John 5:8 – Get Up!

“Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat! And walk.”    John 5:8

Jesus wasn’t giving this clear command to just anyone, he was commanding a paralyzed man to do the impossible. When commanded by Jesus, the man easily could have responded, “Get up? Jesus you must not understand. I have been an invalid for thirty-eight years. I want to get up, but I can’t.” “Pick up my mat? But Jesus, don’t you know it is illegal for me to carry my mat on the Sabbath? I can’t pick up my mat. What would the officials say? What would people think?” “Walk? Jesus you surely cannot see, I am paralyzed. I can’t walk.” What a tragic story it would have been if this paralyzed man hung on to what the world expected of him rather than his faith in Jesus and his obedience to His Word.

A similarly tragic story is when a Christian responds to Jesus with doubting His authority, or with pride in their own knowledge. We say, “Rejoice? Jesus you must not understand. I have been abused, mistreated, and neglected my whole life. I want to rejoice but I can’t.” We say, “Go to church and publicly live out my faith? But Jesus, don’t you know it’s not popular to be a Christian right now? What would the people think of me? What would people say?” We say, “Sacrifice? Jesus you surely cannot see that my schedule and resources are all spoken for. I can’t sacrifice.” Now, we may not say these things with our words, but what do our actions say? Instead of rationalizing or trying to make sense of God’s commands through our own context, we would do well to simply do what Jesus says to do.

The world says that believing in Jesus is, “pie in the sky,” nonsense for people who won’t acknowledge their own mortality. The world says that they can respect our faith if we keep it to ourselves, modify our beliefs to accommodate cultural norms, and acknowledge that all other faiths have a comparable validity to our own. Even we, as Christians, can deny Jesus His throne by choosing to live as if the God of the universe has not directed us how to live. Even we, as Christians, can deny Jesus His authority by disregarding the power of prayer, scoffing at the miraculous, explaining away the work of the Holy Spirit, treating Jesus as a distant observer rather than an active and personal God, ignoring the presence of evil and spiritual warfare, and treating Jesus as a genie in a bottle who is there to do our bidding. Again, we would do well to simply do what Jesus says and trust that His Word is true, alive, and active as it always has been.

When Jesus tells us to, “Get up! Pick up your mat! And walk,” We should simply do what He says and know that there is power in His Word to accomplish the seemingly impossible. When the all-powerful God of the universe says, “Get up!” does it really matter what anyone else thinks or says?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank you for taking on flesh to save us. Help us to live boldly in humble obedience to you regardless of what anyone else thinks, and help us to trust Your power and authority to accomplish Your will.