Take Up Your Mat

December 29, 2024  Micah Walker

“Sometime later, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there in Jerusalem by the sheep gate was a pool, which was called in Aramaic, Bethesda, having 5 porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the movement of the water. For an Angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man there who had been paralyzed for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there, he knew that he had already been in that condition for a long time, he said to him,” do you want to get well?” The sick man answered him,” Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; But while I am coming, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, “rise up, take up your mat and walk." And immediately the man was made well, took up his mat, then walked, and that day was the Sabbath.                               John 5:1-9 

Jesus is obedient to the Father. 

John 5: 19, “truly, truly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing. For whatever the father does, that the son does likewise.” 

Jesus is humble, not forceful. 

“do you want to get well?” verses 5-7 

We can make excuses. 

The man says, “Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred, while I am trying to get in someone else goes down before me.” 

We need to start doing something different. 

“Do you want to get well?”