Sunday Sermon: Pool Parties

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SCRIPTURE READING: John 5:1-18
After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3 In these lay many invalids-- blind, lame, and paralyzed. 4

5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"

7 The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me."
8 Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." 9 At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

Now that day was a sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, "It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat."

11 But he answered them, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Take up your mat and walk.'" 12 They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take it up and walk'?"

13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. 14 Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you."

The grass withers and the flower fades but the Word of the Lord endures forever.

SERMON-INTRO
As I was thinking about John 5 this week, it occurred to me that Frankforters ought to have extra special insight on this passage. After all, we have our very own Bethzatha pool right up the street.

That’s how the borough of Frankfort Springs got started: the waters of the springs were thought to be powerful healing waters. People traveled on the train into Burgettstown and caught a ride out to the resort that grew up around the springs.

Imagine that . . . little ole Frankfort Springs being a hot-spot destination for all the rich and powerful folks. They traveled from Washington, Steubenville, and even Pittsburgh to bathe in and drink from the springs.

Listen to this description I found in the Beaver County archives:
"Here silks and satins were worn and poke bonnets tied down with colored picot edged ribbons and adorned with plumes of many colors. The Springs were [bright] with the latest patterns from New York, the porches filled with pretty maids and ladies embroidering. At candle-lighting the brass sticks from the old corner cupboard were lighted in the long ballroom [while] the polka and the Virginia reel were performed with graceful bows and turns. When the grandfather clock at the foot of the ballroom sounded the stroke of eleven, all lights were snuffed from the candles and the merriment ceased."[1]

It sounds lovely. I can just imagine what Frankfort must have looked like, back in the day.

#1
But it doesn’t sound too much like the scene we read about in John 5, does it? For over a hundred years, people came from all over to southern Beaver County, dressed in their finest clothes and driving their finest surreys, to sit and relax around a pool thought to have healing power.

But underneath all their fancy clothing, these people were desperately seeking relief from pain and healing. They were willing to go to pretty much any length, or in our case, any distance for a chance at finding healing.

THAT much we can see in the John 5 passage. Though this pool was also surrounded by porches and columns, probably a lot like Frankfort Springs, it was also surrounded by the poorest of the poor—the blind, the deaf, the lame, and the invalid.

Day after day, they would gather around the pool, believing that when the water stirred, much like Frankfort Springs must have stirred, an angel of the Lord was stirring the waters. What ensued was a footrace to see who would reach the waters first and receive healing.

The crowd at Frankfort Springs was probably a little less chaotic in their behavior when the waters began to bubble. But there was still a rush to get in the water when the waters began to stir. Did those gathered at the Frankfort Springs resort thought that it was an angel stirring the water? I don’t know. What I do know is that those people had faith in the power of that water, wherever that power came from.

The same goes for the folks gathered around the pool in Jerusalem called Bethzatha. Did they ALL believe that it was an angel stirring the water? Maybe. Probably. All they really knew for sure was that some who had gone in the water before them had emerged with their health restored. Like the folks in Frankfort Springs, the blind and the lame had faith in the power of that water, wherever that power came from.

#2
One thing Bethzatha had that Frankfort Springs didn’t is Jesus. Well, Jesus may have been at Frankfort Springs too, but we don’t have any written accounts of that. We DO, however, have a written account of Jesus’ interaction with one particular invalid, lying near the pool.

We don’t know why Jesus picked this particular fellow. I’m sure there were dozens of other regulars at the pool he could have chosen. The first verse tells us Jesus was in town to celebrate a festival. So chances are there were a lot of extra people who also came into town for the festival. So maybe Jesus had hundreds of people to choose from.

But Jesus picked only one person, much to the dismay of the others gathered around the pool, I’m sure. He saw the invalid lying on his mat and knew that the man had been in his current state for thirty-eight years.

We don’t know if this means the man is thirty-eight years old and has been ill since birth or maybe is suffering from a disease he contracted in his teenage years or even in early adulthood. All John 5 tells us is that he’s been ill for thirty-eight years and he thinks he hasn’t been healed because he doesn’t have anyone to help him get in the healing water.

For thirty-eight years, he has lost the footrace when the pool began to stir. For thirty-eight years, we presume, he watched others make it to the water first and emerge healed. For thirty-eight years he has watched life go on around him while he watches from the sidelines.

No wonder when Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be made well?” he avoids answering the question. It looks like this guy is totally beaten down; he has given up all hope. I’m not even sure he really believes he can be healed anymore by the water or by anything else.

Maybe that’s why Jesus picked him. Maybe Jesus knew he was the one who had been there longest, the one everyone knew, the one everyone pitied because, year after year, he couldn’t make it into the water. Maybe Jesus knew that by healing this particular guy, he knew he’d be making the biggest splash around the pool.

#3
All it took was even simple words: “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” With seven simple words, the invalid who had waited desperately at the edge of Bethzatha for thirty-eight years, stands, picks up his mat, and walks.

The man quickly learns that the power isn’t in the water; the power is in the person of Jesus Christ.

The power is never in the water—not in the waters of the Frankfort Springs or even in the waters of Bethzatha. The power is always in the person of Jesus Christ, who works THROUGH the water.

And Jesus works through many things—doctors and nurses, hospitals and nursing homes, modern medicine and home remedies. I suspect Jesus works through even ordinary, non-medical people. Maybe not the faith healers we see on TV—but you never know, right? For the sake of all those people you see on those shows, I pray that Jesus DOES work even through faith healers.

People are desperate for healing. WE are desperate for healing—maybe healing from something physical, maybe something emotional or spiritual. Whatever it is, we are desperate for it.
We go to all kinds of lengths to find that healing, wherever we think we can find it. Some people are carried on their mats to the side of a pool. Some people dress up in fancy clothes and drive their buggy to a fancy resort. Others wander into a church on a Sunday morning.

The journeys are different, but the destination is the same: the person of Jesus Christ. The power isn’t in the water; the power is in the person of Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION
Jesus asks the man, “Do you want to get well?” And the man all but says to Jesus, “It is impossible for me to get well.”

But with God, all things are possible. The invalid knows that now.

To heal is “to restore to health.” God will heal us each in different ways. For some, healing comes in the form of a cure, a disease or an affliction erased and full health restored. For others, healing comes in the form of release from disease, leaving this earthly tent behind to dwell in a city built and designed by God.

With God, all things are possible. Our job, then, is to be faithful in our search for healing, remembering that the power isn’t in the water; the power is in the person of Jesus Christ.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

[1]http://www.bchistory.org/beavercounty/BeaverCountyCommunities/FrankfortSprings/FrankfortSpringsFolder.html/FrankfortSpringsM76.html