MISSING THE BIG PICTURE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 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.”

But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

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.”

The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

John 5:9b-15

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I remember going back to my days in the Navy when one of the female Sailors who were in my department found out she was pregnant. We were stationed on a ship and it was common knowledge that if a Sailor did become pregnant, they would have to leave the shipboard environment at a certain stage to ensure the safety of the mother and the unborn child.

It should have been a time of great joy and celebration for the woman but as she came to my office to speak with me, she broke down in tears. You see, she had just come from the office of the command senior enlisted leader who berated her for the timing of the pregnancy and how her absence was going to impact the overall mission.

I found myself irate over it all. People in the military are just that - people - and they should be treated as such but that’s not what happened in this case because the command senior enlisted leader missed the big picture. He was so caught up in the mission that he failed to properly celebrate an occasion that deserved celebrating.

Why do I share this true personal story?

Because it completely relates to our scripture passage for today as we continue to look at the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John. Look again at these words here:

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 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.”

But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

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.”

The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.  John 5:9b-15

Yesterday, we looked at the miraculous healing of the paralytic who had been disabled for thirty-eight years, many of which spent lying on a mat next to the pooled water of Bethesda. You’ll recall that after the man told his story about being unable to get into the pool when the water stirred to be healed, Jesus simply spoke this simple command:

“Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” John 5:8

And the man did just that. He was no longer an invalid but completely ambulatory.

It’s at this point that we pick up what happened afterwards for what should have been a time of joy and celebration turned into an inquisition of sorts at the hands of the Jewish leaders.

You see, the amazing act of healing performed by Jesus was done on the Sabbath and as the man carried his mat, he was confronted for doing so. It was a real “ticky-tack” call by the Jewish authorities because the law which forbade anyone from carrying a load on the Sabbath was intended to keep people from working. Here the man was simply walking from Bethesda carrying the mat he had laid on for so long, something that should have been the point of happy focus but wasn’t.

In response to the challenge, the healed paralytic essentially told the Jewish leaders that he had been given permission to do what he was doing by the man who had made him well which immediately led his questioners to want to know where the man, Jesus, was.  And of course, the man did not know who Jesus was because he never identified Himself during the miracle, disappearing into the crowd at the pool after the man got up and walked.

Now, you’ll hopefully recall the reason Jesus was in Jerusalem in the first place. In the opening verses of this chapter, we read where He had come for “one of the Jewish festivals” (John 5:1). This would involve worship time at the temple on the Sabbath so it should have come as no surprise that Jesus would be there and the scriptures tell us He was intentionally looking for the man He healed. Finding Him, Jesus gave Him the following direction:

“See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

Through His words, we find Jesus not wanting the man to allow his newfound freedom to lead him to sin, sin that may bring a judgment worse than the paralyzation he has suffered over the past thirty-eight years.

So what did the man do after encountering Jesus again?

We read where he went and reported to the Jewish leaders that it was “Jesus who had made him well”, no doubt adding to the indictments the religious authorities were building against their adversary, this one centered on how He healed the man on the Sabbath, an indictment that showed the religious leaders were missing the big picture.

Have you ever had a time in your life when you experienced this happening, a time when someone chose to criticize you when they should have been praising you? Maybe there has been a time when it was the other way around, when you had a chance to laud someone but you instead chose to condemn. Perhaps we have all either missed the big picture or were on the receiving end when someone else did. Either way, it’s not a pleasant experience.

So how can we avoid this pitfall, how can we ensure we never miss the big picture of things?

The answer is simple. We allow the Lord to lead and guide us in all things, the Lord who will always open our eyes to the big picture of things and make sure our response to life events is the way He wants it to be, not our way.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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