Yesterday we saw Jesus heal the lame man who had been waiting at the pool for 38 years. Let’s pick up the story with the problem that emerges:

John 5:8-13

8 Jesus said to him, "Get up, pick up your pallet and walk."

9 Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. (Now here comes the problem)

Now it was the Sabbath on that day.

Here is this miraculously healed man, probably headed toward the temple to worship God by giving thanks, but the religious police are about to stop him!

10 So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, "It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet."

The legalistic religious people are always in the wrong place at the wrong time! They completely missed the miraculous healing! When you are occupied with self and good works, you will be blinded from recognizing the hand of God.

11 But he answered them, "He who made me well was the one who said to me, "Pick up your pallet and walk.'"

12 They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, "Pick up your pallet and walk'?" (Notice they didn’t ask who had healed him, they only wanted to know who had not followed the “rules”!)

13 But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.

You can imagine that this healing in front of a multitude of sick people waiting at the pool generated quite a commotion! So Jesus had to slip away.

We need to understand the problem that this presented. The punishment for violating the Sabbath was death by stoning! The lame man knew this, but chose to follow the commands of the One who had power to heal him.

The Sabbath was designed by God for people to rest, and have time for service and worship to God. The Word of God simply said that you were to do no work on the Sabbath. The Pharisees had taken that simple principle, and separated it into what they called the “39 Fathers of Work.” Each of these Fathers of Work was subdivided into Descendant Works.

As an example, one of the Fathers of Work was that you could not plow. One of the Descendants under that was that you could not dig a hole. To show you how silly and legalistic they had become, you could also not scuff up the dirt with your shoe! Another Father of Work was that you could not reap on the Sabbath. One of the Descendants of reaping was you could not pluck an eyebrow!

To apply to our story, one of the Fathers of Work was that you could not carry a burden. One of the Descendants here was that you could not wear false teeth! So obviously, carrying your palette constituted carrying a burden.

Notice how religious people are always trying to enslave people in their own system of works. The true Christian way of life is not a life of “following all the rules.” The danger with this type of religious system is that you either feel guilty when you can’t follow them all, or you get self-righteous when you do follow them!

Don’t get so caught up in rules and commandments that you miss how God is working in your life. Sure, there are commands that we are supposed to follow (not plucking eyebrows on Sunday is NOT one of them), but when we fail, we should look to the solution provided by the grace of God, and not to the failure.

So of course, the Jews are trying to find Jesus, and will be persecuting Him because He doesn’t follow their rules. We’ll see His response, and His defense next time.