Today I saw an ambulance with lights flashing on the way to
the hospital. As the vehicles passed me I noticed that the scripture reference
John 5:13 was written above the back door. This evening I looked up the
reference. It says “But the man who was cured did not know who it was, because
Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there”. One Sabbath day in
Jerusalem Jesus met a sick man who was lying near the pool of Bethsaida hoping
someone would put him in the waters so that when the waters were stirred he
might experience their magical healing effects.
That might seem silly but if you have been sick 38 years like
this man had you will cling to any hope you can find. Jesus encountered the man
and asked him a simple question, “Do you want to get well?” without answering
the question the man gave both an excuse and an explanation that since he had
no one to put him in the water that someone else always got in the pool ahead
of him and thus received the benefit of the stirring waters. Without arguing
the man’s reasoning’s and without discussing the effects of the waters Jesus
simply looked at this man who had been sick for 38 years and told him “pick up
your mat and walk”. Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started
to walk. Without saying or doing anything else Jesus slipped away into the
crowd and the man who was healed did not even know who it was that healed him.
I suppose there are several reasons why Jesus slipped away into
the crowd unnoticed. Certainly He had other things to do and other people to
engage. Maybe He did not want to hang around and listen to the complaints and
the questions of the Jews as to why He had healed a man on the Sabbath. For
Jesus discussing rules concerning when and how and where one could do good
deeds was a fruitless and senseless endeavor. Jesus simply went about doing
good and ignored man made illegalities. Perhaps there is another reason Jesus
slipped away into the crowd after healing the man. Jesus had come to seek and
to save the lost. He had come to serve not to be served. Jesus was not
interested in receiving accolades. He wanted the attention not upon himself but
on miracle of a sick man made well and the grace of God that had made it
possible.
If we wish to be faithful servants of Christ we need to not be
positioning ourselves hanging around in order to receive praise and credit.
Like Jesus we need to do good and then slip away into the crowd unnoticed.
