steps down before me.” Jesus then said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk!” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his mat and walked.
Now that day happened to be the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had just been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and the Law doesn’t
allow you to carry your mat.” He answered them, “The one who healed me said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk!’” They asked him, “Who is the one
who said to you: Take up your mat and walk?” But the sick man had no idea who it was who had cured him, for Jesus had slipped away among the
crowd that filled the place. Afterwards Jesus met him in the temple court and told him, “Now you are well; don’t sin again, lest something worse happen to you.” And the
man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. So the Jews persecuted Jesus because he performed healings like that on the Sabbath.

Reflection:

Sometimes, we miss the miracle and wonder unfolding before our eyes
simply because we are too preoccupied with doing the proper things as the law
dictates. Our minds are set in doing what is right. We have no time to be amazed.
That is why the people in the miraculous pool of Bethzatha near the Sheep
Gate in Jerusalem missed the fact that the paralytic who had been sick for thirtyeight
years can now walk and carry his mat. They are rather preoccupied with the thought
that he is not supposed to do work on a Sabbath. They have no reaction to his
miraculous healing. They are scandalized that he was carrying his mat. When we
begin to be engrossed with the following rather than the proper understanding of the
law, our energy is focused on our obedience or the lack of it in front of the law. We have
no more to spare for awe and wonder. We rob ourselves of the chance to be transformed
by the many miracles that happen around us everyday.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2021