Special Treatment

This sermon was delivered at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on the 6th Sunday of Easter, May 13, 2007.

Acts 16:9-15
Psalm 67
Revelation 21:10, 21:22-22:5
John 5:1-9

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, or rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Last year, I made a donation to KSMU radio, the National Public Radio station at Missouri State University in Springfield. This isn’t unusual for me. I have enjoyed listening to NPR for over twenty years. I started listening to KCUR (Kansas City University Radio) after graduating from college. I still listen sometimes while in the office or on the road; though I don’t listen as much since KTHS has begun playing our radio spots.[1]

Anyway, when I made the donation to KSMU, I received a couple of premiums, gifts for donating. One of them was a spa day at the Basin Park Hotel in Eureka Springs. I knew that Marie would love that little bonus. She loves that sort of pampering. And who wouldn’t? I have never had a spa day, but she tells me being pampered for a couple of hours is great. Getting a massage, a facial, maybe a steam, I am told you come out of these spa days feeling refreshed. Just the other day one of Marie’s coworkers mentioned that for Mother’s Day one of her kids got her a haircut, manicure and pedicure at a local salon. She said it made her feel special, wonderful, like a movie star.

So her daughter and I have something in common, we figured it would be wonderful to give someone we love same special treatment, make them feel good. After all, who doesn’t like special treatment?

Today’s gospel passage is about receiving special treatment. And it is not as if the recipient is asking any. He’s dropping hints, but he’s not actually asking for it. Yet he receives special treatment, treatment he hasn’t earned and doesn’t deserve.

We begin during one of the Jewish festivals and Jesus is walking by the Sheep Gate by a pool called Beth-zatha. In some translations this pool is called Bethesda. The Sheep Gate separated the North Eastern part of Jerusalem from the Temple Mount. The pools at the Sheep Gate were used to wash the sheep prior to their sacrifice in the Temple. This use of the pools gave the water a halo of sanctity.[2]

Many invalids came to the pools to be healed I wonder the waters curative properties have anything to do with the lanolin from the sheep’s coats left in the waters after they are bathed. Local legend said that when the pool was stirred, its healing power was activated, and the first person in the waters would be made well. Legends from the third century said the ripples in the pool were caused by angels bathing in the waters. Since the pool was surrounded on all sides by the city walls or the surrounding slope of the hills, breezes in the pool would be infrequent, so the invalid waiting game had to be played with great patience.

The name of this spot means “House of Grace.” It is an appropriate name for a place where the sheep would receive their final bath and inspection before being certified free of blemish and suitable for sacrifice. The name of this spot would also be appropriate for a group of invalids who seek the unmerited favor of healing by the restorative, nearly mystical powers of the waters. Is it any wonder that a Presbyterian Church was founded near the sight of a bubbling spring in rural Maryland in 1820 and then one hundred and twenty years later a Naval Medical Center built nearby would both come to be called Bethesda?[3] A place named for the House of Grace would be the place to receive special treatment, both medical and spiritual.

So Jesus arrives at the pool seeing the sick: the blind, lame, and withered. There, Jesus spotted a man he wanted to know more about. He was probably one of the oldest men at the pool. He learned that this man had been lying there for a long time, thirty eight years to be exact. So Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be made well?”

Oh what a wonderful question! “Do you want to be made well?” Imagine how you would answer this question. “Oh my Lord, yes, I do want to be made well!” I can imagine people being asked this question all over the world and just as easily imagine people crying from the roof tops, “Oh my Lord, yes, I do want to be made well!” But you know, this isn’t the answer Jesus gets from the man.

The man tells Jesus, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”

So, is that a yes or a no?

No, I really mean it.

Is this a yes or a no?

It really isn’t an answer at all. It is an explanation. The man explains to Jesus that he is unable to reach the waters. He tries. He really tries to make it on his own, even though there is no one at the pool to help him. But alas, woe is he; he is unable to make it to the waters first.

Anyway, whether it is a yes or a no or an answer to Jesus’ question at all, Jesus tells the man, “Stand up, take your mat, and walk.” At once, he took up his mat and began to walk.

So, what do you think was going through his mind? “Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord?” If it is, scripture doesn’t say so. He is obedient, he does as he is told, but that’s all. After thirty eight years at the pool he doesn’t seem to be a “go-the-extra-mile” kind of guy. Looking at the whole story, we can’t be sure the man even knew he was talking to Jesus. He may have known he was taking to someone named Jesus, but then again that’s like us saying we were talking to Bob. Back in the day, guys named Jesus were a dime a dozen. He may have known he was talking to “a” Jesus, but if he knew he was talking to “the” Jesus, we don’t know it from our reading.

