April 29, 2018 Easter 5 John 5:1-18

If you have a Scandinavian heritage you are probably familiar with Sven and Ole jokes.  It is hard to imagine two more bungling people, and the jokes always add absurdity to absurdity in a completely unpredictable way.  For example, Sven and Ole are nailing siding on a house.  Sven hears Ole regularly cursing and throwing away nails.  He says, “Ole, what’s the matter that you keep throwing away nails?”  Ole replies, “Half of these nails are junk.  The heads and points are on the wrong ends!”  Sven replies, “Ole you idiot!  There’s nothing wrong with them nails.  Them nails is for the other side of the house!”

Now there’s no connection between that silly Sven and Ole story and the gospel reading, except that the gospel reading also has some completely unexpected twists.  Usually someone comes to Jesus asking to be healed.  In the gospel reading Jesus comes to the man without him asking.  In fact it’s Jesus who asks him, “Do you want to be made well?”

Well of course this man wants to be made well, we think.  He’s been sick for 38 years after all!  Or does he?  That’s a good question to ask.  A healthy man would have to go out into the fields and work for a living.  He’d be out in the scorching hot sun sweating and toiling, day after day, or perhaps the cold and rain and storms and wind… year after year, wearing out his body for a subsistence living at best, or at worst as a servant or hired hand where his labor was making someone else rich.

By contrast this guy could lay in the shade of the temple complex all day every day.  He could beg from people for his food rather than working for it.  He could receive pity basically for free rather than having to work to earn respect.  It is very hard to “make it” today.  It takes a lot of hard work, good decisions, commitment, and character and integrity.  The same could be said for those days.

You may remember the Christian education course Servant or Sucker that we ran a few years ago.  It addressed the question of what is the best way to help people who beg.  It showed that the situation is complicated.  Often people have addictions or mental health problems, and no simple handout from someone driving by is likely to help.  Sometimes people do truly need help.  And sometimes they’re just scamming because it’s easier than working.  The course concludes that the best thing to do is not directly help people who beg, but instead support organizations that do.  Those organizations have the staff and training to handle the complexities of things.  You can support those organizations either with financial gifts or by volunteering your time.

As an aside, that’s the way we apply our efforts as a congregation.  We do no direct support.  The Community Outreach Committee works through other organizations.  We partner with other churches for the food cupboard and other help programs.  Family Promise is coming on board and that will be run by people trained in identifying people most likely to benefit from help.

When I did my clinical pastoral education at the University of Tennessee Medical Center I served as a chaplain for the large hospital.  The chaplains’ office had some things available to help people in need, and many people asked for help.  But it was always hard to know how to discern who should be helped and who was scamming.

I remember one night when I was on call a young single woman who was having trouble with her pregnancy came into the hospital with some problems.  The hospital quickly addressed her medical needs, but that left her the problem of how to get back home.  She was living in an apartment and apparently the baby’s father was no longer in the picture and he wouldn’t give her a ride.  She knew the chaplains had vouchers for taxi rides and she asked me to give her one.  I was concerned for more than just her getting home so I engaged her in a conversation about her whole life situation.

It turns out she came from a financially successful family that ran a car dealership.  Her family was supportive.  They hadn’t kicked her out.  She was welcome to move back home.  But they did want her to act more responsibly than she had.

I decided not to give her a taxi voucher.  I thought she was both milking the generosity of the hospital, and that she needed to reconnect to her family for the support she would need for the baby.  Helping her with a taxi voucher felt like it would do more harm than good. 

She wasn’t too happy with me, but I wasn’t afraid of using tough love.  However she was quite clever.  She knew my shift would end in several hours and a new chaplain would come on duty.  Indeed the next chaplain gave her a taxi voucher, and at our next staff meeting I was reprimanded for being hard-hearted.  Maybe I was wrong, but I still maintain that she had a supportive family system and was only turning away from her family out of pride, and that swallowing that pride was the long term healthiest thing for her.

Would that we had the insight of our all-knowing Lord.  But we don’t.  We muddle through sometimes getting it right and sometimes getting it wrong.

Notice the man’s reply to Jesus, “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.”  And did you also notice that there is no verse 4 in our gospel?  It’s been left out.  It’s been dropped because the most ancient and reliable copies of John we have don’t include it.  But it does help to explain the whole situation.  Verse 4 continues verse 3, “In these [porticos] lay many invalids – blind, lame, and paralyzed waiting for the stirring of the water; for 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 wade made well from whatever disease that person had.”

We would think this is medical nonsense, but it does explain why the man was there and it explains his answer.  He’s tried to get into the pool, but he apparently doesn’t have anyone to help him get there and he’s not fast enough to get there first.

Whether we agree with the idea of an angel coming and stirring a pool in the temple complex and people getting healed by it or not, this text does point out one certain truth.  Receiving a miracle - being restored to fullness of life – immediately leads to complications.  You’d think the religious leaders who saw this man would rejoice at his health!  You’d think they’d want to hear his story and track down the man who did it – Jesus.  You’d think they’d rejoice in the mercy and power of God that Jesus embodies.  But what do they focus on?  They say, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”  The sarcastic side of me thinks, “What, should he have left it behind?  Then you would have fined him for littering!” 

Notice the religious leaders completely miss the miracle that has just happened.  They are so offended by a petty offense of Sabbath observance that they can’t see anything else.  They cannot believe that God would work outside the boundaries they believe God has.  They need to read their own scriptures!  Forget what the New Testament teaches, it’s all in the Old Testament too.  God gave rules and regulations to promote health, create safety, and create good order.  Never ever does God say I want you to follow the rules for their own sake.

But accepting the grace of God would upend the world of the religious leaders.  And so, they don’t receive it.  There is a contrast between a man literally sick and crippled who is healed and restored to a joyous productive life.  I think this guy rejoiced at the idea of going out and working in the hot sun all day every day because it meant productive work for him.  He wasn’t lazy, or manipulative or scheming. 

Now look at the religious leaders.  They’re crippled by their own rules and regulations.  They can’t see God’s grace outside of their own view.  Jesus has come and he will free them too – free them for much greater productivity.  But they won’t take it.  It is they who choose to stay sick.

May your eyes be open to the ever new possibilities and things God is doing.  May you have the strength to accept healing and forgiveness even when it might complicate your life like it did the man Jesus healed.  But like him, may you know the joy of wholeness that Jesus provides to all who accept his touch.