Stirring Up the Water

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 

I have returned home after several days and many flights. I was in Navajoland, helping to stir up and encourage leaders there, helping some to walk again on their own two feet and feel confident in their abilities.  Some needed courage to be leaders and others need strength to get up again. We all have times in our lives, where so much has changed or failed they we need help just to get in the water. We need encouragement and God's power. We all have times and days of brokenness and self-doubt.

Jesus comes to a man who has been waiting for help and encouragement for seemingly forever. Jesus healed him immediately and the man got up and walked on his own. The religious leaders were upset with the man and with Jesus. This healing threw their control and authority in question. They wanted folks dependent and broken. Yet the true love of God is healing, reconciliation and restoration. Jesus brought that to the man and he was never the same, no longer stuck in waiting mode but moving on his own power and the strength of God's love.

Today, I ask God for the strength and power of love. May we move forward together, despite set backs and discouraging pain, so that the world might know God's love is here and now.