Today’s Gospel tells the story of Jesus healing a man who was
ill for thirty-eight years. The context of the passage tells us he was crippled. He is
healed when the Lord Jesus tells him to “Rise, take up your mat and walk.” The power
of God is so vividly displayed to us. He speaks at it is so. St. Paul says He calls
into being things that do not exist (Romans 4:17). By the power of His Word, the crippled man is
healed, the royal official’s son is healed, the centurion’s servant is made
well. We are healed by grace through the power of the same word. Eternal truth is spoken into our temporal reality. Light shining into the darkness. As Augustin
says, the infinite being of God so permeates the existence of the finite and contingent
that His word is nearer to us than we are to ourselves.
When Jesus speaks to the healed man later in the story, the
Lord tells him to not sin anymore, so that nothing worse would happen to him. Considering
John 9 and other passages, I don’t think we can interpret this to mean the man’s
sin necessarily brought about his illness. Certainly, there are cases where sin
can cause physical and mental infirmity. There is something deeper in this
passage. Sin and its consequences are worse than the crippling illness suffered
by this man. As wonderful as it is to be healed from disease and deformity, there
is a surpassing wonder in the forgiveness of sins and being rejoined to God in
fellowship.
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