.
Also, the night before our final exam in New Testament Theology, we broke into Curwood Hall and stole the final exam. We really didn’t care about our grades. We didn’t want to cheat. We just thought it was exciting and we stayed up all night and we memorized the answers to all 200 of those questions. Now the Professor was a man named Dr. Sundry and his tests were hard. Out of 200 questions, nobody in the class ever got more than about 160 right. That was with 200 students. And he would post all the scores on the board. Well, we decided to memorize all the answers and all eight of us would intentionally miss the 199th question and we would all put the same flaky answer. So, we had this all worked out. We went there and all the scores were posted on the board. The eight of us all scored 199. We knew the professor would know what was going on. We all scored 199. The next highest score was 162 and everyone who knew us knew that something was amok. You know, at Westmont, it was not legal to drink on campus and yet one of my roommates, one of my good friends was an alcoholic and we literally had to drag him through the back windows some nights. Some of my friends were sexually promiscuous. There were certainly many rules that Westmont had that were established for good reasons and they were broken by our group. At the end of our freshman year, we met with the disciplinary board, and they decided whether or not we would be allowed to stay at Westmont. They did not vote on us as individuals. They treated us as eight, a group of eight. They voted on us collectively. I can tell you that by a vote of nine to eight, and that’s the truth, those professors and teachers allowed us to stay at Westmont, but I’ll never forget what they said to us. They said “We want you to understand that there are many rules here at the college and you’ve broken most of them. But we want you to understand that we made those rules because we love the students and we care about them and even though you’ve not kept the rules, we still love you and we still care about you.”
You see it was as though they were saying “You were not made for the rules. The rules were made for you.” We care more about you and those rules are to bless you. And you see that had a tremendous impact on us, and my seven friends, in the next three years of college, they all accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Three of them are in the ministry today in local churches and I am the fourth. A fifth one of them is a missionary today to Africa and all because the faculty and the teachers and the administration at Westmont College understood that compassion is the essence of the law, and they were not legalists.
You see, in every generation there have been legalists. In every generation of the Church of Christ, there have been people who take the name of Christ but put doctrine and law about people, and instead of using the law as light in our darkness—instead of using the instructions of God as pathways to blessing—instead they use the instructions of God as a yardstick by which to judge and condemn other people.
In the Book of Deuteronomy God says, “Hear oh Israel, the Lord your God is one God, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.” In the Book of Leviticus God says “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Jesus said, “All the commandments and ordinances of God are summed up in these two that you love the Lord your God with all your heart and that you love your neighbor as yourself.'” And so, we have been called to an understanding of the instructions of God whereby we view them as summed up in love and compassion. This miracle tells us that.
There are many people today who are Pharisaic and legalistic, and Christ condemns that. This passage also warns us because if we have no compassion on others, then we cannot expect God to have compassion on us.
A few months ago, Barb was driving her car on Arapahoe Road near Isaac Newton Middle School, I believe it is, near Colorado and Arapahoe. There was a blinking yellow light and that means that the speed limit is 20 miles an hour. The police pulled Barb over and told her she was going 35. Barb didn’t agree with that. Barb told the policeman she was going to fight it in court, and he said “Well, go ahead.” Barb mellowed out, though, in the next few days and she decided she was going to mail the money in and pay the ticket, but she forgot. Her court date came and went, and she forgot about that. Finally, it occurred to her a few weeks ago and she just panicked. She called up and she explained to them what had happened and the woman on the other end of the phone said, “When was your court date” and Barb said it was on such-and-such a Friday. The woman went and checked. She came back and she was laughing. She said “You’re not going to believe this but there were so many court cases that Friday, so many tickets that were in dispute and not enough judges, so they threw them all out. You have no fine and there are no points against you.” Barb said, “Praise the Lord” and the woman just laughed and said “Yes.” Now that is mercy. That is mercy because you see, mercy is when a person does not receive the punishment that they deserve. Grace—grace is when we receive gifts we do not deserve. Mercy is when we do not get the punishment that we deserve. God has called us to show mercy and give grace to other people, and if we want God to be merciful and gracious towards us, then we’d better be willing to rip up a few tickets. We’d better be willing to show compassion, mercy and grace to other people.
There’s a second teaching from this miracle and this second teaching concerns laziness and work. Our Lord Jesus Christ asked a very strange question to the cripple by the pool. Jesus said, “Do you WANT to be made well?” The simple truth is that there were many people by the pool of Bethsaida. I should say the pool of Bethsaida means ‘house of the olive’. Sometimes this pool was called Bethesda which means ‘house of mercy’. There were many people by this pool in Jerusalem who did not want to be made well. Some people there were truly sick. Some people there were not sick at all. In the ancient and Biblical world, they had no social security system. They had no unemployment compensation. They had no disability insurance. If you could not work, or if you would not work, you needed someone to provide for you, perhaps your family. If they wouldn’t, then you begged. Many people in the Biblical world begged by the gates of major cities. In the city of Jerusalem, there were many who begged by these pools such as the pool of Silom and the pool at Bethsaida. Biblical scholars and authorities know today that in all likelihood there were many people by that pool who were crippled, had various illnesses, but there were others there who were only slightly ill, but they didn’t want to work. Some were perhaps faking it and were not ill at all. They believe that periodically food was brought into the five porticos into the porches surrounding that pool. Clothing was brought in. People were provided for, and you see, some people would rather have people provide for them than take the responsibility of entering into the job market. Some of those who were actually sick still preferred to be sick than to be healed and have to enter into the responsibility of making a living.
