Question: After healing the paralytic man at the Pools of Bethesda on the Sabbath, Jesus tells him to pick up his mat and walk away. The man is then challenged by his fellow Jews to explain why he is breaking the Sabbath rules by carrying his mat (John 5:1). Why would Jesus have caused this man trouble by telling him to pick up his mat?
Answer: It is important to note that in 1st-century Judaism there were several views about what was permissible on the Sabbath, and carrying a sleeping mat would not necessarily have been seen by all people as a breach of God’s Law.
Anyhow, it is abundantly clear that Jesus was often challenging people to look afresh at what God wants us to do, and to see things differently.
The presence of God is admirably attested by the fact of the healing, which in Jesus’ mind is a very important sign of the Kingdom of God. And Jesus’ opponents appear not even to have noticed this extraordinary phenomenon!
The healing of the Paralytic is a reminder that all of us need always to have our eyes opened to detect the presence and action of God. And that cannot be managed by simply “obeying the rules”.
(Fr Nicholas King SJ)
Asked and answered in the August issue of The Southern Cross magazine
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