Jesus, the Master of Time

John 5: 1 – 9 (NIV): 1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie--the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" 7 "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." 8 Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9a At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

John continues to build his case that Jesus is the Messiah. This is the third sign to prove that Jesus was exactly who he claimed to be. Here, Jesus heals a man who had been unable to walk for 38 years. That’s a long time, but it was especially long then since the average lifespan wasn’t much more than this.

    The man had no idea who Jesus was, he was just hoping Jesus would help him into the pool. But he would have been disappointed if he had been the first into the water – God doesn’t operate that way. This was clearly a local superstition.  He had tried his whole life to find healing in something that was never going to work.

    Jesus healed him on the spot. It doesn’t matter how long you have suffered, God can still heal you. It doesn’t matter how long you have been away from God, he will still welcome you back. Jesus created time. He is the master of time. To him a thousand years is like a day. The man had suffered a long time, but compared to eternity, it was less than a second.
    We become stressed when we believe everything must happen right now, but faith reassures us that everything will happen in God’s timing. If we will trust him and his perfect timing, we will exchange the stress in our lives for the peace that he alone can give.  Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength.