A Walking “Tent”

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The Sunday of Paralytic

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Often, as Christians, we become complacent when we hear Bible stories. Most of us have heard these stories since we were kids, so they no longer hold any surprises for us. As soon as the first few words are uttered, we grin knowing how it ends. The result is that we, unfortunately, stop asking questions about the text. 

But, this text, in particular, produces a lot of questions … one’s that bring enlightening answers about who Jesus is, what is ministry is about, and how we’re transformed.

If we go back, slow down, and reread the text with fresh eyes, hear it with new ears, then we start to wonder:

• What’s significance is there in the fact that this story takes place by the Sheep Gate at a pool? 
• Why five porticoes? Is this just a detail for narrative purposes?
• What led John to tell us that the man had been sick for 38 years? Does it matter how long he’s been sick?
• Is Jesus being insensitive when he asks if the man wants to be healed? Who wouldn’t want to be? After all, this man was at a healing pool waiting.
• This man was healed on the sabbath, how does this change things? In the greater context, we know that it was the Feast of Tabernacles … so what? 

It may seem like I’m asking these questions ad nauseam. After all, on the surface, this story is about a miracle. It’s about Jesus making a paralytic well. And many of us see this story as saying something about how Jesus also heals us from our brokenness. All this is true, but the spice of the story lies in the details, just waiting for us to discover something more … something that leads us closer to Christ.

Scripture: John 5:1-15 (click here to read)

Bottom Line: Only when we understand that scripture speaks of Christ, does it become a source of life.

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Discussion Questions

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1. Of all the things mentioned above (the Sheep Gate, the five porticoes, the water, etc.), how have you understood them? Are they just details or something more? What have they meant to you when you’ve read this passage in the past?
2. Jesus asks the man if he wants to be healed or, as some translations put it, if he wants to be healthy. Why do you think he first asks? What would you say if Jesus asked you? How would you feel about it?
3. This story takes place at the time of a feast called the Feast of Tabernacles. What do you know about this feast? Can you find a description of it in the Old Testament? What does it say there about the feast? 

Moving Forward

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To answer the questions posed above about today’s Gospel reading, it helps to start with a bit of background information. 

John tells us that this particular story takes place during the Judean Feast of Tabernacles. This feast is a celebration of the Hebrew’s liberation from slavery in Egypt. After they crossed the Red Sea and received the Law at Mt. Sinai, they had to wander in the desert for 38 years (there’s that number!) before crossing the brook Zered into the Promised Land, where they’d eventually make their home. 

While they wandered, they needed someplace to sleep, so they would construct tents called “tabernacles.” They also constructed a “main tabernacle” that functioned as a temple (the plans for it were given directly to Moses on Mt. Sinai along with the Law). This tabernacle was known as the Tabernacle. 

Like the Temple, which would be built later, the Tabernacle wasn’t just a “temple,” but a sign of God’s presence among his people. In addition, the Tabernacle was a symbolic microcosm of the world. It looked forward to a time when creation will be renewed and when God will dwell and rest within creation.

Today, this feast is still celebrated by Jews in the fall. You may know it as Sukkot. As a part of the celebration, they construct a temporary “tabernacle” in front of their homes and synagogues in remembrance of when their ancestors wandered in the desert and awaited their homecoming in a land promised to them by God.

During the time of Jesus, the Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated in Jerusalem at the Temple. The feast included many celebrations and liturgical rites, one of particular interest for us. In this rite, the priests would go down to the Sheep Gate (here’s one of our keywords!) and take water from the pool. They would then pour the water over the altar of the Temple so that it would flow down under the threshold of the Temple.

Why is this important to know? Well … note that the Temple, like the Tabernacle, was a microcosm of restored creation. To think of it another way, the Temple represented the Garden of Eden, the paradise from which the water of life flowed. In fact, Ezekiel the prophet had a vision of a restored temple that had this same water of life flowing from it. This rite allowed those first-century Judeans to realize a restored creation in much the same way we realize it through the Divine Liturgy.

So, John draws on all of this: the history, the temple rite, and the symbolism. But, he makes one huge adjustment.

John insists—and, so do we as Christians—that the Temple is no longer the place where God resides within creation, the connection between heaven and earth. No longer does the Temple represent the creation. Now—and this is important—heaven and earth come together in the person of Jesus Christ. The Tabernacle and the Temple merely foreshadowed Christ and pointed to him.

In other words, Jesus is now the Temple! He’s the true Tabernacle. And, it’s from him that the water of life comes flowing (hint: water flows out from his side at the crucifixion). John says this very clearly in his opening chapter: “And the Logos became flesh and pitched a tent [“tabernacled”] among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the Father’s only one, full of grace and truth” (1:14). This statement is realized when Jesus comes to the pool and heals the paralytic. The man is restored and becomes fully human if you will. He represents the restoration of all creation.

Therefore, if Jesus is the true Temple, and the real life-giving water flows from him, then Jesus is the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles. No longer do the priests need to draw water from the pool at the Sheep Gate and carry it to the Temple. The Temple now comes to us and asks, “Do you wish to become healthy?” 

Jesus does this act of restoration on the sabbath. No longer is God at rest. He’s now among us working for our salvation. It’s now that creation is being restored and transfigured. It’s now that we are becoming who we were meant to be: fully human in the image of the crucified Christ.

Asking questions about this passage has led us to have a much deeper understanding of what’s happening here. It’s more than just a miracle story. It’s the entire gospel in a nutshell: how God sets things right and restores creation. 

But, to see this, we have to see Christ in all of scripture. What I mean is that we have to understand that the Tabernacle and the Temple point to Jesus. The history of Israel, including the liberation of the Hebrews, the giving of the Law, and the years in the desert, all lead to Christ. This is what the five porticoes represent. Five is the magic number that symbolizes the Law, the Five Books of Moses. The Law, by itself, it just a book. But, when we see Christ in its pages, then we have water that gives us life.

So, the question remains: Do you want to become healthy?

Changing Your Mind 

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“Afterward Jesus finds [the healed man] in the Temple and said to him, ‘See, you have become well; sin no more, so that something worse may not happen to you.’” (John 5:15)