Tuesday, March 24
After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 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 making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a sabbath.
—John 5: 1-9
The lame man had been sitting by the pool for 38 years. Every once in a while he had noticed that the spirit was moving across the water, and he would attempt to make his way into the pool. But each time someone else jumped in before him. Healing did not come his way, even though he waited patiently all those years. Or so he thought.
Jesus told the man to get up and walk. And he did. He didn’t have to go down into the pool to receive healing, all he had to do was heed his master’s word. Whether or not this is a story about healing physical sickness is debatable. But as it applies to you and to me, it seems more important that we just heed our master’s word, get up, and walk.
I wonder what kind of life we would have if we noticed the miracles around us? How many years have we been sitting, waiting, wondering, complaining even? Isn’t it time to just get up and walk?
God full of miracles, you surround me with your life every day but I often fail to see it. Open my eyes to your love in unexpected places and unexpected times so that I may heed your word, get up, and walk. Amen.
