Who Is Jesus? (John 5:31-47)

“Because Jesus was doing these things…” begins the next pericope of chapter four and it effectively links what follows to the story that have preceded it.  What things is John referring?  The healing of the invalid at the pool was the story that was done on the Sabbath.  Jesus’ question still rings in our ears…“Do you want to be made well?”  Healing did not come about by the invalid’s own efforts or through other human effort.  It only came about through the healing presence of Jesus Christ.  

But there is a problem.  Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath which incensed the Jewish leaders.  Now if we think about it for a minute, the man had been an invalid for thirty eight years and came daily to the temple waiting his chance to get into the pool.  So why did Jesus heal him on the Sabbath?  He could have just as easily came back the next day after the Sabbath and healed him.  What was Jesus trying to say with his actions?  If we think about the purpose of Sabbath, it was a day that was set aside to rest fulfilling the purpose of the Sabbath.  But the Jewish leaders just saw Jesus breaking the rules and usurping their authority.  Because they were the one who decided what was acceptable work on the Sabbath and what was not.   But the Law was given by God to constitute a peculiar community of faith that was marked by their love of God and love of neighbor.  The Law was interested in creating a whole community that was centered upon the presence of God in their midst; exactly what Jesus was doing.  

Because of the challenge of the Jewish leaders’ authority and referring to God as his father, Jesus is indicted and what continues for the rest of the chapter is a trial motif in which Jesus testifies about himself.  He answers the question, “Who is Jesus?”  And it seems that each pronouncement is followed by a required action.  Jesus as the Christ necessitates a human judgment about Jesus’ claim.  And it is quite apparent that each one of us is going to be judged by our own judgments about Jesus.  

But Jesus goes on in his own defense citing the testimony of others as to his claims.  The first is John the Baptist.  The work that Jesus is doing testifies to the authenticity of his claims as well.  But since Jesus is testifying to Jewish leaders, his final testimony that he puts forth is their very own scripture. He states emphatically that Moses wrote about him.

It is important for John that the readers of his Gospel have a strong Christological understanding of Jesus.  Since the first verse of the first chapter John has been unfolding his theological understanding.  And it is import to John because it is in our understanding of Jesus that we really come to know ourselves and our purpose in life.  If our Christology is erroneous so will our understanding of ourselves. So who is Jesus?  Your very existence depends upon your answer.

Do You Want To Be Made Well? (John 5:1-14)

Do you want to get well?  That was the question.  So what are the possible answers to the question that Jesus posed?  Yes.  No. Or one could also argue that it could be a qualified maybe…I think so if...  But none the less, it was a question that sought an answer.  And based upon the story that John spins, an invalid depending upon the generosity of other for thirty nine years, you would think that the answer would be an unequivocal YES.  But instead of giving the obvious answer, YES, YES,YES, he evades the question with an excuse…I have no one to help me.  He has been an invalid for thirty-eight years depending on the generosity of others.  There were no social welfare programs to provide for his needs.  Further because of his disability, he was not able to be an active participant in the faith community.  All that the invalid could see is obstacles that stood in the way of his being made well.  But instead of Jesus just turning around, he ignores the excuses and tells him to get up and walk.  Jesus does not allow the all the obstacles that the man sees to interfere with his healing.  Jesus wants him well.   

All of us have struggles in our lives that prevent us from experiencing the fullness of life much like the invalid in this story.  Some of them may be physical but for others they may be broken or damaged relationships, unemployment, homelessness, depression, loneliness or isolation.  Whatever the situation Jesus is there asking us, “Do you want to be made well?”  Jesus is not merely asking whether you want to be free from your affliction. 

 At the end of the story where did Jesus find the healed invalid?  He was in the temple participating in the community like he was never able to before.  So Jesus didn’t ask him if he merely want to be healed of his present affliction.  He is asked him if he wanted to be made whole.  Did he want to be an active, vibrant participant in the community of faith?  And Jesus asks us the same thing?  Do you want to be made well?  Do you want to be made whole?  

If we are real with ourselves we see many obstacles in the way of a full and abundant life.   What are some of the obstacles?  I don’t have time.  What is it going to cost me?  What is it going to require of me; because ministry is going to cost something.  It may be money.  It may be time.  It might be my talent or even to reprioritize my life.  I can’t do it.  I’m too old or young.  I’m tired.  I’ve already done my time; it’s somebody else’s turn.  I don’t know how.  We’ve never done it that way before.  And what happens when we put all of these obstacles in our way?  They tend to paralyze us.  We feel stalled.  We feel dejected, frustrated and inferior.  So our obstacles get in the way of who we are called to be.  

But sometimes we feel comfortable with the obstacles that we place in our lives.  Did the invalid like his situation?  Did he really want to be healed?  In some ways showing up every day at the pool with the other invalids was comfortable and predictable.  He may not have liked being an invalid but he knew what life was like and over the years I am sure that he adapted.   But when Jesus asked, “Do you what to be made well?”  He is inviting change.  And for each one of change can be scary.  It can make us nervous because of fear of the unknown.  And obstacles help to keep us in a familiar situation.  

When the invalid is asked the question, his excuse is that other people are unreliable.  There is no one around the pool that will help him into the water when it was stirred.  Or if he tries to rely on his own ability he fails.  He is focused on people for his cure.   But where does his cure come from? Jesus Christ.  The presence of Jesus Christ in his life.  Do you what to be well?  Do you want to have abundant life?  Then the presence of Jesus Christ needs to be at the center of your life.  We don’t really need to fully understand everything about Jesus but we need to rely on him.  The invalid didn’t even know who Jesus was, but in Christ’s presence he had abundant life.  So do you want to be made well? Jesus wants to make you well.

