What have amazed and offended got to do with faith and love?

Now we get to be amazed and/or offended all over again. Is expecting an angel to "stir the waters" and heal you Biblical, pagan, heretical, traditional, just a thought, just a story...? Or maybe just an event in the world's most amazing life... Last week we left off just as Jesus was reaching Jerusalem after (maybe) a year of ministry in Galilee.

(36) Faith and Love

Tradition has Jesus making three visits to Jerusalem in his three-year-ministry, with this as the second one. Read John 2:13, 5:1 This visit is imagined to take place:

1.       At Pentecost just a few weeks after the first (Passover) visit.

2.       At the Feast of Tabernacles, in the fall after the first visit.

3.       At Pentecost the following year… Which timing makes more sense to you? And does it matter?

Read John 5:2-7. Remains of a pool have been found, which may or may not be the pool in question. But the pool is mentioned in the Dead Sea scrolls, which adds credence to the story.

1.       How do you imagine the scene?

2.       Does the belief (“when the pool is stirred”) sound “pagan”? The idea agrees with pagan healing rituals and healing temples, and doesn’t agree with any prior rituals in the Bible.

3.       Could the pool be a local variation on a pagan culture, imported by Greek Jews perhaps? Would that make it a blend of local/pagan/Jewish… a custom rather than a faith thing? Do we ever mix pagan/local ideas with our faith? Is that always a bad thing?

4.       Would you expect Jesus to condemn it?

Read John 5:6-9

1.       Does Jesus condemn the pagan custom?

2.       Does Jesus follow the Jewish custom? (Work on the Sabbath was not allowed.)

3.       How do we balance faith and love?

Read John 5:10-11

1.       Do you think Jesus asked the man to keep quiet this time? Do you think it matters?

2.       Does this tell us anything about when we should speak or keep quiet? (“When necessary use words,” might be a misquote from Francis of Assisi – “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching,” and “to convert the world… rather by example than by word.”)

Read John 5:12-15

1.       Do we know anything about the man’s sin? Did the man even know he was a sinner?

2.       Does sin make you ill? Did it make him ill?

3.       What is a “worse thing”? (Be honest, what came first to mind?) And what “worse things” do we try to avoid?

Then Jesus makes things worse! Read John 5:15-18.

1.       How should they have known Jesus wasn’t just like other “false Messiahs”?

2.       If they failed to recognize the true “first coming”, how should we recognize false “second comings”?

Read John 5:19-23

1.       Verse 19 What does the Father do? Then? Now? (What do we “see” the Father do?)

2.       Verse 20 If Jesus were not the Son, could/would God stop him? Could/does God stop modern false prophets?

3.       Verse 21 Has Jesus raised anyone from the dead at this point? Have any false Messiahs?

4.       Verse 22 Who would you rather be judged by? (And does this explain Jesus forgiving sins?)

5.       Verse 23 Does this mean non-believers and blasphemers go to hell? Who is judging them? And why do we judge?