When to Rejoice

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

 WHEN TO REJOICE

John 5:9-13

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat." 11 But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'" 12 So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?" 3 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

NIV

It is amazing how some people would rather pay so close attention to the law, to the rules and regulations than to see God at work in people’s lives. This is what is happening in this portion of the narrative. Those Pharisees could only see the fact this was done on the Sabbath and could not rejoice with this man in his healing. Blinded by their own lives, their own twisted interpretation of the law, their own addenda’s they could only question him to find the culprit who broke the law they so desperately wanted everyone to see they adhered to. The text is not clear if the man actually knew it was Jesus, but implies he did not at the time of his healing as Jesus had slipped away in the crowd. We will see later he does find out, but for now we should focus on the reaction of the Pharisees. We should ask ourselves if we are so invested in our own lives that we truly cannot rejoice for a blessing someone else receives. Sometimes it seems, this is the case as when in conversations many believers, like most people do not really listen because they are so intent on what they want to say when we stop talking, and if we mention something about our lives, our children, grandchildren they have to one up us about theirs. This is ony a symptom of the larger problem we might be guilty of like those Pharisees, so concerned with self we cannot rejoice with others when God does something special in their lives. Maybe there is jealousy, or envy that drive the self-centered attitude of those Pharisees, maybe that is what drives some of us in those times when others are being blesse by God. It would seem if we are supposed to be more like Jesus than the Pharisees then we would be so thankful, so grateful for the blessings of God in others. Whenever God mores, no matter in who, we should rejoice.