Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Reported

Meditation
John 5:15—The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.


When a starved person chooses rocks over bread, there is a deeper disorder than hunger. A man was sick for 38 years. Jesus saw him and knew his situation. He asked him if he would like to get well. Instead of answering “Yes!”, the man shared a pool of woes. You can read about it in John 5:1-7.

Jesus was not interested in what didn’t work. He told the man the best eight words he had heard in almost four decades. “Get up! Pick up your bedroll and walk!” Instantly he was healed. Predictably, the religious leaders missed the awesomeness of his healing and zeroed in on why he broke Sabbath law by carrying his mat. The man explained what Jesus told him to do but he had no clue of Jesus’ identity. Later the Lord found him and said, “See you are well. Do not sin any more, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” Jesus, knowing all things, gave the man a warning. Why? What did He see in the man’s heart?

Why an immobilized man set free would need to curry the favor of the religious leaders who were helpless to help him for 38 years should tell us much about human nature. Evidently, what cured his illness did not touch his spirit. Instead of protecting the identity of his benefactor, the man reported Jesus to the authorities. This caused the Lord direct persecution by the Jews. It was also an eerie foreshadowing. When orchestrated by jealous religious leaders, the Jews blessed by Jesus’ miracles and teaching, eagerly yelled, “Crucify Him!”

Welcome to a mysterious pool called Bethesda. Here we discover a disease worse and more widespread than blindness, lameness or paralysis. It is atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). Its victims would rather cooperate with those in control than to have faith. The miracle worker is expendable. The power of grace is blocked by the fear of disgrace. It is not the multitude that is cured when the pool is stirred it is the one who makes it first to the water.

The Bible tells us of days when children rise against their parents and vice versa. People will do what is in their self-interest in order to further their own preservation. If the authorities declare faith in Christ to be a crime, don’t be surprised when the neighbor you helped reports you. Veins too clogged for faith whisper betrayal. It happened to Jesus and He really was special. If after a spectacular healing the Master has to say, “See you are well, do not sin any more . . .” something is radically wrong!

Explanation

When I was in Junior High School, Billy Graham came to Seoul, Korea. I was able to sit on a platform not far from where the speakers stood and take pictures. At the time (early 1970’s), it was the largest Billy Graham Crusade ever. Looking behind the platform there on Yoido Island there was an immense sea of people. Dr. Graham explained to this spiritually hungry audience the meaning of the gospel. He quoted John 3:16, read other Bible passages, and outlined in simple terms God’s plan of salvation. Hundreds of thousands of Koreans stood and moved forward when he gave an invitation. Countless faces were wet with tears of repentance. Perhaps heaven’s citizens stood and cheered as they watched this grand spectacle.

Meditation
Nehemiah 8:7,8—Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah, who were Levites, explained the law to the people as they stood in their places. They read the book of the law of God, translating and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was read.


Around 457 B.C., the Jews were spiritually impoverished. Their ancestors stopped venerating God to worship idols. They disobeyed what Moses taught to run after their own pleasures. They lost their homeland to disease, famine, and Assyrians and Babylonians who led them as captives into exile. They experienced every disaster God warned they would suffer for disobeying Him.

On the first day of the seventh month (Tishrei) in the Hebrew calendar, Ezra the scribe stood on a high wooden platform facing about 5000 people he led back to Israel. Along with thirteen Levites, he read from the Torah from daybreak until noon. When he opened up the Scripture, all the people stood and remained standing for hours.

The Hebrew-written Torah was unfamiliar to the Aramaic-speaking people. Furthermore, they did not own their own copies of the law so Moses’ writing was unfamiliar to them. Consequently, it was necessary to translate and explain the law. As the people listened and comprehended, they wept. The crowd was so convicted by God’s Words that Ezra and the Levites had to quiet them from grieving.

Most of America’s first leaders feared God. They established a framework for governance meant to honor Biblical principles and protect a young nation so that it might thrive. Over 200 years later, there is no shortage of Bibles, radio stations, or television channels that offer God’s teachings. It is easy to find a building designated for worship. But if a wooden platform were erected, and godly leaders were to read Scripture for half the day, how many people would show up, stand the entire time listening intently, and then weep by conviction for their ignorance and sin? How much disease, disaster, and spilling of blood does it take to get a nation’s attention? Until there is hunger for righteous explanation, there will always be an evil-ingested bloating.

Inspiration
For a good confession three things are necessary: an examination of conscience, sorrow, and a determination to avoid sin.—St. Alphonsus Luguori in “A Good Confession