FY 25
February 25
John 5:10-16. Christ's interview with the restored paralytic.
We have in this history an instance of the bitter hatred of men to the truth. Why did the Jews accuse Jesus of having broken the Sabbath? Was it because they reverenced that day? By no means. We may judge of their respect for the Sabbath by their regard for the temple; and we know that they made it a den of thieves, and filled it with sheep, and oxen, and money-changers. They did not care in their hearts for the service of God. And had Jesus caused the paralytic to break the Sabbath? No! for though God had forbidden men to bear burdens on the Sabbath-days, He never intended that a sick man suddenly healed would not carry home his bed.
The reason the Jews objected to the action was, that they suspected who had cured the paralytic; and they were offended with the rebukes that Jesus had often given them in his sermons, and in his conversation. Holy men are generally watched in this way. Why have faithful preachers in later days been insulted? Because they interfere with the vices of men.
The restored cripple was unable to gratify the malice of the Jews, by informing them of the name of his deliverer. He knew it not. Must he not have longed to discover it? Soon Jesus afforded him the opportunity. He found him in the temple. We are glad to hear that the poor man went there. For thirty-eight years he had been unable to tread God's courts, and perhaps before that period he may have been unwilling; for, from the words of the Lord addressed to him, we have reason to fear he had been an ungodly youth.
This was the warning he received. "Behold you are made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you." It appears that his affliction had been sent as a punishment for early sins. All afflictions are not sent as punishments. Those of Job were trials of his faith. But they are often sent to those who know not God, that they may remember their sins and turn from them.
It was a heavy chastening that the paralytic had endured—an illness of thirty-eight years. At length he was delivered. What, if he should return to sin! how many have acted thus!—After vows and tears they have risen from their sick beds, to requite their God with black ingratitude. What must be the consequence of such conduct?—a worse thing will come upon them. Is there anything worse than a palsy of thirty-eight years' continuance? Let the lost spirits speak, who have spent but one hour in the flames of hell. How gladly would they exchange their place for the most suffering bed to be found on earth!
He who gave this warning was soon to taste the punishment of sin himself, and to know by experience that worse thing of which he spoke. In two or three short years Jesus would be extended on a cross, and nailed there for our sins, and would bear the weight of God's infinite wrath. By the blood he then shed, he is able to save us from eternal woe. But those who go on in sin shall taste something worse than anything they have known on earth.
Are there any here who still love sin? Remember these words—"Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you." It is Jesus who utters them; He who has delivered sinners by his own death; HE, even He, entreats them not to continue in sin.