Monday after the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on September 2, 2024 by under
Scripture: St. John 5:1-15 (NKJV)
5:1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. 5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.
And that day was the Sabbath. 10 The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”
11 He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’ ”
12 Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”
15 The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Devotion
“Do you want to be made well?” That sounds like a silly question. Who wouldn’t want to be made well, especially if he had been unwell for thirty-eight years!? But our Lord is wise, and He was asking the man to think and be honest. It is the same idea when He asks us to repent of our sins. God knows our hearts and minds. He doesn’t ask questions because He is trying to get unknown information from us. He is asking us to tell the truth, and to think about the question and the answer.
God confronts us with the question, “Do you repent of your sins?” Our selfish hearts would think that is a silly question as it answers, “I don’t want to be condemned, but the Law keeps getting in the way and telling me I’m guilty.” The sick man didn’t quite understand our Lord’s question, and our corrupted hearts definitely do not understand His question. But by His grace He helps us anyway. As He healed the man according to His own divine grace and power, He also gives us His Spirit and creates in us a new heart. That new heart understands the question and faithfully says, “I, a poor miserable sinner, do confess all my sins and iniquities.” But it doesn’t stop there. Like He told the man to “Take up your bed and walk,” He tells us to walk in His commandments, lest a worse thing come upon us.
Collect: Keep, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy Church with Thy perpetual mercy; and, because the frailty of man without Thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by Thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