We live in a world today where there are obviously two distortions with respect to work. There are some people who are work alcoholics. In 1903 and 1904 a man named Max Weber wrote a series of articles. He was a German sociologist. He wrote a series of articles entitled “THE PROTESTANT WORK ETHIC” AND “THE SPIRIT OF CAPITALISM.” Those articles had a tremendous influence upon our forefathers. They had a tremendous influence upon the western world. They had a tremendous influence upon the way in which each and every one of you were reared. I think there is a lot of good in “THE PROTESTANT WORK ETHIC.” Certainly, God doesn’t want us all sitting around the pool of Bethsaida. But on the other hand, there are some distortions that have come in time, and some people have become work alcoholics. Some people today view work as the primary source of their self-esteem, and you see, for a Christian, that’s not proper. For anyone that’s not proper because the primary source of our self-esteem needs to be our relationship with the Living God. Some people view work today in a narrow and confined sense. They simply think of work as earning a living, but you see, for the Christian, our work is far broader than that It entails far more than making a living. Some people in the world today view work as a means of ascending over other people. They view work as a means of getting ahead. You see as Christians we’re called to serve other people and to lay our lives down before them.
When I grew up, my father worked very hard. I think my dad probably worked 60 or 80 hours a week. He was a Certified Public Accountant. In the evening he took various odd jobs. We rarely saw him. We knew that he loved us, my brothers and I and my mom, but I knew that he wanted to provide us with the very best and he did. He provided us with all the things the world had to offer at that time. He provided us with the very best, but you see, I would much rather have had more time with my dad. It’s only been in the last seven years, since my father has retired, that my brothers and I have really gotten to know and enjoy him. If you have children today, they want time with you now. They want time to fellowship with their father and their mother now, and that, as a Christian, is part of your work.
When I was growing up, my father instilled in my brothers and I a real need to work hard. Our self-esteem began to be tied to our achievements. I remember my first job at Safeway grocery store, I worked SO hard it was unbelievable. I worked as a box boy. I was the terror of the grocery store. I put groceries into bags so fast that it was dangerous! The management was pleased because they didn’t have to hire as many box boys. Sortie customers didn’t like it though because they didn’t like the way I put food in their bags. The other box boys didn’t like it. They called me aside one day and they said “Dixon, slow it down. You’re ruining it for the rest of us.” I thought at that time that people were supposed to be like birds. You know birds work very hard. Some of you may have heard of the thrush. It’s a bird that gets up every morning at 2:30 A.M. and works for 19 hours straight until 9:30 P.M. In that period of time, the thrush feeds its young 206 meals on the average. Some of you mothers thought you had it hard.
You’ve heard of the blackbird I’m sure. The blackbird rises up every morning at 2:30 A.M. and works until 7:30 P.M. at night, 17 hours straight, and feeds its children 100 meals a day. But the busiest of all birds is the tuft titmouse. The tuft titmouse rises every morning at 3:00 A.M., works until 9:00 P.M., 18 hours straight, and in that period of time, each day, the titmouse feeds its children 416 meals on the average. Can you imagine the guy that sat down and counted all that up!
But you see, some people think that people are supposed to work like that. There’s a lot of men and even women out in the business world today who give their whole life to that process of earning a living. Their whole self-esteem is tied into it. But when I went to college, I rebelled against all that. I went to the other extreme and I became lazy. My first couple of years of college I did nothing. I just wanted to sit by the pool of Bethsaida and have other people provide for me. I didn’t study. I even skipped classes. I remember during the off-season; my friends and I entered a basketball city league deal, and we called our team the ‘Vegetables’. Our slogan was “Vegetate, vegetate.” We’d say that yell before every game and it was amazing the passion that we put into it. We were definitely rebelling against something we’d grown up with. We’d say, “Vegetate, vegetate” whenever we’d greet each other. Some of the gals at the school sold pictures of vegetables and put them on the back of our jerseys. I had totally forgotten about it until I got a letter a couple of years ago from that friend of mine who’s a missionary in Africa and he began the letter by saying “Vegetate, vegetate.” I didn’t want to work.
