Thought for Today

Exodus 7:9  "When Pharaoh says to you, 'Perform a wonder,' then you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake.'"  

Psalm 105:5  Remember the wonderful works he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered,  

John 5:2  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.  

Galatians 3:5  Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?

I wrote on Tuesday, “The theme for the devotionals this week in These Days is ‘Floating in Streams of Grace.’” The writer today offered a devotional related to Jesus’ healing miracle in John 5:1-9, the healing of the man by the pool called Bethzatha. In verse 3, John tells us that around this pool “lay many invalids.” The Greek used there is τῶν ἀσθενούντων. My lexicon tells me that this is a verb participle in the present tense, active voice, and it is a genitive, masculine, plural. The definitions offered include, “literally, of bodily ailment be sick, be ill, be diseased; figuratively, of incapability of any kind be weak, be incapable.” Various translations offer divergent renderings, “a great multitude of impotent folk,” (KJV); “a great multitude of disabled people,” (NIV); “many invalids.”(NRS)

That devotional today includes the comment, “The man is called an invalid, that is, the world deems him not valid.” That is certainly one use of our English word ‘invalid,’ i.e., that something is not valid. My computer offers as synonyms for valid ‘legitimate,’ ‘applicable,’ ‘suitable,’ and ‘lawful.’ In common usage, we might also include ‘useful,’ or even ‘real.’ I could not help but wonder as I read this morning, whether or not the use of invalid in this verse and this story was intended to mean ‘not valid’ in that sense.

In a society with minimal health care and limited curative options, anyone who was unable to labor or work, to make a positive contribution to sustaining life would have been viewed in a very negative light. But in any human society throughout history, would such folks be deemed as not valid human beings? My first thought was a definitive “NO!” Then I remembered some of the depredations of the Nazis in Germany. In a larger sense, I wondered about some of the debate going on in our own society today.

How are Christians called to evaluate those who do not conform to the ideals of our expectations? How are Christians called to view the sick, the ill, the diseased, the weak and the incapable? Are we to respond with compassion and to do all within our power and our resources to aid and assist them? Are we to include them within all aspects of our society?

Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—” Our salvation, our reconciliation with God is not a function of our utility, not a function of our societal validity. Salvation is not determined by our contributions to society or anything else except our faith. Societal validity is not a requisite to receive the gospel good news of God’s love and our salvation through faith as a gift freely given by our Creator God.

Salvation is not limited to the valid or the invalid. Irrespective of what we encounter sometimes, there is no salvific preference for the poor or the rich. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” None who consider themselves to be Christians should need any citation for these verses. None who consider themselves to be Christians should miss the fact that there are no qualifiers in those verses. God loved and loves the world and all in the world. In scripture and in life, all means all. “Matthew 5:45 for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”

Stay safe, let them know we are Christians by our love, trust God,

Pastor Ray