So he doesn’t know it was “the” Jesus of Nazareth. He doesn’t give thanks to him for the healing. There is not even any indication that this sick man believed this Jesus was the Messiah. The man does nothing to deserve the healing; he makes no motion to Jesus at all. Even when he is asked if he wants to be made well; he doesn’t give Jesus a straight answer. Instead he tells Jesus how hard it is for him to get healed.

Yeah, how hard is it? Jesus of Nazareth makes it so and it is done. What the man can’t do in thirty eight years, Jesus accomplishes without a word. He doesn’t even say “You are healed.” No speech, no proclamation about faith, his or anyone else’s. Jesus just tells the guy stand up, take your mat and walk; and it is done.

If grace is the unmerited, undeserved favor of the Lord, this House of Grace is the place and this guy is its recipient. Jesus moves to him, not the other way around. Jesus responds to the man even when the man doesn’t even know to respond to Jesus.

Again, I ask if he is thankful. No, he isn’t.

You know, it seems to me that in thirty eight years he would have been able to hit the pool first once. If he had been at the pool for thirty eight years, surely the gang would have let him in first once so he could be healed. I know it’s a dog eat dog world out there, but at the House of Grace surely one time he would have been able to make it to the waters first.

Logically, if he couldn’t get into the pool, he wouldn’t have been able to get to the pool. Someone had to get him there daily; couldn’t they stay one day to help him get healed?

Let us ask, what if he didn’t want to be healed? After thirty eight years he would have been the pool boy with the most seniority. His thirty eight years at the pool would have accorded him some power or prestige with the poolside crew. While I have no evidence to back this up, this was probably a popular place for the invalids to beg, and as the sorriest most senior of the group, the begging was probably pretty good for him. He may have even been the Michael Corleone of the pool, assigning spots, taking kickbacks on everyone else’s begging.

If he was healed, if he was able to walk, he would have lost a lucrative income and a lot of prestige. He had standing in the community. Admittedly it was an unhealthy status in an unhealthy community, but he had what he had and he was comfortable enough to live in this unhealthy community for thirty eight years. What was in it for him to be cured?

Thankful? As this story continues, the man squeals on Jesus as soon as the Scribes and Pharisees press him on the matter of his Sabbath day stroll with his mat. That’s thanks for you.

This man is unhealthy in more ways than one and has made a life out of it. It may not be a good life, but it was his life. After thirty eight years, it was all he knew. By cultural standards he has lived a long life and is probably the most senior of the sick. It’s not much of a life, but it’s his. Losing all that he knew, losing his place in the poolside community, a community he had status in, would have been frightening.

Maybe it’s not so difficult to see that he might not have been thankful for receiving the healing grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, after all, he had a life, a life he could have no longer, a life that changed dramatically.

We think of grace as a wonderful and glorious gift, which it is. Yet receiving grace can be frightening. We want to be made well, but are we willing to pay the price, the price of losing our old sick identity for a new identity in Christ? Of course we do, but receiving the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ requires making changes. It required the sick man to get up and walk on his own two feet literally and figuratively. He was no longer able to benefit from others carrying him. He would not be able to benefit from his status in the community of the blind, lame, and withered. He was no longer a member of that group. He was now a part of a new community, a community called by Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ. What changes do we make to gratefully receive God’s special treatment of grace, unmerited favor we have neither earned nor deserved? Are we willing to make hard changes?

We receive this wonderful and free gift, but we are required to do something with it. Being a part of the House of Grace requires us to change. Like the man at the pool, being made well requires us to change. Like the man at the pool, we need God’s grace because we can’t make it on our own. We need God’s grace to survive. It requires us to change how we respond to others. Jesus makes us the recipients of special treatment. We receive gifts we do not deserve, treatment we haven’t earned. That’s what grace is, unmerited favor. We have a choice, we can be unthankful like the man at the pool or we can be thankful for the new life we receive in Jesus Christ, sharing it with the world around us, in God’s good creation, a world made on in Jesus Christ.

[1] KTHS is the local 24 Hour Stereo Country station in Berryville, Arkansas. The church has begun putting promotional/devotional spots on the station.
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pool_of_Bethesda, accessed May 12, 2007
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethesda%2C_Maryland and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Naval_Medical_Center accessed on May 12, 2007