DAILY GRACE
March 24, 2020, Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Lent
The Governor of Virginia yesterday declared that people are not to gather in a group of greater than ten for the next 30 days. We all hope things will start to resolve by the end of these thirty days. Until such time as we are able to gather again physically, I am sending out this bit of “Daily Grace.” Let us stay socially connected while we practice appropriate physical distancing from one another. Pondering scripture together is good medicine.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Dave Gilbert
Scripture: John 5:1-16
After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 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 making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Meditation
“Do you want to be made well?”
Jesus asked the man waiting at the pool an important question: “Do you want to be made well?” Although he did want to be well, the man admitted to Jesus that he needed help. Jesus then healed the man, commanding him to “Stand up, take your mat, and walk.”
As we ponder this man’s experience, we reflect on our own inability to heal ourselves of our physical and spiritual infirmities. When it comes to physical and spiritual healing we need the help of others and of God. People with COVID-19 need the help of those who actively treat them (doctors, nurses, medical techs), and the help of those working behind the scenes to overcome the disease.
Just as this season of COVID-19 forces us to reflect on what promotes our and others’ physical well-being, Lent is an opportunity for us to reflect on the incredible truth that the Second Person of the Trinity became a human being to bring us life. Jesus said, “I came that you might have life to the full.” He died and rose to save us from our sins and to sanctify us. And so, we can turn to him in our need, in our physical need and our spiritual need. When he asks us, “Do you want to be made well?” we cry out, “Yes, Lord, heal me!” “Heal me by whatever means you will!”
We know that healing from physical disease takes time, sometimes quite a long time. We know too that we are not usually changed spiritually in one fell swoop, but more often through the daily living of our life. God’s grace and action free us from our sinfulness (self-centeredness) gradually. Little by little our thoughts, attitudes, desires, words, and actions change. As our love and commitment to God deepen, we trustingly surrender ourselves to the care and action of God. Sometimes we will fall. But those become occasions for us to ask pardon, to renew our resolve, and to hear Jesus’ words again: “Do you want to be well?” We repeat our response, “Yes, Lord, heal me,” knowing that his healing words for us will be fulfilled.
Prayer
Lord, when I contemplate your healing of the man at the pool, I pause to consider my own need for healing. You know where and how I need it. I want to be well. Please heal me.
Contemplation
Jesus is my healer.