John 5

Ministry Moments with Captain Obvious

Do you know the cartoonish character named Captain Obvious who appears in television advertisements? He is known for comically stating what is obvious with unnecessary information. For instance he might say, “To win first place, you must run faster than the other racers.” Or “Did you know Gatorade doesn’t really help alligators.”

 Okay, those are silly, but they give us a backdrop to  encounters Jesus has with a beggar and with the Jewish leaders. In both cases, Jesus presents himself as the obvious solution for which they have been waiting a long time. But, in both cases he is regarded with suspicion and rejected.

The Beggar’s Answer to an Obvious Question

In Chapter Five of John’s Gospel, Jesus encounters a beggar at the Pool of Bethesda who has been disabled for thirty-eight years. All that time he has been waiting for someone to help him get into the pool to be healed. It seems that only when the pool water is disturbed can people be healed, and someone always beats him in.

When he meets the beggar Jesus asks him the most obvious question, “Do you want to get well?” Now you would think he would obviously answer with a resounding “Yes! Of course I do!” But he doesn’t recognize Jesus as his obvious solution, so the beggar whines with excuses for his lack of healing all these years. Even so, Jesus still heals him and then tells him to pick up his mat and walk – a seemingly impossible task.

Obvious Healing Quickly Becomes Sin

The poor guy picks up his mat and promptly gets into trouble with the Jewish legalists because he is “working” on the Sabbath. In response he blames Jesus for his new legal troubles, and never shows any faith toward Jesus. Captain Obvious might say, “He’s so healed, he’s carrying the mat that once carried him.”

Jesus uses this incident as a backdrop to tell the Jewish leaders who he is – their long-awaited Messiah. But they have been stuck in their own destructive habit pattern waiting for someone to heal them for much longer than the beggar had waited for help. And so they miss their promised Messiah even though He is right in front of them.

Their excuse was that Jesus could not be Messiah because he was a sinner in their eyes. Just like the beggar had excuses for not being healed, the Jews had excuses for not recognizing their own Messiah. Over time their rituals had become their prison and prevented them from growing into their future.

The Obvious Truth About the Status Quo

How about us? Could our comfort zone keep us from growing? Do our habit patterns prevent us from reaching our goals? After all, it is much easier to contentedly settle into our own status quo than it is to grow into our future.

 But, because of Jesus, God’s plan is to give us a bigger future both now and eternally - new growth for us, new people to impact, finding new ways to honor Him. In Philippians 3:12-14, Paul talks about his future and asks us to join him in taking these three steps:

 1. Forget the past: forgetting what is behind..

 2. Focus on Jesus: take hold of why Christ took hold of me…

 3. Forge ahead: press on toward the upward call of God…

Paul had no future when he wrote this. He was in prison. Yet he was planning his next adventure with the Lord. And he was encouraging us to not allow our own past hangups or present situation to get in the way of following Jesus forward.

Obviously God Has Promised Us a Future

It would be great to learn that the beggar used his experience with Jesus to start a ministry to help other beggars. What a powerful story that would be. But there is no evidence it happened. I would love to believe the Jewish leaders turned to Jesus as Messiah and led their people to Him also. That hasn’t happened yet, but God has promised it will someday.

So what future promises does He have for you? And what are you doing about it? We are told to make every effort to grow into the people God can use. So please don’t hide in your comfort zone and miss all the fun. Because, as Captain Obvious might tell you, “There’s another chapter to your book, but you gotta’ turn the page to read it.”

Maranatha,

Andy