Journey through John 5:9-16

Good Morning Church Family – Journey Through John

Read John 5:9b-16

Devo Thought: In our passage today, we see a situation where a man is healed, but in the process of being healed, he is confronted by people who believe he is in the wrong for carrying his bed on the Sabbath. The Jewish leadership, who were deeply devoted to the idea of keeping the Sabbath day holy, saw this man carrying his bed and tell him that he is wrong for doing this. Not just wrong, but they accuse him of breaking the Law. This action was sinful. Here’s the thing, Jesus was the one who told him to take up his bed and walk. The man had to decide whether he was going to listen to the Jewish religious leaders or to Jesus. As I read this story, I was reminded of times where I have watched my sons play baseball for their coaches. I have had the privilege of coaching both of them some, and because I did, I tend to have opinions about the way they should do things on the field. Sometimes, as I watch, I’ll see them do something (steal a base, try to score on a hit, or take a pitch) and wonder why on earth they would do that in that situation. Inevitably, after the game, I’ll ask them what they were thinking in that situation (usually with a desire to coach them up myself), and almost without fail, they say, “Coach So-and-so told me to do that.” You see, they understand the chain of authority and how that works. While they respect me as their father, they also know that their coach (who they work with every day) has told them what to do, and they do it. In the same way, this healed man knows that Jesus obviously has some sort of authority that the religious leaders lack. While the man might appreciate that these leaders want to protect the Sabbath, he had met Jesus and what Jesus said wins out over everything else. We also must put Jesus in the place of authority over everything and everyone else in our lives.

Let us ask God to help us submit to the authority of Jesus.