Jn 5:1-16
1There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep [Gate] a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. 3In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. [4] 5One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be well?” 7The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.” 8Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” 9Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.
Now that day was a sabbath. 10So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” 11He answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’ ” 12They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” 13The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there. 14After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, “Look, you are well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. 16Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath.
Rise, take up your mat, and walk. I find the man who is healed amusingly innocent and wonderfully simple. That is perhaps why Jesus does not wait to be asked to heal him. Innocence and simplicity speak louder than words. Our sincerity is our language for others to believe and for the Lord to take notice and listen.
When asked to give retreats, I am sometimes accommodated in a hotel. I must confess I love staying in hotels for the simple reason that they do not have any clutter lying around. One finds a bed, a table, and a comfort room—so different from my room where I have collected a lot of mementos through the years. Even the heart grows lost and heavy with all the clutter we take in.
Take up your mat and walk. The Pharisees see a lot of “clutter” in Jesus and want to have him killed. Jesus sees the sick man, heals him, and sends him home.