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Here at the Lord\u2019s table, we celebrate the victory won by Jesus, to free us from the crippling effects of our slavery to sin.
Jesus took the penalty of our sin upon himself, when on the cross he suffered the death due to us.<\/p>\n
This meal was commanded by Jesus at the time of the Passover, when Israel remembered how God had freed them from slavery, in Egypt.
But the response of Israel after being freed was to refuse to enter the land God had promised them.\u00a0 They claimed they were not strong enough to take it, and they forgot that God had achieved everything for them.
In Deuteronomy 2:14, we read that for their refusal to accept God\u2019s gift, they were condemned to wander in the desert for 38 years.<\/p>\n
And in ch 5 of John\u2019s gospel, we read of a paralysed man by the pool at Bethesda, who had also been waiting for 38 years, to receive healing.
The plight of this man points to the condition of Israel at that time; they were crippled by separation from God, and were waiting for deliverance by the Messiah.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s amazing that when Jesus asked this man the simple question, \u201cdo you want to be made well?\u201d, he couldn\u2019t answer Yes.
Instead, he repeated a ritual complaint about the motion of the water, and his inability to move when needed.\u00a0 He had lost sight of his great need for healing, and of God who is the source of healing.
Like the Israelites who fled Egypt, and many in Jesus\u2019 day, he was unwilling to claim God\u2019s provision.\u00a0 He had allowed daily concerns and rituals to become his focus; he had turned away from God, and become self-reliant.<\/p>\n
After healing him, Jesus later told him to \u201cSin no more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, mankind is still suffering from the crippling effects of sin and separation from God.
Many cannot see we are not meant to be in this fallen condition, and that our urgent need is for healing from sin through Jesus.<\/p>\n
Jesus\u2019 question to the man by the pool applies to us \u2013 Do we want to be healed and made complete in Him?\u00a0 He freely offers that gift, of which this meal is a reminder.
And Jesus\u2019 command to that man also applies to us.\u00a0 He said, \u201cRise, take up your bed and walk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jesus invites us to NOT be content with our fallen condition, NOR to focus on our inability and weakness, but to rise up in His strength, and walk boldly in the true life that He offers.<\/p>\n
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Here at the Lord\u2019s table, we celebrate the victory won by Jesus, to free us from the crippling effects of our slavery to sin.Jesus took the penalty of our sin upon himself, when on the cross he suffered the death due to us. This meal was commanded by Jesus at the time of the Passover, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26864"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28833,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26864\/revisions\/28833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}