Emmanuel Day 15
Emmanuel, God With the Lonely
“One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.”
John 5:5-9 (NIV)
Every time I read John 5, I’m filled with an amazement and wonder that lead to a thousand questions in my mind. First of all, did an angel really come down and stir the water? If not, why doesn’t John clarify that this was just myth and legend? Was the first person who made it into the water actually always made whole? Was this something that our God really provided for the healing of His people? If so, who decided when it was time for a heavenly-someone to go stir the water? Was there a stir-the-pool alarm set in heaven for a certain day and time? Was it the same angel who went every time or did they take turns? I hope we get to watch all these moments on a giant movie screen in heaven with some type of glorious calorie-free popcorn and candy, because that would be a great way to find out all the answers to my questions!
Usually when I’m reading this chapter in John, my mind is obviously a little bit all over the place with wonder. But if I’m honest, I also get a little annoyed at the weak and seemingly bitter-hearted excuses this guy gives in his response to Jesus. Our unguarded human hearts can sometimes get a bit judgy toward those who are in circumstances that we know nothing about, and our gracious God will often allow us to walk through our own set of circumstances in order to develop our compassion and empathy in a way that reflects His heart a little more. One day, as I was immersed in John 5, the whole scene just hit my heart a bit differently and his words jumped out to me in a way they hadn’t before…
“I have no one to help me…”
“I have no one…”
That day I was alone again. Older kids get busy with jobs and life. Health problems were keeping me from doing as much as I was used to doing. My adorable husband was off and busy about the kingdom of God, just as he should have been. I knew all of the logical, Biblical reasons why I should have been just fine with the season I was in. I knew I wasn’t alone because Emmanuel, God with us was there with me. But as I sat there, it was a fight to have my mind wrapped up in the things of God, rather than being wrapped up in the pity-party my emotions were trying to throw for me. In the same way that I knew everything I should or shouldn’t be doing or thinking, I also knew that the man in John 5 shouldn’t have been so wrapped up in his own pity-party of excuses when Jesus was obviously trying to heal him right then and there. But the problem with lonely places is that they don’t usually make logical sense, and sometimes it just takes more strength than we feel we have in order to “logic and reason” our way out of them.
Maybe what I had always looked at as being this paralytic man’s excuses were actually the cries of his sorrowful and lonely heart. In his thirty-eight years of being paralyzed, most likely homeless and cast out, how many times had he thought the words, “I have no one”. If these stories about the pools were really true, and the ones who made it into the waters first had been healed, how many times had he ached for someone, anyone, to take notice of him and try to help him in any way? How many times had his heart felt broken and bitter as he felt the depth and the darkness of the phrase, “I have no one.” How many times had he responded to the questions people asked with the reasoning of, “Because I have no one to help me.” By the time Jesus got there, maybe this phrase was second nature to his mouth and mind. Maybe it was the often-sung anthem of his heart and tag line of his soul. But the problem with taglines that aren’t given by God is that they blind us to His presence when Emmanuel is standing right there with us, ready to fix and heal our aching, broken places.
Physical ailments, relational issues, and various other circumstances can make it easy for loneliness to echo within our souls. Past Christmas memories can magnify present sorrows as life naturally changes and progresses. Social media images pop up of Holiday gatherings that either we weren’t invited to, or felt as though we might not be wanted even if we were brave enough to try and show up. It can be easier in the moment to entertain the taglines of loneliness than it is to fight for the remembrance that Emmanuel, God is with us. Add onto all of this the heartache of a long road of the same old pounding trial, and the sorrow can feel almost unbearable at times.
But when Emmanuel, God with us, comes to this precious man in John 5, He responds to his reasons and excuses by speaking into the truth of the real problem…
“Do you want to be made well?”
Sometimes those questions that seem to be obvious have deeper roots than even we ourselves can understand. We’re prone to focus on the most glaring circumstances as the greatest cause of pain, but Emmanuel is God with us in the depths of our hearts, and He knows the questions to ask in order to bring out the most tangled roots of our truest issue. We don’t know the whole story of this man in John 5. Had he been paralyzed since birth, or had he gotten hurt somehow? No sin is mentioned like in other stories of paralytics, so maybe his brokenness was simply the result of living in a fallen world. We don’t know his story, but we do know our own stories, and sometimes when Emmanuel, God with us, shows up to heal, He starts by touching on the less obvious points of pain.
Victim mindsets can have a strong pull on our souls, can’t they? Identities of pain, sorrow, isolation, and loneliness wrap us up like fuzzy, familiar blankets that seem to promise protection from further pain. New beginnings and clean starts can be a little bit scary, unfamiliar, and ominous to jump into. Do you wonder where this man went after he took up his mat and walked? What did he do for the rest of his days? Was it the uncertainty of those questions that caused him to hesitate within his excuses for a moment? But could you imagine if he had just stayed in that place of pain and brokenness because of the uncertainty of his life without it?
Friend, could you be wrapped up tight with a lonely identity today? No blanket of victimhood can ever truly keep you protected from pain. Emmanuel, God with us is here to unwrap our hurts and set us free today. No longer do we need to be clothed with the garments of shame, sorrow, or sadness. No longer do we need to have thoughts filled with taglines of having no one. Emmanuel, God is with us! He’s here to trade our garments of heaviness for the clothing of His marvelous praise. He’s here to trade our sorrow for joy, and our ashes for His beauty upon us and within us. We don’t have to wonder in hesitancy over who we would be without the identities of pity, sorrow, sadness, and brokenness. We have been created by God for so much more than this. Jesus doesn’t even climb into the weeds of our wonder with this paralytic or with us.
“Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
He knocks down the walls of our excuses and immediately calls us into the active places of wholeness with Him. Victim mindsets and broken murmurings have no place within us. They’re just weights that hold us back from victoriously running the race that God has set before us. Let’s not spend one more day of this Christmas season crippled with the focus of ourselves, our limitations, our hurts, or our sorrows. This season reminds us that Emmanuel, God with us, has come to free us from every burden and weight that’s wrapped around our souls. It’s time to run free in all God has created us to be and do, and there’s no better day than today to take up our mats and walk out the impossible with Jesus.
Emmanuel; with us IS GOD