Today’s devotional includes a practice known as Visio Divina, or ‘divine seeing,’ in which we prayerfully invite God to speak to us as we gaze at an image. This can be a work of art, a photograph, or something in nature. The desire is to encounter God’s presence in what we see and to respond. It is often practiced alongside Lectio Divina, or ‘divine reading,’ inviting us to contemplate the text also through the eyes of the artist, whether on our own or with others.
The Piscina Probatica or Pool of Bethesda by James Tissot (1886–1894).
As you begin, pause, take a deep breath, and ponder the painter’s portrayal. Invite the Spirit’s leading and focus your attention on the text.
After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many ill, blind, lame, and paralyzed people. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The ill man answered him, “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.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God. (John 5:1–18 NRSV)
What words or phrases stand out to you? What is the Spirit highlighting? Why do you think they are catching your attention?
Imagine being this ill man, probably in his forties, likely left there by his mother when she could no longer carry him at about five years old and disowned by his father at birth on account of his disability.
Imagine being abandoned there for 38 YEARS(!), along with the others, begging, waiting, hoping, or perhaps no longer hoping, that he would ever make it into the pool when its healing waters were stirred. After all, he can’t walk.
But now, he and the others are hearing stories of a healer, Jesus of Nazareth. Dare he hope?
Dare we hope when our lives, our churches, the world seems to be in such need of healing?
Jesus saw him.
Ponder what it might mean that Jesus sees you. And your neighbour. Even those who others don’t notice, who get passed by, who you don’t like.
Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been there a long time.
Jesus knows we have been “here” for a long time, too.
He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” That’s the kicker: do we want to be made well? Really?
For many of us, church as we know it has been our life for 38 years (more or less). Even though it may be crippled, it’s familiar, and we’re comfortable “by the pool” – it’s what we’ve always known.
What would it be like to be made well? The man would not have known. Where would he live? What would he do? What would his life be like?
What might ours be like – Personally? As churches? – if Jesus were to heal and send us from the pool side?
Are we willing to step into the great unknown?
Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”
And the “invalid” did, just like that! He trusted Jesus, left everything behind, and was made new!
BUT the religious leaders did not want to be made well. It seems they were unwilling to let go of the way things were, of their doctrines and agendas. They could not, or would not, see God at work right in front of them.
Will we? Our answer could be life changing, church changing, world changing.
Do we want to be made well?
If so, what might we need to leave behind?
How will we pick up our mats and walk?
How will our attitudes, words, and deeds affirm that “the Father is still working, and [Jesus] is also working” (v. 17)?
Pray the passage, for example:
- “Thank you, Lord, that You see and know us.”
- “Thank you that you are healer and that you and the Father are at work!”
- “May those by the pool know you see them.”
- “Heal (insert individuals, neighbourhoods, cities, nations, etc.).”
- “May those caught in religious systems, leaders/pastors, boards, denominations discover you at work ‘outside of Sabbath rules.’”
- “May I have eyes to see those by the pool – on the margins, ‘disabled’, etc.” How will you get to know them? Consider committing to three conversations with neighbours who are not like you this week.
- Pray for eyes to see God at work outside “Sabbath rules,” amongst those whom you might have passed by – how will you join in? Consider participating in a neighbourhood activity or hanging out at a local establishment and paying attention to signs of God’s Kingdom (e.g., beauty, joy, generosity, kindness, etc.).
Dr. Karen Wilk is on the NAB Missional Initiatives Team and lives in Edmonton, Alberta.
