Articles
Will You Get up to Follow Christ?
Would you be a better caretaker for your sick loved one or a pet than for yourself? A person can easily lose the desire to be healed can when it seems that life is routinely beating them down. Chapter 5 in the book of John starts with an account of Jesus arriving at the healing pool of Bethesda. The medically ill made it a routine to sit around the pool and wait till the water was stirred, so that they could then attempt to enter and be healed. Yet, for one man at Bethesda, the routine became the experience of recurring failure to reach the pool in time. Jesus asks this man, “Do you want to be healed?” After multiple failed attempts, the man responds with, ”I have no one to put me in the pool, while I am going down another steps down before me” (John 5:7 ESV). When facing physical struggles, it is easy to imagine ourselves saying, “Yes, Please cure me! I have dealt with my struggles for too long.” But note that this wasn’t the sick man’s response to the Lord.
The future is unknown to mankind, so succumbing to our seemingly loathsome fate instead of fighting to keep the faith may feel like the right path to take. In Ruth chapter one, after losing her husband and two sons, Naomi returns to Bethlehem and says, “Call me Mara for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty” (Ruth 1:20-21). Naomi expresses this after one of her daughters-in-law (Ruth) vows to stay by her side. Grief is causing Naomi to feel as though she is returning empty, but Ruth just told her, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you” (Ruth 1:16-17). Having a genuine and Godly love such as this in their life would mean that no person should feel as though they are coming back empty.
Ruth’s actions prove her vow’s genuineness. In Bethlehem, Ruth finds work (at the risk of assault) laboring all day in the fields to feed the grieving Naomi. Due to this, it was the Lord’s will that Boaz took notice of Ruth. Boaz and Ruth’s relationship didn’t come to fruition because he saw her working in the fields. Boaz took notice of Ruth’s faithful actions because she displayed Godliness even though she was a Moabite and in grief herself (Ruth 2:11). Despite her grief, Ruth had compassion for Naomi and went above and beyond for her sake. Thus, Boaz took notice of her and became a redeemer for Naomi and Ruth.
John 5:6 states that Jesus knew that the man at the pool of Bethesda wrestled with his illness for 38 years and struggled with getting into the pool when it was time. After hearing the man explain his struggle to be healed, Jesus says, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” Despite being down trodden, the Lord had compassion on the sick man and healed him. Jesus didn’t just heal him physically though, Jesus also took his sins away. This man got up and walked, proclaiming Jesus’ name as his savior. He chose to have faith in the Lord. Even though he couldn’t reach the pool, he still wanted to be healed, thus, the Lord had grace on him. Ruth chose to have faith by standing by Naomi, thus, the Lord returned her faith with grace. The Lord can become your redeemer as well if you let Him. Whether you have been baptized yet or not makes no difference, because every day we have the individual choice to choose God over succumbing to the day’s fate. Will you choose to get up and walk for God today?
