Missionary Renegade: The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Wednesday, 15 June 2016

Saturday, June 25, 2016

The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Wednesday, 15 June 2016 - “Do you want to get well?”

The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Wednesday, 15 June 2016 - “Do you want to get well?”
Daily Scripture: John 5:2 In Yerushalayim, by the Sheep Gate, is a pool called in Aramaic, Beit-Zata, 3 in which lay a crowd of invalids — blind, lame, crippled. 4 [John 5:4 Some manuscripts have verses 3b–4: . . . , waiting for the water to move; 4 for at certain times an angel of Adonai went down into the pool and disturbed the water, and whoever stepped into the water first after it was disturbed was healed of whatever disease he had.] 5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 Yeshua, seeing this man and knowing that he had been there a long time, said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered, “I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I’m trying to get there, someone goes in ahead of me.” 8 Yeshua said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk!” 9 Immediately the man was healed, and he picked up his mat and walked.

Now that day was Shabbat,

Reflection Questions:

It seems clear that, either through divine power or just keen human perception, Jesus sensed something about the man who had been by the pool people believed had healing powers for so many years. “Do you want to get well?” was not a casual pleasantry. It was a deeply searching question. The man replied with excuses, probably very familiar ones. The words didn’t fool Jesus, who said, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” The man dropped the excuses, tried to stand, and in doing so showed that he really did want to get well.

There’s a pattern in many Scriptural stories of God’s acts. In Joshua 3, as Israel prepared to cross the Jordan River, Joshua said that as the priests stepped into the river, God’s power would stop the waters. Here Jesus didn’t heal the man and then tell him to stand up; he healed him when the man tried to stand. Is God nudging you in some direction, while you hesitate wishing God would change circumstances to make it safer or easier to move? Is it possible you need to start moving to show your willingness to move?
In standing when Jesus told him to, this man left behind a familiar, though terribly limiting, way of life, a routine he’d followed for 38 years. Have you ever answered Jesus’ question in ways that moved you away from a settled routine that was limiting you? If so, what new opportunities, and new challenges, did you find? Are any of your routines limiting your life right now?

Today’s Prayer:
Lord Jesus, I try to imagine the man’s excitement and nervousness as he walked away from that pool after 38 years. Help me overcome my nervousness, and open myself to the excitement of new life as you bring it into my experience. Amen.
-------Insights from Kinzie Oas

Kinzie Oas is the Adult Discipleship intern at The Church of the Resurrection. He attends North Park University in Chicago, IL, and aspires to be a Pastor. He would love to see church BBQ places instead of church cafes (think about it, Resurrection!). He also really loves badminton.
First reading this story, the answer seems so obvious. “Do you want to get well?” “Obviously, yes, I want to get well. Jesus, I want to be renewed by you, I want to be the best I can for you!” All that is true, but I am living 2000 years after this happened. I know the outcome, I know the renewal. The man at the pool did not. I wonder what was going through his head. What was his reaction when a Rabbi came up to him and asked, “Do you want to get well?” I probably would have responded sarcastically, “Oh, no, I’m good. I just LOVE sitting next to this place every day!” This man responded with excuses. Maybe others in his past had come to him, asked if he wanted to get better and told him to pray harder, or possibly even tried to sell him something. If so, you can see why this guy would be on his guard. He may have been blamed and told he will never be healed because he isn’t trying hard enough.
I have severe ADHD. I have been told time and time again I don’t try hard enough, and let me tell you, it’s devastating. Every time I’m told I’m not trying hard enough, or told about “ONE THING THAT WILL FIX ALL YOUR PROBLEMS—JUST CLICK HERE! 15 EASY STEPS,” I’m also going to be a little weary. I’m apt to think of a reason why I “Just can’t try your way” because I’m tired of them not working, then being blamed for failure. So I get why this guy made an excuse, why he was probably a little standoffish to someone asking such a difficult and probably painful question. Of course he wants to get well, but its been so long, he is so tired, and has tried so many times.
That’s when Jesus says something crazy. He looks at this guy and says, “Get up and walk.” Honestly, if a dude said something that audacious to me, as a man who was crippled for 38 years, I would have gotten up and grabbed my mat because I’d be thinking, “This dude’s crazy! Doesn’t he see me on this mat and FURTHERMORE…oh, wait. I’m walking. Hey, that guy was right, look at me. I’m walking!”
Sometimes following Jesus is the easy way. Sometimes, for a lot of us, it seems like it’s the craziest way. It seems crazy to think that this guy would just have to tell me to walk and I could. With my ADHD, I haven’t had my “Get up and walk moment,” and I know plenty of others that haven’t. But I believe Jesus can, because Jesus knows my excuses, he knows why I don’t like taking advice from others on why I am failing. He also knows the fix, and I know one day I’ll be asked “Do you want to get well?” I will have to answer, probably full of excuses at first, but he’ll sort through them. So what about you? “Do you want to get well?”