THE MAN WITHOUT A FRIEND

#528                                                        THE MAN WITHOUT A FRIEND

Scripture  John 5:1-18 NIV                                                                                                                  Orig. Date unknown

                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. Dates unknown

Passage:   Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ² Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda^[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³ Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. ^[4] [b] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” ⁷ “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” ⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰ and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” ¹¹ But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” ¹² So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” ¹³ The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.¹⁴ Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.¹⁶ So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. ¹⁷ In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” ¹⁸ For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Purpose:              n/a

Keywords:          n/a

Introduction

                How easy to get sidetracked! What a magnificent text, especially in extension. 

1-Jesus heals on the Sabbath (v10); not the first time in Jerusalem—Mark 1. 

2-The open hostility moves to Jerusalem, v18. Mark 2:6, Luke 5:21; the men thought He had friends. (See Wells.) 3-The possibility of allegorical meaning, 2-7

                a)            Man—people of Israel

                b)            The five porches—Books of Law

                c)            Uncured—inability of the Law to heal

                d)            38 years—wilderness

                e)            Stirring of water—baptism of grace

4-The absent fourth verse—not in RSV, NEB, Nestle’s translation, NKJ footnotes

5-Text from 19 on—the strong declaration  of identity; not equality but obedience

1.             (Son) of man 7 times through v23 (27)
2. Messiah (implicitly), His healing  power
3.             Empowered to raise the dead v25
4. Judge, v27
5.             Humanity, v47

I.             The Basics are Simple.  Jesus gone from Galilee to Jerusalem—apparently alone.  He has gone up for a feast.  Many think Passover.  Barclay reverses 5 and 6 and says Pentecost. See 5:1

                Bethesda—House of Mercy; Bethzatha—House of Olives

II.            Jesus Addresses the Major Factor.  The man himself—38 years helpless, age not known. Life is precious at any age.  Disease—helpless; family—none/none that could wait.  Were there those who waited for the entire time?

                Jesus forces this man to search.  V7 Wouldst thou be mad whole?  To some a foolish act; but how much good do we miss because we will not allow it?  Barclay—If in our inmost heart we are well content to stay as we are, there can be no change for us. P175.  If there can be excuse for failure to will, this man has it.

                Like so many in this sad world this afflicted man had no knowledge of Jesus.  The pool was there.  Occasionally one would walk away.  Hope—but at what point does hope become listless despair?    When he encounters Jesus he is awake in a wide, new world—healed; walking home of Sabbath, confused—Exodus 20:10; Jeremiah 17:21-22.  He encounters Jesus again in temple—Jesus gets him off the hook; don’t think  you can live without regard to right conduct.

                A final message radiates through this passage and all scripture.  How easy to ignore pleas for help.  We see people as objects—Jesus saw need (Isaiah 61:1).  First occasion of preaching to Samaritan woman. Matthew taught us of publicans; he eateth with them.  Our indignation arises more for [illegible].  Quote 20^th Century 7, p. 78,  maybe 84.