Faith

Last time we met, we discussed John 5:1-17, Jesus healing a man by Bethesda Pool.  Today we learn the repercussions of his final statement in that passage.

If you recall, that statement was:  “But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Do you see it wasn’t just a Sabbath issue, though admittedly this was part of it.  But the bigger part was this “he called God his own Father!   That meant he was making himself equal with God.   This was blasphemy in the eyes of the Jews.  How dare a man do such a thing!!!!!

Because it was blasphemous, it meant he should die, ergo the Jews sought to kill him.  They could not allow such a dangerous person to live, to spread such blasphemous thoughts. 

I initially struggled to understand how to connect this passage to my life.  I’m not a Jewish person, I have the freedom to call God my Father, to address him as such without fear.   So why should this passage impact me?   How can God use it to help me consider him more clearly?

I came to this thought.  I HAVE the freedom to call God my Father.  It’s a freedom that those in the days before Christ didn’t have.  Christ changed the world for me.  My belief in him gives me a kinship with him, and ergo, as he calls God Father, so can I.   Kinship is a marvellous thing.

I recently read on facebook, a gal with a dilemma on her hands… her brother is getting married on the same weekend that her girls have the biggest event of their year to attend.  Her brother knew this but needed to meet the demands of his lady and her family (her kin). This lady was caught between a rock and a hard place.  How does she honour her brother (her kin) and how does she also honour her daughters (also her kin)?  What does kinship matter to her then?   How does she balance it out?  Most of the respondents were somewhat less than kind regarding the brother, not seeing the dilemma he was in as well.  Not an easy decision to make.  

Why do I bring that up?   Kinship with God means KINSHIP with him.  Kinship with him trumps anything else we can be related to.  If God calls us to travel or move or be in a different place, that matters more than family.  If God gives us a ministry to do and if conflicts with our earthly family… his demands on our time matter more than the other.   This kinship makes decisions easier.

If I always remember that kinship with him, so therefore his desires and will for my life matter most, that makes other decisions easier doesn’t it?  Such, … will I follow the will of the land (this summer this came up for many faith-based ministries that ask the government for funding, but this year the government added a stipulation that by asking for dollars you agreed with abortion) or will I follow the will of God?  For some of those organizations this was a hard but easy decision.  Don’t ask for funding, other organizations struggled with it… do we just sign it knowing it’s just a form on a piece of paper that ultimately means nothing?   Until they realized it DOES mean something.  Then loving God makes it easy even though in the end, it was harder for them.   

For me in my day to day life it means… will I stop and be kind to my son even though he’s driving me batty, OR will I take a moment and breathe (telling him what I am doing so he doesn’t misinterpret my action) and respond to him in a more pleasing manner?  A manner that will help him mature rather than one that makes him angry and defensive?  Which would God rather have me do?   Kinship with God matters.  It affects our day to day moments.  Our minute by minute decisions if we always keep it in mind. 

Sometimes I don’t think I realize enough what kinship with Christ matters.  Knowing that GOD is part of my family.  It’s like having the love of a good old brother or a loving, just, kind, firm and reasonably demanding Dad at my back ALL THE TIME.  Sit and ponder that for a moment.  Realize that kinship with God will have some people wanting you DEAD.  Seriously.  Martyrdom for the faith happens all over the world. But in the end, our kinship with God is what should matter most to us.

It mattered most to Jesus.

It should matter most to us as well. 

Yesterday we saw how Jesus healed the Official’s lad, faith in action seen.  Today we visit a pool where the sick went for healing in John 5:1-17.

 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, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. ³ In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. ⁵ One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When 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?” ⁷ The 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.” ⁸ Jesus 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. ¹⁰ So 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.” ¹¹ But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” ¹² They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” ¹³ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. ¹⁴ Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. ¹⁶ And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

A trip was made from Capernaum to Jerusalem.  I don’t know if he went up there before or after the feast of the Jews.  But there was a feast and Jesus went to Jerusalem.

In Jerusalem was a pool called Bethesda, over by the Sheep Gate.   Now this pool was rather special.  The sick and injured would lay around it waiting and when the water stirred would try to be first ones into it.  Then healing would happen!   Neat eh?

Of course the downside of this pool becomes readily apparent when Jesus stops to talk to an invalid.   Everyone there would want to be healed and the quickest down the steps would win….even if someone would already be in the process of going.   It’s hard not to see it as a push fest.  Look!!!   The water stirred!   Get in Get in!!!

