John 5 - Stirring

There was a lot of stirring in the beginning of John 5. Jesus asks a man who had been ill for over 30 years whether he wants to be made well. After replying that he wasn’t able to get into the healing waters of the pool of Bethsaida (which he said needed to be stirred up to aid in healing), Jesus heals him. Jesus also stirs up the ire of the legalists who were outraged that Jesus would tell the man to pick up his mat and walk and that Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath. Lots getting stirred up. Reminds me of something I’ve heard Rep. John Lewis share several times...that sometimes you need to stir things up. In one speech, he said, “Now more than ever before, it is time for each of us to get in trouble — good trouble, necessary trouble,”. This was a stirring up of good trouble that Jesus did at that pool and for this man. Stirring up about how sometimes you need to push back against the establishment to get things back to the core of what is essential. In this case, it was trying to get back to the spirit of what Sabbath was supposed to be - a compassionate day for rest and renewal. What better thing to do on the sabbath than to heal someone who had been suffering for so long? What does that say for me today? How can I be stirring the waters and causing some “good trouble, necessary trouble?”

The stone today finds itself in a big ol puddle outside our house after two big rounds of thunderstorms rolled through. If you look closely, you’ll see a few ripples coming out from the stone just after I placed it down. Stirring up the waters.