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The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and commentary for this week are more in line with what has become usual; for the following will most likely be familiar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath’s selection is about who Jesus was. If your browser does not support Greek characters, please click on this file: Printable/viewable PDF format
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For the Sabbath of March 8, 2008
The person conducting the Sabbath service should
open services with two or three hymns, or psalms, followed by an opening prayer
acknowledging that two or three (or more) are gathered together in Christ
Jesus’ name, and inviting the Lord to be with them. The
person conducting the service should read or assign to be read John chapter 5, with
emphasis on verses 14 through 47. Commentary: The man was an invalid for thirty-eight years; he
was an invalid when Jesus visited the temple when He was twelve (Luke 2:41-49).
So, yes, Jesus would have known that the man had been an invalid for a long
time, unable to get into the pool when the spirit or breath [Heb: ruwach; Gr: pneuma] of God stirred
the water … the spirit or breath of God renews the face of the earth when
it is sent forth (Ps 104:30). As wind will ruffle a pool or form storm waves
that test the largest vessels through the frictional transfer of energy from
moving air molecules to the surface molecules of the body of water, and as
these same air molecules in controlled modulations produce the sound waves that
allow a speaker to be heard some distance away—and as the visible things
of this world, with “air” being on the transitional edge of
visibility, reveal the invisible things of God—wind as well as a
person’s deep breath [both moving air] function as a metaphor for the
spirit of God, a life creating, life sustaining, life renewing force that is
not of this world but comes from the supra-dimensional heavenly realm. The
spirit of God [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø] is not a personage; the Holy Spirit [B<,Ø:" –(4@<] is not a personage, for every spirit or breath
that proceeds from God is holy [hagion—–(4@<]. And the traditional belief that had the first
person into the “stirred” waters of the Pool of Siloam being
healed, with these waters being stirred by the Holy Spirit, served as a type of
the faith required for the invalid to stand and to take up his bed when Jesus
said, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk’” (John 5:8).
Belief in the tradition equated with believing Jesus’ words, as
Jesus’ words equated with the Holy Spirit stirring the pool’s
surface. What was at stake—what the religious
authorities understood—was the evidentiary display that Jesus was God;
that His spoken words healed as the Spirit of God healed after stirring the
surface of the pool. A few minutes with a dictionary will reveal to
English speakers that the Greek word /pneuma—B<,Ø:"/ that is translated into Latin as /spīritus/, both meaning
“breath” as in moving air, becomes the English word /spirit/, while the English word
“breath” comes from Germanic origins assigned to represent a vapor
as in warm air or steam from a simmering pot. In colder northern latitudes,
“breath” can be seen for half of the year whereas in Mediterranean
latitudes, “breath” would rarely be seen. The differing origins for
linguistic icons representing the same linguistic object (the life-sustaining
delivery of oxygen molecules to the lungs and the person’s blood stream).
So to make a /spirit/ discernibly
different in type and/or composition from a /breath/ is intellectually dishonest. But God is not an air breathing creature, a nephesh. So the moving force that
activates God or enlivens God and that God uses as a person uses his or her
breath is not of this world, is not moving air, and can only metaphorically be
identified as /spirit/ or /breath/, both of which have widely
agreed upon assignments of linguistic objects to icons apart from their usage
in Christian theology. A father teaches his son through the son mimicking
the father, and through the father speaking to the son. The father sustains his
life through his breath as the son sustain his life through his breath, with
one breath being like the other breath but delivering oxygen molecules to a
differing set of lungs. So the breath of the father is in the son but is not
the son’s breath, and this is what the Apostle Paul describes in Romans
chapter 8, verses 9 and 11, where the pneuma
of Christ (v. 9) differs from the pneuma of the One who raised Christ from
the dead (v. 11). Returning now to what Jesus told the Jewish
authorities that were seeking to kill Him: “‘Truly, truly, I say to
you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father
doing” (John 5:19). The Son mimics the Father—is this not what
Jesus says? Jesus was not doing a “new thing” when healing the
invalid of 38 years; rather, He was doing what Theos had done year by year when with His breath, He stirred the
surface of the pool so that a renewing or healing might occur. And, yes, all of
Israel could have been healed if Theos
had so willed, but the stirring of the pool’s surface that Theos did established the shadow for
what would be recorded in Scripture, which isn’t every healing Jesus
performed but the seven Sabbath healings. The Son mimics the Father as He delivers the
Father’s words to The Son makes hearing His words and believing them
like water that permanently quenches thirst, with, in this metaphor, the saline
waters of the Imagine having waited beside the pool of Siloam on
the holy days for thirty-eight years, waiting for the pool’s calm surface
to suddenly become rippled, ruffled, stirred by the movement of an invisible
force, the breath of God, then with the stirring, struggling to lurch yourself
toward and into the pool, but always someone less incapacitated getting down
the steps first to receive the healing. Where is the justice in the more
capable person being healed? Does not God seem to play favorites? Or is it that
God can more easily heal the person only slightly injured. Thirty-eight years.