Jesus put an end to that mad rush for this invalid, simply asking him if he’d like to be healed.  and then healing him.

Again, the man needed to act on faith.  He needed to believe that Jesus meant what he said.  He needed to get up and walk.  He was indeed healed.

Problem arose.   Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath.  So when the man got up carrying his bedroll he was called to account by the Jews who found him.   

Can you imagine it?   You’ve been healed.  You are doing what you are told and then you get in trouble for it?   You are walking again!!!   What does anything else matter to you then eh?   He couldn’t even point out that it was Jesus because he couldn’t see him anymore and there was a crowd of people around.

Jesus sought him out later though, finding him in the temple and said “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”   The man’s response was to go tell the Jewish people that it was Jesus who healed him.   This gave the Jews incentive to persecute Jesus, because Jesus didn’t pay attention to the days of the week, he just went about doing the things of God. He didn’t care if it was the Sabbath or not. 

I read those words eh?

Jesus saying “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

Sometimes I feel like I am not working.  That all I see is my here and now and I don’t see beyond my own borders.  I read passages like this and only think and see how I fail to work as the Lord works.  God doesn’t care about what day of the week he helps someone.  He doesn’t watch the clock, or social conventions, or ….. he just gets about his business. Most of the time I can’t even really see what work the Lord wants me to be about doing.   I raise my boy and try to help him grow in the Lord, I try to support my hubby in this time of transition, and try to show God through my blog.   I have a hard time seeing beyond that. My work at the foodbank is mostly behind the scenes being helpful type of stuff… 

 So when it comes to work for the Lord, I don’t see myself in a good light. I’m guessing I’m not the only one who reads this passage and thinks the same. How do I see the work that I do, do in a good light?   How do I find value in the raising of a lad and the supporting of a hubby?   It doesn’t exactly rank up with doing evangelistic work or healing the sick, or feeding the poor, or helping street people or going door to door…. 

The question facing me I suppose is this.  Am I doing what I am asked to do?   Am I abdicating my responsibility as a wife and mother?  If not.. then I need to ask:  Am I doing what I can to raise my boy in the faith?  Do I pray for my family?   Is listening to my husband something I willingly do? Do I willingly talk about the Lord and offer the comfort of his spirit when called upon to do so?  If I can answer these questions well, then am I doing what I aught to be doing?   I think so yes?   Though admittedly, I can probably do more… it’s just a matter of learning what that more is I think eh?

The Samaritan Woman taught us to reach out to those around us with excitement, today we see a boy healed in John 4:46-54.

46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

Jesus left the Samaritan town and is now in Cana, where he performed his first miracle (the water into wine).

So Sychar to Cana to Capernaum, and when he arrives there an official is waiting for him. We aren’t told who this official was, only that he had a son who was sick.  He came specifically to ask Jesus to come with him to heal his son, for his son was close to dying. 

Makes sense right?   You hear of this fellow who turned water into wine, you know that odd things can happen with him around, and you think… I’ve gotta ask, I’ve gotta take the chance that he can help.  So you wait, because it matters to you, and finally Jesus comes. You ask him to come and then he says this   “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” Again you state your objective “Sir, come down before my child dies.”  You are used to people listening to what you have to say, so it makes sense to make this request.

And Jesus, instead of coming tells him to “Go; your son will live.”

You believe him, you leave, and then your servants come running saying something along the lines of “Sir sir…you son is going to be okay!!!!”   You discover that he started his recovery at the moment Jesus says “Go”.

I know what that would do to my faith.   Do you know what it would do to yours?

For the official it deepened his faith.  So much so that he believed, his household believed  A huge change!

The scene eh?  Could have played out anywhere. It was built upon scant knowledge.  Jesus turned water into win at a wedding in Cana.  Perhaps he might help his boy.  The hope in that dad’s heart that must have been there.  The I’ll ask, Jesus will help.  The wine, it happened.  

Jesus helped.  Jesus healed.

He prodded the dad first.  Prodding to see if his faith was real.  The dad just said come, heal him.  He believed.   Just as he said it “Go”, the boy began to recover. Even before the official had turned for home his son’s recovery was underway.

He had faith indeed.

Some one reminded me… possibly in a blog comment is my vague recollection after a long busy day.  That faith sometimes doesn’t want you to wait for things to be just so.  Sometimes faith is simply the acting on what you hope for.   This man hoped for his son’s recovery.  He knew what Jesus had done.  So he asked.  He hoped.  His faith was rewarded.

The result… a faith that was solidified.   For him and his household. 

