Healing and Faith, or Lack of Faith

Devotional Reflection, Thursday, January 9, 2025

The Week of  Epiphany

The Rev, David W Perkins, Th.D,

Key verses for reflection from today’s Gospel reading:

5:1After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 4 5One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ . . .  .

8Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ 9At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. . . . .

15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings: (BCP, 942)

AM Psalm, 121, 122, 123;  PM Psalm 131, 132

Isa. 63:1-5;  Rev. 2:18-21;  John 5:1-15

David's Reflections

Yesterday's reading presented us with a person, probably nonJewish, who exercised radical faith in Jesus without any visual evidence and whose faith deepened in response to Jesus' saving love in the healing of his son. Paired with the Samaritan woman story earlier in John 4, we see Jesus as the savior of all people, no matter their nationality or race. Today’s Gospel presents us with a radical contrast.  If you ignore the large 5 at the beginning of this chapter, the contrast becomes even more dramatic.

This person had been ill for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus healed him, he went to the religious authorities and reported that it was Jesus who had healed him on the Sabbath.  Jesus healed when there was little or no faith on the part of the person receiving the healing.  In this case, John says nothing about his person's faith, but the narrative makes it obvious faith was lacking. The healing takes place because of Jesus' compassion but it does not result in any sort of transformation;  rather, the man actually becomes part of the system that is resisting Jesus.

All healing is divine.  Whether the healing comes about because of surgery, medication, or in some inexplicable and unexpected way, God gives health and combats brokenness and disease.  This story tells us that God's healing activity reaches outside the circle of faith and extends even to people who do not "see" the loving hand of Providence in their recovery or their deliverance.

This particular man exhibited the mentality of a powerless victim.  When Jesus asked him, "Do you want to be healed?", the only answer was an excuse for why he had been there for so many years.  Perhaps he was not so much interested in being healed as he was in defining his life in terms of his pain and infirmity. Healing would bring new responsibilities and challenges.

This text tells us how God responds to the powerless, especially to those who allow themselves to feel like victims.  Jesus shared the place of powerlessness in his death and shares that place with all who experience powerlessness, even those who become "caught" in that vice and become blamers and victims.  God moves to deliver, to set us free, to empower us.

Today, Jesus addresses those places in me that bear the stamp of this man's powerless "caughtness."  "Do you want to be healed?"  I want my answer to be something other than this man's excuse-making.  I want my response to be one of radical faith that says, "Yes, whatever it takes."

Henri Nouwen once said, "Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless." + As we share with God in the creation of community and receiving people into that community in love, I envision us following Jesus' example and stretching our boundaries to reach out in compassion to people like this paralytic. Our healing ministry can focus on those without faith as well as those within the faith community.

+Donald P. McNeil, Douglas A Morrison,, and Henri J. M. Nouwen, Compassion:  A reflection on the Christian Life (Garden City, NY:  Doubleday, 1982), p. 4.

Collect of the Feast of the Epiphany

O God, who by the leading of a star manifested your only Son to the Peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Today we celebrate the Feast of Julia Chester Emery, supporter of missions (died 1922).  For a biographical note, readings, and prayers see the web link http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Julia_Chester_Emery.htm

Collect of the Feast of Julia Chester Emery.

O Almighty God, who have surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses: Grant that we, encouraged by the good example of your servant Julia, may persevere in running the race that is set before us, until at last we may with her attain to your eternal joy; through Jesus Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

A Collect for Guidance

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people;  Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP 100)

In the Order of Worship for Evening

Almighty, everlasting God, let our prayer in your sight be as incense, the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice. Give us grace to behold you, present in your Word and Sacraments, and to recognize you in the lives of those around us. Stir up in us the flame of that love which burned in the heart of your Son as he bore his passion, and let it burn in us to eternal life and to the ages of ages. Amen.  (BCP, 113)

A Collect for Mission

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 280)

Daily Office Gospel, John 5:1-15

5:1After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 4 5One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ 7The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ 8Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ 9At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. 10So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.’ 11But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Take up your mat and walk.”’ 12They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take it up and walk”?’ 13Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. 14Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.’ 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer