March 28 2006

Jn 5:1-16 There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gatea pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying thereand knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him,“Do you want to be well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked. Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” He answered them, “The man who made me well told me,‘Take up your mat and walk.’” They asked him,“Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there. After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him,“Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath.
I have heard people jokingly say no good deed goes unpunished. It is the sort of situation. Jesus has compassion on a man who has been suffering an seeking healing for many years. The temple officials have no interest in the sufferings of this man and the compassion of Christ. The only concern the temple officials have is did Jesus violate the laws of the sabbath. It is a case of thinking only with the law, the letter of the law, the head and ignoring the heart of the situation. Without love we are nothing. In our religion love is the center of Christian life. The letter of the law and only seeing that leads to darkness and straying from the love of God. Compassion and mercy are within the heart of Christ and the message of the ministry of Jesus. To reach out, to show compassion, to give healing, to include not exclude are all messages of Christ's ministry. I pray today that I will show that love of Christ within myself and share it humbly with all people that I encounter today.

March 27 2006

Jn 4:43-54 At that time Jesus left [Samaria] for Galilee. For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his native place. When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves had gone to the feast. Then he returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, who was near death. Jesus said to him,“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” The royal official said to him,“Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and left. While the man was on his way back, his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live. He asked them when he began to recover. They told him,“The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.” The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,‘Your son will live,”and he and his whole household came to believe. Now this was the second sign Jesus did when he came to Galilee from Judea.
In this Gospel story, the man said that his son was healed just at the time that Jesus told him that his son will live. I view the story and the timing as the son being healed at the moment that the father believed what Jesus had just said. The belief in Jesus and the power of the Lord to save lives is a choice that we make.

I chose now to believe and from the time that I believe I see more than I ever saw in the times when I lived in the darkness of unbelief. The miracle of healing has the power of good and like a ripple of water spreads out from Jesus to the son to the father and the entire household of the father and son. The household could be compared to the kingdom of God.