In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Christ is risen
The paralysis of this man who lay for 38 years next to the pool of Bethesda was not necessarily caused by his own particular sins or even necessarily the sins of his parents. It is clearly, one way or another (we do not understand these things), the product of the sinfulness of human beings as a whole. You and I, in our life, encounter many instances when people are very, very ill or terrible tragedies occur to them. When these unexplained tragedies happen, we very often hear people say : “Well, this is payment for sin”. That is a very cruel thing to say. That sort of thing was being said in the same way by our spiritual ancestors in Jerusalem to that man who had been lying there for 38 years : “Well, you must have sinned. If you didn’t sin, your parents or your grandparents sinned. This is God’s punishment on you, or on them or on all of you together”. These are not very comforting words to someone who is lying paralysed and cannot get into the pool when the angel stirs the water. He has no-one, no family, no friends to throw him into the pool when the angel stirred the waters. It is a cruel, cruel thing to say but that’s the way we are. Is that not what people say to each other ?
It is not only mama, papa, uncle, aunt, grandfather, grandmother, brother and sister who may contribute to our illnesses which come from sin. In fact, it is not so much because of God’s punishment and judgement on us that illnesses come to us. Rather, we are the ones who bring it upon ourselves. Sickness and death are the direct product of our rebellious, prideful sinfulness. The sickness and the death that results from it are the result of the breaking of the healing, life-giving loving relationship that exists between ourselves and God. The Lord is the Giver of Life. Our Saviour said that : “‘[The Lord] is not the God of the dead but of the living’” (Luke 20:38). Yet, we who say that God is love and keep speaking about His love, dare to say and dare to think that God punishes in this sort of sadistic way these little sheep whom He wants to save, to whom He wants to give life, and whom He wants to unite to Himself in everlasting bliss and life and love in the way He created us. We dare to think these things because we have become so twisted in our pride. We cannot really comprehend God in His wonderful, marvellous workings in glory. Therefore, we translate our understanding of God into a mere projection of our own brokenness and darkness, and we say that God is like us.
When we start speaking like that, then we have really fallen into the pit. When we can speak like that, we have forgotten Who Jesus Christ is. We have forgotten His love for us. We have forgotten the effects of His salvation. We have reduced Him to a mere man, a mere, ordinary human being, some wise man who said nice things for us to remember.
The paralytic was paralysed because all mankind is rebellious, and all mankind is diseased. Because of this rebellion, because of this pride, because of this rejection of God’s love, most of mankind appears to be going away from God, away from life. It seems that most of mankind is choosing deliberately to die, and blaming God for it. The paralytic was raised from his paralysis through the forgiveness of sins by our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ as we see in the subsequent conversation. Because of His love, our Saviour told the man to get up and walk. Later He said to him : “‘Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you’”. There are worse things than being paralysed and ill. There is spiritual death which is the result of deliberate sinfulness.
Because of His love for us, the Lord does wonderful things. The Lord, the Giver of Life, does wonderful, amazing things for you and for me. Today, we hear how the Apostle Peter prayed for Dorcas (Tabitha), who was so much needed and admired, and who had died suddenly and prematurely. Because God loves us, the Apostle Peter through his prayers restored Tabitha to the community of the faithful until her time should fully come. In His love for you and for me, the Lord saves us from all sorts of disasters, for which we usually forget to give Him praise. He protects us when we are sleepy on the highway and wakes us up. He preserves our life so that we will have the maximum time to be saved and to work out our salvation. When we are anxious about a child of ours and we pray to Him to relieve the child’s illness or to protect the child’s welfare one way or another, the Lord hears us. This brings healing, protection and it opens doors. When we pray for each other in our love for each other and ask the Lord to do this or that, more often than not (if we have the eyes to see) the Lord does touch the lives of those for whom we pray (even though we do not always get precisely what we asked for all the time). He brings hope, life, healing and salvation.
Brothers and sisters, let us ask the Lord to give us the eyes to see and the ears to hear the truth of His Gospel. Let us ask Him for the readiness to walk in the steps of our Lord, God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and to be like Him. Let us ask Him to give us the heart to want to be like Him. Let us today ask the Lord to help us turn away from rebelliousness, wilfulness and stubborn pride of heart ; and instead lovingly and willingly turn to Him to accept His will for us. Let us ask Him to help us care for each other as He cares for us ; to pray for each other as all the saints pray for us in their love for us. Let us look freshly into the hearts of our brothers and sisters, our neighbours, our friends and see there the activity of the love of Jesus Christ. Let us pray for and encourage our brothers and sisters, neighbours and friends in their willingness to live in Christ and to serve each other for the glory of Jesus Christ. From this day, from this hour, from this minute, let us determine with all our heart to love and glorify God above all : Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.