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Stand up, take your mat and walk.

March 29, 2022

Ezekiel 47:1–9,12 | John 5:1–18 | Psalm 46:1–8

In today’s Gospel from John, Jesus encounters a man at the pool of Beth-zatha in Jerusalem who had been lame for 38 years. After Jesus asks him if he would like to be made well, the man explained that he could not get himself into the pool. Jesus then tells him to “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”

In town, he encounters other Jews who point out he shouldn’t be carrying his mat on the Sabbath. Really? I mean, I would have laid my best Dustin Hoffman on them and said “I’m walking here” and maybe danced an Irish jig. 

How often do we get mired down in the structure of life that we miss the miracles that we encounter on a daily basis? We need to open our eyes and absorb the reality of what we see, appreciating the goodness bestowed upon us, and maybe not look for a minor flaw that really has little to no consequence.

Michael Sullivan