Bathing in Dirty Water

January 20, 2018

Bathing in Dirty Water

John 5:1-6 (Message)

^1-6 Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people- blind, crippled and paralyzed- were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?”

Water is imperative to the survival of an individual.

As I was thinking about the context of this journal many things came to mind where the initial premise has changed although the heart of it remains the same.

In life we look for things to be awesome. We have goals dreams and vision for the direction we plan to go, yet not always does it turn out to be as we thought the journey should be.

Last week I shared a blog called “Where Do I Belong?” It talked about how we have a tendency of having goals and visions, but as time would have it we tend to lose our way and find ourselves in a vortex where we lose the light at the end of the tunnel.

This week I am building on this.

When I was younger my family grew up in a house that had well water and a lot of iron deposits. We were the ones that would drink out of the garden hose on a hot summer day because it was convenient and very cold and refreshing water. We would in fact overlook the iron flavor because it was refreshing on those hot days. Today people would think drinking from a garden hose would be unsanitary, but is it?

A few years ago, when I met my girlfriend and her kids they told me that bottled water tasted different, and I thought they were full of it. They would for the most part only drink Zephyrhills water. Admittedly I just thought they were just being water snobs until they put several waters to the test for me. To my surprise they were right. Zephyrhills water tasted much better than an Aquafina or any other water on the market.

Now my point is not to promote water rather to say what we put in and even bath in makes a difference. Too often we find ourselves in our daily walk preverbally drinking from the garden hose because it is convenient or sufficing with bottled water that is subpar to other that are better.

In other terms imagine bathing in water that was dirty to get clean. Before running water, and my mother has attested to this, families would gather enough water to fill a tub and each family member would use the same water to bath in because it was a lot of work to cart fresh water for each person’s use. As a result, most families would bath maybe once a week and the one who was the last got the short end of the stick. Keep in mind that many families at the time were relatively large so by the time the last one would bath the water was pretty dirty and cold, but this was reality and that was acceptable.

Very often we do the same thing in life. Sure, it may not be the dirty water, but it may be the things we read, say do, people we associate with, the compromise of our morals or beliefs and so on. As a result, we fill up that tub once and expect the water to be clean each time we use it. We take a drink from what is convenient simply because that is what we do. In the process we look for God to bless us, heal us, clean us and nourish us. We look for Him to fulfill our dreams and in the process, are okay with the status quo. When someone shows us or tells us there is something better and what we have partaken in for so long could be bad for us and there is a better solution we look at them with this indigent look as if they are crazy or a water snob and continue with that which we are used to.

When you look at the verse in John 5 you see an encounter with a man who obviously everyone knew and knew his plight and situation. Scripture reads that he was there in the gate or alcove coming back to the pool where he knew there was healing for thirty-eight years. Even Jesus knew him, but did the man know the one he was talking to? Was he aware that there was a different way and something better?

Too often we allow status quo to dictate our direction and realize the one we are talking to is an answer to our prayer. We expect God to do the same thing for us as He did for someone else almost like getting that perfectly cut cookie or biscuit cut with a cookie cutter or biscuit cutter and assuming that is the only flavor and shape there is only to find out there are drop biscuits that taste just as good or Kolaczkis filled with the decadent jam and sprinkled with powder sugar. So often we expect God to do something new with the same old thing. Jesus talked about this as well (Mark 2) where someone would not take new wine and put it in an old wineskin as it would burst and what was new would spill out and be lost.

Before we can understand how God will rectify our circumstances and set things straight to receive His healing and blessing we must understand a few things. First, we must change our habits. Some of the things we are allowing into our lives is no different than bathing in dirty water our being okay with drinking bad tasting water. Maybe that water is the music we listen to or the movies we watch. When we first heard it we winced at the vulgar language or the underlying sexual content portrayed and what once made us uncomfortable now seems common.

Secondly, we need to recognize God doesn’t do the same thing for everyone. Until we

understand what our calling is we cannot understand what God is about to do in our

circumstances. One person’s financial blessing may be your simply because you are not

used to it or have the knowledge to understand how to manage it. Likewise, what God does

in someone’s life is unique to their character and personality. If God did in your life that

which was exciting to someone else, say like a mission’s trip where many people got saved

because someone had the ability to speak or build a building and you find that God

provided the resources for them to go as well as take care of their needs you may feel very

out of place and fearful of not having your needs met not having he same result. God

certainly, knows our needs and our direction. He would not put us in a compromising

position or give us the wrong resources to fulfil the goals He has in story for us.

Thirdly are you okay with the ‘status quo?’ Too often we tend to do the same thing over and again simply because it is comfortable, and we are used to it, but as a result are we becoming too shortsighted that we miss the blessing standing right in front of us? It is so easy to be used to the same old things, but as a result to we hold on to those things that are not good for us for the things that could be better simply because the unknown takes faith and it could be too scary to step out? When I lost my last job, I found I compromised what I wanted to security and consistency, but I didn’t realize until I lost my job I was killing my soul due to my compromise. I did not know the blessing that was standing before me. I did not realize what God had in store because I thought He could bless in the same old thing with the attitude of status quo rather than stepping out in faith.

Much to the chagrin John tells us there is a man who for thirty years expected God to heal him but did everything the same way thinking that God would bless him the same way that he had seen others before him healed. If you continue to read on you find further dialog between Jesus and the man.

“The sick man said, ‘Sir, when the water is stirred, I don’t have anybody to help me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody is already in.”

What Jesus may have witnessed is someone who was saying, ‘Look I missed out on my blessing because of someone else.’ Or He could have seen someone who had expressed, ‘Because of my state maybe God doesn’t want me healed.’ Either way Jesus put both factors to rest testing the man to see what he was made of and if he truly wanted something different and new or if he was willing to live in his crippled state.

“Jesus said, ‘Get up, take up your bedroll and start walking.’ The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.”

You see God gave him a second chance. He saw the state he was in the years that he lived in

status quo and even the excuses. He saw the man’s desire to see God intervene and his

expectations for somebody else to help be that one in his time of struggle and need. He

recognized the dirty water he had in his spirit that for thirty-eight years was okay with

sitting in an archway without resolve and in pure abandonment not knowing if God was

going to change the circumstances. And he saw a man who didn’t even recognize his healer

was standing in front of him and with one statement showed him grace and a second

chance and his all in all.

Are you the cripple man waiting for God to intervene in your situation? Are you that one who is drinking whatever water you can because it is convenient or bathing in the same dirty water because it is what you have always done and yet expect God to fulfill those dreams that showed you once before? God is showing you that there is something different. He is showing you that there is something more refreshing. He is showing you that there is a different way to change your crippling circumstances, but it requires you to change your habits, fix your perspective and step out in faith. Are you ready?