Friday, May 8 — My Father Is Working
Jesus heals a man on the wrong day, and the religious leaders lose their minds. Then Jesus says something so big it takes the rest of the chapter to unpack.
John 5:8-11, 16-17 — KJV
Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. ... And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
John 5:8-11, 16-17 — WEB
Jesus said to him, "Arise, take up your mat, and walk." Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked. Now that day was a Sabbath. So the Jews said to him who was cured, "It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry the mat." He answered them, "He who made me well, the same said to me, 'Take up your mat, and walk.'" ... For this cause the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father is still working, so I am working, too."
Explanation
Yesterday we learned about Sabbath rest. Today we have to wrestle with what happens when keeping the Sabbath gets weaponized.
The setting is the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. There is a man there who has been sick for thirty-eight years. Thirty-eight. Long enough that hope had to have died in him a hundred times. Jesus walks up, asks if he wants to be made well, and tells him to get up. The man does. Jesus heals him with a word. It is one of the most beautiful moments in John's Gospel.
And then the trouble starts.
It happens to be the Sabbath. The religious leaders see this man carrying his mat home — a small, joyful act after thirty-eight years of being unable to walk — and the first words out of their mouths are about the rules. Not "praise God you can walk." Not "tell us what happened." Just: it is not lawful for you to carry your mat. They have taken the gift of Sabbath, the gift God gave for human flourishing, and turned it into a cage.
Jesus's response is one of the most theologically loaded sentences in the Gospels. My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. He is saying that the God of Sabbath does not, in fact, sit idle while the world groans. God is at work all the time, holding the universe together, healing the sick, drawing people to himself. The Sabbath was never a vacation from God's love. And Jesus, fully sharing the Father's nature, is not violating the Sabbath by healing a man on it. He is fulfilling what the Sabbath was always for.
There is a crucial lesson here for our week of thinking about useful work. Religion can take a holy thing and turn it into a stick to beat people with. The Sabbath in the hands of the Pharisees became a way to crush the very people God was trying to lift up. The same can happen with the doctrine of Christian work. We can take the truth that work matters and turn it into a club, judging people by how busy they look, by what kind of job they hold, by whether they "produce." That is not what God meant by useful work. God's idea of work is the work that heals. The work that lifts. The work that frees a man from a mat he has been lying on for thirty-eight years.
Ask yourself who you are most like in this story. Are you the man on the mat, finally hearing Jesus tell you to get up and walk? Are you the legalist, more concerned with the rules than with the miracle in front of you? Or are you Jesus, willing to be misunderstood and even hated in order to do the good thing in front of you?
The Father is working. The Son is working. We are invited into that work. But we are invited into the kind of work that heals, not the kind that crushes.
Thought for the day: When religion gets in the way of healing, religion is wrong.
Reflection question: Is there a place in your life where you have used "doing the right thing" to ignore a person right in front of you who needed help? What would it cost you to put the rule down and pick up the person?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, you healed people who needed healing, even when it cost you. Save us from the kind of religion that knows the rules and forgets the people. Make our work a healing work this week. Where someone has been on a mat for too long, give us the courage to speak a word that lifts them up. Amen.
This week we walk toward Sunday's lesson: Useful Work as Christian Duty.