Take Up Your Mat

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 any more, 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. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God. John 5:1-18

Healing is mysterious and wondrous. Throughout the Gospels, we hear of miraculous and instantaneous healing. And there are days I ache for that kind of healing. Over the past months, though, I have learned that healing invites trust, patience and prayer like never before. Healing, however slow or fast it might be, calls for humility and gratitude. There is still very little I can do on my own, and letting go of my idea of independence, and embracing the help given, has offered me a whole new understanding of faith. God's love meets us in our very weakest places, sends us angels and friends to lift us up, and makes us to stand and walk again.

Wondrous Creator, the source of our healing

you draw near to those waiting for miracles

you bring angels and friends to our side

and shower us with your restorative love.

On our strongest days we can forget you

but when we are in pain we cry out

you lean in to the suffering and weak

and hold us all in your loving arms.

Help us to have eyes to see you near us

help us to be patient in times of struggle

make us always aware of your healing

and constant love which surrounds us all. Amen.