Today, a look a few days back.
December 26
A poem by Kenn Nesbitt
A BB gun.
A model plane.
A basketball.
A ’lectric train.
A bicycle.
A cowboy hat.
A comic book.
A baseball bat.
A deck of cards.
A science kit.
A racing car.
A catcher’s mitt.
So that’s my list
of everything
that Santa Claus
forgot to bring.
Have we ever been so disappointed by some event or chain of events in the past that we have become unable to enjoy the present? Or, as in the poet’s case, unable to enjoy our presents? I don’t think that this is an uncommon human problem. Hear the words of the John’s gospel:
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. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, "It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat." But he answered them, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Take up your mat and walk.' " They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take it up and walk'?" Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you." The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
John 5:2-16 – NRSV
Have you ever wondered what sin Jesus warns this man about? After all, wisdom literature and Jesus (wisdom incarnate) both tend to disconnect sin and sickness. They can be related, but not as often as people used to think. So what sin prompts the warning? I think perhaps that the sin of despair kept this man from healing physically, and has the potential to keep this man from healing spiritually. How so?
The legend is, that when the surface of this pool stirs, the first person to enter the water receives healing. And so, typically, many people wait alongside the pool, vigilant for their opportunity. John tells us that this man had been ill for thirty-eight years, and implies that he had lived much of his life by this pool.
Thirty-eight years of failure.
Thirty-eight years of watching someone else succeed.
Thirty-eight years of blaming others for not helping.
Thirty-eight years of dejection, then depression, then despair.
Is the problem that this man can’t make it down to the waters in time, or that he has stopped believing that he could? It sounds as if the memories of failures in the past are so oppressive that he has stopped trying. Oh, he will be at the pool alright. There are always people there. People who might listen to his complaint about his past. Sad songs about a sad life. Do those people ever have to listen to him blame God for this struggle?
Jesus cuts through the complaints and calls the man to the present. “Pick up your mat and walk.” Do something. Do something now. And yes, as a matter of fact it is the Sabbath, but don’t wait until tomorrow, act now! The man lets go of his past, and now his hands are open to pick up his present; he takes up his mat and starts walking.
Time passes, and the man meets Jesus again at the temple. This time Jesus starts the man from a fresh marker in the past, gives him instructions for his present, and points him toward the future: "See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you." In other words, Jesus says:
I have changed the course of your history.
Don't live in the past; instead do the good that is before you today.
Work toward a better future.
I don’t think that it is difficult for us to see how these three sentences apply to us. Jesus acts powerfully in our lives, too. He has changed the course of our history, and he calls us to an active and noble life in the present that will make for a world (even if it is only our corner of it) that will be different, that will, in the near future, be more like the kingdom of God.
May God grant us the courage to live this way.
Blessings,
Ron