This boys’ recovery was the second sign that Jesus did on his journey from Judea to Galilee. 

Faith in action, just because of the hope you have within.    I like that eh?   To thinking it through, the hope generated, and then acting based on that hope.  Isn’t that what living out our faith is based on?

Our hope is in the Lord, the one who died on the cross, rose from the dead, on our behalf.  One day he will return.  Until that day we live in hope, we live out our faith based on the hope.  It’s what, those of us with faith, do!  These few verses were an excellent reminder to me of that. 

Last time we met we studied John 3: 22-36, today we meet a Samaritan Woman in John 4:1-46. 

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
43 After the two days he departed for Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.

I have to admit, I know this story fairly well.  Jesus, at a well, Samaritan woman of ill repute comes up and they have a conversation, she’s amazed and tells everyone about it. Sometimes when you know stories well it’s hard to think you can learn anything more from it.  We need to fight that tendency as there is always something more to learn from God’s word.

Take for instance this truth.  Jesus knew that the Pharisees were aware he was baptizing a lot of people.  His response was to leave Judea and head over to Galilee.  Normally Jews stayed out of Samaria.  They avoided them.  But here Jesus is walking through Samaria to get to Galilee, he’s tired and sits down to take a break.   Do you see Jesus’ humanity here?   He got tired just like we all do.  He needed to rest his weary body.  His very humanity lept out at me here.  Seeing his weakness and frailty. 

He’s resting, a woman comes to get some water and Jesus has the audacity to ask her to get him some water.  Can you imagine her surprise!  The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” It’s a shocking thing for her.  Jews and Samaritans don’t mix, and certainly talking to each other is not the normal case of events.  But Jesus does it anyways.   (See his divinity there?)  Jesus gives us a glimpse of it in his response to her:  “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”  Only Jesus as God could give anyone living water.

Isn’t that a great opening statement?   If someone said that to me I’d be saying Huh?  What do you mean living water?  The confusion of the Samaritan woman is understandable isn’t it?  Jesus asked HER for a drink, and he has no bucket to draw water with…living water???   This makes no sense!   Jesus goes on to tell her about his water, the water he gives will be an eternal water, one that refreshes a person so they never thirst again.   Wouldn’t you want that water as well?  Picture it.  You, a Samaritan woman, coming to the well alone, at a time of day when most women would be at home.  She comes to a well where a Jewish man tells you he can give you water that would satisfy you forever?  Wouldn’t you be like this lady and jump at the chance?  It’s no wonder to me that she says : “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

 Jesus surprises her again.  He asks her to go get her husband and when she admits to not having one proceeds to tell her what he knows of her. “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”  Do you blame her then for thinking Jesus is a prophet?   She shows she knows her faith history though.  The Samaritans worship on the mountain they are at, while the Jewish say to worship in Jerusalem.

Can you imagine her heart surprise when Jesus tells her this:  “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”  To have a Jewish man, who just told her, her own life story, tell her that location doesn’t matter for how you express your faith?  That what’s in the heart does?  Can you see her understanding?  Her faith?  She knows a messiah will come (called Christ) and that he’ll tell all they need to know.  And then to have Jesus tell her he was the Christ?   I’d have gone barreling off as well.  GUYS COME MEET THIS GUY!   HE KNOWS EVERYTHING!!!!   Come See, maybe, just maybe he is the Christ!!!!!

While they are talking the disciples have returned, surprised that Jesus is talking with her, but they don’t question it.  Instead when she left they urged him to eat. 

I find Jesus’ statement here intriguing “I have food to eat you don’t know about”.  Can you see the disciples confusion?   They can see that Jesus has no food so what can he be talking about?   Maybe he got food from somewhere else?   Jesus urges them to look deeper… to see the need around them.  Showing them that doing God’s will is food enough.  There are fields aplenty around them…. people needing to know the Lord, to see God clearly, regardless of where they are. 

Even though Jews and Samaritans kept themselves separate.. because of one conversation between a Jewish man and a Samaritan woman… many of the Samaritans in that town believed in God.  They came and heard what Jesus had to say because one woman shared her amazement with those she knew.  Jesus and his disciples stayed there for two days before continuing on to Galilee. 

I need to share my amazement about the things of Christ with those I know as well. I need to sow seeds, I need to be willing to reap the harvest.   I need to not let differences stop me from talking and sharing and being the person God wants me to be. I need to let others see The Saviour of the World. 

When Jesus went to Galilee he was welcomed because people had seen what he did during the feast in Jerusalem.