Take Up Thy Bed and Walk

“TT7HY did our Lord single out one sufferer amid the many at the pool of Bethesda? There were a multitude of impotent folk lying in the” five porches” or colonnades, waiting for the moving of the waters. But we do not read that the Divine Healer wrought a miracle for any more than this single invalid. The reason, I conjecture, is this: no one at that pool of mercy was so pitiably unbefriended as this man. He had lain there for a long time, and been tantalized by seeing other and nimbler patients reach the healing waters before he could creep in. Others had friends to help them. But this poor forsaken creature had no one. not even a wife or child, to assist him into the pool. Suffering often makes people selfish. Perhaps, then, the loving Lord intended to rebuka the selfishness of the neglectful, as well as to show his sympathy for the neglected, by curing this one friendless cripple on the spot. There is a beautiful lesson here for us. Beside every pool of privilege, or mercy, in human life, there are one or more unbefriended sufferers, whose trials are aggravated by seeing others relieved, but no relief comes to them. Jesua teaches us to look after those who have nobody to care for them.

This is one lesson to be learned at Bethesda — which signifies the “house of mercy.” There is another lesson which we would press home upon all our unconverted readers. It fits their case exactly. In all our congregations are more or less of spiritually diseased persons, who are seen every Sabbath in God’s House of Mercy. Their disease is sin. Whether blinded by it, or lamed, or withered, or paralyzed, the root of the malady is a sinful unbelieving heart. They expect, at some time or other, to become Christians

Not one of them expects to “make his bed in hell.” Yet every one of them does lie, and persists in lying, upon a bed of criminal delay — waiting for they can hardly tell what. A word now to each of these.

One of you, perhaps, is waiting for a powerful revival, when the waters will be greatly troubled, and then you will be cured. But Christ nowhere tells sinners to wait for revivals. “Now is your day of salvation;’7 and now don’t mean to-morrow. Jesus Christ is as close to you to-day as he ever will be. No one else can ever cure your wicked heart. Here is another unconverted person who is waiting for some “angel,” in the shape of a powerful, thrilling sermon, or a peculiar providence which shall arouse you and do the needed work. You are mistaken. If you thus dictate to God, he will not do your bidding. A greater than any angel is beside you now; neither is there salvation in any other. It is not more sermons you need, nor startling providences; you need Jesus.

Another is waiting for “more conviction.’7 How much do you require in order to accept Christ? How much did the cripple at Bethesda? If you admit that you are a sinner, and that unless Jesus saves you you will be lost, this is enough conviction to start with. To tell Grod that you will never serve him until he smites you with intense sorrow for sin, is an insult; it increases your guilt. No “angel” is going to trouble your stagnant heart with healing power while you are insulting Grod. ISTor need you wait for some wonderful conversion. To each one of you lingerers and loiterers in sin, let me say you are cheating yourself with the devil’s delusion.

Your immediate duty is all condensed into that one pithy sentence which Jesus spake to the cripple at the pool: “Arise, take up thy bed and walk.” You are on your bed now. You put yourself there by your own sin. You have kept yourself there by your own choice. Every sinner is a sinner because he chooses to be; and you are no exception. Jesus commands you to repent, and trust him, and follow him. The moment )7ou are willing to obey, he gives you strength to obey. Christ commanded that poor, miserable creature, at Bethesda, who had been “in that case” for thirty-eight years to “stand up.” What, on those weak and withered limbs? Yes; for he could have no others to stand on. And the moment he obeys, and makes the honest attempt, a new power shoots through the nerves and muscles. The man is not lifted up. He rises up himself, and on his own limbs. But Jesus furnishes the strength. The man wanted to get up, and made a resolute effort to get up, and a supernatural power came into him, and enabled him to get up. His part in this happy transaction was faith; Christ’s part was grace. Put the two together and you have the history of every conversion that ever took place in our world.

Now what hinders every unconverted sinner who reads these lines from being healed at once? To lie still means guilt, uneasiness of conscience, and final death. It means a wasted life here, and hell hereafter. The first act you honestly perform to please Christ breaks the spell. The first prayer you breathe sincerely for a new heart, and the first sin you refuse because Jesus bids you, puts you on your feet. These steps are all your steps. But the Divine Love moves you to take them, and gives you the sufficient strength. I heard a man pray and speak last night, who for fifty years has lain on a bed of abominable impenitence. He is now walking — and walking with Jesus. His first steps were feeble and awkward. But he means, with God’s help, never to go down on that mattress of sloth and unbelief again. Another man I heard at that meeting who had often lain in the stupefaction of strong drink. He took hold on Jesus’ mighty hand, and immediately his feet and ankle -bones received strength. He is to-day “walking, and leaping, and praising God.”

Here is the transcendent lesson of Bethesda. It teaches every sinner who desires salvation that all he must do is to obey Jesus. The “angel” you wait for will never come. Death will soon stand beside your “bed” of guilty delay. Jesus is already beside you with his warm heart of love. His short simple command is, “Arise, take up thy bed and walhP