H—Healing

Journey through John from A to Z with rookie bloggers who are seeking to honor their good friend, Tina.

After recording Jesus' encounters with Nicodemus and with the woman at the well, John relates two healings with very different results.

First, Jesus meets an official who is concerned about his dying son.  Desperate, the father begs Jesus to come and heal his son.  Jesus challenges the father to believe, and then tells him his son has been healed.  When the father returns home, he learns that his son had been healed, from a distance, just when Jesus had pronounced him well.  His faith is reinforced by this grace, and he and his whole household believe. John clarifies that this was Jesus' second sign, a miracle intended to point to Jesus as Messiah.

Next, Jesus heals a lame man who had been sitting beside the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, hoping for a cure. Surprisingly, not even the invalid that is healed expresses faith in Jesus; instead he seems resentful toward Jesus, who cautions him to stop sinning. This is the third sign in the gospel, but the cure occurs on the Sabbath and leads to persecution from the Jewish rulers rather than to faith.  

Here Jesus explains that He works on the Sabbath because His Father works on the Sabbath.  He also makes clear that He is able to heal because He gives life and that ultimately He gives eternal life that conquers the grave.

"My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." 
... "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does... For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.  ..."I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life...I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live...For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 
.... For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me.  (John 5:17-36)

Every one of us chooses how we will respond to the life-giving power of Jesus.  And the two possible choices will lead to very different results.