There was a man lying down at a pool in Jerusalem, who was sick for 38 years. He waited with many others; sick, blind, lame, paralyzed. Every once in awhile, an angel would come and stir up the pool and the first one who got in would be healed.
Jesus came and asked him "Do you want to be healed?", telling us this man had a choice. But rather than say "Yes, of course", the man began to blame others for not helping him into the pool first. The only thing Jesus replied was, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." Again, the man was given a choice to obey. And immediately was made well and got up.
Then the Jews saw this man carrying his bed on the Sabbath the holy day of rest, which according to their written Laws it was illegal to carry anything, so they confronted him. Again for the second time the man shifted blame to another and said "He who made me well told me to, "Take up your bed and walk".
Later Jesus met the healed man in the temple, and said to him, "See you've been made well. Sin no more, so a worse thing won't happen to you". But unfortunately for them both, the man's sin of shifting blame had become fully developed and with his new healing he was able to walk over to the Jews to point out Jesus as the one who healed him and caused him to break Jewish Law by carrying his bed on the Sabbath. And the story says the Jews began to persecute Jesus over this incident and wanted to kill him.
It's hard to say which sin is greater, those who value controlling systems above God's mercy of healing or the one betraying his healer to shift blame away from himself. Leaving us to ponder, this story definitely gives us a choice to look at ourselves and either pick up our own beds of responsibilities with gratefulness or lie down in self pity and blame, causing grief and trouble to our Savior and others who help us. Jesus said, “Sin no more, so a worse thing won't happen to you”.
Olga Hermann
Story from John 5
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