John 5:5-12 (Common English Bible)

A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.

When Jesus saw him lying there, knowing that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

The sick man answered him, “Sir, I don’t have anyone who can put me in the water when it is stirred up. When I’m trying to get to it, someone else has gotten in ahead of me.”

Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

Immediately the man was well, and he picked up his mat and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. The Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It’s the Sabbath; you aren’t allowed to carry your mat.”

He answered, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” They inquired, “Who is this man who said to you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?”

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I have this memory from when I was 5 years old.

Shortly before I was to begin kindergarten at Grant Wood Elementary School in Bettendorf Iowa, we went shopping for school supplies. I think it was at Yonkers, but it might’ve been at Turnstyle, that I first saw the stack of mats.

They were all the same- blue on one side, red on the other. Each one folded like an accordion into a square. I picked up the mat that would be mine and I carried it throughout the store and held onto it all the way home.

When we got home, my mom wrote in big letters on the top edge of the mat, Steve M because in the 1960s, every classroom had two or three Steves, and we didn’t want my mat to be confused with Steve P or Steve R’s mat.

For the days leading up to the beginning of school, I broke in my mat- I would sit on my mat, stretch out on it, play on it, watch TV on it, look at books on it. It was mine.

Once school began my mat stayed in its assigned place in the classroom until the teacher would tell us all to get our mats out for rest time. I hated rest time. It felt like such a waste, but I loved my mat. It was mine. It didn’t matter that it looked like everybody else’s. It was my mat.

In Jesus’ day, mats weren’t blue on one side and red on the other, they weren’t pieces of material sewn together and stuffed with pieces of foam rubber.

A typical mat in the first century would be weaved from palm leaves, or from papyrus. Some mats might have been embroidered with a symbol or image that indicated to whom the mat belonged.

Almost everybody, rich, poor, rural, urban, young, old owned a mat, they weren’t just for kindergartners or yogis. For most, their mat was their bed. It would be rolled out at night and placed on the floor. In the mornings the mat would be rolled up and placed in a corner. Only the wealthy could afford mattresses stuffed with straw and only the Uber wealthy had wooden beds. Everybody else had a mat.

If a person was traveling, they would carry their mat with them so that they had it wherever they bedded down for the night.

For the homeless, their mat often served as their home. They carried it with them and laid it down to claim a spot.

John 5 tells an fascinating tale about a person who was in need of healing. He has been disabled for 38 years and finds himself living on a mat.

Perhaps when he was younger, family members and friends had taken him to Galilee to the many sulphur springs near the sea where it was claimed healing took place. They might have taken him to some of the many healers that practiced in Galilee as well.

No healing had happened and now the man sits, alone, on his mat, in Jerusalem by the pool of Bethesda.

Perhaps in the 38 years since the onset of his disability, his family and friends had died, or moved on, but he appears to be all alone in his predicament by the Bethesda Pool, living off the alms of strangers and desperately hoping to make it into the pool.

There was a common belief that the pool had healing powers. It was said that when the waters in the pool moved, an angel‘s wing was flapping against the waters and that the first one in received divine healing.

And so our disabled man, along with dozens of others who are infirm, hangs out day by day at the pool. We don’t know his disability- the Greek word ασθένεια, simply means weak. We do know that his infirmity will not allow him to get to the pool when the water starts moving before others get there and so he continually misses out on any miraculous healing powers.

So day after day, he sits on his mat, hoping that this might be the day that he will make it to the water or that somebody will come by and help him.

Jesus is in Jerusalem for a festival.

He is walking along and encounters a mass of people gathered around Bethesda Pool waiting for healing.

While the Scripture doesn’t tell us about how Jesus responds to the others, it does tell us that he focuses on this one guy on his mat.

Jesus walks directly to him. “Would you like to be healed?”

“Yes, but I don’t have anybody to help me into the pool when the water moves.” Perhaps the man is getting excited at the prospects of someone assisting him into the pool.

But Jesus says, “Let’s do better than that. Pick up that mat of yours and be on your way.”

And the man does.

Feeling the strength return to his legs, he stands up. He leans over and rolls up his mat, tucks it under his arm and walks off.

Beautiful story.

Hmmm! I’m curious though. Why does Jesus tell the man to pick up his mat?

Wouldn’t the cool thing for Jesus to do is have the healed man stand up, leave his wretched mat behind and move on with his life. That would be a real demonstration of healing power.

So, why does Jesus to tell the man to pick up his mat and walk, rather than just stand up and walk?

I guess one reason might be that Jesus is making a stand against littering, but I doubt it.

Maybe Jesus is trying to tick off the religious leaders. If that is the intent, it certainly works. As the man is walking away with his mat under his arm, some religious leaders call out to him.

“Hey you, Why are you carrying that mat on Saturday. You know its against the moral law to carry stuff on the Sabbath.”

The man responds. “Oops. All I know is that I couldn’t stand, let alone walk, let alone carry a mat, but a man healed me and told me to carry my mat so I am.”

Notice that the religious leaders do not then say “congrats on the healing” or “wow, good for you.” Their only response is “hmpf, well he told you to break the law then. Who was it?”

The whole experience sets up a great opportunity for Jesus to proclaim the good news about God’s sovereign grace and amazing love.

Maybe Jesus wants the man to pick up the mat because the mat on the ground serves as a place holder.

If the healing doesn’t take, he can always return to his mat. I have read about healing services where people went forward to be healed and gave up their crutches and walkers only to be given them again when they walked off stage because as the euphoria passed, and the psychosomatic response of the body faded, the people would need their medical assistance devices again.

Perhaps, “pick up your mat” is Jesus’ way of saying to the man, “this time the healing is permanent. Once the mat is picked up, somebody else will fill in the space where the mat has been. But mat guy, you don’t need that space because you have been touched by God’s mercy.”

Maybe, when Jesus says “pick up your mat,” he is acknowledging that the mat has been a part of this man’s journey.

All those years, the mat had signaled the man’s brokenness. Now, as it is carried off, it signals the man’s wholeness.

The mat is a scar to be shown off.

The author Steve Goodier, probably known in Kindergarten as Steve G, writes “My scars remind me that I did indeed survive my deepest wounds. That in itself is an accomplishment. And they bring to mind something else, too. They remind me that the damage life has inflicted on me has, in many places, left me stronger and more resilient. What hurt me in the past has actually made me better equipped to face the present.”

The mat will forever serve as a reminder.

My guess is that if you could visit the man after Jesus told him to pick up his mat and walk, you would notice two mats in his home. One, the mat the he slept on that he acquired after the healing, and one, tattered and dirty after serving as the man’s resting place in the dirt for years on end, now rolled up and standing in the corner, a reminder of grace experienced.

Do you have a mat or two rolled up in a corner somewhere?

Amen.

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Pastoral Prayer

Gracious God,

Our Liberator, our Healer,

Every day you summon us to take up our mat and walk. Every day you stir up within us a call to repentance, a vision of your kingdom, and a desire to offer ourselves to your loving work. Enlighten our lives with your grace so that we might fully give ourselves to you and to others.

Sovereign Lord, Parent of all by the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray for our leaders. As they debate a seemingly endless list of policies, may they debate in charity. May they be quick to listen and slow to speak, quick to action and slow to partisanship. May we be ever mindful that our unity in Christ supersedes our division of politic. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever,

Amen.