0313 SATURDAY SWIM MEET!

SATURDAY SWIM MEET

Sabbath in Jerusalem! It’s a first for most of us,  and We’re visiting a synagogue that Judas knows about, and here we are in the center of the universe to experience it.  

And Jesus didn’t give a sermon, nor do any miracles there that day, which, to be honest, was a great relief to most of us. Seemed like every Sabbath Jesus had a way of stirring up something, and we were glad to not be the center of attention for a spell.  

For a Man that never sinned, Jesus sure does seem to be soft on sinners. He seems to break the Sabbath every week, as if He was just looking to draw a rise out of the Phar’sees. The surprise line of every healing seems to be, “And it took place on the Sabbath.” Man. There are six days for riling up folks. Why not give it a rest one day a week?

Anyway, we get done at the synagogue and come back to John Mark’s momma’s house for some after-church eating. One of us asks Jesus, “So what’s on the agenda for the rest of the day?”  

It’s a Sabbath, right? So we ain’t allowed to do much. But we’re in the Holy City. So long as we don’t wander more than about half a mile or so, we hope to do a bit more sanctified sightseeing, at least. Jesus doesn’t disappoint us. In fact, He surprises all of us by what He says: 

“I’m thinking we should all go to the pool.” 

Well, I mean to tell, He didn’t have to say the “P” word twice. Everybody runs off to get ready, a whooping and a hollering like little boys. 

We go about ten blocks over and take a left into the pool area, just a bit in from the Sheep Gate on the east side of town. Jesus and His posse of twelve clowns, chattering, shoving, and joking, come through the gateway and into the pool area. 

At first glance it looks like everybody here is sunbathing around the edge of the pool. But then you notice right quick that everybody here’s old or crippled or sick.  

Jesus zeroes in on one particular man and walks over to him. He stoops down and says, “Do ya want to get well?”

The man starts blubbering excuses right off: “I’ve been a paraplegic all these long thirty-eight years, and I have no one to help me.” (It’s his well-rehearsed beggar’s speech, I can tell. You hear them all the time.) 

Jesus gets him back to the subject: “Do you want to get well?” 

“I would be well, except that I am so alone in this world. No one will help me when the angel stirs the water, and so I have never been able to be first into the water.” 

Jesus speaks again: “Look: if you want to be well, then act on it. Take up that pallet of yours and go home.” 

“But I . . .” 

“That’s true. You never have before. But today’s the day.”

“You won’t fail. Just do it.” 

“What will I do for a living from now on?” 

“This will be a whole new start for you, buddy. You can stop being a victim and start learning responsibility. You can stop using your problems as your excuse to keep sinning. I know God’s been whispering to you that this is your time. Just get up. Pick up your mat and go home.” 

Well, can you believe it? That man, he up and done it. Stood right up. Bent over and picked up his mat and walked right out of there. Everyone staring in silence. 

Well, then, Jesus don’t hang around the pool. He straightens up, smiles at the man, walks over to the twelve of us, and says, “Let’s go on back home, boys.” Another man calls out as we’re leaving: “Hey! How about me?” And then some others echo the call. But this was the day for only that one man. That’s how it works sometimes. 

We leave the Pool of Bethesda in awed silence, 13 dry men, heading back home, having somehow had more fun than our boyhood swims ever gave us. 

What was that we just saw? It wasn’t some easy, name-it-and-claim-it, mail order miracle. It wasn’t some man being good enough or doing enough good to somehow earn a new lease on life. It wasn’t some hocus-pocus public show to gain prestige or favor or money or a photo opp. But all of us were thinking, whatever it was I just saw, I want that. 

Some call it faith. 

Oh, yeah. And it was on the Sabbath.