Tuesday of the Fourth Week
In this reading, Jesus has gone to Jerusalem for a festival. Entering through the Sheep Gate, Jesus comes to the pool named Bethesda where ill, crippled, blind and lame people gathered to be cured. Jesus encounters an ill man who had been there for years. Jesus asks him, "Do you want to be well?" The man explains how he cannot get to the water in time to be cured. Jesus says, "Rise, take up your mat and walk." As it was Sabbath the man was stopped for carrying his mat, and when explaining his cure, he was asked who had cured him on the Sabbath. Learning that Jesus had cured him, the Jews began to persecute him even more, especially after Jesus said, "My father is at work until now, so I am at work."
The message seems to be that Jesus is with us to do God's work and that work is to heal us of our ills. This loving work will cost Him His life but that, along with His resurrection and ascension is only the perfect offering for our human salvation.
Prayer
Help us to feel the love given us from every moment of our being, to Jesus' perfect offering of love. Help us to love one another as the Father and Son have loved us.
Stephanie Noakes, ’80, M’09, P’05, Member of the Worshipping Community
Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9
Gospel: John 5:1-16
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