Who is this fellow? The son of God - that's who

Scripture reading:
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, 10and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."

11But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' "

12So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"

13The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.



Observations:
(1) Who does Jesus think he is? (Only the son of god).

One of the things which we can see clearly in this passage is that the Jews did not like anyone who gave an instruction which contradicted their man-made law, with anyone who did so being seen as rocking the boat.

How dare anyone challenge their religious and moral authority! How dare any man give an instruction which contradicts Jewish law. Who is this man? And what is his place to contradict Jewish tradition? He or she must think they are pretty damn special!

These are some interesting questions, and the answer brings out an important point.

So who is he – he is Jesus, that’s who. Son of god. Our messiah, our savior and our judge. The one who through his death on the cross took away the sin of those who believe. That’s who he is.

Nothing more, nothing less.

And what’s his place to contradict Jewish law? Again plenty.

As son of god, and one part of the holy trinity, Jesus is above laws made by man – way, way above. Neither is he in any way constrained by or bound to follow any form of Jewish tradition.

Don’t get me wrong, at no stage did Jesus contradict the laws as set down in the Old Testament in any way. Jesus was, is and will always be the only man to fully and perfectly obey and fulfill the entire old testament law.

But he was not subject any law or tradition laid down by man. And in no way at all was he shy of rocking man-made tradition in order to demonstrate the full extent of god, as he did not only on this particular occasion but many other occasions as detailed throughout the gospels.

[It is worth noting here that we are referring to law as made by the Jews themselves. We are not referring here to law made by god as given in the old testament (refer observation 1 in the previous discussion)]



(2) Give the credit to Jesus – and call him by name.

At first, the former invalid in this passage was not particularly certain about the exact identity of who it was that had healed him - obviously a deliberate choice on the part of Jesus, for whatever reason, not to reveal his identity on this particular occasion at the particular time.

But he did ascribe credit for his healing as best he could. By his reference to ‘the man who made me well,’ he sought to full recognition with regard to what had been done and who had done it in spite of his inability to name the man responsible.

(I am not particularly certain why Jesus, at first, choose not to reveal his identity to this man)

But after Jesus revealed his identity, the former invalid went back straight away and ascribed him full credit by name.

This is an important point. From time to time, our lord will do something special in our lives – be it a physical healing, new job or whatever. Whenever these things happen, we must not be hesitant in any way to ascribe full credit to our lord – both in the public domain as well as in our own private lives.



Prayer:
Dear heavenly father,

Lord, let us never forget who you really are. When you were here in physical flesh, many, such as the Jews in the passage described above, failed to appreciate who you really were. And let us, when talking to you in our prayer, never forget who you really are.
You are our maker and our judge. Nothing more, nothing less. You are all powerful and above all. And you will not be constrained be constrained in any way, shape or form by who we in our feeble minds think that you should be.

Lord, sometimes you choose to bless us with positive and exciting things in our lives, be they new jobs, babies, the overcoming of sickness, or whatever. Whenever these things, by your deliberate and purposeful design, befall on us, let us never forget just who is responsible. Let us respond to good fortune the only that is acceptable - by growing in thankfulness to you for your graciousness and mercy which you have shown to us.

In the name of Christ Jesus I pray,

Amen.