Third Sign

With the third sign, things begin to change. Jesus finds a man, lying next to a pool with reputed healing properties. Jesus asks the man if he wants to be healed. The man says yes, but when the conditions in the pool are right for healing, he is unable to get in.

So, Jesus tells the man, that he will be healed, if he gets up, grabs the mat he is laying on, and goes home. The man believes Jesus, and does just that. And he is healed.

But there is one small problem. It is the Sabbath.

One of God’s commands is to remember the Sabbath, by separating it from the other days by not working. The Pharisees were big on following the Law as strictly, as completely, and as closely, as possible. So, for this Law, they spent a lot of time defining what work was. Was cooking to feed yourself work? Was feeding your animals work? How far could a person walk before it became work?

And carrying a mat on the Sabbath was work. And they had words with the man. And he told them that Jesus (the man who healed him) told him to carry the mat. So, now they wanted to have words with Jesus. And Jesus gave them a fairly extensive response.

He affirms his Sonship. That is, he affirms his relationship, connection, and fellowship, with the Father. Because of the living reality of the relationship, and their heart agreement, Jesus and the Father ac t together. Jesus acts in agreement with what the Father wants, and what the Father initiates.

All of God’s children have the same type of relationship with the Father. But Jesus has a unique relationship.

First, God has appointed Jesus as judge. God the Father is creator of all, and judge of all. Absolute authority is in his hands. And he has given that authority to judge to Jesus. Because Jesus lives in perfect agreement with the Father, his judgement is as just, and fair, as the Father’s.

Second, the Father has granted Jesus the power of salvation. If we accept the message God gives through Jesus, and trust God, we will never be condemned ,,, even though we deserve to be. Jesus has authority to give life to the dead.

Jesus announces his mission: to restore mankind by bringing people into God’s family, by creating new life in them – life that agrees with the Father and the Son – and by producing lifestyles that agree with that new life.

This was God’s plan from the beginning. But mankind chose, and continues to choose, to move away from the life that God designed. Even those in God’s family.

I sincerely believe that God’s children want to, and intend to, honor God. But often they mix human wisdom with God’s wisdom. The mix a human solution with God’s solution. The result is a caricature of Jesus, instead of a true picture of Jesus. It is this caricature that blurs God’s image, and hinders his purposes in  the world today. And returning to a true expression of God’s heart is not easy. We all hold fast to our particular understanding of what God wants, what is best, and what is the priority.

The Father continues to restore a correct perspective, a correct understanding, so that our lifestyles can represent him more truly. In part, this is what revivals are about. God’s family regains a quantum leap of restoration: in understanding God’s nature, in understanding God’s purpose, in understanding the role of God’s family, and motivation and passion to fulfill that role.