Who tells us we cannot get up off our bed of shame?
John 5:10-12 English Standard Version
10 So the Jews[a] said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”
Footnote [a] The Greek word Ioudaioi refers specifically here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, who opposed Jesus at that time; these are the ones telling us we cannot.
This man was waiting at the Bethesda pool and said to Jesus that he could not get up by himself to enter the pool upon seeing the stirring because he had no one to help him. Jesus said to the man to get up, take his bed and walk.
Here is a point often overlooked unless we can see his bed as a symbol of the man’s reproach. Jesus did not tell the man to leave his bed, but to take it with him.
We carry our shame with us but what is it that causes us to lay down on it again?
Others will tell us it is not lawful to take up our bed of shame when it is Jesus who has said for us to do so. Do we believe Jesus or do we believe everyone else that says we cannot?
The human condition says to us that eventually we will get tired and we will lay down again. This is true, but what makes any bed a bed of shame? It is how we use it that makes it a bed of shame.
How can we stop using it as a symbol of our shame?
Remember it is Jesus that tells us to get up, take our beds and walk away.