Devotional For the Week 23 August 2004

Are you ready for a Miracle?
Reference - John 5:1-18

What Jesus did on a holiday

What do you like to do on a holiday? Take a break, rest and relax or go on a vacation? The word 'holiday' originated from the phrase 'holy day'. Back in the past, people set aside such holy days to participate in religious festivals that honoured the LORD. They stopped their usual work and went to the Temple to celebrate His presence.

In today's passage, we see what Jesus did on a 'holy day'. On a day where Jews came from all over the land to the Temple to worship God, what was God doing? He was right there, walking by the side of the sick and invalid - with those who needed Him the most. Isn't that a wonderful thing to know that while God could prop His feet up and just enjoy this day set aside to commemorate Him, He doesn't! He spends His holiday with the fallen and needy!

What Jesus can give to the hopeless

The place where the invalid went was a place of suffering and disappointment. Yet it was also a place of hope. When we bring to Jesus a situation of hopelessness, He loves to say this: 'Behold, hope!' Jesus did exactly this, as He commanded the man to rise up, pick up his mat and WALK! He healed the hopeless!

Jesus did the healing Himself, for He wants us to recognise that all healing will come from Him. In this age, whereby many Christians pursue miraculous signs and wonders to assure themselves of His presence, perhaps it is a timely reminder that God's intention is always to make Himself the center of our focus. He is the source of the miracle.

What Jesus didn't do

Jesus behaved differently from his fellow Jews who immediately criticized the invalid for carrying his mat, for to them, it constituted working on the Sabbath! They didn't ask how he got well, they didn't even celebrate his healing! They just didn't care about him!

Jesus took time to enquire about the man's condition. The critical Jews took no time to do so, but simply pointed out his faults! They prided themselves on knowing His laws, and claimed no work, even if it served a good purpose, could be done on the Sabbath.

But you see, when God made the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th, who did He set it apart for? Himself! It was set apart FOR God. This perhaps explains why Jesus often healed on the Sabbath. For since it was FOR Him anyway, it was for His work to be done and not secular human work.

Which example will you follow today?

Are you ready for a miracle, my friends? And if you are, I suggest you take Jesus' way. Love people, walk amongst the suffering on His holy days and even the other days as well. Take time to care for them and love them. Bring hope to the hopeless and direction to the lost.

For when we participate in love, we join in what God first began. For God is love.

- Pastor Joel Yong