“You just need to have faith!”
This is a common sentiment that we use when people are doubting, are in trouble, or are facing problems in their lives. It is a “nice” and well-meaning thought.
But as I am studying through the life of Jesus Christ, I am struck by the fact that Jesus encounters people with too much faith!
What is the problem? They have a lot of faith, but in the wrong object!
As we study the scene in John 5, we see that Jesus encounters two groups of people. Both of these groups have too much faith in the wrong object. Both of these groups are lost.
The first group of lost are the lowly, the outcast, and the hopeless. You cannot consider these people without evoking pity. They are the invalids with no hope of recovery. The text says they consist of blind, lame, and paralyzed (John 5:3).
They have placed their faith in a bubbling pool.
Their only hope is that when the pool bubbles, the first one in the water gets healed. We have no record that this has ever worked.
The second group are the leaders and the teachers. They are the pillars of society, like Nicodemus in John 2. They know the Old Testament scriptures and several more of their own laws.
They have placed their faith in their rituals.
Their hope is that God will think well of them for diligently observing their rituals. They have hundreds of a laws for what they can and cannot do on a Sabbath. They are so caught up in their rituals that they completely miss God as he walks by. Instead, they want to kill him.
This is a turning point in Jesus’ ministry. From now on, he will have an organized opposition wherever he goes. This opposition will continue to grow until Jesus is crucified on a Roman cross, only two years from this point.
Jesus goes to the invalids at the pool and heals one man. He then goes to the temple, among the leaders, and offers life to both the man and all of the people.
Having faith is good, but only if it is faith in the correct object. Jesus’ words to the man who had been healed were to “stop sinning”.
“The warning was they his tragic life of 38 years was no comparison to the doom of hell. Jesus is interested in not merely healing a person’s body. Far more important is the healing of his soul from sin.” [4]
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