Monday Morning Devotion-June 24, 2024
Excuse Making
Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time… "Would you like to get well?" "I can't sir," the sick man said., "for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me." Jesus told him, "Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!" Instantly, the man was healed. He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking. John 5: 6-9.
*From September 2016
You know, sometimes it would just be easier to do something than to think up excuses why we didn't get it done. And occasionally, when we feel that there is a good chance, we might not succeed at a task we are working on we start forming reasons why we failed before we actually fail. Oops does that sound like the voice of experience speaking? :)
The man Jesus approached in our scripture lesson had a sad story to tell. Sure, he had been an invalid for 38 years. That in itself would cause him to give up hope. In fact, he had now given up hope of ever getting better and instead had developed a set of excuses explaining why he would never be healed.
The place where he lay on his mat was at the head waters of a pool called Bethesda or in some scriptures it is called Bethsaida. It was believed that an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well from whatever disease they had.
There were many invalids there ---blind, lame and paralyzed. So, you can imagine the pressure they all felt when they saw the waters being stirred up and knew that only at that time could they be healed. It would be a mad scramble to see who could get into the pool for that brief period of time and be healed.
After 38 years of this the man had given up hope of ever being able to get in the pool at the proper time. His excuse was that no one would help him.
Then along came Jesus and he saw the man and felt compassion for him. But it was the Sabbath. So what? So, this! The Pharisees said it was unlawful to work on the Sabbath. That included healing. So, if Jesus healed this man, he was a lawbreaker.
He asked the man: "Would you like to get well?" Seems like kind of a strange question. The answer the man gave was even stranger. Instead of saying "You are doggone right I would like to be healed. I would give anything to be able to walk. He said, "I can't sir."
Then followed the excuse making. And truthfully his situation did look pretty hopeless.
Jesus didn't waste any time on the excuses or the hopelessness of the task. He just said:
"Stand up. Pick up your sleeping mat and walk." Don't you love that! No beating around the bush. Just a simple, but firm command accomplished the miracle.
At that point the excuse making ended for the man. He wasn't thinking about the day being the Sabbath, or all those other guys waiting to beat him to the pool. He stood up, rolled up his mat and walked. Say Hallelujah!
Not the end of the story. The Jewish leaders (Pharisees) saw him walking and immediately pointed out that he was breaking the law. "What law?"
They replied: the law that says "You can't work on the Sabbath"
What work?"
"Carrying your sleeping mat on the Sabbath, that's illegal."
Oh, for Pete's sake is that stupid or what? Then they dug into this deeper, knowing this man had not walked before, much less committed the horrible violation by doing the hard work of carrying his mat on the Sabbath.
Now the man had to give an excuse for this horrible violation. So, he ratted out Jesus, sort of. He didn't know who He was, so he just told them "The man who healed me said to me pick up your mat and walk.' "
Oh boy, now those old Pharisees were really on to something. Somebody was actually healing on the Sabbath. Can you imagine that?
Only problem was the man didn't know who Jesus was or where he went. Later he bumped into Him in the temple and went out to find the Pharisees and tell them who and where Jesus was. Not a good way to repay Jesus for his kindness!
Now the Pharisees had someone else to harass. When confronted, Jesus simply replied: "The Father never stops working, so why should I." Uh, oh. Now they had Him especially after he gave them a little discourse on the Heavenly Father and basically why their silly little rules didn't matter.
From that point on the Pharisees closely watch Jesus and waited for the opportunity to trap Him.
The moral of this story is that no matter how trapped we feel that we are by our infirmities, God can minister to our deepest needs. No excuse making needed. Just trust Him. Call on Him and ask Him for help.
The Life Application Study Bible advises us: "Don't let your problem or hardship cause you to lose hope. God may have a special work for you to do in spite of your condition, or even because of it. Many have ministered effectively to hurting people because they have triumphed over their own hurts."
God is prepared to work in our lives, but we can shut out His miracles by limiting our views about how He works. We can dismiss His advice by not recognizing it as coming from Him because we are so busy making-excuses we don't recognize the winning solution.
When you think you can't do something, don't spend time making excuses as to why you can't. Ask the Lord how you can, then pick up your mat and head toward a solution no matter what day of the week it is.
Prayer: Lord, please overlook our excuses and direct us in the way to go. Amen!