John 5:9b-12
Now that day was the Sabbath. 10So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”
The man in the picture above is happy and thankful. He has just received new eyeglasses. They are not particularly stylish, but they are functional. He has just re-taken the “Tumbling E” eye chart exam. He may have been 20/100 and is now 20/20, or 20/70 and is now 20/30, or even 20/15 (some were that dramatically improved!). But he and so many who received their glasses and other help in the eye clinic in Kenya were thankful. They told us so. Many times.
We were thankful, too, whenever any of the people who came to the free eye clinic got good results (check this previous post for more stories). One woman who was blind in both eyes would be able to see the day following the surgery we sponsored at the local hospital – thanks be to God!
How could it be that the Jews were so unthankful, and more worried about the Sabbath laws than about the man who was standing before them now healed? Giving them the benefit of the doubt, they must have believed that it would have been better for the man to remain crippled one more day than to have violated the Sabbath law. Did they think he was actually worse off because he had been healed on the Sabbath?!?
Their actions and words, however, show a far different concern. They didn’t really care about the man. They were worried about the Sabbath law – or better yet their interpretation of it. I’m certainly not in favor of an antinomian approach to life with God. Obeying the laws of God as summarized by Jesus is a good thing to do. He summarizes them into two: Love God. Love your neighbor. But when someone is healed isn’t it time to give thanks to God – no matter who or how it happened?
Let’s not give the devil credit for God’s work. And whenever we see health being restored, let’s give thanks to God. Whether he does it medically, miraculously, or mercifully, it is still his work. And he deserves our thanks and praise!
John 5
2Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath. 10So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
David Bahn - Reflections 
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