Lent Devotional Day 10

Day 10
Friday, March 3


John 5:1-18
After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 In Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate in the north city wall is a pool with the Aramaic name Bethsaida. It had five covered porches, 3 and a crowd of people who were sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed sat there.[a] 5 A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, knowing that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

7 The sick man answered him, “Sir,[b] I don’t have anyone who can put me in the water when it is stirred up. When I’m trying to get to it, someone else has gotten in ahead of me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 Immediately the man was well, and he picked up his mat and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.
10 The Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It’s the Sabbath; you aren’t allowed to carry your mat.”

11 He answered, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
12 They inquired, “Who is this man who said to you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?” 13 The man who had been cured didn’t know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away from the crowd gathered there.

14 Later Jesus found him in the temple and said, “See! You have been made well. Don’t sin anymore in case something worse happens to you.” 15 The man went and proclaimed to the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the man who had made him well.

16 As a result, the Jewish leaders were harassing Jesus, since he had done these things on the Sabbath. 17 Jesus replied, “My Father is still working, and I am working too.”18 For this reason the Jewish leaders wanted even more to kill him—not only because he was doing away with the Sabbath but also because he called God his own Father, thereby making himself equal with God.


Reflection

Jesus’ question for the suffering man is a question he asks us all. “Do you want to be well?” To be healed? To be whole? To be filled? To be loved? To be forgiven? Do you want to be free?
The man’s answer is one we’ve all given. “Yes, but . . .” I have no one to carry me to the water. Other people will get there first. I’m too busy with work. I’m not ready to change. I can’t let go of the past. I’m too tired. I can’t do it.

Jesus’ answer is simple: Get up. Let’s go. Because all of our excuses, all of our doubts, are overcome by the One who can. We pick up our mat and follow him. We don’t know exactly where we’re going, but we know it’s the direction of hope.

 
Prayer

Jesus, I thank you for the promise that we can be well. Help us to remember in this season that You are our hope, and to let that hope be a light to others. Amen.

By Marilee Medley