The Agenda

John chapter 5 tells the story of Jesus healing the man at the pool of Bethesda. He had been there 38 years and Jesus shows up one day and by no effort of the lame man Jesus heals him. The healing has the appearance of an arbitrary act of compassion. The part of this passage that messes with me is not the part that got Jesus in trouble, that I am ok with, the part I don’t get is how he healed the man and didn’t even tell him who he was. He just freed him and then slipped away. I have been trained in several different forms of evangelism and all of them have contributed to my understanding of how to share Jesus with someone. But each of those approaches center around getting into discussion with someone and then leading through the truth about Jesus in a very deductive and propositional method. Most of them felt more like an interrogation rather than sharing the life of Jesus. “Do you know what would happen to you if died right here, right now huh, do ya, do ya, do ya?!?” I don’t recall this method as one that Jesus employed, with the exception of the thief on the cross and he actually was dying so I think it would have been “relevant” to use one of our favorite buzz words. Then there is the new and very relational approach employed by a certain former child actor turned evangelist. Here is how it goes, walk the streets with a video camera, confront people and ask them if they have ever lied, stolen, cheated, etc. when they confess to it then remind them that makes them a lying, thieving, cheater and remind them that everyone knows that “liars go to hell.” Ask them if they want to go to hell, lead them to faith (?) in Jesus, and get it all on film. Not exactly Carnegie material I don’t think. Seems like I remember Jesus talking more about salvation from the perspective of turning your life over to him right here, right now and that he came to befriend liars, thieves, and cheaters, (I think he even deputized some of them into his crew, 12 if I recall). In John 5 we see no sermons, no laws, no steps to peace, in fact this man was looking for some steps, he wanted someone to show him how to get into the water. He may have thought “what am I doing wrong here? A three part series about how to effectively and strategically roll oneself into the pool at just the right time would be helpful.” Jesus will have none of that, just get up and walk and take your bed with you and go on and get about the business of living life again as a normal, productive citizen who has been restored to health. Jesus tracks the guy down later on in the day and tells him his 7 step plan for living a new and fulfilled life of victory and power, it’s amazingly profound get ready…he says, stop sinning! Not very profound, but oh so very powerful.