Walking Free

THIS WEEK was my Spring Break, and I'm going back to school tomorrow. It's been nice to be back with my family for a little while. It was a special week. My lovely cousin Rina slept over a couple days ago, and yesterday in Texas my Uncle Steve and my new Aunt Shannon were married. I got to go all around the city with my mom to drop off cakes and help my sister babysit our little cousins Maya and Marco. Weeks like these are special to me.

Hanging out with babies is the coolest. To them, everything is new and amazing. This week was the first time I've seen one year old Marco walking. This guy would not tolerate being put into his play pin because he didn't want to stop walking. He has to be out and about, making his feet strong. There was no time to waste.

There is something special about being able to walk. There is a certain freedom to being able to pull yourself up off the ground and move yourself as far as you need to go. Not everybody has the privilege, and if you can walk it's easy to start taking it for granted.

One day Jesus was in Jerusalem by a pool near the Sheep Gate, and He saw a multitude of disabled people. They all sat there waiting for the water to be stirred up, because they believed the first one in would be healed. Jesus searched out one in particular, one who had been unable to walk for almost forty years.

John 5:6-7 "When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, 'Do you want to be made well?' The sick man answered Him, 'Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.'"

Can you imagine not walking for decades, and having no hope of ever walking again? Think of everything you couldn't do. Think of what you could miss. Hear the desperation in the voice of that man by the Sheep Gate as he tells the Lord that he has no hope of being healed.

v. 8 "Jesus said to him, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk.'"

Jesus got in trouble for healing this guy, because He made him carry his bed on the Sabbath day.

That man walked away with his mind changed. It must have been like sprouting wings! It must have been like being a child again. He probably didn't want to stop walking once he had started.

Jesus not only healed that guy's body, but He healed his soul too. He was crippled and hopeless, but he walked away nonetheless by the power of God, because God looked at him in love.

When my Uncle Neil and Aunt Trisha came to pick up Maya and Marco, I could see on their faces that there is no greater joy in their lives than those two kids. Even though Maya left kicking and screaming because she was having so much fun, my uncle dealt with her so patiently, like our Father deals with us.

I think that one day when I have kids it will probably teach me a lot about how God looks at us. But I know that any good parent loves his kids more than anything. My own parents happen to be the best example of earthly good parenting I've seen.

Besides healing people on the Sabbath, Jesus got into a lot of trouble for referring to God as His Father. The implications are huge.

How much must God love us to give His Son for us? It makes me think of my uncle Neil and Maya and Marco. Nothing is more precious in his life than those little people. But God gave His Son. I remember a skit by the Skit Guys on YouTube, where a man looks at his baby son and says that if he had to do something like that, "the world would be out of luck." We can't imagine how much He loves us.

In John 5:26-27 Jesus says, "For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man."

Son of God, Son of Man. One with God, One of us. Righteous, but in the form of sin. He had to be broken to be glorified. He had to die to make us live. The antidote to a previously incurable disease. Strength for the feet of a lame man. God saw this as worth giving the life of His own Son for, to make us His sons and daughters too.

God came in the flesh to make us free. The freedom Marco feels crossing a room on his short legs. The same freedom felt by the man by the Sheep Gate who begins to walk against all odds! He came to bear our griefs and let us walk free.