Jesus has the real healing power (John 5:1-9)

1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now 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. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.[b] 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When 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."

8Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,



Observations:
Jesus, not mystical powers, has the power to heal.

In the previous passage (John 4:43-54), we saw a wonderful example of the extent of Jesus’ healing power through his healing of the son of a Royal Official in Galilee from what it appears was a life-threatening illness.

In this passage, we see his healing power again, with the patient concerned this time being an invalid of thirty-eight years.

As with the example in the previous passage, we are not given any information with regards to the specific nature of the illness concerned. Nevertheless, I would think that it would be safe to assume that the illness was of an incurable nature. The man in question suffered for thirty-eight years, and you would have thought that if the illness was indeed of a curable nature, then surely he would have been healed a long time prior to this particular event.

Another similarity which we can see between the above example and that from previous passage is the extent to which Jesus has complete and absolute power and control over sickness. In both cases, the individuals concerned were completely healed from their affliction by Jesus merely speaking it into existence.

But there would appear to be at least one key area of contrast – the attitude of the recipients. In the previous passage, we see that the boy’s father (a royal official) had demonstrate at least some degree of belief and confidence in the ability of Jesus to cure his son, going of his way specifically to seek Jesus out in a somewhat deliberate fashion. In contrast, the invalid concerned appeared to be placing his only some in some apparent mystical healing power of the water in the pool.

Granted, unlike the royal official, this poor invalid did not have properly functioning legs, and so it was not exactly possible for him to get up and take himself to see Jesus in a similar manner to the royal official in the previous passage. Bear in mind also the likelihood that this poor fellow had not even heard anything about Jesus at all up until this point.

Nevertheless, he was clinging on to a some futile hope about being healed by some mythical powers of the water, a fact which is testament to the to both the magnitude of his desperation and the extent to which his hopes were completely misguided.

My point here is simply this: we must be very, very careful where (and in what) we place our hopes and faith.

Putting our hopes in some form of mystical power or other form of rubbish leads only to disillusionment.

Putting our faith in Jesus, by contrast, does not. Jesus, the creator and author of life, has the power to heal literally any form of disease or disability as he chooses. As lord and ruler over all of the earth, he has complete and utter power, control and mastery over everything – with sickness and disease being no exception.

Don’t get me wrong, no one should expect simply to be healed instantaneously after a simple prayer. Indeed no where in the gospel does it promise that everyone who suffers from any form of sickness and disease will be healed at all, let alone on an instantaneous basis. God does not promise that everyone will be healed, and god will not accept being held to promises which he has never indeed given.

But god certainly has the capacity to heal absolutely any form of sickness and disease, and when we ask for healing in the form of earnest and faithful prayer, then god may (let me stress the word ‘may’) choose to demonstrate the extent of his glory through the healing of sickness.

Faith put in mystical powers is futile.

But faith in the wonder of our glorious heavenly father is truly powerful.



Prayer:
Dear heavenly father,

Lord, let us never put our faith in anything except you.

Lord, we can invent all these crazy luck charms, mystical powers, wishing wells, star signs or whatever. But at the end of the day, these are all worthless.

You and only you have the power to heal or to protect. You, our creator, are the only one with any form of authority over our wellbeing, be it in the physical realm or, more importantly, in the spiritual realm.

When we suffer from physical illness, you and only you have the power to heal – not some magical charm. And when we are spiritually lost - when we fall away from you and are spiritually broken – only you can bring us back into the faith and light of your family.

Not some secret magical power lord, you and only you.

So let us set our faith squarely and solely upon you, and let us never look anywhere else.

In your great name,

Amen.