Religion & Spirituality:Christianity
John 5:1-15 (NIV)
Read by: Derekah Kingery
Healing shrines were common in the ancient world. Someone in need of healing would show up, purify themselves in the adjoining fountain or source of water and then go make their supplications for healing at the shrine.
Up to this point in John’s Gospel, whenever Jesus and water show up together in the same story, you find these eternal upgrades. Think back. Chapter1: Being baptized with water upgrades to being baptized with spirit. Chapter 2: Jars full of water are now full of wine. Chapter 3: Being born of a woman becomes born again by water and spirit, and chapter 4: Water from a well is surpassed by living water. And now we come to Jesus meeting a man at the edge of the healing pool...
----------REFLECT----------
1. This man had been sick for so long, it would probably have been hard to imagine restoration. Is there anything in your life that’s been hurt or broken for so long that it’s hard to imagine being whole?
2. The Jewish leaders overlook this man’s obvious restoration as they worry about his breaking Sabbath regulations. Jesus sees beyond this man's immediate restoration and exhorts him to yet a deeper restoration by saying, “do not sin any more…” He cares about both. Take a moment to identify the additional deeper, perhaps less obvious ways you need restoration.
3. Jesus is more effective than the pool at healing, and hints at being more effective than the temple at dealing with sin. As the third sign in John, what does this story teach us about what it looks like when heaven & earth come together?
----------CONNECT----------
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