Monday's lesson and today's theme is: Next to the tank. Looking at John chapter 5, we have here the healing of a paralytic. After these things were over, there was a festival of the Jews.
Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there was there, next to the sheep gate, a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, the place of mercy, which has five pavilions. What was the specificity of this place?
It was a sad place because sick people, bedridden people, people without hope, they were there. I keep imagining that the visual picture must be depressing. The smell must have been very strong.
That smell of death, that smell of disease, that smell of blood. And there was Jesus. And Jesus began to walk among those other people and suddenly he looked at someone who was 38 years old waiting for the miracle.
What was the miracle he was waiting for? There was a pool there and in that pool, the belief was that when the water moved, the first person who fell into it would be healed. If this young man was there 38 years, I wonder if during that period, at some point he saw someone who dived there and came out transformed and healed.
I don't think he had ever seen it and probably didn't even really believe it. But I think maybe that was the only place he could be. He had no hope, he had no family.
He no longer had a future perspective. That was this man he was there. I find it interesting to realize that most of Jesus' miracles, the healing ones, were people who came to Jesus.
It was the leper who shouted hey, heal me! It was the blind man who cried out: Oh son of David, have mercy on me! These are the people who went to Jesus and asked to be healed.
Not in this case. Jesus was the one who went to that man and offered him healing. When I think about it, I think it has a lesson for you and me.
Eventually, we must open our church for people to come. It's part of it. I have a wonderful message here about Jesus.
Jesus who heals, Jesus who frees, Jesus who forgives. If you come, I will bless you with this message. But this attitude of Jesus also shows that eventually I need to leave where I am and I need to go and offer.
Sometimes, that person who is in need, they don't even know what I have in my hand. That paralytic didn't know that Jesus could heal him, but Jesus offered. Jesus went to him.
Jesus offered it as a total and complete grace. In the midst of that crowd, Jesus saw that man. I had suffered and suffered for 38 years.
About this, I like Ernandes Dias Lopes' comment on the book of João, which he talks about João on page 154. Look how interesting he talks like that. Jesus looked at the Samaritan woman and saw that she was living in adultery.
Jesus looked at Zacchaeus in the tree and saw that there was a thirst for God in his heart. Jesus saw the love of riches in the heart of the rich young man. He saw hypocrisy in the attitudes of the Pharisees, he saw falsehood in Judas' kiss, he saw sincere repentance in the heart of the thief on the cross and he also saw the misery of this man who was next to the pool of Bethesda.
And he sees you too. He sees your tears. He sees your problems, your difficulties.
And here it becomes clear that Jesus does not simply solve the problems that are recent in our lives. That man had a problem 38 years ago. Suddenly, Jesus passed through his life and when Jesus passes, Jesus transforms.
Jesus heals. Jesus takes us out of that condition of sin and places us in a situation of redemption. Have you been feeling alone, alone?
Do you have that feeling that your family has forgotten about you, that you are like that man in the pool of Bethesda, simply in the middle of misery, sadness? Well, allow it. If you can't come to Jesus, allow Him to come to you and accept what He has to offer you.
