John 5:9b-13 (ESV)

Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.

It was a battle that would repeat itself many times over. Throughout his gospel, John uses the term “the Jews” to denote the Jewish religious leaders—usually the Pharisees—rather than the Jewish people in general. It is an important distinction. Jesus had a particular disdain for those who were serious students of The Law but did not practice what they preached. They were largely driven by their pride and had become a religious aristocracy. They were both religious and rebellious, adding to God’s Law and turning it into a weapon of mass spiritual destruction. “In this respect, the religious leaders were similar to Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses today. They were courageous and energetic messengers, but with a false message” (Enduring Word).

To work or not to work—that was the question. The Jews didn’t seem to give any notice to the fact that this man had been healed, only to the “work” he was “doing” in picking up his little bed and beginning his victorious walk home. They loved The Law rather than people. I wonder if some of us in the Church today have the same problem. We choose to see people’s works rather than the people themselves. How they dress. What they say. How they act. What they do.

• “A real Christian wouldn’t do that!”
• “How can they do that and call themselves a Christian?”
• “I can’t believe she wore that dress into the House of God!”
• “What kind of Christian refuses to wear a mask?”

The Jews majored in the minors from Jesus’ perspective. They spent all day stomping on the ants (violations of The Law according to them) but didn’t pay any attention to the elephants coming in over the wall (people dying in their sin). They claimed to follow God but really only worshipped themselves, which is why Jesus told them that they were children of the Devil rather than children of Abraham (Jn. 8:44). To the religious leaders Jesus was the man who broke the Sabbath. To the healed man Jesus was He who made me well. Which perspective are you representing to the world around you…or in your own home?