A Morning Cup of Tea: Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

Good morning! Have you ever tried to type while an insistent cat rests in your arms? It's challenging at times, but it can be done. Max isn't always a people person -he prefers being outside most of the time- but now and then the mood strikes him and he is determined to be held. He's like a yo yo. I put him down and he comes right back, usually with a disdainful look. 
  We aren't here to discuss my cats though, are we? Today we begin chapter 5 of John. Verses 1 to 18 are what we will look at. I want to read the rest of the chapter a time or two more before I write about it tomorrow. 
  There was another feast time for the Jews, and Jesus was in Jerusalem again.  In those days there was a sheep market, and by that was a pool called Bethesda. At a certain time an angel would be sent down to the pool and he would trouble the water. The first person--lame, ill, blind, or other infirmity--to step into the troubled water would be made whole. There was a man at the pool who had been infirm for 38 years. He could not walk on his own because when Jesus asked him if he would like to be cured, answered that he had no one to help him into the water and always someone else would enter the water first. 
  Jesus told him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. He immediately got up and walked. When asked at first who had cured him, the man did not know, for Jesus had cured him, then slipped off into the crowd.  Later in the temple, Jesus saw the man again. He told the man, you are made whole. Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee.  He wasn't threatening the man but simply telling him that sin equals death.
  The man told his fellow Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him, and of course they were angry because it was the Sabbath, and no work, even healing someone was supposed to be done on the Sabbath. Jesus answered, My Father works today, and I work now.
  This made them angrier and they wanted to kill Jesus because he made himself equal with God by calling him his Father. 
  Humans tend to want to destroy that which they do not understand. They were more interested in keeping to laws than actually doing God's will. Jesus had a lot to say to them, and we will get to that tomorrow. Until then, have a great day. 

Good morning! Have you ever tried to type while an insistent cat rests in your arms? It's challenging at times, but it can be done. Max isn't always a people person -he prefers being outside most of the time- but now and then the mood strikes him and he is determined to be held. He's like a yo yo. I put him down and he comes right back, usually with a disdainful look. 
  We aren't here to discuss my cats though, are we? Today we begin chapter 5 of John. Verses 1 to 18 are what we will look at. I want to read the rest of the chapter a time or two more before I write about it tomorrow. 
  There was another feast time for the Jews, and Jesus was in Jerusalem again.  In those days there was a sheep market, and by that was a pool called Bethesda. At a certain time an angel would be sent down to the pool and he would trouble the water. The first person--lame, ill, blind, or other infirmity--to step into the troubled water would be made whole. There was a man at the pool who had been infirm for 38 years. He could not walk on his own because when Jesus asked him if he would like to be cured, answered that he had no one to help him into the water and always someone else would enter the water first. 
  Jesus told him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. He immediately got up and walked. When asked at first who had cured him, the man did not know, for Jesus had cured him, then slipped off into the crowd.  Later in the temple, Jesus saw the man again. He told the man, you are made whole. Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee.  He wasn't threatening the man but simply telling him that sin equals death.
  The man told his fellow Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him, and of course they were angry because it was the Sabbath, and no work, even healing someone was supposed to be done on the Sabbath. Jesus answered, My Father works today, and I work now.
  This made them angrier and they wanted to kill Jesus because he made himself equal with God by calling him his Father. 
  Humans tend to want to destroy that which they do not understand. They were more interested in keeping to laws than actually doing God's will. Jesus had a lot to say to them, and we will get to that tomorrow. Until then, have a great day.