May 25, 2025 · Rev. Derek van Gulden · Revelation 22:1-5; John 5:1-9
Jesus asks a man who has waited thirty-eight years by the healing pool whether he wants to be well, then simply tells him to pick up his mat and walk. Rev. Derek van Gulden remembers shipmates leaving invisible baggage in a dumpster on the pier after the Gulf War, and finds hope in the invitation to set some of our burdens down.
Transcript
People of God. Would you join me in a moment of prayer? Gracious and holy God, in this moment of this day, I ask you to move the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts by your love, and help each of us not to be the instrument of our own or anyone else's oppression, but to find ways to be an instrument of peace in every step, in every breath, and every moment of every day. Amen.
The passage from John John five, verses one to nine is one that is known as Jesus heals on the Sabbath. Now, in the part that Jim read, we heard nothing about the Sabbath, and that actually is on purpose. I want to concentrate on that first part, because I believe there's a very strong message in there that we need to hear in this present day a message of hope. But let me chat a little bit about it.
So Jesus is walking around and he goes by the sheep gate. Sheep gate. Yes, the sheep gate where there's different pools, pools that were felt to be able to heal people. If they got in the water after an angel of God would come down and stir the water up. It was believed at that time, the first person in the water was the one who was healed.
And there was this gentleman who we understand was there for thirty eight years, who had not been well. It doesn't say what his ailment was, and out of nowhere the stranger walks up to him and says, hey, do you want to be healed? It was a question. And yet we notice. That this gentleman doesn't answer Jesus. He goes on to explain to Jesus why he hasn't been able to get into the water, because he needs help to get up. He needs somebody to help him get into the pool. And when he's trying to get up and get in there. Lo and behold, someone or some people jump in before him. And he's been going through this for thirty eight years.
And finally, Jesus just looks at him and says. Get up. Pick up your mat and walk. Pretty simple.
The fascinating thing is a couple of things is one, we get that whole picture laid out for us where the sheep's gate is these five different porticos of water, how it works, what the gentleman's been going through. And yet, in the healing part of the story, Jesus doesn't ask him what his ailment is. Jesus doesn't talk about the water. He just says to the man, get up, take your mat and walk away.
So my question to you, and you don't have to say it out loud unless you wish to, is, if you were that man today, if somebody came up to you, a total stranger who you didn't know, but maybe had a feeling they were somebody special and said to you, do you want to get better today? Do you want to be healed today? What would you do? Truthfully? Say yes. Yes. Say yes. Good answer. Anybody else? So you want me to say to you.
Well, truthfully, when I talk to people and we've I've done this with other pastors. And that's the first thing I thought of is who are you? Who are you? We live in a world where we've become so suspicious of everybody for many different reasons. Anybody else? Skeptical. Skeptical. How are you going to do it? How are you going to do it? Those are all great. I hadn't thought of that one. And what would you do if after you said what you needed done? This person just said, stand up, pick up your mat and walk away. We believe that's a good one. Very good one to do.
There is another piece of gospel from the Gospel of Luke, chapter two that paralyse paralyze parallels this one. It's paralyzing to the other one. And it's the story of the paralytic who is dropped down through the roof, a hole in the roof that his friends had made right to the foot of Jesus on a mat that they had tied rope to the four corners. And Jesus looks at him and then looks up at the people that did it. And he said, because of their faith, you are healed. Get up, take your mat and go home. In that story, it's fairly clear we know the person's a paralytic. We know because of his friend's faith, he is healed. And Jesus says, pick up your mat and go home.
But in this story, there's a lot of mystery behind it. I've read the story to numerous people over the years, and partly because I'm still trying to find my way through that piece of scripture. What would I do? At one point in life, maybe even today, I would probably look up and go. But the baggage I have with me is too much for me to handle. There aren't enough suitcases. I can't even drag it on the mat because they won't all fit on the mat. I've been there more than once.
Another one was how much time of myself do I have to invest in this healing thing? Just to stand up, pick up my mat and walk. It seems simple and I'm not sure if I know how to do simple. I'm not sure I can do simple because I have a feeling that I at times make things so difficult. Trying to figure out what it is that I'm being healed from. And why do I deserve to be healed?
Or maybe at other times I wouldn't say. Maybe at other times I would be one going. But I've been in this situation for so long. I know it's not healthy, but it's what I know it's safe. Even if it's painful. It's what I've learned to put up with. To any of those ring true for any of you? Is it just me? It's okay to raise your hand. Smile. Something. Everybody's gone through life pretty easy. MM. Yeah.
The time I learned about the baggage was, one of my. That's always sounds funny when I say this. One of my war buddies was about four feet eight. She was, English and had grown up in Saudi Arabia. Her father ran, a very large chemical, chemical plant for Exxon. She spoke multiple languages and she came from Louisiana. When I first met her, we all did. We were kind of like, well, that's not a southern accent. And she's very clear, no, I'm British. But over the period of time that we served together in the Gulf, there was about ten of us who became fairly close. And when we all had time off, we would go do something with her leading us because she spoke the language.
