Jesus rules

Pamela Kennedy May 26, 2025 0 0

Playlists

Add to Favourites

Save for later

Listen to this daily worship

John 5:10-18 (NIVUK)

10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, ‘It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.’

11 But he replied, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Pick up your mat and walk.”’

12 So they asked him, ‘Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?’

13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.’ 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defence Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.’ 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

“No hot drinks in the meeting room” the sign declared.

Some marched straight in, brandishing cup, defiant. Some shrunk back. Some froze, paralysed with indecision, before following a friend.

I wonder what you’d have done. I’m a bit of a rule-follower, so I hung back. But I also enjoy a social experiment, so I chatted with people about how they’d responded, and why.  

The Pharisees adhered to the rules like Gorilla Glue. More restricted than this man had been only moments earlier in his paralysis. And they were so stuck that they couldn’t see the bigger picture. A miracle was not in the rulebook. I can’t help but wonder how much we might miss by focusing in on the small print.

Back at the meeting room, it seemed there was nothing new under the sun. It struck me that the most liberated were those who hadn’t even noticed the sign to begin with: no rule to follow or against which to rail. 

Jesus is here to do His Father’s work: to usher in the Kingdom. So set aside the rulebook. Take a step back and gaze in awe. The old is gone; the new is here.

Prayer:

Lord,
Sometimes we can’t see You for looking at You. In the midst of miraculous, all seems mundane. We long to see as You see. Holy Spirit, give us a God’s-eye view of Your work in the world. Father, forgive our short-sightedness and self-imposed restrictions that keep us from partnering with all that You are doing. Lord Jesus, expand our faith that we would recognise You here. Amen