[Series: Miracles of Jesus] Restoring the walk

Today I brought you a thought about the miracle of healing the paralytic for our series of miracles of Jesus.

We can often see this story focusing on one person and how Jesus restored his ability to walk, but I want to encourage you to look beyond that.

The story

The Word says in the book of John, chapter 5, that there was a tank in Jerusalem. In a few moments an angel came down, stirred the waters and the first one who entered the tank was healed.

One man in the crowd was paralytic. When Jesus saw him, He asked if he would like to be healed, but because of his difficulty in moving, he never arrived in time to be the first to enter the tank when the water moved, so he thought he would not be able to receive the cure.

Christ then said in verse 8, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk“. And in that moment the man was healed.

The Generosity of Christ

What draws attention in the text above is that even though in some parts of the Bible we read that to be healed we need to have faith in God. However, this sick man had put his faith in the tank, as if the power were there, and without the ability to go there, he believed he would never receive his physical restoration.

When Jesus asked the question “Do you want to get well?” in verse 6, he immediately just explains that he couldn’t, as he had no one to take him to the tank, but he was healed anyway.

Christ doesn’t really expect anything in return and we need to practice this generosity too, of giving without expecting to receive, just focusing on being children who do what the Father wants and deposits in us. Jesus not only gave and shared with the people the power received by God, but also looked and perceived the state of pain of that man, who had lived there for thirty-eight years.

Focus on the right target

Christ revealed that the power was not in the tank of Bethesda, but in God, through him. Was the tank a place where God deposited His mercy to keep the people hopeful or was it a place created for Jesus to come and show that the real power they so strongly believed in was not in things, but in Someone?

One thing we know: God heals and, in the miracles we read about in the Bible, we are taught about His generous action. When we are used to bless someone as an instrument of healing and love, we should likewise expect nothing in return and care only to glorify the Father, reminding people that the Supernatural comes from Him, not from anyone or anything.

To conclude…

The story brings a physical illness of a mobility difficulty, but do we not also have this difficulty in our walk with Christ?

Many times God has so many things prepared for us, but we focus on physical things, resources, skills that we have or lack. We are limited and keeping faith in ourselves or in things is the certainty that we will be shaken and not reach the goal.

Forget your difficulties, your weakness, remove from your memory how limited you are, forget also your strength or some gift you have, but remember that Christ doesn’t depend on something you know or don’t do, He will pour this grace on you, without needing a resource as a medium.

“The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself”

John 5:19 and 26