John Chapter 5 verses 1-13 (NIV)
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
This was a spectacular miracle. A man, unable to walk for 38 years, being healed of his infirmity. We don’t however read of any great outpouring of praise and worship to God. There were a great many people who were aware of this man, and who would also have witnessed this miracle. Yet we only read of the religious leaders being concerned about his carrying a mat.
Jesus is so very gracious to us. The man didn’t expect to be healed by Jesus. He didn’t even know who Jesus was. Perhaps the man was not generally liked. It appears that he may not always have been disabled. Perhaps he’d had some sort of accident. We do read later in this chapter that Jesus seeks him out again and tells him to stop sinning or something worse might befall him. Perhaps there was a reason for the lack of celebration. Maybe the man was unpopular. Yet Jesus didn’t discriminate. He met the man’s need.
We need to be careful not to discriminate when lives with a past are touched, changed, and healed by God, that we make sure that we direct our thanks, praise and worship to God, and that we extend the hand of fellowship to all who come to know Jesus, no matter how unpopular they may have been in the past.
Dear Lord,
Thank You that You never discriminate and meet the needs of any who will come to Jesus. May my hand always be extended alongside Yours to whoever comes through our church doors. I ask in Jesus’ Name. Amen.