Beyond Miracle Worker (John 4:43-54)

Coming off a two day revival in Samaria, Jesus arrived in Galilee.  It is interesting, that John reveals that the Galileans had heard all that Jesus had done in Jerusalem at the Passover feast and they “welcomed him.”  Remember at the Passover feast Jesus had driven everyone from the Temple as well done many miraculous signs that John did not elaborate upon other than to say that they prompted people to believe in Jesus.  Did they welcome him because of the miraculous signs?  Or did they resonate with Jesus as he reeled against the establishment that sought to distance the people from God’s presence by moving their attention to rules that governed every facet of their lives?  For me, the most interesting part is that they had not seen the stuff done in Samaria nor did they hear about it.  How would they have felt about it?  Would they have welcomed Jesus if they knew that he reached out to despised and hated Samaritans?  After all, these were the marginalized and poor Jewish people.  He came to save them.

John says that Jesus finally stopped to visit in Cana where he heals a royal official’s son.  The story is bookmarked between the identification of the town, Cana in Galilee, and a reminder that this was Jesus second miraculous sign.  I believe that John was trying to link the first miraculous sign, the changing of water into wine, with this second miraculous sign.  When we begin to examine them together we continue to see unfolding of the nature of God’s kingdom.  The changing of the water into wine was done primarily for the disciples.  It demonstrated the nature of the coming of God’s kingdom that was new, abundant, extravagant and transformative.  But this second miraculous sign reminds the reader that the outpouring of God’s kingdom was for all who sought out Jesus Christ and not just his closest friends.  

This encounter also illustrates another facet of the nature of God and God’s kingdom.  The official in the story was coming to Jesus out of a basic need.   While the Scripture does not say it, I would imagine that the official had already exhausted the conventional means of healing.  He went to the pharmacy and tried all the over the counter meds and home remedies.  Then he probably consulted the local doctor, but when none of those things worked he turned to Jesus in desperation.  But with his encounter with Jesus he came away this something else – faith in Jesus Christ.  As his basic needs were met he came to encounter the life-giving love of God.  

The miraculous sign points beyond Jesus as a miracle worker to the very nature of Jesus Christ – the life-giving Word that has come and dwells among us.  The Kingdom of God burst through unexpectedly in the midst of our basic needs of life when we seek out Jesus Christ.

The Status Quo Or The Jesus Quo (John 4:1-42)

Picture yourself standing on the playground with all the neighborhood kids excited to play dodge ball.  The two biggest and oldest kids are the team captains and they look over the crowd of kids deliberating their next pick.  You raise your hand and jump up and down shouting “pick me, pick me.”  One by one your friends are picked and soon you are the last one standing there.  All alone.  How do you feel?  Inferior?  Worthless?  A second class citizen? 

In a way that is just how the Samaritan woman in today’s scripture must have felt.  She was first of all  identified as a Samaritan.  In the eyes of the Jews, they were the chosen people while the Samaritans were viewed as the rejected people.  Their worship of God was seen as inferior to the expressions of worship in the temple.   Secondly she was identified as a woman.  Women in that culture were viewed as property that was to be used. The scripture also mentions that she did not have a husband and she previously had five husbands.  In our culture divorce is common.  Living with your girlfriend or boyfriend has become commonplace.  So we may be tempted to assume that this woman was also “easy,” a tramp or a whore.  In fact as I reflect on sermons that I have heard over the years, this woman has been portrayed just as that.  But try to avoid the temptation of infusing our own culture into the text.  It may be very well that the woman is trapped in Levirate marriage in which the last male in the family has refused to marry her which would only compound her sense of worthlessness.  Jesus didn’t judge so neither should we.

 Jesus dismissed the social conventions of his day and began to talk with this woman.  Imagine the joy and confusion that she must have felt.  It was like someone had finally picked her for the game.  She was no longer invisible or being cast aside.  In fact Jesus offers her a gift, “living water.”  As they converse back and forth it seems evident that the woman did not fully understand what Jesus was talking about.

In the Greek, “living water” has two possible meanings.  It can mean fresh running water like a stream or it can mean life giving water.  The woman is focused on the literal meaning, fresh running water.  There were no streams, only a well; and a man without any way of getting even the well water!  For John, the irony of the story is that Jesus is greater than Jacob who dug the well, however the woman falsely assumes the opposite.    She was initially blind to the new possibilities that Jesus offered.  And so it is with most of the world who lives life alone, abandoned, or worthless; thirsty for the living water that only Jesus can provide.  Jesus was able to see into the woman’s life.  He sees into each and every one of our lives especially those who are isolated, alone and abandoned.

In this text Jesus challenges the status quo.  He dismantles those social, cultural and religious conventions that seek to keep people apart.  Throughout time we have sought to label ourselves and others in order to isolate those who are different than ourselves and lord over them.  We even do this in the church.  John is calling the church to have the same open heart that Jesus demonstrated in Samaria as he reached out to someone very much different than himself.  Jesus opened himself up to the entire world and so should we in his name. 

What happened when Jesus opened himself up to the Samaritan woman?  Because of her testimony many in her village came to believe in him.  The disciples became co-laborers in the harvest of the Samaritan village.  And all of them spent two days with the messiah in their midst; indeed they worship Jesus not on a mountain or in a temple but in their midst.  They received more than they would have ever expected.  That’s what happens when we ignore the status quo and latch onto the Jesus quo.