Get Up And Do Something

GET UP AND DO SOMETHING

John 5:1-9 is the story of the lame man who had lain by the Pool of Bethesda for 38 years, waiting to be the first one into the pool when the angel of the Lord would stir the pool.  Jesus saw him lying there and asked him, “Do you want to get well?”  It’s interesting that Jesus asked this question.  We can read other things into this question. “If you really want to get well, why are you still lying here?  Why haven’t you tried other means?  Is this really your only hope? Do you enjoy lying here?”

When Jesus asked him this question he immediately began making excuses.  “I have no one to help me into the pool.”  “Someone else gets there ahead of me.”  Jesus hadn’t asked him any of those things.  He just said, “Do you want to get well?”  Maybe Jesus wanted him to take a look at himself and decide whether he enjoyed lying there day after day, or if he really wanted a change.  Jesus ignored all his excuses and ordered him to “Get up!  Pick up your bed and walk.”  The exclamation point is after “Get up!” in the Bible, showing that Jesus said it very emphatically.  It was an order.  He didn’t say it gently or softly.

This was a total miracle.  After lying on a bed for 38 years he wouldn’t have any muscle tone in his legs.  I don’t know what knowledge there was about physical therapy in those days, but without it, his muscles would have been atrophied without any strength at all.  Yet he jumped up off his mat, and walked.

If this man hadn’t obeyed this order, he would have lain there until he died.  Jesus spoke the word to him, but he had to do it.

There are things Scripture tells us to do.  But as the book of James says, it’s not enough to hear the word or to know it, we have to do it.  We have to give God something to work with.

Unless we pray, prayers can’t be answered.

Unless we give, it won’t be given back to us.

Unless we serve, we won’t receive a servant’s reward.

Unless we open our mouths to share the gospel, people won’t hear.

Unless we present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice, we won’t be transformed.

The list can go on and on.

Pastor Ben has a saying “Work as if everything depends on you; pray as if everything depends on God.”  I think sometimes we forget the “work” part.  Let’s “Get Up!”

Naomi Brinkman