Wait, that's not how it works?

by Paul Ice 

           But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’”

(John 5:11 ESV)

And this is just the beginning of the confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees.  This passage show us 2 of the conflicts that the Pharisees would have with Jesus. 

1. Breaking their religious traditions.
2. Equating himself with God.

But when we think about the man that was healed, I love his response to the Pharisees questioning to why he was carrying his bed on the Sabbath.  My translation. . . “Um, I’ve been and invalid for 38 years, and you want to know what? A guy just spoke and healed me and I did what he said.” 

Who would you listen to?

1. The men who make up religious rules and say you have this condition because you or someone in your family sinned, or . . .
2. The person who spoke and took away you infirmity.

And to sum it all up, instead of being in awe of Jesus, we read:

            And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

(John 5:16 ESV)

We love our traditions don’t we.  I often think we are not that different than the culture Jesus came into.  Don’t mess with our religious activity.  Jesus is allowed to work, but only if it fits into the structure we set up.  God surely won’t work in other ways right? Hmmm…