John 5:1-9a
5: After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.Now that day was the Sabbath.
Reflection
The further we move into John’s Gospel, the clearer the identity and mission of Jesus become. His miracles grow bigger and his words grow bolder—all revealing Jesus to be the Messiah (God’s promised King), the Son of God.
The healing of the invalid man echoes Isaiah’s prophesy about what would occur in the age of the Messiah: “the lame man shall leap like a deer” (Isa. 35:6). The healing of this man is a declaration that the era of the Messiah has dawned — the “last days” have begun (Heb. 1:2; Acts 2:17) and God’s reign of grace is now advancing. In Jesus, the kingdom of God has come near (Matt. 3:2; 4:17; Mark 1:15).
Philemon 8-16
8 Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, 9 yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus— 10 I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. 11 (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) 12 I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 13 I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. 15 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
Reflection
Based on the transformation that Philemon experienced through faith in Christ, Paul appeals to Philemon regarding his runaway slave Onesimus. Paul wants Philemon now to view Onesimus through the lens of the gospel—as a sinner who has been transformed by Christ (Philem. 11, 13). With tender language, Paul asks Philemon to consider Onesimus no longer as a runaway slave with a debt to repay, but as a “beloved brother” who will serve the Lord alongside him (v. 16).
In essence, Paul is appealing to Philemon from the inside out. While Paul could demand that Philemon do what the apostle says (v. 8), he appeals to him in love (v. 9). This is a profound gospel pattern; rather than coercing us against our will, the gospel transforms us from the inside out. Paul’s goal is that Philemon show “goodness” toward Onesimus not by “compulsion” but by “consent” (i.e., willingly; v. 14) based on the apostle’s own love (vv. 10, 12) and Onesimus’s new status as a Christian “brother” (v. 16).
Psalm 67:1-2
67: May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah 2 that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.
Remember that the kingdom of God is already breaking into the world as disciples are made through the spread of the gospel. Pray that God would use you and your church as agents of his kingdom work by giving you opportunities to make disciple-making disciples.