I remember the first job I got one summer at Santa Barbara. I was a chauffeur for a millionaire widow. She was 75 years old. She wanted me to come and pick her up every morning and I’d come over and I’d pick her up, and in her Cadillac, I’d drive her to wherever she’d want to go. Usually, she wanted me to take her to the Santa Barbara Country Club. I’d take her there and she’d say, “Now Jim, you can take the car and go wherever you want.’ Pick me up at 5:00 and so I’d take the Cadillac down to the beach for the day and I’d play volleyball all day. I’d come back and pick her up at night and she’d pay me $5.00 an hour for every hour of the day. But you know, I got tired of that after a while. It took me awhile, but I got tired of that. And after my first year or two at Westmont, I began to realize I wasn’t going anywhere, and my life was becoming a mess. I wasn’t ever going to be anything. My life was just a waste. It was as though Jesus began to say to me, “Jim, do you WANT to be healed?” Finally, I said ‘Yes,” and He said “Rise, take up your bed and walk” and I began to work—perhaps not to the extreme measures of how I would have worked as a kid, but I began to work, I think, responsively in the years that followed. God calls us to work. In our passage of scripture for today Jesus said to the Pharisees, “My Father is working still, and I am working.”
Paul wrote to the Christians at Thessalonica, and he said “I exhort and command you, Brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to keep away from any brother who is living in idleness and not in accord with tradition which you receive from us, for you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us for when we were with you, we were not idle. We did not eat anyone’s bread without paying, but in toil and hardship we labored day and night that we might not burden any of YOU. It was not that we had not the right but to dive you in our conduct an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command. if anyone will not work, let him not eat for we hear that some of you are living in idleness—mere busybodies not doing any work. Now such persons we exhort and command in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to do your work in quietness, to earn your own living. Brethren do not be weary in doing good. If anyone refuses to obey what we say in this letter, note that man and have nothing to do with him that he might be ashamed. Do not look upon him as an enemy but warn him as a brother.'” You see, the Bible calls us to work and to work responsively.
In the city of Helsinki, Finland, there is, in the middle of the major street of the city—in the middle of the intersection—a beautiful bronze statue that portrays three ironworkers laboring over an anvil together. It’s a tribute to the dignity of work and there’s an inscription below and it simply says, “Using talents given by God.”
There is a certain dignity to the work that Christ calls us to as Christians and there’s also a certain balance to the work that Christ calls us to as Christians. Jesus said, “My work is to do the will of Him who sent Me” and if you believe in Jesus Christ today—if you’ve taken Him as Lord and Savior, then your work also is to do the will of Him who sent you into this world—the will of Him who created you. Your work is to do the will of Him who saved you. And that means that your work is going to encompass all those things that relate to His Will. Your work is not simply to make a living, though that’s important, but your work as a Christian is to provide for your children in other ways. Your work as a Christian is to be a good dad to your children, to be a good mom to your children. That’s part of your work as a Christian—not simply to keep them alive but to give your kids a reason for living. Your work is to disciple them. Your work is to evangelize them. Your work is to spend time with them. That’s part of your work in this world. Your work as a Christian is to be a good husband to your wife. Your work is to be a good wife to your husband, to cultivate that relationship that was meant to bring joy and beauty and happiness to your life. Our Lord is not a hard taskmaster. Jesus, Himself, took time away from His work. He got into the boat and went to the western shore of the Sea of Galilee to a grassy place in the hills. He’d go into the quiet of Gethsemane. He knows that you need to take vacations but He also has work for you and that work encompasses the whole matter of His will Part of your work is to go forth into the world in His name and to make disciples, to evangelize, to share to good news, the joy of Jesus Christ, to share that message at home and in your neighborhoods and with people at your place of business, and your work is to support this church. Your work is to support the Kingdom of Christ around this world.
Some people think that this church is an affluent church. The truth is that we are more than $1,000 short of our general operating budget every week. There may be affluent people in this church but we’re not an affluent church. Some people think that we are a very active church. The truth is we have a hard time finding Sunday School teachers, a hard time finding men and women who are willing to teach Sunday School. It’s that way in other churches too. What is our work? Jesus said, “Seek first My kingdom and My righteousness” and He promises us that if we do that He will give us everything we need.
When you go to work in the morning and you earn a salary, you earn an income, that money is not simply for the purpose of your family’s needs but it’s for the purpose of serving the kingdom of Christ as well. If we ever got ahold of that there’s no limit to what God could do through this church, what He could do through His kingdom throughout this world.
We have been called to seek first the kingdom of God. If we do that, we will one day stand before Christ and Christ will say “Well done my good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your Master.” When our Lord Jesus left this earth, He said “Father, I have glorified Thy name on earth, having accomplished the work which You gave Me to do.”
If you believe in Jesus Christ—if you know Him and love Him, then at your life’s end as you leave this earth and go into heaven, go into the kingdom, the Lord wants you to be able to say those same words…”Father I have glorified Thy name on earth, having accomplished the work which You gave Me to do.”
So, we have two teachings from this miracle of the “Healing of the Cripple by the Pool.” The first teaching has to do with law and compassion. Compassion is the essence of the law and there’s a warning here against legalism. The second teaching has to do with laziness and worth. Jesus doesn’t want us to spend our life simply sitting by the pool at Bethsaida, but He says “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” The primary focus of our work in this life is that we might serve the kingdom of Christ in His righteousness. Shall we pray.