Peter Heals a Lame Beggar
One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.
6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
John 5: 14-15, KJV
14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”
15 The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Have you ever seen someone sitting just outside of that which is beautiful, begging, not to get in, but for just to get enough to get by? Has that ever been you? Have you ever sat out begging, if not literally, in your spirit, just outside of that which seems so beautiful…thinking that you can’t have what you really want, so you may as well get what you can get and just remain in a “crippled state?”
This was the case of both men in these two passages of scripture. Both passages feature men who were crippled. We don’t know what happened to them. We don’t know how they lost the use of their legs or even if they ever had the use of their legs. What we do know, based upon the text is that people carried one man to the gate of the Temple every day so that he could beg. The other man laid by a pool for 38 years waiting for someone to put him in.
Let’s look first at the man at the gate called “Beautiful.” Why didn’t someone take him home and help him? Why did the people just pass him by and maybe throw him a coin or two as they went into the temple to pray? We don’t know, but we can only imagine…I imagine the people, much like the priest and the Levite in the story of the “Good Samaritan,” did not want to miss their daily prayer time. Maybe they were concerned that if they stopped to take time with him they might miss their special prayer spot near the front of the Temple!
Maybe they thought he was lazy. Maybe they thought he was a fake. Maybe they just didn’t really care. But what about the man? What happened to his spirit that he just resigned himself to sitting at the “Beautiful Gate” to beg? Culturally, because he was diseased and infirmed, he may have been forbidden to enter the Temple gates. So, he just sat outside of that which was called, “beautiful” and begged.
Some remain in the debilitating state of dysfunction – family dysfunction…cycles of drama…cycles of poverty…cycles of panic…cycles of debt…cycles of low self-esteem…begging for just enough to make it from day to day…sitting just outside of what appears to be beautiful. Some sit watching as other people seem happy…watching as other people seem fulfilled…watching as other people get their praise on…watching as others appear to connect with their God, passing them by as others throw crumbs and coins their way. So, they resign themselves to begging for crumbs and coins, caught up in a cycle. There is a way, however, to break the cycle. It may not be what you want, but it will be what you need!
At times we need a Peter and a John. At times we need someone who will say, “I don’t have crumbs or coins…I don’t have a space for a pity party…I don’t have what you are looking for…something to enable you in your dysfunctional state. But here’s what I do have…in the name of Jesus GET UP AND WALK! I’m not only going to tell you to get up, I’m going to take you by the hand, help you to get up and then help you to walk! I know it’s been a long time since you’ve gotten up. But in the name of Jesus you can get up and I will help you!” Indeed, God is calling for more “Peters and Johns!”
When you’ve been down for so long, out for so long, on the outskirts for so long, it can be a challenge to believe you can walk into the beautiful. When all you’ve done is watch others walk through the “beautiful gate,” brokenness can become an acceptable existence. The Lord, however, has a new script for you. It will be different than what you’ve come to expect. The Lord is sending what you need to get up. Your legs might be wobbly. You may be afraid that people are waiting for you to fall…laughing as you struggle. It will be tough, but it will be alright. You will not be by yourself. The man was begging for money so that he could get some scraps to eat. But the Lord wanted to give him healing so that he could do more than survive. He wanted him thrive.
Cycles of dysfunction vary. Not everyone is like the man encountered by Peter and John. Some are like the man by the pool. Some have been caught up in cycles of dysfunction for so long that they have not taken advantage of what is available to them. They have settled it in their mind that they can’t get up unless somebody drags them over to the pool. They have lost the mind to make it over to the place of healing, the place of deliverance, the place of blessing. For those like the man by the pool of Bethesda, Jesus has another message – GET UP!!!
Jesus takes a hard line with this man. People have been trying to help for a long time, but others can’t want healing for you more than you want it for yourself! You have to want to made whole. When your desire and your efforts meet the mercy and power of God, miracles happen. When Jesus told the man to get up, something stirred within him and he regained strength in his legs and rose.
Jesus told the man something else – He said,
“See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”
Once you have been healed, once you have been delivered, once you have been made free, it is a dangerous thing to go backwards and dabble in the cycles of the past. Cycles are like a whirlpool. If you stick even you toe down into the swirling waters, you could rapidly be pulled back in. When the Lord makes you whole, you must continue the process of healing. It is important to surround yourself with persons who are also moving in the healing direction. Feed your spirit with God’s healing Word. Speak to yourself wholistic and healing words. Keep moving forward! With the help of the Lord, don’t turn back or else something worse will come upon you. The enemy will work over time to drag you back down. Don’t aide his efforts by opening the door back up to dysfunction.
Are you begging for scraps when the Lord wants to empower you to walk and live? Have you resigned yourself to sit just outside of that which is beautiful when the Lord wants you to come running, leaping, jumping and praising into the beauty God has for you? It may not be what you want…but it is what you need. With the help of the Lord YOU CAN BREAK the cycles of dysfunction in your life. Through Christ, you can take the first step TODAY towards the beautiful. What cycles do you need to break? What is blocking you from your beautiful?
Post a comment or send me an email at Revcsmith1@gmail.com
Until next Wednesday,
In Faith, Hope and Perseverance,
Pastor Chris
www.shepastorchris.org
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