Insightful Moment at Bethesda

I loved Gire's meditation in this chapter, but he could have taken that road with many of the Scriptures. Why this one?

What strikes me first in the reading is the invalid's loss of hope. He's been there waiting for thirty-eight years, a long time. When Jesus asks him if he wants to get well, he doesn't say "yes", he launches into a litany of why he hasn't been able to. "Everyone gets in front of me. I can't get down to the waters." But Jesus is not put off (as I might be) and can read between the poor me lines. This is not just an invalid, it's a man in spiritual emergency. He couldn't even hear the question, so far gone was his loss of hope. So Jesus response time is immediate and direct: "Get up!"

Later, when Jesus finds him in the temple, he follows up with preventive advice (sort of like the restricted diet after the heart attack). "Stop sinning or something worse may happen." But apparently the man is recovered enough by now that he resents the advice and runs and tattles on Jesus. Another thankless healing, if we are to take the bare bones version this story gives us. Gire fills in the blanks by focusing on the different drum theme. Jesus walks to the beat his Father is counting, not to that of the established church. For me, that's an important message to hear. In a monastic community, the tendency is to get bogged down in tradition to the point that tradition rules, instead of the Spirit of the tradition.