Many years ago one of our professors at Columbia Bible College gave us a very simple way to organize our thoughts in the study of the Gospel of John:
1. Who is Jesus in this chapter?
2. What is genuine faith in this chapter?
3. What is life in this chapter?
4. What difference does this really make in my life right now? This professor always fought against unapplied orthodoxy- truth in your head but very little of it in your heart or behavior.
John 5 has two contrasting types of people:
1. People like the paralytic man who had been laying by a miraculous pond of water, but could never get to it quick enough to get healed. It's like always coming up with the wrong answer at test time. Talk about frustration and hopelessness! Then Jesus asks him what seems like the most obvious question, but it is a very pointed one. "Do you really want to get well?" Or have you just completely given up? The paralytic goes right to the point: I, in and of myself, can't get there in time. I need help! I need someone who is totally healthy to get me there!" Jesus says to him, "I'm your man. Forget the pool. Get up and walk." And instantly the guy gets up, rolls up his sleeping mat and starts walking (total faith in a man who was willing to help him)...and walked right into the clique of religious big-shots. Oops!
2. This is the other the type of person: "Hey, you can't do that! You're breaking the rules! We don't allow things like that to happen around here!" The rest of the chapter then points out what is really going on in this group of professional, religious know-it-alls:
a. They refuse to honor the Son of God and thus refuse to honor the Father who sent Him. They are committed to honoring themselves. They will decide on what miracles take place here, or don't. 5:23 How much do I seek to get honor, validation, and be the center of attention myself? Who's really getting the glory in my marriage? In my ministry?
b. They will not listen to Jesus and thus remain spiritually dull and dead. 5:25 How much do I really listen attentively to Jesus and hear His incredible affrmation, "You are My beloved son (or daughter) in whom I delight." This is what makes the heart spring to life. You can really walk through anything with that song in your heart. Otherwise you have to do everything on your own initiative.
c. They did not have the Word of God deep in their hearts. 5:38 It was only in their heads. They were rational pragmatists. It is so easy to fall into this trap, especially after a seminary education.
d. But look at this! They searched the Scriptures because they thought they could find a formula that would make their lives work----> on their own terms. That way they wouldn't feel their utter, helpless dependence on Christ like the guy right near the pool. These religious experts were "bibliolitors." Me? Been there. Done that. So often I think I know (and I can even quote you a verse to prove it) and the reality is that I really don't. But it is so hard to admit I don't .
e. They refused to come to Jesus, the Fountain of Life. 5:40, Jeremiah 2:13 They were stubborn. How many times a day or in different circumstances am I just like this? Resistant to the Holy Spirit, stubborn with God, with my wife (just ask her about last week), with a brother who is trying to tell me something about how I am failing to love God or others.
f. Here's the core of the unbelief problem- 5:42. They did not have God's love at the core of their being. This is the core of every decision to be selfish, proud, arrogant, stubborn, fearful, people pleasing, independent, etc. Here's where I most deeply need to be changed. There are always places in my heart yet untouched by the Gospel and the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, we really need to "guard our hearts, our deep desires, our feelings, our thoughts and our decisions because they affect everything we do." Proverbs 4:23. If we aren't diligent here, we automatically default into being just like those religious professionals.
Lord, I don't want to end up like that! If you need to put me flat on my back, unable to move for a few years, I choose that rather than become a proud, stubborn Pharisee."
Paul
At seasons in my life I have been into the short plays of Thornton Wilder: The Angel that Troubled the Waters (1928). Now, I can never read John 5 without the following line from the play coming to mind: IN LOVE'S SERVICE ONLY WOUNDED SOLDERS CAN SERVE. I found this because I heard Brennan Manning speak in a memorial video about the life of singer / song writer / disciple / discipler Rich Mullins. In recalling the impact of Rich's life he mentioned this short play of Thornton Wilder (Our Town, Pulitzer Prize for Drama 1938). I bought the book of short plays which seems to me to be "seeds for longer plays that didn't really grow to maturity". Here is an excerpt from my transcription of Manning's memorial:
ReplyDelete---------------
There is a scene in Thornton Wilder’s play, “The Angel that Troubled the Waters.” The scene is ... a doctor comes to the pool every day to be healed of his melancholy and gloom and his sadness.
Finally the angel appears and the medical doctor goes to step into the water and the angel blocks his entrance and says, “No! Step back; the healing is not for you.”
The doctor pleads, “But I’ve got to get in the water. I can’t live this way.”
The angel says, “No. This moment is not for you.”
He says, “How can I live this way?”
The angel says to him, “Doctor, without your wounds, where would your power be? It is your melancholy that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men and women. The angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundery children of this earth, as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In love’s service only wounded soldiers can serve.”
And to me the theme of that story is the theme of Rich Mullins’ life. All grace, all light, all truth, all power, all inspiration are communicated through the vulnerability, the brokenness, the utter honesty of men and women who have been shipwrecked, heart-broken, “broken on the wheels of living.”
“In love’s service only wounded soldiers can serve.”
-----------------
To me the power of any man's life lay in the power of his brokenness. The power of his unblinking honesty and his deeply moving sincerity.