The Healing Of The Nobleman’s Son and The Lame Man
by David Morson
In these “Signs” St John challenges the Reader for a response to what Jesus is offering. They are not to be passive spectators as belief requires active acquiescence. These two “Signs” are preceded by three related incidents.
First, unlike the three Synoptic Gospels which relate the event of Jesus throwing out the money changers from the Temple during Holy Week, St John places it right at the outset of Jesus’s Ministry. It sets the scene as Jesus in conversation with the Priests and Scribes says, “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will rebuild it”. A reference to His Death at their hands and His Resurrection which follows. Their response is blank referring to how long it took to build the Temple and dismissing Jesus' claim as absurd.
Secondly, in conversation with Nicodemus a leading Pharisee, Jesus refers to the need to be reborn in the “spirit” in order to understand what is being offered, new life in God.
Thirdly, in His encounter with the Samaritan Woman at the Well, Jesus offers this new life as eternal like a spring of water which never ends, open to all and not confined to Temples and buildings. Only in John’s Gospel is the incident where the soldier pierces Jesus' side on the Cross and “Blood and Water pour forth”.
In the first of the following “Signs” a Nobleman comes to Jesus and asks Him to come to his home to heal his son who is sick. Jesus tells the man to go home and that his son was cured. The man does not ague or plead with Jesus to come to his house,. but believes. When he returns home, the servants greet him saying that his son has recovered. When the nobleman asked at what time was the boy cured. They said the Seventh Hour, the exact time when he believed what Jesus had said that the boy was well. The time is significant, because in the Passion narrative, John records Jesus' crucifixion at the Seventh Hour when new life was offered to those who believed.
In the second “Sign” a man who has been lame for thirty eight years is lying waiting to be bathed in the waters of the Pool at the Sheep gate. Those with disease were not allowed within the Temple walls as their illness was a sign of their or their parent’s sin. Surrounding the Pool were five columns representing the Five Books of the Law. By bathing in the Pool they hoped to be cured and accepted back into the Faith. Significantly, Jesus is referred to as “The Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep”. Jesus asks the man if he wants to be cured, but all he can reply is in a form of excuse, that he has tried to get into the Pool but others always beat him to it. So Jesus heals him saying “Take up your mat and walk”. The man is then confronted by other Jews who instead of celebrating the new life of freedom which Jesus has given him, instead complain that he is working on the Sabbath by carrying his mat.
In all of these recorded events there are those who are blind to what Jesus is offering or tied up by beliefs which confine them as well as those who accept.
By sharing our humanity Jesus offers us the chance to walk with Him on the path of love and so share in the life of God. As such, through our response to a life based on such love, we enter eternal life here and now.