Get Up!

‘Sir,’ the invalid replied, ‘I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. John5:7-9NIV

When you are going through a hard time of a debilitating and disabling illness, or trying to handle the grief of losing a spouse or loved one, the last thing you need is someone to say, “get on with it”, or “life goes on”.

This has been called the ‘entitlement generation’ mainly because our younger folks want things done for them, and not necessarily to earn it themselves. It has also been called a ‘benefits culture’. These titles may not be accurate in all cases, but there is a vast difference in the generation who emerged from a World War, and waged another war against unemployment and irrelevance. They were not used to things being done for them, and certainly didn’t go looking for it.

It struck me anew that Jesus didn’t get down on his hunkers or sit beside the invalid to get to eye level contact. He didn’t use the softly softly approach by saying something like, “Now there, you are having a hard time and I sympathise. Let me help by getting social services to come around and see you. They might be able to get you welfare or some kind of benefit. Jesus is a loving, tender hearted part of the trinity, so why didn’t He show more empathy?

The effort had to be made by the invalid. It was up to him to make the choice. Maybe he was used to being handicapped and getting some handouts from sympathetic passers by. Jesus cuts right to the chase when He says simply, but with authority, “Get up!” He is God the Son, and so knew exactly what the invalid needed to hear. No soft soap. No molly coddle. No pleasantries. So, let’s go back to the entitlement generation and our own preferences. I suggest we prefer it when our friends sympathise, get down with us, tell us how bad things are for us and they don’t know how we can handle it. However, there are times we do need a direct approach in spite of the fact that we don’t like to hear it, certainly at first.

Get going. Get moving. Life goes on. These and many other words can be used by the insensitive as they speak to the bereaved and hurting, but in the right hands it is different. Unfortunately, these hard words are true and we only recognise their worth someway down the road when we have put some distance between ourselves and our heartache. I must make Jesus my example, and if I hear Him whisper the words “get up” in my heart, I won’t stop and ask for pity or some piety, or indeed an explanation. Jesus knew full well what the invalid needed, and fortunately this truth is for us too: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”Hebrews13:8NIV

Nearly Nothing

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38,39

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:35

In one case, nothing can separate us from the love of God, and in the other verse, we are to be disciples of love for each other. I see a clear link between God’s love in our heart, and the fact that this love will remain constant between God and us. Of course you can be forgiven for thinking that chapter 8 of Romans finishes prematurely. Cut me a bit of slack here, and allow me to make a modern day ironic meaning to verse 39.

Nothing will “separate us from the love of God”, except that we maybe let those really big, important things like music, dress, colour, politics, beliefs, denomination, or theology. It seems we don’t go to church to worship, but choose a church that suits us. I am reminded that when Paul wrote to several of the churches of his day that they had problems, really big problems, he didn’t separate himself from them. He tried to help by preaching the truth of the gospel, but he didn’t disown them, or suggest others do the same. No, he let the love of God shine through him in the belief that it would win over anything in all creation that might be able to separate him (or us) from Christ Jesus.

Why do we let some minor differences get between us and God? We recite Romans 8:38,39 so easily as it talks about the big things, while letting some of those smaller, petty, earthly thoughts and feelings get between us and the love of God. Truth is, it’s not God who puts the barriers up to His love, it’s us! When God seems so far away, ask yourself who moved? According to this text, it certainly wasn’t God!