Therefore Having Gone

Therefore Having Gone

Monday, June 13, 2022

GRADE-A JERK

The Bible features some downright evil people, but also some garden-variety, low-level jerks. 

The man Jesus healed at the Pool of Bethesda is one of those jerks. His story appears in John 5.

All we are told explicitly about him is that he couldn't walk and had been an invalid for 38 years. He would lie beside the pool, hoping to be the first one in whenever the angel came to stir the water.

When Jesus approached him to ask if he wanted to be well, this man only complained that nobody ever helped him into the pool in time for him to find healing.

At this, Jesus simply told the man, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." And so the invalid found himself healed.

If the man then jumped around in excitement or thanked Jesus profusely, it is not mentioned by John.

Soon after his miraculous healing, some Jewish leaders stopped the man to reprimand him for carrying his mat on the Sabbath. And he decided to pass the blame to Jesus - but he didn't know Jesus's name (never bothered to ask) and Jesus had slipped away. The hassle with the Jews apparently blows over.

Some time later, Jesus caught this guy at the temple and told him to stop sinning or "something worse might happen" to him. 

Did this guy thank Jesus or make him a promise to live righteously? Nope. He ran off to find the Jews and told them "that it was Jesus who made him well". (John 5:15)

He knew the Jews were mad and wanting to find out who was ultimately "at fault" for breaking the Sabbath laws. This guy went out of his way to find them and then threw Jesus under the bus.

What a jerk. 

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