In this season of reflection, it seems good to remember the Man of Sorrows, our Savior, and how he was “despised and rejected of men.” (Isaiah 53:3).
You remember the story about the crippled man by the Sheep’s Gate who could not get into the healing pool. Jesus had pity on him and healed him.
It happened to be the Sabbath. And this did not sit well with “the Jews”—in other words with the religious leaders. The law says no work can be done on the Sabbath. So they started plotting against Jesus and how to do him in.
Now, let’s be honest about this. The Sabbath law wasn’t really the thing they were exercised about. That was just a pretext. They hated Jesus because he had the power to heal. Because he spoke with authority. Because he said he was the Son of God—in other words, he told the truth.
They hated Jesus because his power was a threat to their own. They were using the Fourth Commandment to keep people under thumb, to give themselves power and enrich themselves. But he kept the Sabbath holy by healing a man who had lain there by the healing pool for 38 years.
They would not lift a finger to put the poor man in the pool, on the Sabbath or any other day. But Jesus came that we may have life and have it more abundantly. He came to put us in that pool when we cannot get there by ourselves.
Oh, brothers and sisters, is there a little bit of the cripple creeping into us today? Is there some crippling debility or sin that’s keeping us from getting in the pool and being healed? Do we sometimes feel like we have been lying here for 38 years, helpless and broken and alone?
The moral of the story is that we are not alone. Not a single sparrow falls to the ground apart from the will of our heavenly Father. Are we not worth more than many sparrows?
And the moral of the story is that goodness is persecuted by the world. What did he do that was wrong? What did he ever do except to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and preach good news to the poor?
He healed the sick because they could not heal themselves, he fed the hungry because they could not feed themselves, he preached the good news to the poor because they needed it the most, and because he had a heart of gold.
But it’s worth remembering that he was envied and hated for these very things. It’s worth remembering that his very goodness caused the jealous religious leaders to try to trip him up and finally to kill him.
He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and full of grief. He came to his own, and they received him not. The very leaders of the religion that was based on him rejected him and handed him over to the Roman occupiers to be crucified.
In this season of halting spring, when we are often neither here nor there, may we hold the golden goodness of our Savior in our hearts and his suffering sorrow for the sake of his sheep. May we turn to the book that tells of his deeds and words and be filled with him.
Written by Jay Trott
