On Line Bible Study - For the Week February 27-March 4, 2012

Lesson 525

John 5: ¹ Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ² 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. ³ Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. ⁵ One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ 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?”

We are considering John 5:1-15 - the full text is available by clicking on the link. The photo above is a picture of excavations at the site of the Pool where the text took place.

Amid all the complexities of this story - such as:

• What exactly is the name of the pool?
• There is no evidence of faith on the part of the paralyzed man, only pity on the part of Jesus.
• We aren't certain as to which 'feast' the story refers to.
  

... it seems to come down to one issue: the Sabbath. This is one thing Jesus does over and over again - he violates the laws of the Sabbath. In this story, by telling the man to "pick up your mat ..." Jesus is commanding the man to violate it as well. And this becomes the sticking point. The fact that the man is healed gets lost in the story. Adhering to the laws associated with the Sabbath becomes more important than the fact that, for this man, he once was paralyzed, but now he is free.

Another interesting fact - we don't find out it is the Sabbath until after the healing has occurred. Unlike the Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke) where such stories often begin with this information (see Mark 1:21 and 2:23), John waits until the healing has taken place and Jesus has 'slipped away' in the crowd - then he tells us as with an almost "by the way" tone - That day was the Sabbath ... Once this fact is introduced it completely takes over the story.

This is a "sign" in John's Gospel - a way of indicating both the power and the authority of Jesus. What is Jesus' relationship to the Law of Moses? It also presents us with a connection between sin and suffering - a connection Jesus will reject later in the Gospel (John 9:1ff). In verse 14 Jesus cautions the man to sin no more lest worse things befall him. Perhaps our suffering is the result of sin; in any event, Jesus is master over the effects of sin in our lives.

It is also a reflection point - How many of our "important rules" are really all that important? The fact that , for the Jewish leaders the Sabbath rules seem to take precedence over the miracle of healing, now we have the opportunity to ask ourselves how much time we spend obsessing on the irrelevant. How many blessings slip away because they don't come wrapped quite the way we think they should be?

No ... this story isn't about 'healing'; it's about Jesus and his authority. That will become apparent in our next study.

On Line Bible Study - For the Week February 20-26, 2012

Lesson 524

John 4: ⁴³ After the two days he left for Galilee. ⁴⁴ (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) ⁴⁵ When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.

⁴⁶ Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷ When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

⁴⁸ “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” ⁴⁹ The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

⁵⁰ “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. ⁵¹ While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. ⁵² When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

⁵³ Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.

⁵⁴ This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

Though I said we would be heading into Chapter Five this week, I misled you - we have to spend one more week in Chapter Four! We move beyond the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan Woman to this "Second Sign", and we are going to focus on one word in just a moment.

First, let's acknowledge what seems to be a contradiction between verses 44 and 45. It is a textual anomaly that has frustrated scholars from as long ago as the Third Century. Origen wrote of verse 44: This saying seems completely to defy sequence. Father Raymond Brown suggests the line was an addition by a redactor (editor). It might be another example of 'telescoping' a text yet to come - in this case, verse 48. In that verse Jesus laments the people's need for signs and wonders ... Will Christ be welcome for who he is, or will his reputation always be grounded in the magic he performed (signs and wonders)? Now to the "word" ...

A father (a "royal official" at that) pleads for healing for his son. It is not unimportant that the gospel uses the word "live" rather than "heal" - Your son will live ... says Jesus. Raymond Brown points out there is no Semitic word for "recover". This is consistent with the broader message of the gospel. Later in our study we will encounter the "Good Shepherd" passages in John 10. The essential message of life will be strongly affirmed there - I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full ...

It is important for John that we understand Jesus did not come to relieve physical pain or disease. We can be physically healthy and spiritually dead at the same time. Jesus came that we might live. Your son will live is not only a pronouncement of healing; it is a profound invitation to the father, his son - and to all of us - to embrace life in its fullness.

This "second sign" (the first being the changing of water into wine at the wedding in Cana) is a signal to us that Life has entered our world - Life in the Spirit, true Life is now available to us. And as if to underscore his point, we read that the royal official's entire household believed. That, for John, is the indication that life has been received.

Are you healthy? Perhaps. But the more important question is: Are you alive?

On Line Bible Study - For the Week February 13-19, 2012

Lesson #523

John 4: ²⁷ Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ³⁰ They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” ³³ Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

In Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan Woman he leads her through a process of inquiry to a profession of faith. "Water" is the image used here to engage us, beginning with our physical thirst and culminating with the good news that Christ has come to address our deeper need - our spiritual need for God. We long for something that can not be depleted - something to address the part of us that is more than physical. "Water" - coming from a well that never runs dry! The woman's thirst is the hook Jesus uses to lead her to a place of recognition.

With the disciples it's food. Once they get over the shock that he has been speaking with a woman, and a Samaritan at that, the guys home in on what guys usually home in on - their stomach. And now we have - in a much more condensed form - the same conversation repeated that Jesus had with the woman. This time the image is not "Water" but "Food".

"Eat something," the disciples say to Christ. What is the food that truly satisfies? "Fast food" is not a new phenomenon - at least, not in terms of our desire for it and our willingness to settle for it. It doesn't take long in life to realize that no amount of food can satiate our appetite so long as our appetite is for something that doesn't satisfy! This may sound like a meaningless riddle (or a 'tautology' in philosophical terms, or another version of the 'chicken or the egg' question...); in fact, Jesus is cutting right to the heart of the matter. What is it that brings true satisfaction to our lives? It has little to do with calories; in fact, the physical food is only a means to an end, and the 'end' is to do the will of God.

Every one of us has spent a day engaged in some activity which, at day's end, leaves us feeling empty and unsatisfied. It is just as true that every one of us has engaged in some activity which, at day's end, leaves us feeling more fulfilled and energized than ever we thought we would be. That's what Jesus is talking about. That's the food that interests him; that is the food he has come to share.

It may be that these verses in Chapter 4 are intended to telescope the verses we will be reading in Chapter 6 ... But first, we need to spend some time in Chapter 5.

On Line Bible Study - For the Week February 6-12, 2012

Lesson 516

John 4: ¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Jesus has just told the woman she has had five husbands. The fact that he knows this is what prompts her response - I can see that you are a prophet ... this 'revelation' inspires her to probe deeper into who Jesus is and what he knows. Is she still earth-bound? Does she truly want to know who / what she is worshiping, or is she trying to find a way to get ahead in the world? She has quickly (abruptly, we might say...) changed the subject away from how many husbands she has had to where to worship.

It's an interesting device, isn't it? Have you ever tried it? Have you ever tried getting around the hard truths of some painful or difficult reality by looking over them and casting your gaze heavenward? Put another way, have you ever tried to spiritually rationalize your intentions to go around rather than work through some personal issue? ("Spiritual rationalization" - now there's an interesting oxymoron!)

Jesus doesn't let her get away with it. In the final analysis, he says, the point is less where you worship than it is that your worship has integrity. We can argue all day - and we have argued - literally for hundreds of years! - about where to go to church. The far more important point is that we worship with humility and honesty - in Spirit and truth...

Father Raymond Brown synthesizes the conversation between Jesus and the woman thus far: "In this scene John has given us the drama of a soul struggling to rise from the things of this world to belief in Jesus. Not only the Samaritan woman but every [person] must come to recognize who it is that speaks when Jesus speaks, and must ask Jesus for living water."

We will give one more lesson to this chapter - then we'll move on to Chapter 5.