And when we got back to the States after being at sea for quite a while, and you pull up to the pier and there's bands playing and they're throwing carnations on you and all this other stuff. The ten of us kind of got together down on the pier and our sea bags here, and we didn't go anywhere. And I assumed, and I think we all assumed, that having gone through something that was hard to explain to other people, including family. Going home felt a little scary. And here was this young woman had lived more life than most of us, just where she lived throughout the world and said, you know, my seabag feels heavier today than it did when we first boarded the ship. And I think I'm going to take some stuff out and just leave it here. She opened her sea bag and she started to pull things out, but there was nothing in her hands. She pulled things out. She went to a big dumpster. She pulled things out. She went to the big dumpster.
And then we all started doing it. The only thing we did was we were actually tossing stuff in. And she said the idea is to leave some of your baggage here. And if that means not carrying home the excess of your military clothing or what civilian clothing we had, the idea is to emotionally leave some here and to tell yourself and each other, it's okay. It's okay to leave some of that behind. And we did. And you know what? Our sea bags felt much lighter, even though they were filled with the same stuff. None of us were bringing souvenirs home because it. Well, you just didn't bring souvenirs home. You didn't really want to bring anything with you.
As I went through life or as I go through life, there are other times when I remember that and I need to do that. Times where I just throw stuff away. The last time was for about three months. One summer we had a giant dumpster in the back, and we were getting rid of stuff that I think no one knew we had. Stuff that was all up in Dan's space up there. Stuff from all over the place, broken chairs, broken this, broken that. And once in a while I'd see somebody just standing there, reach down and pick something up and throw it. There was nothing in their hands. I didn't ask them, but to me, I said, you're right. We all need to do that.
I get asked quite often and I ask this myself, where is the hope today in our lives when so much is changing? When it seems those that have so little in Scripture, it would be the orphans and the widows, those who had been cast out. Outside of cultural boundaries for any little thing. Such as an ailment, such as being unable to get up and walk. Those very people that Jesus has taught us to bring back in. To society. Because all of us are created in the very image of God. Everybody is beloved by God. Jesus made sure there was always room at the table, no matter who he sat with and ate with. And he ate with so many different people. He healed so many different people by bringing them back in and saying, yes, you are of value. It doesn't matter what's going on with you. You are forgiven. Your faith has healed you. Come to the table. We want you.
And yet not all of a sudden. But right now, in our world. I'm talking globally, I guess throughout creation. So many, so many millions of individuals that don't seem to fit someone's idea of what a human should be. Are being pushed to the side instead of finding more homes for people to live in, finding more ways to give people insurance, more ways to get food to those who don't have it, to get health care to those that aren't having it, it's being taken away. It is so unbelievable. And yet it's happening all over the created world.
So where do we find hope? For me, it's been in this piece of scripture. This simple piece. Where Jesus looks at somebody who has been suffering for so many years. Thirty eight years. And just says, pick up your mat. And walk away. I don't believe he's saying walk away from the situation. He's saying, pick up your mat and walk. And to me, what I hear is there are there is hope. Even when we can't believe that there's any hope, there is hope. Jesus doesn't do this out of any other reason, except for the fact that this is who he is. He wanted to heal everybody. He wants to be with everybody. He wants to make everybody welcome back in to humanity and creation.
And as far as working on the Sabbath, I don't believe that work was work for Jesus. I believe it's what he believed. I believed what he knew his ministry was and why he was there. And I believe from reading everything we know and what we don't know about Jesus through the Gospels, it's who he was. I don't think it's worked for him. I think it comes from that deep seated love for all, all humanity, all creation. And the angels are singing in the background.
So when you. Get exhausted from being overwhelmed by the news that comes at you twenty four hours a day, even longer, just over and over and over and over and over. No matter where you look, you turn the TV on your cups up on your cell phone. You open your laptop because you want to text a friend or email a friend, and there it is, right in front of your face. I believe that in those moments, because this has been my practice that I'm still working on. That Jesus is telling me, get up, pick up your mat and move on. You get nothing from what you're watching there. Give yourself a break. I find hope in that. I find hope in this story.
So what would you do when Jesus comes to you and says, stand up. Pick up your mat and go. How would you respond? What would the mat be for you? And how can you lighten your load a little bit? I know I just gave you a lot more questions, but the answers are right there. Leave what you need to do. Leave behind.
Remember Jesus says, take my yoke upon you for my work. My yoke is light and you will be able to move forward. He never says he's doing everything for you. He says in that moment. That's Matthew eleven twenty eight to thirty. What Jesus is saying in that moment is, let me carry some of it. And together we will walk and you will find your load lightened. And together we will move forward.
I hope. That as I have found, you can find hope in that scripture that we heard today. You can hear Jesus saying to you, stand up, pick up your mat and go. Knowing if you want, you can leave whatever you need to behind. May you find grace and hope in that, and may you pass that on to others. Amen.