Do you get it?

Yesterday I spoke a little about questions. I came to the Bible with questions, and it asked questions of me, in the process I learned to ask the right questions and was given the sweet Gospel of Jesus. I came to the Bible not getting it, and the Holy Spirit gave it to me. In my Gospel reading today I read of some others that didn't get it. Our story picks up in John 5.

Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be healed?" 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 going another steps down before me." 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.

Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed." But he answered them, "The man who healed me, that man said to me, 'Take up your bed, and walk.'" They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your bed and walk'?" Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you." The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working."

I think this is a pretty familiar story. Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath, this ticks people off, and the lesson is don't be a Pharisee (although the word Pharisee isn't actually in the passage )who questions everything or you'll miss out on what Jesus is doing. Guess what, I have a question. Just what is Jesus doing? If you're going to read this passage you really need to read Jesus' response to the grumbling to get what is really going on.

This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Huh? People get mad a Jesus for healing a guy on a mat and He starts talking about life and death and judgment? Where did all that come from? I know the life expectancy was much shorter back then, and Jesus was already in his thirties. Was He having a senior moment? Or perhaps Jesus was directing the people away from the peripheral issues they kept obsessing over and getting to the main point.

The many Sabbath laws enacted by the Jews over the years are a classic case of not getting it. God gave His law to Israel so they would know who their God was and be His people. However over the years they became so obsessed with finding ways to follow the laws they lost sight of their God.

So here is Jesus, God in the flesh, revealing Himself through a miracle, and the people are so obsessed over the details of the when and where of the miracle they miss God standing in their midst! Jesus recognizes this and rather than allowing Himself to get sucked into the debate He gets to the point.

Jesus wasn't just randomly wandering and healing, He was doing what God the Father wanted Him to do. His work was God's work, and it was about much more than miracles. Jesus was here to judge, and to give life to the dead. The dead He spoke of were all those listening, and includes us today. We are dead in our sin, and because of that we don't get it.

It's so easy to read the part about the miracle, get excited, and run to Jesus looking for and talking about miracles. But this isn't the point. The point of the miracle is to clue us in to who this Jesus guy is. He's the Son of God, doing what God does. If you want to know God you better pay attention to this guy!

He came to judge, and He knows full well that we all fail. For this reason He took the judgment meant for us and applied it to Himself. This is the greatest miracle Jesus ever performed, and above all else it's the reason He came here.

Understand this doesn't mean we shouldn't expect miracles. Far from it! By taking on our judgment, dying on the cross and rising again, Jesus defeated the power of sin that has entangled the whole of creation and let loose His Kingdom on this Earth. We can expect that where Jesus is at work through His Holy Spirit many amazing things will continue to happen. However we can't make our life about seeking these things. The whole point is that it's not about what we do it's about what Christ does for us!

In short, get out of the way; thank God for forgiving you, allow Christ to do His work, and when miraculous things happen, praise Christ all the more!

Do you get it?