Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Monday after the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday

Posted on September 6, 2021 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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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Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well.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
 
Well, even sheep get dirty. In Biblical times, the sheep, having wandered over dirty fields and paths, needed a good bath before they were offered in the temple as sacrifices. So things were when Jesus entered the Temple Sheep Gate. He passed by the pool used for washing sheep before they were offered as sacrifices. There lay a certain man who had been lame for many years. He had been waiting a long time for an angel of the Lord to come, stir the waters, and give the waters healing power so that he could be healed. But no one helped him into the pool. When Jesus saw the sick “lamb”, He asked this man if he wanted to be made well. Of course, the answer was “yes”. And so Jesus healed him. What a great gift from God!
 
This certain, specific, real, sick man was healed. God’s perfect Lamb heals us, makes us clean and healed from sin in the waters of Holy Baptism. Then we, you and I, through faith live a life full of opportunities to tell others what He has done to cleanse us from sin.
 
Prayer: 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.
 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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