John 5:8

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ValleyofVision

Puritan Board Freshman
" Then Jesus said to him, get up, take up your bed, and walk"

How do you interpret this? What significant meaning does it have in your life?
 
The meaning of the text/phrase is not independent of the context of the preaching of Christ in which the statement was made. "How it is interpreted" is dictated by the context in which it is found.

The significance of Jesus' words to the lives of individual Christians is then bound to the teaching point, the telos (Gk) or goal of the passage wherein they are found.

There are several parties in the passage, any of which with (excepting Jesus; and see below for why) we could find personal resonance. The infirm man, for one. The Jewish authorities for another. And the multitude which watched and listened with more or less curiosity. I think, based on Jesus' further statements following v16, that there is clear thematic connection between Jn.5 and the incident of Jesus healing the paralytic (Mk.2; Mt.9), where he says almost the same words of command. The issue is divine authority, to which Jesus' healing power bears witness. And especially his power to remit sin--and by the corollary principle, to retain it.

Jesus' command to the invalid in Jn.5:8 cannot be separated from what he says to the same man in v14, after a brief interval of time: "Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." By means of that exchange, the man is said to know accurately that it is Jesus who healed him, and he reports this to those he estimates as higher authorities, namely "the Jews."

These then come to confront Jesus, and we have the interchange that closes out Jn.5. Jesus associates his power and authority with that of God himself. He points to faith in him as the key to being raised up, not from an invalid's mat, but from the grave. He judges these who come to confront him and even the man who was healed but did not (in contrast to the man born blind, Jn.9) recognize his supreme authority.

Ultimately Jesus direction to the invalid, Jn.5:8, is a call to everyone to believe and submit to the authority of the Son, the one the Father has sent. If the healing subject--the invalid--has anything to teach us in his person, it is of the dangers of 1) putting primary hope in mechanical processes, whether we identify them supernaturally or naturally, a superstitious and self-or-man reliance; and 2) a kind-of naïve, tentative, conditional, or temporary commitment to the Word of God. In the end, the description the story gives us of him is of a man who relies entirely upon "church-authority" to clarify to him what he should believe and where he should submit. They bullied him, and he caved; but he's not off the hook.

Here's what we shouldn't do with Jesus' words to the invalid: we shouldn't try to figure out "where am I lying down, either sick or lazy?" or identify "what is MY bed?" or assert that "I should walk somewhere in faith, no matter what day it is." Despite the popularity of this sort of biblical appropriation, it is quite superficial and frankly an abuse of the text.

The Gospels in particular are the message about Jesus Christ. Insofar as they include analogs to modern men and women and their current circumstances, their chief import is to describe what it is: either to recognize and submit to the Lord Jesus, or to turn away from him and be lost.

We aren't all one-to-one analogs of "the invalid beside the pool Bethesda." We don't all have circumstances that are remotely close to his; much less do we know to say with any confidence that Jesus would say the very same or even a comparable word to us, had we been there or he was here. Thinking so uncovers a particular hermeneutic at work: one that views (much/all of) the Bible as a patchwork of universal paradigms, situations in which the reader (or hearer of sermons) relates to the subject(s) within the text.

By "inserting himself" into the text, he makes the text ABOUT him. I've even heard speakers tell their audience they should identify WITH Jesus in the passage--not simply as the people around him--and thus they should do, say, think or be as he. A warped perspective. Applied to the case of Jn.5:8, it would direct the Christian to tell the invalids around them to shake off their weakness! Might even hear a prosperity-preacher advising his/her crowd to first identify their weaknesses, and then declare the words of Jesus to themselves. This, after the preacher has him/herself identified him/herself as the Jesus-speaker in the room. So, if you are sick in that room, and you don't get better... I guess you didn't even do as good as the weak-believer in the text?

But Scripture is not about us; rather it is for us. It is about God reconciling the world to himself in Christ. Because we are part of the world, the descriptions of the world in the Bible resonate with us. The humanity of the Bible's message is something to which we can powerfully relate. The universal problem is sin; the universal cure is redemption through Christ.

The "solution" in the text of Jn.5:8 isn't in the faith or the obedience that may or may not be revealed in the words to come. It isn't in the transformation promised to take place in the individual, and which resulted in him walking away. The solution in the text is the Person, besides whom there is no problem that should appear daunting. We should have faith in him that puts him higher than any other authority in heaven or earth.

I hope this is helpful.
 
Thanks, Bruce. Someone in my denomination said we should be careful not to have "existential Bible studies." We should not ask ourselves "what does this mean to me" but rather "what does this mean." Once we understand the meaning, we should ask "how does this apply." We need to be on our guard not to treat scripture as a subjective poem. Thanks again!
 
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