In
John 5 Jesus encounters at the pool of Bethesda a man who had been an invalid
for thirty-eight years. In this encounter we see several things about Jesus and
a huge deficiency in us as humans.
In
John 5:3 it says that at the pool of Bethesda there was a multitude of
invalids. There were people who were blind, lame, or paralyzed at the pool.
Jesus went to this one man and healed him.
Jesus
is the sovereign Lord.
Psalm
135:6 says, “Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and on earth, in the
seas and all deeps.”
Sovereign
means that no one can tell Jesus what to do. There is no one above Jesus. Jesus
as sovereign Lord does what He wants to do.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is relating to Jesus as our Sovereign Lord.
John
5:8-9 says, “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.”
Jesus
is all-powerful.
Jesus
healed the man with a command. Jesus did not touch him and do anything other than
give him a verbal command to get up and walk.
Jesus
as the all-power Lord has control over all creation, both the visible and
invisible creation, as well as all diseases.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the all-powerful person of
Jesus in our lives every day.
At
the very end of John 5:9 it says, “Now that day was the Sabbath.”
Jesus
does not follow rules made by humans.
There
were commands about the Sabbath given to the people of Israel by God. These
commands did not prohibit doing good on the Sabbath. Good deeds such a healing
come only by the approval and power of God.
In
Matthew 12:8 Jesus says, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Jesus is the
Son of Man meaning He is Lord of the Sabbath and has authority to do what He
wants on the Sabbath.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is obeying the commands of Jesus but not being
oppressed by human-made rules.
In
John 5:17 Jesus answers the criticism of the religious leaders by saying to them,
“My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
Jesus
is working in the world all the time.
Jesus,
unlike us as humans, is constant in who He is and what He does.
Jesus
loves all the time, not just when He feels like it.
Jesus
speaks the truth all the time, not just when it is to His advantage.
Jesus
hates sin all the time, not just when it is certain sins.
Jesus
is working in people’s lives all the time, not just at certain special times.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the working of God daily in
our lives.
The
one huge deficiency we see in us as humans in the passage is in John 5:11-12.
The man is told by the religious leaders in John 5:10 that is against the law
for him to carry his bed on the Sabbath. In verse 11 the man tells the
religious leaders that the man who healed him told him to carry it. In verse 12
the religious leaders ask the man who is the man who told him to take up his
bed and walk.
The
religious leaders are more upset about Jesus healing the man and telling him to
take up his bed and walk than they are rejoicing over the fact that this man
who had been in invalid for thirty-eight years has been healed.
We
as human become focused on trivial things and miss the awesome work of Jesus in
the world. We want Jesus to do it our way and when He does not, we miss the wonder
of all that Jesus does.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting that Jesus is doing what is good
and doing it in His way and rejoicing over what Jesus has done.
Jesus
is the Sovereign Lord who is always working for good toward us and He makes the
rules, not us.
Trusting Jesus by
Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,
Joe
