Wrong Focus

TODAY' READING: John 5, 6

SCRIPTURE: John 5:6-15
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?”

⁷ “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.”

⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰ and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

¹¹ But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

¹² So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

¹³ The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴ Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

OBSERVATION: Jesus sees a disabled man, heals him, and tells him to go on his way. Then the religious leaders come along and berate the man for daring to carry his mat on a Sabbath day. They are focused on the wrong things. Are they amazed that an incredible miracle has occurred? No. In fact, they are offended that anyone would heal on the holy Sabbath day. They interrogate the man to find out who would do such a thing. After the man leaves them, Jesus finds him again, in church, and warns him against willfully disobeying God anymore in his life. The man has a wrong focus also. The Pharisees have left him but he goes and seeks them out to tell them that it is Jesus who healed him. So the man wants the blessings of God but he does not want to be told what to do or to change his lifestyle. He is rebellious and cares more about currying favor with human authorities than he does about pleasing God.

APPLICATION: We humans have an uncanny tendency toward missing the point. We still tend to focus on the wrong things. We, like the Pharisees, still tend to like "formulaic" Christianity (eg., raise your hand, say a certain prayer and your "in" with God). We don't like it when God does things that don't fit in with our idea of how things ought to be done. And we also tend to be rebellious like the man who was healed was. We want God to bless us but we don't want to submit to his will. We are often offended when God puts constraints on us that we don't like or understand.

PRAYER: Father, I see when other Christians fall into this trap of having the wrong focus but I don't often see it when I do the same thing. I need your Spirit to reveal my waywardness to me. Keep me focused on the right things and on my own issues. It is so easy to sit in judgment of others. I do not want to do that. It is enough for me to discover and repent of my own folly. In Jesus' Name, Amen.