When God Breaks the Rules

    John 5:8-15

    A stranger changes a man’s life with a simple question.

    “Do you want to get well?”… 

    And then, “Pick up your mat and walk.”

    There was no, “I am Jesus…”
    There was no, “If you believe…” 
    There was no, “Repent!…”
    There was no, “You are forgiven…”

    There was only the question, “Do you want to get well?”

    Suddenly the man is walking. 

    The Scripture does not say if he was born this way or if this was the result of a tragic event.

    What we do know is that for the first time in thirty-eight years he is walking.


    It was the Sabbath - a wonderful day to enter a new phase of life. 
   For the first time in decades his feet feel the ground, for the first time he can freely move from one place to another…He is healed!

    Suddenly he is stopped. “It is the Sabbath!” He is told. “The law forbids you to carry your mat.”

    We can only imagine his look of bewilderment.

    How do you answer that in the middle of a miracle? 
    All he could think to say  was, “...The man who made me well said to me, “Pick up your mat and walk.” 


   How could they tell him that he was breaking the law, when he has just been healed, walking and feeling fully alive-for the first time in decades.

    Without breaking the “law,” he would still be lying by the pool.

    When we put conditions on the work of God’s kingdom, we remain invalids, bound in our condition for a long time. 


    Later Jesus found him at the temple, an appropriate place for thanksgiving and praise. 

    Jesus speaks to him, “See, you are well! again.” 
    Then the warning, “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” John 5:14 

    Jesus’ declaration is crucially important, then and now. 

    If you fall into sin again, something worse than being an invalid may over-take you. Fulness of life ceases again.

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    When, where or how He chooses to heal you is up to Him. Walking out the healing is up to you.

    “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7

    Falling into sin is always an open door to bondage and death. 

    Jesus is always the fountain of freedom and life.

    Choose life.

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​“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.“  Matthew 11:28-30

We must come to Him if we are weary, tired, exhausted from toil or effort, burdened with the things we cannot seem to get on top of.
When we come, He will give us a place to recover, to collect our strength and be refreshed.
He will bring us into a place where we can quiet our spirit, restore our soul and body.
But we must come, we must choose to walk away from our labors and burdens and seek him out.
In the place of rest we get a perspective that allows us to see more clearly, do discern the things that are significant and those that aren't.
We have a tendency to take on burdens that have no kingdom value, those things that tire us and wear us down with worry.

He is not telling us that we will not labor, but that the labor will not be difficult.
We are told to take up his yoke and watch and learn from him and in so doing we learn to live from a place humility and quietness of heart.
When we do, we will come to rest.
The yoke, the submission to his guidance in the work of the kingdom is easy, since he labors with us.

We are not alone, He is with us to lighten the load, a time of putting our shoulders together to move the kingdom into the world.
The joy of working together with a close friend who is taking the lead and the weight of the work. It is a time of close fellowship.
His yoke is easy, it does not grind us down and the burden (there will be a burden) is light. He knows our strength and our endurance and will not impose more than we can handle.
Once we learn to share His yoke, we can then do it for others.

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”  Galatians 6:2