1 Apr 2025
13 CommentsBethesda
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There was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ 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 making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Take up your mat and walk.” ’ They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take it up and walk”?’ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.’ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath.
Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
01 April 2025 @ 10:49 pm
Megan,
I can’ thank you enough for your words today. They are just the light I need to help me begin to see through this dark time. Preach on, Sister.
01 April 2025 @ 11:12 pm
Thanks, Megan!
02 April 2025 @ 12:24 am
Thanks, Megan. You bring light and hope to our troubled times.
02 April 2025 @ 1:02 am
Amen!!
02 April 2025 @ 1:19 am
Hoped stirred. Thanks Megan
02 April 2025 @ 2:48 am
Thank you Sr and let us all pray that the voice of democracy is heard with elections today. We must be a people of hope and compassion.
02 April 2025 @ 4:06 am
Thanks Megan. Powerful wors of challenge! Dolorita
02 April 2025 @ 5:53 am
I am going to put this note at my bedside. “Ellen, pick up youor mat and walk.” Regarless of howo I feel. Scared, angry, confused, depressed, no matter what I must pick up my mat and walk. Thank you Sister. I expect noting less than someone from the order of preachers.
02 April 2025 @ 10:29 am
Such a relevant message for our times —
the Church, our world needs preachers like you
who know how to connect Scripture with our
daily lives!
02 April 2025 @ 2:40 pm
Thank you, dear preacher of truth.
03 April 2025 @ 12:16 am
Superb preaching! Thank you.
03 April 2025 @ 2:25 am
I was disappointed that politics opened your preaching. It’s hard to take in your message when you quote liberal political talking points.
04 April 2025 @ 4:50 am
Ditto Celeste Egger’s comment…..Hope stirred. Thank you.