John 5

The scandals continue.  Jesus heals on the Sabbath and then even tells the man who is healed to get up and take his mat with him. Carrying a burden is work and the people were to do no work on the Sabbath - the day of rest. Jesus tells this man, in essence, to break the sabbath law.

Have there been Sabbath rules or traditions in your church or in your family?  Are there or were there things you were or were not supposed to do on Sunday? Are there still? Are there still some practiced by others whom you know? As you reflect on them, do these practices help or hinder your faith?

For Jesus it was more important to do this good work of healing than to not do it just because it was the Sabbath. When have you been challenged to put your faith into practice even when it went contrary to your traditions?

Have you ever been like the religious leaders in this story and judged someone for their actions that were different than the norm? What have you said or done to "rule breakers?"  What do you think you might have said or done about Jesus - the rule breaker?

Jesus - a wood worker or more?  Tradition holds that Joseph was a carpenter or a wood worker. He would have raised Jesus to learn the family business.  Jesus would be a wood worker. How ironic that his biggest work would be done on a cross made out of wood!

But Jesus was also the Son of God and here Jesus follows in his divine Father's footsteps not as a wood worker but as a people worker! Though in all of the Bible we find God rests one day out of all of eternity, God is an eternal worker of divine miracles. God is still working on me, how about you? Believe the Word and the Work of God!

Tradition holds that two or more witnesses are needed for an accusation. Jesus offers two witnesses in the forms of God as Creator or Father and the Holy Spirit. God is a witness through the Scriptures and the things written about Jesus and The Spirit is a witness in the things people have heard or witnessed. Our faith is based on past and present. What have you heard, read experienced about Jesus?  But what are you reading, experiencing, learning today? Who are the witnesses you hear today? What might you testify?  whom might you tell?