Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.
The speed in which this miraculous event occurs reminds me of the words of Paul in 1Cor. 15.52 when speaking of the putting on of the resurrected body:
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
This man had been physically disabled for 38 years, and then instantly this had changed. He was now able to walk. This phenomenon is all the more curious as the miracle had to have been in part mental. Like the blind man from birth who was able to see immediately when healed in John 9, this man was able to walk immediately. Just having two functional legs doesn’t mean you can walk. Newborns have legs, but they aren’t born walking. Generally, you have to learn to walk (or re-learn how to walk). Those that experience leg injuries that have underwent surgical correction often spend an enormous amount of time in rehabilitative therapy trying to learn how to walk again. But that doesn’t seem to be the case here. His legs are physically restored AND he knows how to use them.
And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.
Jesus tells him to do three things. Get up. Pick up your bed. And walk. The man does all three. And it’s not as if Jesus isn’t aware of the immediate antagonism this man would experience. They are in Jerusalem during a feast. They are standing in front of a gate to the city where a flow of traffic would be pouring into the city. There was a lot of observers. In a sense, this man is on display.
Presumably this man would have known that it would have caused problems to carry his bed on the Sabbath. He’s physically disabled, not mentally disabled. Everyone would have known that. So for him to do so would have been seen as scandalous. But even so, the man does as Jesus tells him. He doesn’t object and remind Jesus what day of the week it is. He doesn’t appeal to the religious leaders and remind Jesus that what he is asking would violate their understanding of the law. Jesus has demonstrated his authority and this man responds appropriately. He does what Jesus tells him to do, despite the consequences. Even when everyone is looking. Even though it’s not safe for him to do so. Picking up his mat could cost him his life.
Here’s the apparent dilemma. On the one hand, the religious authorities have taught the people that carrying a bed on the Sabbath would be a violation of the law. But Jesus has told the man to violate that law (or perhaps, that this was an exceptional case which would exempt the action of carrying the mat as a violation of the law). Jesus is telling the man to carry his mat, the religious leaders have taught him otherwise. But the actions of Jesus have established him as authoritative. So there are two competing authorities presented to this man. He chooses to obey Jesus.
This dilemma reminds me of the Garden.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
The serpent contradicted the word of God and in so doing, encouraged Eve to evaluate the situation for herself. In effect, setting herself up as an authority to determine the truth of the word of God. And it was by this authority that Eve determined that God’s word was not true. And so she ate.
What should she have done? Or what should her husband have done (who stood silently and cowardly by her side as she was essentially attacked by the serpent)? Well minimally they should not have questioned the word of God. Any time one questions the word of God, they are, as Eve, setting up another standard in order to judge the word of God. That new standard then becomes the highest authority, not the word of God. It is nothing less than an effort to dethrone God. That was the agenda of the serpent. It is still the agenda of the serpent.