Most of a lifetime, a lifetime spent waiting for deliverance—what did
this man think when Jesus came to him and asks, “‘Do you want to be
healed?’” (John 5:6). What is the man to say? Of course he wants to
be healed. He wouldn’t be at the pool if he did not want healed. But look
at how he answers Jesus, “‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the
pool when the water is stirred up’” (v. 7). He needs help. Even to be healed, he needs help. He is
unable to do it on his own. And Jesus, not introducing himself and not known to
the man, tells him to stand and walk … would you have stood and walked?
Would you have even attempted to stand? Or would you say, I have no one to help me. Or even worse, would you say, Because Jesus walked uprightly before God, I
don’t have to stand and walk uprightly, but I can lie here and know that
I have been healed (saved). If the invalid would have continued to lie on his
bed, would he have been healed? When Jesus asked him if he wanted to be healed,
he did not say yes or no, but gave an excuse for why he wasn’t healed,
and probably a valid excuse. Could he have as easily given Jesus an excuse for
why he couldn’t stand? Certainly! And he would then not have been able to
stand, for he needed faith that he could walk when he did not know who Jesus
was. Likewise, disciples need faith that they can walk uprightly before God
when told to do so by someone they do not know. Shall we allow a few moments of silence to pass for
the above to bring forth fruit? Jesus told the temple officials who were seeking to
kill Him, “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and
believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but
has passed from death to life’” (John 5:24) … are these the
words of someone Christians know? How about, I have come in my Father’s name, and you will
not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can
you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory
that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the
Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If
you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not
believe his writings, how will you believe my words?’” (vv. 43-47) Christians do not know Christ Jesus. They have no
idea He said that if Israel did not believe Moses’ writings, Israel would
not believe His words … if you do not believe Moses’ writings, you
will not believe Jesus’ words, and if you do not believe His
words—He spoke only the Father’s words—then you have not
passed from death to life, but remain numbered among the dead of this world,
walking pillars of salt. As a Christian, how would you respond if someone
came up to you and asked, Do you want to
live forever? Would you say that you are already assured of living forever,
that you have been born again, that you have been saved by professing that
Jesus is Lord and believing that the Father raised him from the dead? Most
likely this is what you would say. But if this person whom you did not know
went on to ask, Do you believe
Moses’ writings? Would you not say that you are under grace, that the
Law of Moses with its legal demands has been abolished? You would,
wouldn’t you? But all judgment has been given to that person whom you do
not know. Yes, all judgment (John 5:22) has been given to the one who said that
if you don’t believe Moses’ writing you will not believe His words
… if you would have been that invalid of thirty-eight years, you would
not have risen to take up your bed; rather, you would have asked Jesus if He could
help you down into the pool the next time the waters was stirred. Our hypothetical Christian did not say anything
that is not in Scripture, but this Christian does not recognize Jesus nor hear
His voice. Instead, he or she has received others—Augustine, Luther,
Calvin, Hut, Penn, Fox, Knox, Wesley, White, Moody—in their names, and
these others save no one. At best, they could have helped the invalid into the
pool. At worse, these twisted the epistles of Paul to their own destruction and
joined themselves to “the error of lawless people” (2 Pet 3:17).
They are as false as were the temple officials that sought to kill Jesus. The Jesus that is unknown to most Christians said,
“‘Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in
the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the
resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of
judgment [condemnation]’” (John 5:28-29) … what about grace?
Is not grace sufficient to cover the evil done by Christians? And is not
judgment based on works [i.e., “done good” versus “done
evil”] contrary to what leading theologians have taught about Jesus? Jesus told those seeking his life, “‘As
I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but
the will of him who sent me’” (John 5:30) … to whom does
Jesus listen? The Father? The disciple? For His declaration is that all
judgment has been given to Him, and He judges as He hears—and when His judgments
are revealed upon His return (1 Cor 4:5), those who have done good will be
resurrected to life. Why hasn’t our hypothetical Christian been
taught that he or she must walk uprightly before God once the person has been
“healed” through the gift of everlasting life? Jesus told the
invalid of thirty-eight years, “‘See, you are well! Sin no more,
that nothing worse may happen to you’” (John 5:14) … the
implication of Jesus’ words are that something worse than being an
invalid would happen if the man transgressed the Laws of God. The implication
for Christians is that once they have been given life, if they return to sin,
which is lawlessness or the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4), they will
die the second death. But this isn’t what Christians have been taught. What Jesus told those seeking His life can be said
to every leading Christian theologian: “‘You search the Scriptures
because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear
witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have
life’” (John 5:39-40). Is not this the rallying cry of protesting
Reformers: Scriptura sola? In
Scripture alone was salvation. No longer did they need to listen to
Jesus’ voice (John 10:27), and they didn’t. They were as horses
with bits between their teeth and the scent of freedom in their nostrils. They
could not be herded, and the stampede was on. The holiness movement was forbidden fruit, savored for its liberty from
the law. But it has also produced bitterness in the belly as Christians began
to live like their lawless neighbors, with the same divorce rates, the same
personal failings, the same in every way as the culture in which they live. Passover is an extremely important period—and
it is Passover when the covenant of liberation is annually renewed; when we as
disciples are told to stand, pick up our beds and walk uprightly before God.
And the great sadness within Christendom is that few keep the Passover, few
cover themselves with grace, most are too busy searching the Scriptures for
eternal life to listen to Christ. * The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal. * * * * * "Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©
2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by
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