Take Up Your Mat

Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Take up your mat and walk.” ’ They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take it up and walk”?’ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.’ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am working.’ For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
- John 5:10-18

Jesus chooses a man out of a crowd at a pool, a natural spring, said to have healing properties. The man has not asked him for help, and does not even know who Jesus is. But Jesus asks him, "Would you like to be made well?" The man doesn't know what Jesus is really asking, and tells Jesus that he needs help being put into the pool, because the others are more able - and faster - than he is, and so he cannot get to the healing water when it springs up. Jesus tells him to take up his mat and walk.

So, in this instance, the healed man is clearly chosen to be healed - he doesn't know who Jesus is, and only asks for help after Jesus asks him if he'd like to be made well. This is an example. This happens for a reason beyond a request by the sufferer. It is the sabbath, and Jesus - through his ministry - is making a point. He is about his Father's work, and it is appropriate on the sabbath to honor the Father by doing His will and His work. He also says clearly that his Father is working. But those who wish to put the law above the One for whom the law is intended to give honor, do not understand what Jesus has done. They know the rules, but they do not know spirit. He has healed on the sabbath, and furthermore he has declared that he is doing the work of the Father, of his Father - and so has broken another rule intended to honor the Father by calling himself a son, thereby making himself an equal.

Clearly Jesus has provoked this crisis, this moment of choice. He has acted boldly - both healing on the sabbath and declaring that he will continue to do the work of his Father. He instructs the healed man, "Go and sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you." Jesus shows his love and respect for God, by telling the man to honor God in proper gratitude for the healing. But those for whom the spirit of God is not felt or known can only see the technical violations of the law, and not the spirit at work in Jesus' action. Moreover they wish to persecute him for doing his work, and for declaring that he is serving his Father. The depth of truth and the immediacy of spirit we are asked to understand in this text is striking, almost shocking. Jesus does what he knows will not be acceptable to those for whom the law exists apart from the perception of spirit and truth, but it is not yet his time. He disappears into the crowd, and it is only later they find who he is and he defends his work. Yet for all this, his work is good, we can see the effects and so can everyone else in the story.

We don't know what it is to stand in the presence of Jesus, but I wonder if this story in its immediacy does not present us with a choice we make every day. If we separate the law from Spirit, from truth, are we able to understand it? Do we face such immediacy of choices every day?